Men glory in those things of which they ought to be ashamd it lies against all experience in telling them that their riches wil be permanent since they pass through so many hands to come to them who now possess them It holds those things forth for good each one wherof is no less then a triple torment the number of evils and vexations are in such an excess that it affords more then two real afflictions for one seeming happines Ther 's no one thing of all we possess but rackd us with toile and sollicitude how we might compass it and having compasd it we are no les tormented with fear and iealousy of it and when it is lost with grief for its absence and privation O heavenly truth what great God a mercy if I do not covet this meer chaos of deceitfulnes and vexation if I contemn for thy sake a thing so contemptible which were to be contemnd if not for it self at least for my self many heathen Philosophers quitted the world for their own quiet and why shal not a Christian do it for his and thy glory They left it because despicable in it self and why shal not we do it because thou art inestimable and the glory which we hope for invaluable Although the world were good yet it were folly to prefer it before that which containes all good The XI Chapter How Peace is to be obtained THou canst not live wel unles thou dye forthwith and overcome thy nature Thou canst not enjoy peace unles thou make war upon thy self this is the way to purchase true liberty Be readier alwayes to comply with anothers will then thy own thou shalt not know what it is to be at jars love rather to have little then much and thou shalt have no occasion of complaint chuse alwayes the meanest place and to be every ones underling and thou shalt scarse ever be sad have a desire to suffer and undergo somthing for thy IESVS sake and thou shalt think no body burdensome seek God in all things that his will may be fulfilld in thee and thou shalt never be disquieted If thou ought to accommodate thy self rather to anothers wil then thy own why not to the divine wil and rejoyce that it is fulfilld by thee keep these things in thy hart that thou mayst enjoy an uninterrupted peace True tranquillity of mind cannot be obtaind but by a contempt of the world and conquest over our selves This may be done two manner of wayes either by forcing thy self contrary to what seems good and delectable in the world and nature or by knowing them to be nought and weighing all things in the ballance of truth this latter way is the sweeter and more permanent although it must alwayes be accompanyd with a fervorous contradiction of our appetite He nevertheles who in faith and spirit is convined of the verity and vanity that is in things shal with much facility overcome himself and dispise the world Nothing conduceth more to a happy progress then to frame an unbyazd judgment of things and to relish them according to the doctrine of IESVS What hearst thou pronouncd by that most holy mouth of truth it self blessed are the poor of spirit blessed are they that mourn blessed are they that suffer persecution Why wilt thou esteem those things harsh and burdensome which the truth of God held and deliverd for beatitudes how canst thou avoid being deceivd if thou account those things evil which faith teaches us to be good and to render us happy we believe the mystery of the most B. Trinity because Christ reveald it to us the same IESVS also reveald that those things which the world so much abhors poverty sorrow injuries are not bad but good neither is he to be ratherd is believd in this point by him that knowes he taught so then when be teacheth the unity and Trinity of almighty God Let us then make a true estimate of truth and frame our dictamens point blank opposite to worldly maxims O eternal truth grant me grace that according to thy doctrin I may judg all temporal things meer lyes and those far from containing great good which bring so much hurt Grant me that I may not live in an errour by prizing those things highly which I ought to have in hatred If it be a matter of faith that poverty humiliation affliction are not only good but beatifying why do not I rather chuse to have litle then much to be dispisd then praysd to be afflicted then swim in delights He that walks in faith and truth accounting those things truly good which CHRIST judgeth such ought to be so far from being contristated for any want or vexation that he should covet them with his utmost desires and rejoyce in them and abhor wholy and not in part only all things which the world loveth and embraceth and admit and desire with his whole hart with his whole soul with all his strength with all his mind what soever IESVS loved and embracd Like as worldlings who follow love and seek with great earnestnes those things which belong to the world to wit honours fame and the opinion of a great name upon earth as the world teacheth and deceives them so those that make a progress in spirit and truth doe seriously follow love and ardently desire whatsoever is altogether opposite to these that is to be clad with the same livery and ensignes of contempt which the Lord of glory wore Insomuch that if it could be done without any offence of the divine Majesty and sin of their neighbour they would suffer contumelies false witnes affronts and be thought and accounted fooles they giving nevertheles no occasion of it because they desire to resemble and imitate in some manner the Son of God For this purpose let thy chief aym and study be to seek thy own greater abnegation and continual mortification as much as thou canst in all things Why wilt thou live in guile and deceit making no reckning of those things which God prizd and honored so highly that he thought them worthy of his best beloved and only begotten Son Verily although they were not raâ—kd amoÌ„g good things yet for this sole reason that IESVS chose them for himself they are honored sufficiently and worthy to be sought by us with the whole extent of our hart and for this sole cause that he dispisd all worldly goods though men have them in so great esteem they are to be held base and infamous and deservedly to be abhord more then death it self IESVS overcome with love of us made choice of these things the world hateth and why shal not we for his sake at least accept them What do I say for love of IESVS we ought to do it for love of our selves He that loves his soul and his life let him love to dye even while he yet liveth If thou lovest life why wilt thou not rather love an eternal and happy one then this wretched and momentary
