compare those who serue God out of hope of recompence to Simon Cyreneeus who was hyred at a set price to beare the Crosse of Christ for so do those who would not follow our Sauiour nor beare his crosse vnles there were the reward of heauen proposed they adde that we are not to be solicitous for our recompence nor alwayes thinking vpon what we gaine Like vnto vngratefull seruants who exact their wages keep a strict account which is more the part of a hyrling then a gratefull seruant we ought not to serue God in such vnworthy manner but as childreÌ„ purely out of loue there is great difference say they betwixt the seruices of a slaue a houshold and a child the slaue serues his Lord for feare of stripes and punishment the seruant for his wages and if his diligence be morâ— then ordinary it is but to comend hiâ— seruices vnto his Lord out of greater hope of profit and aduancement but the child serues his father only for loue and tendernes and is most careful of offending him not so much for feare of chastisement for he is lyable vnto none supposing he is past his infancy neither for hope of his inheritance but only out of loue and deare affection And so a wise good and vertuous child doth serue respect and honour his parent out of that only motiue that he is his Father although otherwise he be poore and able to leaue him nothing so say these holy Saintes we ought to serue God neither for feare of chastisement like slaues neither as seruants with our eyes and affection fastned vpon our gaine and interest but like true children since God hath been so good and graâ—â—â—s to vs to make vs such Ioan. c. 3. Behold sayth S. Iohn the Euangelist what loue the Father hath bestowed vpon vs for to be styled really to be the sonnes of God We are not only called the sonnes of God but are such truly and really and withall right cal God our Father and the sonne of God our Brother If we be therefore sonnes of God let vs loue and serue him like true children let vs honour him as a Father and as so great a father with truly louing him as wel because he is delighted with it as that he is worthy of it in being what he is and for his infinit goodnes which merits an infinity of hearts and bodyes continually to be imployed in louing and seruing him S. Chrysostome sayth admirably wel If by the grace of God you should be made worthy to please his diuine Maiesty should desire any other reward beyond this of being mad worthy for to please him Chrsost l. 2. de compunct you were certainly ignorant how great a good it were for to please God and if you could once but apprehend it you would neuer desire other extrin secall reward or benefit And truly what greater good can we pretend or wish for then to content please Almighty God Eph. 5.1.2 Be imitators of God fayth S. Paul like to his dearest children walke in loue and dilection as Christ hath loued vs. Bonau to 2. opusc in fascic c. 8. And S. Bonauenture sayes Consider that God your benefactour hath so bestowed his benefits vpon you as to aske none of them backe againe who hath â—o need of you or any other creature Yea he doth not only receaue no profit from vs nor commodity for al those fauours he bestowes vpon vs but he affoardes them vs at so great expence and charges of his owne as is his owne deare life and bloud which he layd downe shed for our redemption In this manner purely and without all mixture of proper interest are we to serue and loue almighty God neither which is more are we so much as to desire any vertus and supernaturall guifts for our owne pleasure and comodity but only for God and for his greater glory and to the end to store our selues with somewhat that may be pleasing to his diuine Maiesty yea and in this manner we are to desire glory in so much as when we set before the eyes of our soule to giue it heart and courage to performe its actions well the greatnes of the reward which is annext to euery good it doth it ought in no ways to haue this its ayme end in vndertaking any thing but only the pure desire of further pleasing and glorifying God in that the more glory we shall haue the more shall God be honoured and glorifyed This is the true loue of charity the true and perfect loue of God and this is purely to seeke God and his greater glory and all besides is but to seeke loue our selues which will the better appeare if we consider the difference which Philosophers and Diuines doe make betwixt that perfect loue which they call the loue of amity the loue of concupiscence The first loues his friend for his friends good and out of vertue without regarding his owne interest or gaine but the loue of concupiscence is when one loues another not so much for himselfe as for the profit and comodity which he hopes for from him as when one serues loues a rich man because he hopes for aduaÌ„cement and assistance from him We see apparently that this is no perfect loue but wholy compounded of selfe loue and interest since you loue not your friend so much as your own selfe and proper comodity