that the Pilot should call and give sign that all things were ready to set Sail which sign given thou wouldest presently make hast to the ship Soe thou art to doe in this life Fix thy mind alwaies on God and use the things of this world so as not to tye thy hart unto them nor to suffer them to withdraw thee from thy last End which is God All the riches and creatures of this world serve thee that thou maist serve God The neglect of this necessary care of thy salvavation is the cause that thou permittest thy thougts to wander after many unnecessary Objects so that t is true to say thou adorest as many Idols as thou louest Creatures with a disordinate love These are thy Gods unto whom thou offerest sacrifice not of an Oxe or Buck but thy self thy whole salvation It is not permitted in the law of divine Love to love any thing else besides God unles it be in him and for him There can be no greater misery then to abandon the soveraign Good to place our affection on creatures 4. That which the Prince of Phisitians sayes of sick bodies the same may be said of vicious souls to wit the more they are fed the worse they are For those who intend to passe from a bad life to a better ought first to vomit up all the Poyson of their past sins before they begin to receive the solid nourishments of vertue This purgation of thy soul must be done so as not only to expiate thy past sins but also to extirpate all affection unto them to root out all thy vicious habits to master all thy disordered appetites and make them subject unto reason to subdue thy body senses particularly that of the tongue and to avoid all that may hinder thee from arriuing to the state of perfection Why dost thou fear and imagine the way that leads to eternall Felicity to be hard and difficile It lies in thy own power to make thyself happy assisted with his grace who is the beginning end of all things But thou must first goe out of thyself before thou canst come unto him and the more thou leavest thyself the nigher thou wilt come unto him 5. Wherefore thou shouldest first consider with thyself what thou desirest to enjoy and whither thou art going then examine the means thou art to use for arriving to that happy state Which done thou will easily perceive what progresse thou dost make every day Be very carefull in examining thy Conscience and taking a serious view of thyself consider what thou oughtest to be whilst thou hast time to amend It will be too late to discover the deceit when thou canst not avoid it Learn how to moderate the violence of thy passions and desires how to appease the frights and fears of thy mind Learn to contemn all earthly things and willingly forsake those things which cannot remain long in thy power Leave all things before they leave thee that soe when Death comes it may find nothing to rob thee of Let thy cheifest care be to provide for thy soul for considering it is first in dignity it is not fit it should be the last in thy care What will it avail a man to have gained the whole world if he looseth his soul in the end we cannot esteem it any profit if the soul perisheth CHAP. II. That he who desires to live well must choose a good Spirituall Directour The qualities of such a Directour and the duties of such as desire to learn Vertue 1. NOthing is more necessary for one that begins to serve God then to permit himself to be guided and instructed by a good Maister And indeed what wise man would undertake to perform a long Journey where he knows not the way without a sure Guide who would goe about to learn any difficile Art without a Teacher We shall find but very few who have advanced in perfection rendered themselves vertuous without the help of others It is an easy matter to instruct in generall terms those who are absent and also to leave in writing for those that shall come after us what is to be done But no man at a distance can tell of persuade when and how this to be done We must be present in time place to deliberate aright of that A Physitian can never prescribe by letter the just time of taking some Medicine or dyet he must be present and feel the pulse of the sick person Soe in curing the maladies of the Soul there are some things which cannot be so well expressed and declared without being present S. Paul whom God had designed to be the Apostle of the Gentils after he had bine converted by Christ himself was sent to Ananias that he might learn of him the way of Salvation Thou hast a hard task to overcome the corruptnes of thy Nature to wrestle with the euill Spirits thy invisible Enemyes and to arrive to the height of Perfection amidst so many obstacles and Impediments Wherefore thou hast need to call for help and that from one who will lend thee his hand who will shew thee the dangers and discover unto thee all the Ambushes of Satan and in fine who will teach thee how to come of with victory in all thy spirituall combats But thou wilt tell me whom shall I call to help me I answer It must be a wise and trusty man who shal be able and willing to doe all for thy spirituall Good one that shall strike respect and not fear into thee when thou meetest him one that is more ready to teach thee how to rise and amend after thy fall