that Security is the Mother of Negligence and that you run the danger of having your Fervour abate and to grow cold in the Exercises of a Devout Life when you become too sure of your Recompence Mater è negligentiae solet esse securitas St. Gregory you will tell me said very well but that desirable Favour I would pretend to say you if I durst were to have God at the same time he lets me know I am marked out for Paradise bestow the Gift upon me out of his Goodness that I should never abuse this Knowledge This would be an extraordinary Favor say you but not without Example It was granted to Abraham as I have read to whom God formally declared That he was in the first Rank of the Elect Abraham said he to him I know thee because thou dost belong to me and that thou shalt everlastingly belong to me Something to this effect he said also to Isaac to Jacob to Moses upon the Mountain and to the Prophet Jeremiah in his Mothers Womb that happy Infant knew he was elected before he was born all the Apostles besides knew certainly that they were of this number Rejoice ye said our Saviour to them for your names are written in Heaven Our Blessed Lady St. Mary Magdalen St. John the Evangelist St. Paul and many others in times following have learnt from his own Mouth or by the means of his Angels that they were expected in Heaven and that their Crowns were there ready prepared for them St. Theresia after having seen the place was destin'd for her in Hell had she not been drawn out of the World by the most powerful Grace of the Holy Ghost had the Comfort and Happiness to see the place she was to possess in Paradise What a Joy what a Blessing is this and which way say you further can a Man be at a moments quiet in the time of this Mortal Life unless we could know from God by some miraculous means that he to whom we have consecrated our selves and who possesses us now as the Purchase of his Blood and the Inheritance of his Love will not suffer any Power of the World or Hell to ravish us out of his Hands to our Eternal Misery You are in a Mistake O Christian we may receive this Heavenly Comfort and Joy without the help of Revelation or any miraculous Apparition it is not at all requisite that God should speak or appear to you it will be sufficient if you can love him as the Saints have done before you This Love will produce an interiour Voice within you or a supernatural Instinct St. Paul calls it a Testimony of the Holy Ghost imprinted on our Hearts St. Augustin a Ray of the Glory of Paradise which breaks forth in elected Souls during the height and transports of their Fervor Give it what name you please I say it is a Divine Help which disperses and drives away all the black Clouds all the Fears and monstrous Disquiets of your Imagination and like the dawning of a bright day brings a Serenity and begets in you a Certitude of your Salvation independent of any Revelation or Prophecy True it is that you will not say formally what the Hereticks do and what cannot be said without the highest Pride and Blasphemy My Name I am certain is written and set down amongst the names of the Saints But you may say that which true Love made St. Paul and other blessed Persons say who loved in perfection My Certainty is that neither Death nor Life Poverty nor Riches nor the Torments and Cruelties of Tyrants the Promises and Flatteries of the World nor in fine all the force of Hell shall ever separate me from the Charity of Jesus Christ Certus sum I am certain of it and am not more assured that I am alive at this present than I am assured by the help of Grace to continue faithful to my God as long as ever my Heart can breath Donec superest halitus in me Spiritus Dei in Naribus meis It is a most horrible and sinful Presumption which makes the proudly-conceited of their Piety say I know certainly that God has been pleased to write me down in the number of his Elect and that I cannot fail to go to Heaven But it is a holy love that speaks when you say I will love my God even to Death Death Time nor Eternity shall not part me from him Etiam si me occiderit Sperabo in eum What Pride utters in a most horrid Boldness and Blasphemy since it undertakes to tell that which lies the most hidden in the Breast of God To be able to say without the help of Revelation whose Names He has written secretly and eternally in his Heart by a gratuite Election is to be no less than God The Saying of Love is a holy Truth and an humble Adoration of the Mercy and Grace of Jesus Christ inasmuch as this speaks only of the Vow you have made to love God and of the perpetual and irrevocable Resolutions and Decrees of Holiness which your self has written within your Conscience Look altogether upon these Vows which your Love has created and do not amuse your self in reasoning upon Circumstances as those do who first