So we say that we loue bread and wine with the loue of concupiscence because we loue neither the one nor the other for its selfe but only for our selues and particuler endes And in this manner doe they loue God who serue him out of feare of punishmeÌ„t or hope of recompence it being no other then to loue God with a loue compounded and wholy consisting of selfe loue priuate ends not seeking of him purely nor with a liberall mind which our Sauiour hath giuen vs to vnderstand by S. Iohn who after he had wrought that great miraracle of feeding fiue thousand men besides woemen and children with fiue loaues and two fishes being followed sayth the Euangelist by a world of people Ioan. 6.26.27 sayd vnto them You seeke me not because you haue seene wonders but because you haue eaten of the loaues and are satiated Not because you belieue me to be God but because you seeke your owne comodities VVorke and seeke not that food which perisheth but which remayneth in eternall life which is Christ and to do purely the wil of God That holy seruant of God Almighty shewed a right M. Gerso pure intention in his answere who liuing a wondrous and austere life and giuing himselfe wholy vnto prayer the Diuell enuying so great a vertue and seeking to withdraw him from his vertuous course of life by bringing him into doubt of his predestination tould him that he laboured and wearyed out himselfe in vaine for he should neuer be saued nor come to inioy
like manner shall it appeare whither we be true children of God or no if we do looke stedfastly on God the true sonne of Iustice by so directing all that we do to him that the only But and End of al our works may be only to please his sacred Maiesty and accomplish in them his holy will and pleasure which agrees well with that which Christ our Sauiour hath said in the Euangel Math. 2.15 Whosoeuer shal do the will of my Father which is in heauen he is my brother sister and my mother One of those antiēt Ermits was wōt alwayes before he begū any worke to stand still a while In vitis Patrum and being demaunded why he did so answered these workes are worth nothing of themselues vnles they be accompanyed with a good Intention End therefore as a good Archer takes his ayme at leysure before he shutes that he may hit the white the better so I before I begin any worke do vse to direct my intention to God who is the marke at which I aime at in all my actions that is the reason why I stand stil at the begining of euery worke Behould that which we must imitate Cant. 8.6 Pone me vt signaculum super cortuum and as good men marke that they may the better recollect their sight do vse to shut their left eye and take their ayme only with the right so ought we to shut vp the left eye of humayne respects and only keep open the right eye of a pure and good intention so shal we come infallibly to hit the marke Caat 49. and penetrate the heart of God Thow hast wounded my hart with one of thyn eyes But to speake more cleerly and to descēd vnto particulars I say we must indeauour to direct all our workes actually to God Almighty which may be done in diuers manners And first in the morning when we rise we ought to offer vp to God all our thoughts words and workes of the following day humbly crauing of him that they may be all directed to his honour and glory vnto the end that if vayne glory should afterwards presēt it self to haue any part in thē we may truly answere you come too late they are al bestowed already Moreouer we are not to thinke it sufficiēt to haue offered vp in this manner to God Almighty euery morning al which we shal do that day but we must procure to accustome our selues to begin no action without first hauing offered it vp vnto Gods greater glory And like as Masons vse to do who go forwards with their building so by rule and leuell that they lay not one stone but they measure it with their plūmet whether it be right or no so must we measure all our actions by that rule of the good pleasure and the glory of God And as the workman is not content only to make vse of his rule and line in the beginning of his work but applyes almost to euery particuler stone so we ought not only in the beginning of euery action to offer it vp to God Almighty but also in the progresse of it we are to make an often tēder of it vnto him by saying O Lord it is for your sake I do this because it is your cōmaund because it is your good pleasure How we may doe our actions with great rectitude and purity of Intention CHAP. VIII THE maisters of spirituall life for to declare how we are to do our actions with greater perfection do vse an excellent comparison saying That as Mathematiciās abstracting from the matter only regard the quantity and figure of the thing not caring whether it be good siluer or any other mettle as a thing nothing appertayning to them so the true seruant of God Almighty ought in the doing of his works only to haue regard vnto the will of God and abstracting from the matter of thē not to care whether they