then to cry out against thee when thou fallest one who gives more Edification by his vertuous life then by his eloquent words He is little fit to govern who commands others to doe well but doth no good himself 2. Choose such a Helper or Director who flatters no body who doth not haunt much company who doth not goe to great banquets nor intrude himself into the houses of great persons choose one if possible who hath the spirit of discretion and can discern betwixt vertue and vice betwixt good and bad as a skillfull Goldsmith discerneth betwixt true and false money who like a shilfull Phisitian can judge of all thy spirituall diseases prescribe fit remedies to every one of them Choose one that shall be free from all interest and seeketh nothing but thy spirituall profit One that shall instruct thee in the spirit of mildnes and charity one that shall tell thee of thy faults one that shall be able to discover and teach thee how to ouercome all the subtileties stratagems of thy spirituall enemy the Devill one in whom thou maist have a particular confidence unto whom thou maist have no difficulty to reveal thy most hidden thoughts If thou canst find such an one thou are happy is this world 3. Speak frequently unto him of thy spirituall affairs let him
the next place learn to doe and speak little for if thou cuttest of in thy words and actions all that is not necessary thou wilt have lesse trouble of mind Doe not say this is a thing of no great importance or concern Whatsoever is the beginning of vertue and perfection although it seem of little consequence is notwithstanding a matter of great concern 5. The originall and sinfull man which is derived from Adam if we consider him as bearing the ressemblance of a Tree hath for his root selflove for his trunk a propension unto evill for his boughs his disordered passions for his leaves vitious habits for his fruit thoughts words and deeds which are contrary to Gods law Wherefore that the boughs of evill affections may not bud forth into leaves and fruit put the Axe to the root and cut down all self-love When thou hast once taken away this thou hast cut of with one blow all the vicious ofspring of thy sensitive appetite The means to root it out is to contemn thyself to esteem thyself the least amongst men and that thou hast no preeminence before others either in learning vertue or other prerogatives not to be afraid to displease men and be contemned by them to be willing to want all comfort and temporall commodities Thou wild save thyself if thou canst hate thyself thou wilt damn thyself if thou hast too much love for thyself CHAP. XIII Of Love The nature Causes Effects of it Of the Remedies against it Of Hatred 1. LOve is a compleasance of Good or the first impression which is made upon our desires when the knowledge of Good begins to make us like it T is this which rules all the world which if once subdued and brought to obey it will be an easy matter to overcome all our other passions True love ever tends unto that from whence it had its beginning it still inclineth to Good because it is derived from the Soveraign Good Examine thy life and weigh thy hart in the balance of a strict consideration observe what sort of love prevaileth in it for that which weighs heaviest in the balance of love that is thy God that is the Idol which thou adorest God hath commanded thee to love him with all thy hart to this end that he might keep thy mind and affections employed because it is certain that that which thou louest with all thy hart is the thing which thou adorest as thy God 2. T is not only goodnes and beauty which makes us love any person but also a certain sympathy and proportion of mind and manners as also an exterior modesty industry noble birth learning quicknes of wit and such like other endowments of body and mind Love itself is the loadstone of love which if accompanied with any curtesy or civility he is now forced to return love who before would not begin to love In fine some have more naturall inclination to love then others For example those who are of a lively spirit a tender hart a delicate blood a sweet facile nature 3. The power of Love is very great it transformeth him that loveth into the thing loved Love is a kind of sally wandering out of ourselves a kind of voluntary death He that loveth is absent from himself thinks nothing of himself takes care of nothing does nothing and unles he is received by the person loved he seems to himself to be setled no where Oh how unhappy is that love which is not directed to God For he that loveth the objects of this world cannot dwell in them nor find any solid contentment in them because they are limited subject to vanity and death But he that loveth God is in God and ceasing to live in himself lives in him in whom all things live who is our center and immutable Souveraign Good Human love is violent and bitter divine love is alwaies humble and peaceable human love is tormented with jealousy but we need not fear any Rivall in divine love The one fears least another should love the same object the other wisheth all may love the same he loveth Wherefore if thou lovest thyself love God for this love profiteth thee not him Any