begin to love and who by making comparisons and scrupulous Reflections entertain such Disquiets as drive them into a dark Labyrinth out of which they can find no issue When you are arrived at the degree of a fervent Love you will be far from examining what the Success of that Love may be and from hearkening to the Fears and Anxieties of your blind and timerous Fancy Being in this state you will know the News of your Happiness without your saying I know it you will not answer for any thing but your Constancy and Perseverance in making good the Promises of which Grace and Humility have been the inspiring Authors and not Presumption You will rejoice holily within without questioning or informing your self which way you come to know you shall be constant and although in reality no Voice shall tell you this yet you will be as secure and as much at ease in the midst of all the dangers that shall surround you as if Prophets and Angels had told it you You will not hear any Voice that will declare this to you but you will become sensible that the Instinct or secret Testimony of which St. Paul speaks is a kind of thing more certain than Visions clearer than Revelations and Prophecies sweeter than the Consolations and Assurances you can receive from your spiritual Directors and in fine more strong and powerful than all your Fears Amongst all the Examples you see of such as fall from their Virtue and in the heighth of the Reports of so many reprobated Persons as are sounded in your Ears from all parts able to make the Boldest tremble you shall enjoy the Peace of the Elect. Your Solicitude will not be to question or make Doubts whether you shall go
to merit and purchase your Favour not even Goods or Life How blind is this Man in three months time he finds you laid in a Tomb and full of Shame questions himself if it were on that heap of Rottenness and Dust that he had built his Hopes and Happiness and if this were the Idol he adored at the cost of so much Sacrifice In short since according to the Testimony of your own Conscience you are made up of no other things but a company of false Promises of false Oaths false Civilities false Friendships and false Devotions and that the World on the other side according to your daily Complaints of it is nothing else but a Cheat that deceives you Is it not true that according to the Dictates of the Holy Ghost the right Title of this World is the Cheat of Cheats the Traytor of Traytors the Seducer above all Hypocrites the Lie the Error and the Vanity of Vanities to those that are the wrong way wise Vanitas Vanitatum afflictio Spiritus Whosoever you are that have Riches by you and have like the Palaces and Houses of Great Persons your glorious Apartments adorned with precious Movables which you have not a handsom Liberty to part with consider them with such Thoughts as become a clear discerning and noble Soul act after such a way as that God who sees your Furniture and Riches may not see any thing in you when you have your Eyes and Mind upon them that fastens you to the love of Creatures but that which ties you faster still to him and engages you to own that he ought to be eternally and infinitely loved Tibi dixit Cor meum exquisivit te facies mea You know O Divine Lord of my Life that these Curiosities and costly Adornments are here only out of an Obedience to your Will the World gives them the Name of Necessaries and Decencies the Saints call them Vanities and Hinderances I call them at this present Shadows of your Greatness and Presents from your Bounty In fine at the sight of these Ornaments which appear in your Chamber be careful to make these two following Reflections the First That you behold the Gate which is to let you into your Tomb. That it is in this very Bed that is so richly embroidered Death will come to take you and carry you into another Bed where the crawling of Worms upon your Body will make a very different sort of Works about you The other That out of your Tomb you will pass into a Paradise of which all that you possess here the most precious is but a poor and dark Resemblance It is a very sweet thing to aspire to Heaven from the lowness of Poverty because we are sure that is the nearest way thither but it is no less sweet to aspire to it from the height of Prosperity and Riches if the Goodness of God makes you find that amongst so many Dangers in which most of the Reprobate have perished he preserves you in Holiness by his unmeasurable Grace such as is a certain Token of the Perseverance of his Protection and of the Eternity of his Love Think that you see what a holy Spouse saw heretofore that upon all the Presents God makes you and all the Goods which come into your House is written He that sends you all this expects you in Heaven Surge propera amica mea Yea are thought of in Paradise make haste