be gould or clay that is to be indifferent to be imployed either in honorable or base painefull thinges since our gaine and perfection consists not in the quality of our imployments but in accōplishing the will of God in seeking his greater glory in all we do Basil de ingluuie ebriet ora 16. The which the glorious S. Basil doth excellently teach vs according to the doctrine of S. Paul where he sayth The life of a Christian man ought to propose vnto its selfe this only But End 1. Cor. 3. to wit the glory of God so that whether we eate or drinke or do ought els besides we are to do all vnto the glory of God sayth S. Paul preaching in the Lord. Our Sauiour Christ weary tyred with his lōg iourney talking with the Samaritan VVoman whilest his disciples went vnto the adioyning village to buy them food it being after dinner and they returned offering him to eate Ioan. 4.31 saying Rabbi manduca Answered I haue food to eate which you know not of Whereupon they sayd among thēselues Hath any one brought him any thing to eate To whome he answeared My food is to do the will of him who sent me This must likewise be our food in all we do whilest we study heare confessions or teach or preach our food ought not to be the delight and satisfaction which we take in teaching Preaching studying or the like for this weare to chaunge gould into Clay but all our food delight and satisfaction ought to be in doing the will of God which is that you should be then imployed in those workes you ought likewise to haue no other food in doing the ordinary offices of the house so that being or Porter or Infirmation you eare and fare a like with him who is Preacher or Diuinity Maister cōsequently you are to be as well pleased with your office as he with his as hauing the same cause of true contentement common with you and them which is the accomplishing of the will of God For like a good spirituall Mathematician you are not to reflect vpon the materiall worke but on the will of God which you performe in doing it And therefore must we alwayes haue these words both in our hearts and mouth O Lord it is for you that I do this it is to your glory to fulfill your pleasure neither are we euer to intermit this exercise vntill we do arriue vnto that perfection Ephes 6 7 to do our actions as seruing God and not men as S. Paul saies to performe them in such manner that they may be as so many continued actes of the loue of God that it may be our only felicity to do Gods will in the execution of them so that coming to do any worke or action we may rather appeare to loue then worke Reuerend M. Auila declares this by a familiar and good similitude saying That when a Mother washes the feet of her husband or her sonne comming from abroad it
is in her a mixt action of seruice and of loue shee louing the seruice shee doth them and seruing them for loue Oh that we could but do our actions in this manner that we could but find the hidden myne of this treasure in the field one the one side so apparant and manifest Tract 6. cap. 4. tract 8.14 on the other so hidden and concealed Oh how rich should we be in spirit and recollection Behould here the true Alchimy which chaungeth brasse and Iron into gould for howsoeuer ignominious the worke be in its selfe yet by this it is made honourable and of great esteeme let vs therefore hereafter inforce our selues so to do al our actions as they may become pure gould by our performance of them this is in our power to do and easely 3 Reg. 6.19.22 In the Sancta Sanctorum Salomons Temple all was pure gould or conuered ouer with gould so likewise all that we do ought to be the loue of God or for the Loue of God performed and done How we are not so much to lay the fault of those distractions and spirituall hinderances which we find in our selues somtimes on our exterior occupations as on our not performing them as we ought CHAP. IX ONe may wel conceyue from that which we haue now said that the cause of that small progresse and troublesome distractiō which we sōtimes find in our selues when we are busyed about externall things ought not to be attributed vnto those occupatiōs but vnto our selues who know not how to make our profit of them neyther to performe thē as we ought and therefore no man is to lay the fault on his affaires but on his owne want of knowledge to make his benefit of them Cracke the nut it is not the shell but the kernell which must be eaten If you only insist vpon the exteriour action and this same outward rind and shell of things you shall but breake your forces and loose spirit the nut and inward kernell that it with which is no other then the wil of God must be that which we must feed vpō cracke therefore with the teeth of your consideration this outward shell and without regarding it passe forwards to the kernell and the pith like Ezechiels great Egle Ezech. 