whosoever loves any thing as good to himself aymes alwayes at that which is more perfect and by good consequence he that loves life must not love a temporal but eternal life who loves good things must not love earthly but heavenly goods wherfore our very affection to things compels us to disaffect all worldly things Ther 's no body that loves any good thing but he wisheth it perpetual though the contrary be absurd yet we alwaies do it for through our love to life and goods we suffer great detriment both of life and goods Tel me o thou wretched of the world who art so forgetful of eternal life whether dost thou despise these transitory things or love them If thou dispisest them it must be for this reason because thou seekst after better if thou lovest them how much are greater things more worthy of love How ever the case stands it is convinced that we ought to love eternal things which will accrue to us so much more copiously by how much the more we are impoverishd disesteemd afflicted for God Notwithstanding all this the sufferings of this life are in no degree proportionable to the future glory for what is here but light and momentary works in us an eternal poize of the same Our provision for eternity may be prepard with much facility and ought to be kept with all carefulnes Each one furnisheth most plentifully the place he intends for his longest abode and where his residence is to be but for a short time that he regards but sleightly and provides it but superficially An eternity expects us in the other life we must lay up store of merits for it least we make our provisions preposterously bestowing great care on a short abode and little on a long But we ought to have transitory things in hatred not only in regard of the eternal life but even in respect of this temporal they disquiet and vex us with a thousand cares while we are procuring them and with a thousand feares and frights least we fal short of them we brook any loss but impatiently which happening so frequently as they do we are tossd in a continual sea of griefe anger and endles vexations He alone who goes contrary to the world lives without contrariety and in a holy repose How then do these things deserve the name of goods which are so noysome and tormenting to us rather the quite opposite ate to be stiled such which far sooner render us such by putting us in mind of our present condition by making us think upon God and have recourse to him by occasioning our greater merit and assimilating us to the only begotten Son of God The lover of men IESVS did most truly tearm those not only good but also beatifying Yea the choysest of the heathen Philosophers held not those things which the world so much adores good but their contrary Some of them hated and rejected temporal riches that at least in this life void of care and fear and perplexity of mind they might enjoy a temporal felicity It redounds to our great shame that heathens should do so who wanted the example of the Son of God who were out of hopes of other goods and this when the world was in its youth and verdure and abounded more with such allurements though false and counterfeyt But we have the glory of imitating IESVS and the incentive of a heavenly reward the world moreover is now grown worse and more deformed and wants not only solid goods but also fading Now it scarse hath where with all to bait a deceitful book its false varnish is washd of in so much that it cannot deceive us unles we deceive our selves The XII Chapter Of the excellency of one that is in the state of grace VVHy seekst thou any thing of the world if thou be above the world why lovest thou any earthly thing since thou art beloved of God How can he stick in the mud of nature who is elevated to the state of grace O good as little understood as much neglected God hath bestowd large and pretious promises upon us to make us sharers of his divine nature Why seeks he any thing besides God who hath found the grace of God which raiseth him above all nature yea even that of the highest Thrones Cherubins and Seraphins if therrs be considerd in it self though so far surpassing all other created substance by which we have God for our Father for our friend and unseparable Achates It 's accounted a matter of high concernment among men to have precedency of place or dignity before others and what wil it then be to have a preeminence above all the degrees of nature Although the world were never so estimable the things in it beyond our valuation yet they ought to be contemnd by one in the state of grace The divel is intolerably proud yet he regards not the opinions of men concerning him nor deems himself one iot the worse for being revild by them he seeks not popular applause he sleights material things he loaths what we relish so savourly he scofs at our affaires and all this for no other reason but because he is of a more sublime nature why then is man who is raisd to a participation of Gods nature who is rankd in the highest class of creatures so sollicitous about these