human object may change or perish but God is never lost unles we wilfully dismisse him from our harts 4. That the love wherewith thou louest thy neighbor may be sincere be sure to exclude from it all human causes of wit compleasance and similitude and regard only those causes which consist in piety and vertue That sort of Love which is called Platonick and by which some fancy that the Soul is raised from the sight of a corporall beauty to contemplate the eternall beauty of God is very dangerous The sight of a beautifull face raiseth a desire of touching it and whatsoever it is that proceedeth from the eyes of a beautifull person whither it be a light or some subtile spirit or humor it bewitcheth a mans hart and is often the occasion of his ruine It is better and more safe that our feet should occasion our fall to the ground then our eyes be the occasion of our falling into sin But the remedies of love are very hard because whilst we seek to overcome it the more it torments us and unles we resist it in the beginning it so creepeth by little and little that we find ourselves much entangled in love before me thought of louing But if we resist it in the first beginning t is easy to be cured T is not amisse likewise to keep our mind employed in other things which bring some care with them and may blot out the memory of the object we love Then we ought to avoid all things that may bring it again into our mind as seeing and speaking of it for nothing is sooner renewed then love which if it once invade thee and take possession of thy hart it wil soe vexe thee that nothing but the slow remedy of time and absence will be able to cure thee of it to wit when tyred with long sufferings it will expire of itself Many have bine cured by shame to wit when they have perceived they were noted talkt of pointed at by all that knew them as also by considering the shamefulnes of it being a thing full of disgrace full of danger and subject to much sorrow in the end Others have found help by seeking into and considering attentively the defects and imperfections of the object they had loved for by this means the beauty and lovelynes of it is much lessened Lastly it is a good remedy to change our love into the love of God into the love of vertue and eternall rewards things which truly deserve to be loved that soe good love may drive out our bad love and our mind which was created for more noble objects blush to soil and defile itself with terrene objects Evill and dishonest loves cannot but infect good manners 5. Nature seems to have tyed all things together with
know all thy evill inclinations all thy vicious qualities let him know all the good thou dost and all the evill thou committest Discover unto him all the particular favours thou receivest from God Desire him that when he perceiveth in thee any irregular and disordinate affection he will not forbear to tell thee of it that too very often least that by being ashamed to reprehend thee he should dissemble at thy faults But if it should chance that he telleth thee he finds nothing to be reprehended in thy life doe not presently conclude that thou art innocent because perhaps the reason of his silence is for that he sees he shall get thy hatred by speaking or else that he despairs of thy amendment Wherefore entreat him more and more that soe he may see thou hast a reall and earnest desire of advancing in perfection Begin to lay before him the number of thy imperfections resolve to reform thy manners according to his Counsell Rejoyce as often as he reprehendeth thee for thy faults and still endeavor to come better from him or at least in a disposition to grow better It is a great matter considering the common frailty of our nature when a man is willing desirous to amend 4. These are the mutuall offices of a spirituall Directour one that desires to learn vertue of him that soe the one may grow better and the other not loose his labour in instructing him The greatest obstacle in Beginners is a rebellious refractory Spirit impatient to learn incapable of being cured For some that confide too much in their own wisedome refuse to be governed by another All these things say they which you tell me I know already What profit is there in shewing me things which are clear enough of themselves and repeating the same things over and over Very much because thou knowest many things which thou dost not perhaps attend unto Admonitions are not so much for teaching us as for exciting the memory and hindring us from forgetting things We often dissemble things that are clear and therefore t is not amisse to inculcate the knowledge of what we already know Vertue gathers strength when it is touched and encouraged Some are hindred and disheartned by a foolish apprehension or fear which is a childish fault and unworthy of any man Others like frantick men keep all close to themselves will not discover their infirmities to their spiritual Physitian The Devill persuades them to this silence hoping thereby to make his advantage of it as long as they discover nothing When thou art troubled with any corporall disease however soe shamefull thou hast no difficulty to shew it to him that is to cure it and yet thou