and come away to him that loves you Quicken the time by your Longings and your Tears This multitude of good things must needs forward you besides in the acknowledging your Obligations to the Divine Providence when you see a poor wretch lying in the Straw full of Ulcers and Stench dying with Cold and Hunger what do you see but a Glass representing to you that which you would or might have been your self had not God had a particular Favour for you MAXIM XIII Vidi Servos in equis Principes ambulantes Super terram quasi servos Eccles x. PARAPHRASE I have seen in the Streets of Jerusalem Servants richly clad and mounted upon Horses of a high value after whom Princes have followed on foot like their Slaves whilst the People who lately worshipped them looked upon them now only with Scorn REFLECTIONS When you see Persons of mean birth without Wit or Merit raised to a degree to which it was your Right to pretend be not angry with Heaven nor do you accuse Providence bear in your Mind that nothing can befit the greatness of your Heart so much as to have the Power and the Honour to suppress those Motions in you which Anger and Envy usually beget on such occasions I own that these are smarting Strokes and so much the worse in that they commonly happen contrary to expectation but what appears the most bitter in them is your being forced to pay an Obedience to these People who by Right ought to lye at your Feet and to whom the very Beasts had they Reason would be asham'd to subject themselves All this I know very well and yet I maintain you are in the wrong if you make this your Complaint These Disorders have lasted for this Six thousand years Why do you wonder at them These are the false Steps of blind Chance let us endure them quietly and without murmuring Greater Persons than we are have endured them in other Ages and do still at the present and if the Fellowship of the Miserable be a Consolation to those that are so there is not a Misfortune in the World that can afford more Comforters than this How often in a day do we see in the Streets of Paris what Solomon saw in those of Jerusalem Servos in equis principes super terrum How often do we see on the Backs of stately Horses or seated in splendid Coaches certain Creatures whose Due it would be rather to carry or draw those Persons of Honour they meet in their way walking on foot How many are there amongst the Supplicants who come before the Courts of Justice to beg Redress that would deserve to sit in the place of those Robes they worship In the Temples of our Religion how many learned and holy Priests do give the Incense to some ignorant and faulty Church-man seated under a State How many great men in every station are left to shift in the dark without Employment Credit or Reputation You may perhaps be one of these whom cross Fate will not suffer to be minded or so much as to be taken notice of to live What does it concern you though if you be known in Heaven where more honourable matters are designed you than all that your Desires have ever aimed at without Success In such Occasions as these never go to make Complaints amongst your Friends but go and apply your self to God and communicate every thing to this Adorable Comforter He will teach you to understand that you are not lessened by the exaltation of those Men but would be
and Soul in the Filth of a scandalous Drunkenness to see him throw himself on the Ground and sleep in the face of Heaven can there be a more shameful Spectacle Let him be an Holofernes attended and worshipped by an Army of an Hundred thousand Men all this Attendance hinders him not in that condition from being a Horror to the Angels and being a Womans Victim who cuts off his Head and carries it safe away whilst Devils seize the Remains of that drunken Carcass Quasi Cadaver putridum illamentatus atque insepultus descendes in profundum laci This way of sleeping is certainly the most dismal thing that can happen to Man The King Sedecias having known that he was made the Sport of the Court of Babylon whilst he slept after this manner died through the displeasure he took at it Alexander Socrates Cato and other of those old Worthies have blushed at their being in such a condition before they came to be quite awake so much sense remaining with them in the midst of their Folly and they have wept in having hid it from the Eyes of the World to find they could not hide it from themselves I own besides that it is not a proper means to cause quiet and good Sleeps to have our Bed and Chamber too richly and voluptuously adorned what Rest can there be taken in the view of so great Debts or Couzenages or Pride How many dreadful Cries says Salvian are heard all night within the Conscience of that Man whose wretched Sleep costs so much Money and so many Sins Can he spend the hours any other