base trifles certainly if he understood throughly the dignity that is conferd upon him by being rightly confessd and put in the state of grace nothing else would be requisite to make him contemne and deride these fopperies of creatures nor were any great store of vertue needful to move him to this but he would do it even by his vicious nature unles we should hold it impossible that grace could be the authour of a misdeed The wicked spirits without any vertue at all have a most mean conceit of these sublunary things and why but because they are of a Superiour nature and rank above them What then ought man to do with vertue who is elevated above all nature If a great king in his robes of state should find a spade or sickle lying in the way he would scorn to stoop to take it up as being of a more eminent condition then a peasant and why doth man when he hath once possessd his soul of Gods grace stoop and debase himself to earthly things since his dignity overtops the heavens O how great is the excellency of grace It lies conceald many times under a course and contemptible garment in a weak body feeble and sometimes loathsome to the eye Consider how much the noblest nature of a Seraphin surpasseth the basest of a silly worme yet ther is not the meanest slave and ugliest Lepar if he be in the state of grace but doth much more exceed the nature of a higher Angel If God should create a select nature in which all under-natures vegetative sensitive rational Angelical were comprehended in so much that these sublime intelligences of
first fruits of life to the Authour of life presenting thy self in the morning before him We must prevent the sun to thy benediction and adore thee o Lord at the rising of the same in the midst of our sleep it being as yet night when the pulse of the bel or some inspiration calls us to rise and behold thou our spouse comest and it is requisite to go forth to meet thee To make this encounter fruitfully it conduceth not a little to prepare oyle over night least the lamp of thy love o my soul want fewel to feed its flame and thou like a foolish Virgin be shut out which is too terrible Premeditate what language shal deliver thy first salutes to thy spouse and what affaires thou art to negotiate in time of prayer this being done if thou betake thy self to rest with sorrow thou wilt rise with cheerfulnes if thou hast a loathing of sleep thou wilt covet watching with much alacrity How can a soul enamoured upon God chuse but grieve that it must cease to love him prayse him improve its stock of merits and that all advantages of increasing his glory and its love towards so dear a spouse must be suspended how can it endure to see it self sustained by God loved by him and regaled in this interim with innumerable benefits and not to be able to relove him or as much as be thankful for such high favors Wherfore it is requisite both before and after sleep to make amends for that suspension of love and merits with more ardent affections and celestial desires supplying that loss of life wherin we cannot power out our whole harts upon God and be absorpt in him We must procure by this very cessation of merit and love to merit as much if it were in our power as if we were awake Vsurers even while they sleep increase their mony and thou wilt do the same if conforming thy self to the disposals of heaven with obedience and resignation thou make an ardent oblation of thy self and beare with patience this misery and the incident necessities of mans life He that embraceth patiently a necessary death whether it proceed naturally from some disease or be violently caused by another man he merits by it and so shalt thou if it be harsh and noisome to thee to repose and sleep as it is to those that serve love God fervently if I say thou accept of this necessary burden with equanimity it being wisely so ordained by the author of all wisdome Perchance if thou consider things in themselves and how much more burdensome sleep is then death to a true lover of God thou maist merit by sleeping patiently for his sake as by dying for patience Merit resides amidst great patience and patience is there greatest where greatest aggrievances are born most patiently Among all the burdens of mans life and all the annoyances which besiege it so closely none is greater then that of sleep or more worthily to be repented sin being excepted Other calamities are only tormentours of life sleep for its interim bereaves us of it other calamities are only opposite to the commodities of life sleep for a time impugnes its substance other calamities are in such sort noisome to our temporal life that they exceedingly conduce to eternal by affording matter of merit by raysing our minds towards God and drawing our affections as by an attractive quality sleep in it self during its raign is an enemy both to corporal and eternal life for as much as it causeth a vacancy both from merit and all thought of heavenly things other calamities are most welcome to Gods zealot because in them he doubles his spiritual advantages love is put to the rest God is glorified but sleep hath nothing at all desirable a cessation both of loving and honouring God attending it step by step wherfore sleep is more noisome and for a two fold yea manifold reason more burdensome then death it self to one that is enamoured upon God Death tyrannizeth only over the body sleep over both body and soul sleep on this behalf seems so much worse then death by how much the soul is better then the body nay much more to wit as much as the whole man soul and body is better then the body alone for death only deprives thee of thy body but sleep of thy soul also as wel as of it Death aymes only at the destruction of our body a thing frail and corruptible sleep at the soul also a thing eternal