17 3. which Flew to Labāus and toke away the inward pith of the Cedar without tarying at the outward barck Holocausta medullata offerā tibi Psal 62.15 this is that vpon which you must insist this is that which you must present to God and so your deuotion wil increase and profit you Martha and Mary are sisters the one is not to be hinderance to the other but to maintayne mutuall assistance prayer helps to performe our actions well and our good workes do maynly assist our prayers and if at any time you find your selfe troubled disquiteed in your actions it is because that Mary which is contemplation helps you not Martha Luc. 10.40.41 Martha solicita es turbaris erga plurima Martha was disquieted because shee was not accompanyed with her sister Mary Dic ergo illi vt me adiuuet Do but procure that Mary may assist you and you shal presently see all this trouble will be appeased Those Holy mistical beasts which Ezechiel writes of held their hand vnder their winges Ezech. 1.8 to signify that spirituall persons apply their handes to worke but vnder the winges of contemplation not separating the one from the other but whilst they worke they contemplate and cōtemplating they worke And this is that which Cassian recounts of his Monks in Egypt who although they laboured with their hāds yet seased they not withal to meditate and whilest their hands were doing Marthaes offices their hearts were busyed in Maryes exercises which S. Bernard excellently in these words declares Those who make profession of spirituall exercises Bern. serm ad solit must haue a speciall care that they so imploy themselues in exteriour things as they do not extinguish the spirit of deuotion and so although externally through the exercises of good works they are wearyed in their bodyes internally neuertheles in their soules they are recreated and refreshed Whence it comes that the externall occupatiōs do so little hinder the internall deuotion and recollection that they rather further it for they no wayes hinder the vnderstanding but leaue it at liberty and free to thinke on God Almighty Wherefore Father Hierome Natalis one of our first Fathers and a very spirituall man was wont to say that he enuyed two sorts of people in Religiō the one was Nouices who studyed nothing els but their spirituall progresse in vertue the other the lay Brothers who had alwayes their vnderstādings free and left vnto themselues to entertayne them al day in prayer and deuotion S. Iohn Clymachus tels of a certayne Cook in the Monastery where he was Clym cap. 44. who hauing much busynes by reason the number of Religious was very great amounting o two hundred and thirty besides the strangers and ghests which dayly came was notwithstanding in the middle of so many affaires highly recollected within himselfe and vnited with Almighty God hauing moreouer the plentious guift of teares at which S. Iohn Clymachus being much astonished was very importune with him to know how he came to obtaine so high perfection among so great and continuall a presse of businesses The Brother in the end ouercome with his importunity answeared him I neuer imagined that I serued men but God I haue alwayes thought my selfe vnworthy of any rest or quiet the sight of this materiall fire makes me weep through a liuely apprehēsion of the intollerable paines of the eternall fire It is also related of S. Catherine of Sienna in her life In vita S. Catharinae Senens that her parents did greatly persecute her exceedingly importun her to mary yea they proceeded so far as to forbid her all priuacy and the comodity of any place where she might retyre her selfe to pray and not contēt with this they imployed her in the drudgeries of the house taking a seruant which they had from the Kitchin that she might supply her place to the end that by this meanes they might leaue her no commodity nor tyme to pray or attend vnto her other spirituall exercises But she as the History of her life sayes instructed by the holy Ghost did build vnto her self in her deare hart a spirituall and most retired Cell with intention neuer to go out of it which she performed afterwardes in such māner that whereas she was inforced sometymes in her other retirements for to come abroad out of this spirituall Cell of hers she neuer went her parents could depriue her of the first but she was so surely possessed of this other that no liuing creature could driue her out of it And by imagining with her selfe that her Father was Iesus Christ her mother our B. Lady and her