way than in sadly thinking and in saying to himself Menses vacuos Noctes laboriosas Enumeravi mihi For these twenty years I have done nothing towards my Salvation my days have been days of Debauch of Impieties of Wrongs to the Poor my nights have been nights of Disquiet Torment and Despair Menses Vacuos Noctes laboriosas Think when you go to take your rest on this rich Bed of State that such was the Bed from which a Balthasar beheld the Hand of God writing on the Wall the Sentence of his Death and his Damnation signed in Heaven That the rich Glutton whilst he took the pleasure of seeing himself thus magnificently lodged heard a Voice whisper in his Ear telling him he was expected in another World and that he must dye within an hour Et haec quae Parasti Cujus erunt That an Antiochus instead of meeting here with that sweet Rest you seek found burning Flames kindled within his Bowels with Cholicks and Convulsions which have made him roar like one in Hell turning his stately Bed into a Scaffold where his interiour Executioners have torn him for several months till Death has come and pulled him out of their Hands to put him into infernal ones Mortuus est sepultus in inferno But I go beyond my Argument what I maintained is true That Sleep taking possession of you according to the Rules of Providence puts you into a condition that is not only necessary but honourable The Rules of this Providence are fitted to your Conveniency and Needs do you conform your self therefore exactly to them and accustom your self to follow as near as you can all its Commands and Counsels You desire that your Sleep may be sweet and peaceable Providence would have it so too and has chosen for it the night time do not you change this for the day and go not to Bed at Five a Clock in the morning when the Sun does rise It would not have you spend above seven or eight hours in sleeping do not employ ten or eleven in it but mind what the Physicians say That a Man who lies in Bed ten or eleven hours comes out of it ever less healthful and what the Casuists add Ever less innocent and pure than he went into it The Eye of God says St. Gregory abhors the sight of a Man in Bed at Noon And if ever you be found there so late he will send Solomon's Ghost to your Bed-side which pulling you by the Arm will repeat those words inspired long since into him on purpose to be said to the Sluggards of all times Vsque quo Piger dormies quando Consurges a Somno tua Paululum dormies paululum dormitabis paululum Conseres Manus ut dormias veniet tibi quasi Viator Egestas pauperies quasi vir Armatus Till when O Sloathful will you sleep have you not rubbed your Eyes and stretched your Arms sufficiently has not your Head been more than once raised and let fall again upon the Pillow asking a little time and yet a little longer and for a third about still a little longer time until that God's Malediction enters within your Walls follow'd by Disorder Libertinism and Poverty which will spare your Family as little as it has done such as have been richer than yours Pauperies quasi Vir Armatus This is not all what the same Providence recommends particularly to you to make your Sleeps sound and quiet is that you employ your self in the day time taking so much Pains about your Affairs as that you may find at night when the time comes of your going to Bed something of Weariness in your Body but in your Mind no manner of Disquiet no Sin in your Conscience nor any Disturbance from your Passions to hinder the rest prepared for you by the Divine Goodness Act so well as that your Designs your Undertakings Hopes and even your Joys as well as Griefs may be laid to sleep with you and lodge that quiet Silence in your Soul as may make it not be troubled by it self or any thing about it so that you may have cause to say at the time of shutting your Eyes In pace in idipsum dormiam requiescam quoniam tu domine Singulariter in spe Constituisti me The last and most important Rule is That your last Action before you sleep and the first after you wake must be to pray Be sure you fail not to begin and end this way each day you have to live and take often into your Mind this true Saying of the Holy Fathers That Sleep is the Figure of our Death and Waking the Figure of our Resurrection The last words of a dying Man are to recommend his Soul to God In Manus tuas Domine commendo animam meam the first when he rises again will be to pay his Adoration to God when stretching out his Arms towards his Maker he shall raise himself up to him by Acts of a perfect Love and Holiness Dormivi Somnum cepi exurrexi adhuc sum tecum This is the true method of the Devotion of Christians for each day of their Life Remember what I have said in another place That all times are proper for the exercising Acts of Holy Love since the God you love is near you at all times When the Sun goes away he is not gone says Solomon God is at