immortal which gives life to the body it being wholly insensible but for it death destroies a man sleep doth as much for a space of time as annihilate him Death is not to be dreaded for it leaves the best part of man untouched to wit his soul which makes him a man by which he loves God and apprehends his mercy and goodnes which is the glory of a man and ought to be his sole content and joy yea it leaves it more refined without impediment that it may honour love God more expeditly sleep overwhelmes and enters the noblest part of man unsouling as it were the soul it self Tel me I pray which wouldst thou resent most to die or to be annihilated if thou give glory to God by dying because such is his B. wil wilt thou not do the same if thou covet upon the same motive to be annihilated therfore if a patient acceptance of death be meritorious so wil also a patient acceptance of sleep if thou relish it as an equal burden If thou merit by embracing with patience the vexatious incumbrances of this life why shalt thou not also merit by sleep if it be the greatest incumbrance of all yea it being the sole and only thing which living and dying we must deem cumbersome for neither in this life nor after death is there any thing sin being set aside more burdensome to one that is feelingly devoted to the service of God What are accounted the burdens which press so heavily upon this life but its sufferings and miseries but one should be so far from esteeming sufferance a burden that it ought to be the scope and but of his desires next after God there is nothing more expetible then to suffer for God exhibiting this as the credentials of our love for by so doing we perfect the knot of true charity being more straitly united to him we dilate the confined raies of his glory and merit to be partakers of the same No body knowes throughly how burdensome sleep is to us besides him who is able to make a true estimate of the immensity of Gods glory the invaluablenes of his love and the least degree of grace in order to all which for this interim there is a dead surcease a suspension of all traffique for new merits After the cloze of this life what is noisome to the just besides purgatory but if thou be then in a condition of suffering it ought not to be resentive at all
thou being therby refined and purified thy spouse trimming thee up in such a dress as may wel beseem his bedchamber If he leave it then wholly in thy power to love God what cause of tergiversatioÌ„ since he leaves arbitrary to thee what thou wishest and desirest where thou hast opportunity to suffer and love there is no just ground of complaint If it were put to thy choise whether thou wouldst sleep or die for half an houres space a soul truly inflamed with the ardours of charity would of it self prefer death that it might not be reduced to a cessation of love yea it would not thirst more after the resurrection of the body then after avoiding all unnecessary excess of sleep though but for a quarter of an hour as much as might be without impairing its corporal health For the mean of discretion is every where to be observed and we must take a necessary repose though against our will that the functions of our mind may be vigorous and masculine fitly disposed for all enterprizes to Gods glory as also for praier least if we indiscreetly deprive our selves of it we be heavy at our devotions too drowzy and languishing and so by little and little quite benumd and what then wil be the issue but that we perform them with little fruit But to be too indulgent to sleep beseems the dead rather then the living and a soul weighing things in themselves that is with an impartial ballance and siezd with the heat of divine love to avoid this inconvenience all acts of love and prayse surceasing for that interim it would perchance rather make choise of a perpetual death of the body because in that case one may love enjoy God which alone sufficeth and is the chief desire of an enamoured soul but being so charmed and stupifyd it cannot although one wil not easily conceive this who doth not experience in himself the avaricious incentives of divine love and its restles longings and motions nor how contemptibly an enflamd hart spurns at all self commodity But we must not measure the ardour of true love and a devoted affection by the ell of our lukewarmnes rather by what we behold in those that fondly doat even to madnes upon a perishable beauty we may guess at the feelings and flames of a pretender to an eternal and never fading one But if thy breast harbour not fuel for such a heat shun at least as much as thou canst the chilnes of tepidity and sleepines If it were intimated to thee that forthwith thou must be annihilated such tydings would fil thee with horrour why then wilt thou so joy in sleep it being all one as if for such a respit thou wert annihilated Apprehend the incommodities of sleep which is an evil manifold death it being very opposite to a 4. fold life for sleep deprives us of the chief life of our body in which it is equivalent to death it self it takes away the life of our soul which is then as if it were not at all in this it surpasseth death sleep is also in some sort injurious to the life of grace and the eternal life by causing such an interruption of merit What then can be more prejudicial to us wherfore one that burnes with the true flame of divine love and is siezd with an ardent desire of praysing so great a good is hugely covetous of the least advantages of time and deems any unnecessary expense in that kind an irreparable loss and consequently he goes to sleep with much regret accepting with patience this necessity imposed by God upon life and making to him an oblation of it taking in good part since his holy wil is such to be deprived for this interim of what