hidest with great care the Vlcers of thy Soul as if hiding would cure them whereas they will at some time or other discover themselves in spight of all thy care He that hideth his wounds will never be cured 5. Does the Phisitian doe thee any wrong if he discovers thy disease if when thou art in danger he tells thee that thou art ill that thou art in a feavor that thou art to abstain one day from meat ordains thee to drink water in another Sure thou wouldst commend him and thank him for it But if any one should tell thee that thy passions or desires are violent that thy opinions are vain and idle thy affections immoderate or the like thou wouldest presently cry out that thou art affronted injured abused and therefore wilt be revenged of him Unhappy man what hurt does it doe thee to be admonished of thy Salvation What injury canst thou call it unles such a one as a looking glasse may be said to doe to an ugly face He shews thee what thou art Mend therefore thy faults which he reprehends in thee correct thy manners wash of the spots of thy Conscience T is in thy power if thou wilt to live soe that no man can justly reprehend thee CHAP. III. Of the purgative way and how to extirpate all sins and vicious Affections The best motive to this is a continuall Remembrance of Death and Eternity 1. WHensoever any man committeth a Sin he actually strayeth from God this is the cause of all the misery in the world From this proceed all the pains and troubles of this life this is the Poyson which infecteth the whole world We doe not perceive the malice of it when we commit the sin but when t is once committed then we understand the mischeif it brings with it We read of Tyrants that were wont heretofore a strange punishment to tye living bodies unto dead carkases that soe they might be poysoned to death with the horrid infection of an abominable stench By sin we are brought to suffer the like punishment we carry about with us our own Executioner cannot easily deliver ourselves from it If thou canst not resolve to suffer something for avoiding sin thou wilt be forced to suffer much after thou hast committed it An evill action is no sooner resolved upon but it presently produceth its own punishment T is this which makes us guilty of death and eternall damnation We must therefore have a speciall care to expiate our conscience from all Sin by contrition confession and satisfaction And t is not enough to avoid falling into great sins but we must also have a care to avoid lesser faults which although they doe not cause immediate death to the Soul yet weaken our spirituall forces are a disposition to mortall sin But the ship wrack is equally the same whither the ship be swallowed up and lost under one great wave or sunk by degrees the water entring in drop by drop We may be more to blame for yeilding unto these lesser faults in regard the difficulty to ouercome them was lesse The weaker our enemy is the greater is our shame if we permit ourselves to be overcome by him 2. Thou wilt never be able to attain unto much Vertue and to restore thyself to thy former liberty unles thou canst first quit thyself of all affection even to the least sins For otherwise thy body may be in the desert and thy mind at the same time in Egipt All does not goe well with thee if after having pardoned injuries and forsaken thy dishonest loues thou dost still give ear to calomnies detractions against thy neighbors if thou art still delighted with some dangerous beauty For to purchase an interior purity t is not enough to extirpate all sin out of thy soul but thou must also root out all evill habits or affections which may often remain behind after the sin is forgiven If thou dost only cut the boughs leave the root entire thou wilt see in a short time new branches of iniquity grow up from the same stock Thou sayest that thou art resolved to root out of thy soul all thy old Vices But I fear thou dost not barr the Door against them but leavest it seemingly
a certain chayn of love T is love which governs and makes the Stars coneur in their motions and influences t is love which gathers together such vast flocks of birds in the ayr such vast heards of catitle in the fields and mountains such vast troops of wild beasts in the woods and deserts Nothing can untye this holy knot of love but Hatred for as love tends to union so hatred tends to division and dissention Those who are most subject unto this passion of hatred are idle fearfull suspicious persons who fear some losse or mischeif on all sides Some again are of such a nature that they hate all men and like those birds of evill fortune hate even their own dark habitations If thou shouldest chance to meet any one of this temper doe not hate but pity him Even as in a fencing school thou strivest quietly and without anger to defend thyself from him that fenceth against thee so in all thy life decline and avoid those who hate thee without hatred The way to refrain hatred in thyself is to endeavor to excite thy mind to a love of that person by considering some perfection in him whom thou hatest There will be no place in thy hart for hatred against any man if thou canst interprete all things to the best Then turn thy