by which we live There scarce passes an hour wherein our Thoughts are not tossed several ways and our Reason does not fall at odds with our Passions In like manner Cities Provinces and other Assemblies of Men are but so many Seas where it is a rare thing to meet with a calm day we sail all of us upon these Tempestuous Billows but yet it does not necessarily follow that our Minds should be shaken by them Man's Soul depends not on the Vessel that wafts it much less on the tempestuous Noises resounding round about him or the strange Revolutions that amaze so many Persons give an Ear you may to them but have nothing to do there more than to behold the busie Medlers in the midst of those Whirlwinds going this way and that way as they are carried and driven How sweet a thing it is to observe with a calm Spirit the Tempest of a Mind where Passion reigns without controul Whensoever the Winds begin to rise let us make haste to get into the Haven let us flye to God as long as the Storm lasts let us remain close to this dear Spouse conversing with Him and asking His Counsels Then whilst we enjoy the sweet of this Divine Familiarity supported between His Arms let us from thence behold the strange Agitations of the World and tell Him what our Thoughts are of them Treat with God in these conjunctures as you use to do with the Persons you love When there happens some unexpected Change in the Publick Affairs or that there starts up some News of high importance it is a Pleasure to us to tell it one-another and to communicate our Opinions and Conjectures thereupon Take the same Pleasure with God and shew him what you think of it and all you have been told True it is All this is known to him before it was ever spoken of but it is no less true that he loves you and that he would learn from your self not only what passes in your own House and private Closet but in the Common wealth also and amongst the People As soon as you shall hear of any Matter hapning strangely and unexpectedly and that makes a great noise and disturbance go and discourse with him about it who expects you to this end say to him with David That the Waters have Elevaverunt flumina vocem suam raised their Voices That there are great Tempests upon the Sea and great Tumults in the World That Chance has alter'd the Affairs of the Earth and made strange Changes in the Stations of Men by setting up and pulling down beyond belief although our Eyes behold it Mirabiles Elationes Marâ—â— But my God you may say to that which is most to be wonder'd at in these Downfals is to see the Man who rises upon another's Ruine imagine he is seated at that heighth for ever These little Insects carried up by the Waves to the Clouds look upon themselves with as much Pride in this Elevation as if they were seated upon firm Rocks and forget that their Station depends wholly upon the Winds all these Waves which Fortune has stirred up and raised so high will make but a moments appearance at the same time they are risen from their lowness they are returning back to it again The Ambitious who mount thus high and get at such a distance from their former littleness rise to this pitch only to make the greater noise in the World by their Fall and these very Mountains of their Greatness turn to their ruine by falling back upon them where they miserably perish and lye buried in this Rubbish But the Reports of these Changes amongst Creatures are of small importance the News that pleases and concerns me most and which my Heart is continually repeating as the Angels are still telling it over and over to one another without cease is that he whom we love does never change Mirabiles elationes Maris Mirabilis in altis dominus You my God are the same this day that you ever were and will eternally be the same the immovable perpetuity of your Power and of your Word makes the Glory and Happiness of those that serve you Idem ipse es anni tui non deficient yet give me leave to say that what appears the most to be admired and most pleases me is that at the same time when your infinite Goodness gives me the News of the Perseverance of your Grace and Protection on my behalf I can return you the News of the Eternity of my Love The Heavens and Earth will change my Goods my House my Friends my Health my Body my Fortune and my Life must also change they are changing at this instant and at every hour they change but my Love shall never alter I will love you as long as I shall live as often as I shall draw my Breath as lastingly as you will be my God Deus Cordis mei pars mea Deus in aeternum MAXIM XXIII Erit allocutio Cogitationis meae toedii mei Sap. viii PARAPHRASE With God will I deposite all my Cares my Fears and Troubles should his Providence and Justice deny to allow