he much more covets which is to love prayse God and be restles in his service and as much as in him lyes he covets not to sleep but rather busy himself in the former actuations thinking every hour a day til he return to his wonted employment Thou also must put on this disposition of wil and offer it to God compose thy self like one ready to give up the Ghost saying with Christ into thy hands o Lord I commend my spirit By thus behaving thy self thou shalt after a manner merit by that death and vacancy of sleep so untoothsome and distastful to thy rellish Conceive also ardent desires of that ever during life when without interruption thou shalt enjoy God and bewail the miseries of this life since thou must seek repose and relaxation for thy exhausted spirits in a thing of all others most burdensome to thee and prejudicial to all to wit sleep How can life it self chuse but be noysome its very rest being so restles and its advantages so disadvantageous it is a lamentable thing that life must be repaird at the very charges and expenses of life since the lover of God esteems somtimes a short sleep more dammageable then the loss of a long life When thou art laid to repose endeavour to seal up thy eyes and hart with the ferventest act of love which ever thou didst make in thy whole life and even before thou fallest a sleep desire to rise as soon as may be purposing at thy first waking to unseale thy hart and actuate it in more fervent eâ—aculations then hitherto thou hast done so to compass in that instant a new purchase of grace It wil not a little conduce to this to beg the concurrence of thy Angel Guardian as also to use a spare and frugal diet Strike up this bargain with thy body in the meane while repose take thy penny-worths but be sure to rise as soon as the bell calls thee to work Like as the soul for the good of the body dies as it were by night and is buried so must the body die by day for the good and benefit of the soul while it is awake let the body be dead to this world as when the soul is a sleep it is dead for that respit to heaven that is to meritorious actions and pious thoughts Procure in the meane while that thy body as much as may be supply the elevations and obsecrations of thy soul the which not being as then in a capacity to pray the body must do it by lying modestly in a be seeming posture and for more decency not right upward We compose coarses and embalm them against corruption though they must shortly be the food of wormes and spoile of time so let us compose and dispose our selves in this death of sleep that we may be fit for the chast embracements of Christ Lye with thy armes or fingars a cross such treasures as these must thou coffin up together with thy self till the morning revive thee for treasures were wont to be buried and deposited with the dead Be sure thou never desert the cross but whilst thy mind cannot cling to it thy body must carrying alwayes about with it the mortification of IESVS Christ when
upon thee by name when it stood â—ritten in the front of the book that he was to do the will of God he said o heavenly Father even for that contemptible Caytif Iohn will I also undergo a whipping a crowning a cross ignominy even death it self I give I offer I sacrifice my self wholly for his salvation And will it not be also thy duty to reflect upon Christ and say o my God this day for my Saviours sake wil I embrace all corporal labours and anguish of mind that I may love serve and glorify him with all the extent of my affection If God had created thee in the state of grace in an ample freedome of will and had by divine revelation indoctrinated thee in all the mysteries of our faith and thou didst see thy self dear to him and his B. Son become man and crucified with unspeakable love for thy sake were it not thy duty in these circumstances to give thy self wholly to God and power thy self forth upon him it is all one as if he had but just now created thee be oâ— good courage thou shalt awake in the state of grace behold thou findst thy redemption accomplishd to thy hand by the death and torments of thy God and this with so early a love that Christ sufferd for thee a thousand and so many yeares before thou wert born that he might have plenty of grace in store for thee Neyther Adam nor S. Michael nor Gabriel nor any other of the Angels no nor their queen her self the sacred Virgin found such preventing diligence such a feat of love to wit that God had already died for their releasment Be inflamed then forth with with a recipocal love and burning desires towards so magnificent a goodnes so speedily provident over thy affaires and do not contemn such an anticipation in what concerns thy eternal weal. Adam stood in expectation of this benefit the space of 4000. yeares but the benefit it self hath expected thee already above 1600 and it is neyther right nor reason that thou requite such sedulity and quicknes with so much sluggishnes and delay Procrastinate no longer thy conversion to God who hath so long expected thee in a great deal of patience Put case a proffer of coming to life were made to the soules which now are only in a possibility of existence and this upon the same conditions helps and favours which God hath daignd to bestow this day upon thee how would they joy how happy would they esteem themselves how officiously would they spend that day how would they in the very entrance of life sacrifice themselves to such a benefact or And what if he should make this proffer to those whom this very night he hath sentenced to hel fire while he so lovingly stood centry over thee in thy repose with what incredible fervour would they at their first return to life consecrate themselves to Almighty God as also the remnant of that day and their whol life if they did but once behold