far more then he if he performe that little with more loue then the other Wherein the greatnes of God Almighty doth more clearely and manifestly appeare before whome no seruices of ours howeuer great doe appeare so vnles that loue be great with which they are done he being one who hath no need of any good of ours and whose riches and all thinges els are so aboundant as they can neuer be made greater If thou dost well and iustly sayth Iob what shal thou giue him Iob. 35.7 Or what shall he receaue from thy handes That which he desires and esteemes is to be beloued and that we on our parts do as much as we are able which may appeare by those two Mites which the poore Widdow in the Ghospel offered Marc. 12.43 â—â— Luc. 21.34 our Sauiour sat hard by the Boxe in the Temple where the Iews vsed to cast in their almes and saw the Pharisies and the richer sort some casting in siluer others gold perhapes among the rest came a poore Widdow and offered two mites only when our Sauiour turning to his Disciples sayd Amen I say vnto you this poore VViddow hath put in more then all the rest for the rest haue giuen out of their aboundance Chrysost boâ— 3. ad Cor. but this out of her need hath giuen all that she had all her sustenance On which place S. Chrysostome sayes Quod in Vidua fecit idem in docentibus operabitur God will deale the like with those who preach study labour and do all other functions and ministeries not so much regarding what they doe as the will loue and diligence with which their workes are done Of some signes by which we may know whether we doe our actions purely for the loue of God or seeke our selues in them CHAP. XII S. Gregory teacheth vs a way to make a right coniecture Greg. l. 22 mor. c. 24. whether in those functioÌ„s which regard our neighbour we seeke purely the glory of God or els our selues Obserue sayth he wheÌ„ another preaches wel is greatly followed and reapes much fruit froÌ„ the good of soules whether you are as greatly reioyced at it as if your selfe had done it since if it be not so grateful to you but you do feele out some certaine grudging enuying repining at it it is an euideÌ„t signe you do not seeke Gods glory purely and as you ought And to this purpose he cyteth this passage of S. Iames Iacob 3.14 15. If you haue zeale of soules and haue contentions in your heart it is not a wisedome descending from aboue but an earthly brutish and diuellish one It is no zeale of the glory and honour of God but a zeale of your owne selfe a zeale to be honoured and a desire to be as much honoured and cheriched as that other is for if you sought only the glory of God and not your owne you would be glad that God had store of such seruants and reioyce that others could performe that in which you are defectiue and wanting Like as the Holy Scripture witnesses of Moyses who when Iosue opposed himselfe vnto some who prophesyed answeared in an offended manner Num. 11.29 VVhy are you eâ—mulous for me VVho shall do so much that all the people may prophesy that God may bestow vpon all of them his spirit And so a true seruant of God Almighty ought to say I would to God that euery one were an excellent preacher and that God would bestow his spirit plentifully vpon them that by this meanes the honour and glory of God may be the more dilated and spread abroad that he may be the better knowne and his holy name sanctifyed through euery place and prouince of the world We haue a remarkable example of this in Doctor Auila who as it is reported of him when he saw that God by the meanes of our B. Father Saint Ignatius Lib. vitae S. Ignat. cap. 27. had begun this least Society of Iesus and had heard relation of his institute sayd it was that very thing which for so many yeares togeather he had beene labouring to effect with so much solicitude and could neuer bring to passe adding that it was fortuned to him as to a little child who being at the foot of some great mountaine desirous to rowle some heauy burtheÌ„ vp vnto the top finds it aboue its forces to effect when a strong and mighty Gyant comming takes vp that burthen which the child could not lift and with ease carryes it there where the child desires to haue it Vnderstanding by this comparison himselfe the child and esteeming S. Ignatius a Gyant vnto him But that which makes to our purpose is that he was as glad and well contented in himselfe when he heard of it as if our Society had byn instituted by him because he had no other end in the desiring such a thing should be but only Gods glory the saluation of soules Such as these are God Almightyes good and faythfull seruants Ad Phil. 2.2 who as S. Paul sayes seeke not after any thing of their owne but that which is of Iesus Christ A true seruant of God Almighty ought in such manner to desire the glory of God and the saluation and profit of others soules as when God is pleased to serue himselfe therein by meanes of any other he is to be as glad and well content as if God had vsed him for his instrument And therefore it were a good manner of proceeding which we find practised by diuers great seruants or God Almighty who when they perceaue themselues vrged stroÌ„gly on with the desire and zeale of gayning soules huÌ„bly begge it of God by saying O Lord that such or such a soule might but once come to know you that such a person might be acquired to you that his fruit may be done that profit this perfectioned and all this by such meanes as you shall please for me I pretend not to any part of it Such as these walke rightly and in great purity like vnto these are we sincerely to carry our selues in the seruice of God as not to seeke any proper honour esteeme but only