me that Consolation my Hopes aim at at least I shall have the Happiness to have talked with him and shewn sure Marks of my Respect and the Trust I repose in him From the Disturbances that happen in the World let us pass to those which particularly touch and concern our selves let us make God acquainted with the Disquiets and Pains we undergo by reason of our Affairs and let us address our selves to him in the same words which being dictated by him heretofore to a holy Spouse had a miraculous effect Confirma me Deus respice ad opera Manuum mearum ut hoc quod credens Cogitavi per te fieri posse perficiam REFLECTIONS There are usually lodged in our Hearts certain Designs upon which our whole Faculties are bent such as our Imagination works upon night and day to find out the Means may make them succeed in spight of the Difficulties and Hindrances in their way if your Mind be taken up with any of this nature instead of applying your self unprofitably to Men who either cannot or will not assist and comfort you go and talk with God tell him all the secret Thoughts of your Heart on this occasion Exurge in occursum meum vide tu domine Deus Virtutum I confess O my Lord that the Undertaking which you see disquiets me when I look on it on each side shews me nothing but ill Presages and Dangers of Ruine would you please to look into it you will own that it stands in a sad condition and that I am to be pitied I neither can nor ought to forsake it I have begun it in the view of Men and Angels and both my Reputation and my Conscience are concerned in it the Honour of your Name to which I have consecrated my Blood and Life the Good of my Neighbour the
Contrition encourage the Divine Mercy to showre on you its Numerous Benedictions MAXIM IV. Vadam ad Collem Thuris Cant. iv PARAPHRASE I will go up to the Hill of Frankincense and there by Prayer and Penitence will I raise my self so high as to get into the Wounds of Jesus Christ and I will grave so deep in my Soul the Characters of his Sufferings that no other Life shall be left me but what I breath out of his Heart REFLECTIONS See here the Method you are to observe whilst your Solitude gives you the leisure to hearken to your Conscience and to mind what it will say to you Tell often to your self the Story of your wretched Days and let not so much as one of those dreadful occasions slip from you which has engaged you in Wicked Company call to mind each Fault and over each weep and lament Perform those Acts of Contrition that may make you worthy the Grace that has drawn you out of Hell which the death of Christ has merited for you Say to him That which afflicts me most O Lord touching my enormous Crimes is that my Heart is weak and has not strength enough to hate them Alas Lord mine alone can be but poor in Sorrow poor tho' I had the Hearts of my Confessors to help me who have known and lamented them together with me by my Goodwill I would have the Hearts of all Men and Angels and out of this Multiplicity of Hearts would I collect and frame a hatred and detestation of my Ingratitude that should be great enough to make them equal to my Grief and Misery Cor mundum Crea in me Deus Employ O Lord your Power and your Mercy create a new Heart and bestow it on me with which I may stisfie you and love you With this desire our Saviour will be pleased as he was with that of David St. Peter and other Converted Sinners who after having employ'd Years in lamenting and weeping when their Tears were quite exhausted and spent did seek to know whether the World could not afford the Means to raise within their Souls a Spring of these bitter Waters such as should never stop but last to the very end of their days Quis dabit Capiti meo Aquam Oculis meis fontem lachrymarum Say you the same thing contemplating on your crucified Lord and say it with Sincerity and from the bottom of your Heart let Sighs of Love express it instead of Words Quis dabit Capiti mei How happy should I be could I shed Torrents of Tears to joyn with the Torrent of my Saviour's Blood such as should flow in every place where I have committed Faults to shew where-ever I have Sinned that I have Sorrowed and given lasting Marks of my Repentance O all ye People who have heard of the Audite Populi Videte dolorem meum Scandals of my past Life come and hear my mournful Cries come and behold my Sorrows behold them you my God and see how my Conscience suffers in you I hope even in the Condition I am fallen into be you so good as to grant me your Love in the same measure at least look on me thus as I am and let that Virtue issue from your Eyes which can give Grace and Life Vide Domine Considera This God who sees and hears yo during these holy moments in which your Griefs renew and that you feel the Convulsions of your afflicted Conscience will not fail to comfort you by his