hatred against those things which deserve to be hated as the deformity of Sin and eternall damnation If thou hatest any thing else the dammage and hurt falls upon thyself and not upon the object which thou hatest For if we are commanded to love even our Enemies whom can we hate Thou must fly out of the Society of men to find those whom thou maist lawfully hate All evill is to be ranked by itself out of the order of naturall things and t is that alone which thou art permitted to hate But if thou wilt needs hate a man hate none more then thyself for no man hath done thee soe much hurt as thou hast done to thyself CHAP. XIV Of Desire and Flight What we are to desire and what to fly or avoid 1. HAppy is that man who is alwaies subject unto God who obeyeth his Will who desires nothing with too much earnestnes who is content with all that happens and still sayes Since it is Gods will that I should be sick or in health that I am poor or rich that I should live here or in another place I am ready to submit my self unto his will let him dispose of me either way I am content But if thou once beginnest to say when shall I remove when shall I have this or that thing thou wilt never be at quiet For if thou desirest what is not in thy power thou wilt live in continuall anxiety and like one that is turned round in a Wheel thou wilt alwaies bee following it but shalt never attain it Thy opinions thoughts affections and all thy actions are things which are in thy own power but thy body riches honours dignities and all things else which thou dost not make are thinks out of thee and out of thy power No man can hinder thee of those first things but these latter depend of others and are subject to many impediments wherefore resolve either nor to desire them at all or to desire them soe as still to remember that they depend on others disposing and that their nature is such that they cannot be long in thy possession None of these outward things deserve to be loved for the figure of this world passeth away Although all things should goe according to thy wishes in this world yet when death comes thou wilt be forced to leave all behind whatsoever thou hast had Look into thyself the source of all true riches is within thee and the more thou searchest for it the more wilt thou find 2. In this consisted the wisedome of some antient Philosophers who being free from the slavery of fortune seemed in the midst of most cruell torments to be as happy as Angels For whilst they contemplated the limits of human power they were easily persuaded that nothing but their own thoughts and affections was truly in their own power And by means of this consideration they obtained such a power over their own affections and were able to govern their passions in such a manner that they bragged and not without some reason that they were the only rich the only powerfull the only happy men in this world But there is need of much practise to be able to contemn all these externall things If thou canst once bring thyself to this thou wilt never after be sorry for the want of such things as are witnout thee as thou dost not complain that thou art not King of the Tartars or that thou wantest wings to fly What is withont us doth not belong to us 3. T is this that must bridle thy desires which if thou canst not govern thou wilt never content thy insatiable mind and whatsoever thou givest it it will not make an end of thy avarice but only serve to irritate it the more Those who are in a burning feavor can never drink enough because their desire of drink is not so much a thirst as a disease soe it happens with those whose desires are not moderated and kept within the compasse of reason but are guided according to luxe pomp which have no end or bounds Thou wilt find the want of nothing if thou containest thyself within the bounds of nature and reason but if thou exceedest this thou wilt ever be poor in the midst of all thy riches Avarice hath never enough but nature is content with little 4. Remember thou art to comport thyself in this life as in a banquet If any delicate meat is brought in and presented to thee stretch out thy hand modestly take a part of it If he that carries it about from one end of the table to the other should chance to misse thee doe not call to him or pull him by the sleeve If he is not yet come nigh thee doe not shew thyself greedy by looking towards him but stay untill he comes to thee If thou dost use the same prudence in order to riches dignities the like thou wilt be worthy of the banquet of Saints and thou wilt enjoy such peace of mind which will place thee above all the chances of fortune But if thou absolutely refusest and contemnest what is offered thee thou wilt be made partaker of the felicity of Angells thou wilt begin to tast upon earth that which they enjoy in heaven It is in thy power to make thyself happy if thou desirest nothing that is without thee What man is happy He that hath what he desires He then that desireth nothing but what is in his own power hath all that he desires 5. We fly and avoid many things as hurtfull and contrary to our nature which notwithstanding are very profitable in themselves For it commonly happens that what