the greater honour and glory of God We may say the like also as well in that which concernes our owne spirituall progresse of our brethren for he who is discomfited when he sees his brother make progresse in vertu whilest himself remaines behind doth not seeke purly the greater glory of God for although it be true that a good seruant of God ought to haue a great resentment and feeling for that he serues not God so perfectly as he ought neuertheles it followes not that he should therefore be troubled and disquieted when he sees another perfecter then he but on the contrary he is to be glad of it and to giue this comfort to his grieued soule for seruing God Almighty with so great negligeÌ„ce that how euer he through his slouthfulnes be waÌ„ting in his
in his sight Iust so he who hath bestowed his heart one God and banished from him all affection of creaturs although he should be incompast with the world in the middle of all its pleasures and delights would yet still continue in an inward quiet solitude as taking no pleasure in any of those things nor so much as regarding them hauing his heart rauished and drowned in contemplation of his beloued They saith S. Gregory who are arriued to this do inioy a great repose traÌ„quility in their soules nothing being forcible inough to molest or disquiet them no aduersity can make their quiet lesse nor any prosperity their ioy greater vaine glory no humane excellence can bring them acquainted with but as they are affectioned vnto no earthly thing so are they not troubled nor intangled with the succese of any but reckon them as thing which do concerne theÌ„ nothing Would you know saith this Saints who hath ariued to this perfection built himselfe this Hermitage solitude The holy Prophet Dauid where he sais Psal 26.4 I haue demaunded one thing of our Lord this I shall beseech that I may inhabit in the house of our Lord all the dayes of my life There is nothing els in heauen and earth that I desire besides your selfe O God And now what is my expectation Psal 38.8 is it not our Lord The Blessed Abbot Siluanus was arriued to this to whom when he came from prayer all the world seemed such a wretched thing as lifting vp his handes through admiration shutting his holy eyes he would say with great disdaine Close vp your selues myne eyes close vp your selues and do not vouchsafe to looke abroad vpon the creatures those wordly thinges since in all the world there is nothing worthy the behoulding Lib. 1. c. 2 vitae S. Ignat We read also of our B. F. S. Ignatius that when he eleuated his mind to God and his eyes to heauen he vsed to say Oh how foule and vgly the earth doth seeme to me when I do but looke on Heauen The second degree may be that Bern. trac de dilig Deo cap. 6 7. which S. Bernard proposes in his treatise of the loue of God which is wheÌ„ we do not only wholy forget all exteriour thinges but also our selues louing our selues no otherwise then in God by God and for God and we ought so wholy to be plunged in this forgetfullnes of our selues to be so free from al particuler interest of our own and to loue God with a loue so pure perfect that we are to reioice be no otherwise taken with those graces which we receaue from his all giuing hand neither with that heaueÌ„ly glory which we hope for then so farre as his will and pleasure appeareth in them without regarding our owne profit in them In this manner the Blessed in heauen reioice in their felicity not because they are exalted to such heigth of glory but because it is Gods pleasure that they should be so and they seeke God with a loue so refined and pure are so straictly vnited and transformed into his blessed will that they desire not so much the glory which they possesse nor their felicity for their owne ioy and happines nor for the wondrous content which they do take therein as because it is the pleasure and the will of God We ought sayth S. Bernard so to loue God as that holy Prophet did who sayd Let vs confesse vnto our Lord because he is good he sayd not because he is good to me but only because he is good He did not prayse nor loue God only because he was good to him Psal 117.1 as this other did of whom it is writen He will confesse to thee when thou shalt haue done well vnto him but he loues and glorifyes God because he is good in himselfe because he is what he is because his goodnes is infinite S. Bernard sayes that the third and the last degree of the perfection of the loue of God is VVhen one now doth come to doe his actions not so much to please God as because God delighteth him or because that which he doth is pleasing and acceptable vnto God Whereby a man becomes to haue no other solicitude or thought but only how to delight and please Almighty God without thinking any more vpoÌ„ himselfe then if there were not or euer had beene such a creature in the world and this is a most pure perfect loue of God This loue sayth the Saint is a mountaine and a high mouÌ„taine of God a rich fertill mountaine full of all exquisite