repeating to you interiourly what has been so often told you by his Prophets and Evangelists that your Sins are blotted out and forgiven and that not one spot of them remains in your Soul Thus much I know O my Divine Saviour but still the memory of them is remaining in your Mind Alas Great God how insufficient it is for my Comfort to be told I am forgiven To make this perfect you that can be ignorant of nothing must find out some means to be ignorant of my Misdeeds and to forget whatsoever has befallen me in the time of my wretched and scandalous days For how is it possible to live in the presence of a God who has seen my Treacheries and bears them still in mind how is it possible to be comforted tho' I am daily told the News from him that my Sins have been washed with his Blood when at the same time my Reason informs me that they appear yet before his Eyes that they will ever appear and that the Ages of my Ingratitude must amidst the Glories of his Paradise be one of the Objects of his Eternity Posuisti iniquitates Nostras in Conspectu tuo soeculum Nostrum in illuminatione Vultus tui God who with a Complacence observes these Fears and Disquiets within you will give them a Remedy to make your Consolation entire For whilst you are breathing out your Complaints in this familiar way when he comes once to comfort you He will do it certainly like a God and stretch his Power miraculously so far as even to forget all and bury the whole Memory of your Sins in the Ocean whence it shall never rise again Disponet iniquitates Nostras projiciet in profunda Maris omnia peccata Nostra quoniam Volens est misericordiam MAXIM V. Generositatem illius Glorificat Contubernium habens Dei Sap. viii PARAPHRASE The Greatness and the Eminence of Grace are glorified by the Man that lives familiarly with God REFLECTIONS A principal Duty it should be in devout and holy persons to add a Lustre and Glory to Sanctity but there are many of them that do much otherwise and who we must confess give by their Indiscretions too much Ground to Libertines for their contempt of this Divine Virtue I cannot tell whether this proceeds from an innocent Ambition to imitate the Saints in those Actions wherein they are most inimitable and miraculous but this I can tell that it brings no Honour to Sanctity to be more Saint-like Non plus sapere quam oportet Sapere ad sobrietatem than God approves It fares with Holiness as it does with Wisdom whosoever has too much of either falls very short of having enough This too much is the thing I may boldly say that dishonours Christian Piety and is the cause it meets with so little respect in all Companies in the World The Misfortune comes not by the Devotion of such as are discreet and holy but by the true Folly of such as are scrupulous and the False Sanctity of such as are Hypocrites To be of an Humour not to be satisfied but by taking by-ways to go to Heaven and building upon Rules which are Strangers to the Churches Morals and to all Divinity to be perswaded that to break a day of Lent in the time of a dangerous Sickness is a high and guilty Frailty that it is not to dye like a Christian or a Chosen One unless Death comes by the Violence of Mortifications and unless a
because you abound in Wealth or that they therefore may be spared deceive not your selves ye great ones of the World the higher and more powerful you are the more need have you of such Seconds to support your Power and support your Spirit which must droop and sink when it is left alone It is true according to Plato's Opinion that our Soul is immortal independently of other Souls but not impassible nor invulnerable Man's Soul though divine and come from Heaven finds it self entangled in strange occasions during the days of its mortal life a Traveller lost in the Night in a Desart without a Guide a Prisoner in the Dungeon without Comforter Credit or Counsel a Sick-man in the Straw without Physician a Dying one on the Ground without Priest or Sacrament a dead Corps on the Dunghill abandoned unburied and deprived of the Due of being covered with a little Earth and of the Tribute of a few Tears Illamentatus atque insepultus quasi Cadaver putridum All this is the Image of out Spirit when it is left to it self alone so that it may say with Job Strangers persecute me Servants fly from me my Brothers know me not and I can see no Friend that I have left the Best looks on me with horrow Et quem maxime diligebam aversatus est à me In a word it concerns you to make your self be beloved the Helps you may expect from those that love you are little less in number than the days you have to live Of these days says the Wise-man some will be painful and some will be days of rest Some will be days of Fears of Dangers Misfortunes and Despairs others will bring Hope Prosperity and Success but all these days without distinction will be days of Affliction if you be left alone whereas if you enjoy your Friends they will be days of Happiness and Comfort What had happened to our Forefathers and happens yet every day will befal you At times of Adversity we feel not half our Pain when others share in the sense of it and are afflicted with us at times of Prosperity our Joy is never perfect until it be communicated and that we see it conveyed into the Looks and Hearts of those that love us It is even more satisfying to noble Minds to weep in a time of mourning whilst Friends mingle their Tears with ours than to rejoice at a happy Success when we have no body to impart it to that can be touched with the same sense and be unfeignedly pleased with what we tell them Value those Persons infinitely who feel your Sorrows and your Joys who interest themselves as much as you do in all your Affairs and in all your Dangers value them for the World affords not any thing so rare common it is enough to have Friends each man has a quantity of them but for what are they good will they not prove in the day of Battel a company of Deserters and Fugitives and be like a flock of Pigeons At the least noise of Affliction coming upon you where is that faithful and inseparable one that will stick fast by you where is the Eagle that dreads no Thunder In such Conjunctures a Man may be said to forsake even himself you are a great and an able Man you have much insight into the Affairs and Dangers of the State and into those of your Neighbours yet are you blind in Matters that touch your self no sooner are you left alone in what nearly concerns you and that you have no person to consult with except your self but your Understanding is quite at a loss all your Reasonings prove Errors and Mistakes and like a sick Physician what you do for your Cure helps you only to perish the sooner In a word Multi Amici sint tibi consiliarius sit tibi unus de mille Have a thousand Friends says the Wise-man and out of them one Confident MAXIM XVI Facta sum Coram eo quasi pacem reperiens Cant. viii PARAPHRASE I have met with Peace when I was brought to contemplate my Spouse in the condition he was in on Mount Calvary bathed in his Blood and in the condition he now is lodged in the Bosom of God his Father whilst he produces a Love as ancient as himself and no less lasting By the one I know that he loves me infinitely by the other that he will ever love me and that I have reason to begin to enjoy an inviolable Peace in this low World since I expect to enjoy one in Heaven above that shall last as long as God's Eternity REFLECTIONS Although my Conscience gives me no great Reproaches say you I have not yet that Peace you speak of my Fears are in the same measure they were before when I lived in disorder all my Devotions Austerities and Alms change not the Decree of God Almighty's Justice nor the Purposes of his Providence How can I tell but that I am one in the number of the Reprobate It would be requisite to make me enjoy a perfect Quiet you could bring me the News That my Name is written in the Book of Life and an Eternal Place marked out for me amongst the Blessed In a word Shall I go to Heaven God knows this already I would fain know it too I wish some one might tell it me certainly by the appointment of Him whose Mercy and Justice have written all these Truths in his Mind before the Creation of the World The Answer I can give you to this is only the same that the great St. Gregory gave to a Lady very eminent in quality and devotion this Lady disquieted with Care that ordinarily befals Holy Souls writ to that illustrious Prelate who was her Director and desired to know of him Whether her Sins were forgiven her and whether she might be at quiet touching her Salvation What St. Gregory answer'd her with great Respect and Sincerity was this Quod vero Duicedo tua suis in Epistolis subjunxit se mihi importuam fore c. You threaten me Madam said he that you will never leave writing to me till such time as God shall have revealed to me that you Sins are pardoned and that the Divine Mercy has pronounced the Decree of your Predestination the Trouble you should give your self in writing to this end would prove altogether ineffectual to prevent it and give you Comfort I am ready to send you a present Answer There are two Truths relating to your Question of which I can give you my assurance they are these the first That I am too great a Sinner to be one of those to whom God lays open the Books of his Eternal Science or to whom he sends his Angels and Prophets with Orders to declare the Secrets of his Providence The second That the Account which you would have of the Certainty of your Salvation must conduce more to your Harm than to your Comfort Perpende quaeso ducissima filia Consider I pray my dear Daughter