perfection By a mountaine of God is signifyed nothing els then a heigth and abstract of all greatnes and excellence VVho shall ascend into the mountaine of God who shall giue me winges like a Doue Psal 231.3 Psal 54.7 and I will fly away and go to rest Ah miserable as I am sayth this glorious Saint that I cannot wholy forget my selfe during this banishment Rom. 7.24 Oh me vnhappy man who shal deliuer me from the body of this death Isa 38.14 Oh Lord I suffer violence answere for me Blessed Lord when shall I wholy dy vnto my selfe and only liue to thee Oh woe is me for that my pilgrimage is prolonged Psal 119.5 41.3 when shall I come appeare before the face of God! Oh when shall I be deliuered from this woefull banishment When shall I be wholy vnited and through loue transformed into you O Lord When shal I be intirely free and quit of all remembrance of my selfe by being made one spirit one thing with you So as I may not hereafter loue any thing in me froÌ„ me or for me but that all which may haue any part of my affection may be in you by you for you only to loose thy selfe in a certaine maÌ„ner Bern. de diligendo Deum c. 7 as if thou wert not at all to haue no sence no feeling of thy selfe so wholy to depart from all thou art as for to leaue no memory that thou euer weart this would haue more of heauenly conuersation then any humayne affection Such perfectioÌ„ is rather heauenly then of earth and sauours more of our owne country then of this dungion of our banishment Psal 70.10 The Prophet likewise saies I wil enter into the mightines of my Lord O Lord I will remeÌ„ber only thy Iustice. When the good and faithfull seruant shall be so rauished drowned in the ioy of his Lord and inebriated with the aboundance of his loue then he shall be so absorpt and transformed into God to haue no remembrance of himselfe When he appeares we shall be like vnto him Ioan. 3.2 because we shal see him as he is we shall be theÌ„ like vnto God and the Creature shall haue a kind of proportion with his Creatour for as the holy Scripture sayes euen as God hath created al thinges for himself to his glory so we shal theÌ„ loue God withall purity not louing our selues nor any thing els but only in him He shall truely reioyce Matth. 25 21. not so much for being aboue all necessity nor for inioying all felicity as for to see his holy will in vs and of vs fullfilled all our ioy shall not consist in our ioy but in the ioy of God and his delight Intra in gaudium Domini tui This is to enter into the ioy of God Bern. de dilig DeuÌ„ cap. 7. S. Bernard breakes forth into an excellent exclamation saying O holy o chast loue o sweet o sugred affection of pure o refined intention of the will the more pure and refined the lesse mixture it hath of ought that is its owne the more sweet more sugred the more it partakes of that which is al diuine Sic affici deificari est It is a deifying to be so affected like as S. Iohn sayes then we shal be like to God S. Bernard to explicate the manner of this deification transformation into God brings three similitudes Like as sayth he a droppe of water let fall into a whole tunne of Wine presently looseth all its qualityes and properties and becomes perfect wine both in colour in tast like as the Iron when it is through hot glowing in the forge appeares not to be Iron but al fire and as the Ayre when it is fully inlightned with the rayes of the Sunne is so transformed into brightnes that it seemes to be but one light with the Sunne so sayth he in that eternall felicity we loose all humane faculties and become deifyed and transformed in God All that we shall loue there wil be only for God and that is only God for otherwise how shall he be all to all 1. Cor. 15.28 if any thing shall remaine in man of man There shal be nothing there which is our owne since all our delight and glory shall be no other theÌ„ the pleasure and glory of God Psal 3.4 Thou art my glory and the lifâ—er vp of my head then we shall not care to repose nor sustain our selues with our owne happines since all our felicity and rest shal be in God But although whilest we are in this valley heere we caÌ„not arriue vnto the sight of this yet are we at least to bend our eyes that wayes since the neerer we shall come to the sight of it the more perfect vnited shall we be with God Bern. l. 2. de amore Dei cap. 4. And so this blessed Saint concludes This is o heauenly Father the will of thy Blessed Sonne in vs this is his prayer for vs to thee his Father and God I will that like as I and you are one so that they should be one in vs and we with him through the vnion of perfect loue to wit that they may loue thee for thy selfe not themselues but only in thee this is the end this is the consummation this the perfection this the peace this the ioy of our Lord this is the ioy in the Holy Ghost this is the silence which is in heauen This is the vtmost ayme of all our thoughts the end of our Pilgrimage and the last degree of perfectioÌ„ to which we may attaine FINIS