themselves adornd with divine grace with supernatural habits and such opportunities of serving so beneficial a God Be thou confounded for not sacrificing thy self more fervently to him who is much more munificent towards thee it is a greater matter to have preserved thee from damnation then to have reprieved thee being once condemned Spur up thy self to outstrip the fervor of many just soules and be thankful that thou findst not thy self this morning plungd in hell but freed from it as also from so many dangers and sins which innumerable others have this night incurd Do thou alone wish to give him if it were possible that glory which all the Saints will be still rendering through the great day of eternity which desire thou must unfaignedly iterate in the course of the whole day and that with sighs from thy very hart neither in the morning only but oftner as if then newly set on foot and created begin the journey of Gods service allwayes with a fresh and vigorous courage The V. Chapter That our daily fervour must be retained THOV providest but fondly for this dayes life neyther art thou secure of that if thou delayst it till to morrow If the use of this dayes life be granted thee live wel and perfectly for he only is said to live who lives wel Thou diest miserably being yet alive if thou leadest not a good life Each morning when thou awakest purpose to live that day as wel as possibly thou canst as if thou wert undoubtedly to dye the same night Delay not the amendment of any defect till another day which perchance thou wilt never see eyther the day or thy wil wil fayl thee The day to come wil go wel with thee if the present do One must never hazard a thing so good as is a good life but be alwaies in an active fruition of it Thou art industrious in avoiding any thing that may endanger life and why dost thou by delaying prepare and call danger to a good life Live to day and protract not to amend what is amiss after this week or month or the disposall of this affair To day God is our Lord and to day must thou be the servant of God for he is thy servant to day since he to day makes the sun rise to thy behoof He delaies not his guifts till to morrow neither must thou thy services To day God heaps benefits upon thee which thou canst not challenge be not thou wanting to services which he exacts The services of another day wil not suffice for the beneficence of their day why wilt thou have them satisfy for the day past and for the benefits of the present its own goodnes is not sufficient to pay its debt why wilt thou make it pay for the malice of another God especially redoubling thy debts and his graces to day God is God and to day thou art his creature to day Christ is thy redeemer and thou to day his redeemed IESVS is Christ yesterday to day thou hast a being to day and shalt perchance not have one to morrow To day and every moment art thou a debter to God who impends continually his omnipotency to thy behoof thou also must each moment impend all thy forces in his love and service How darest thou incur the loss of one hour since thou canst not make recompense for the least benefit which thou receivest this instant flowing from the ocean of Gods infinite love How darest thou suspend the quitting thy obligation for the interval of one day or hour for if God suspended his munificence but for a piece of an hour thou wouldst not be in the world or if he suspended his indulgence thou wouldst be in hell An eternal salary is promised thee thou must not merit by interrupted services If thou wilt truly live never intermit to live wel this is an eternal truth O Truth give me grace to serve thee truly henceforth for all eternity and that I may eternally
wishes and desires for nothing befalls us more agreeably and to our harts-content then what is given without the expense of so much as a wish now what must that needs be which forestals all kind of expectancy what wil that be which could not so much as enter into our thought such a one is this benefit and unexpected Sacrament of our redemption which if any one before it was intimated to us had begd to be done after the manner it is done his prayers would have been thought blasphemy his hope a mad rashnes his wish a sacrilegious wil his fancy impiety An unexpected guift is most grateful what wil that be which was never so much as conceyted thy beneficence indulgently granted what our indigency fancyd impossible But above all the frontispice and inscription of love which this benefit carryes engraven that being the prizer and taxer of guifts doth most affect me all guifts are testimonials and credentials of love what more creditable then this Guifts are not rated according to their bulk but the remonstrance of love that accompanies them This is an immense favour which that it may stand in the rank of benefits not of disgraces it carryes in its front in capital letters the immense love of God O Lord if I be endebted to thee whatsoever I am for my creation what shal I owe thee for thy love I acknowledg my self to owe more then my self yea as much more as thy greatnes exceeds my nothing thou who gavest thy self to me in thy nativity in thy life in thy death in thy resurrection and lastly in that sacred banquet of thy most holy body Effect that whatsoever was thine by creation and thou repairedst by redemption I may make it all thine by love I were not able to make condigne recompense for the least of thy benefits though by way of thāksgiving I should endure all the paines of hell for all eternity the reason is because it proceeds from the infitude of thy love which infinitly exceeds any infinity of recompense from creatures what then shal I be able to do for so many those so signal and chiefly for this in which thy boundles charity reflects more perspicuously then do the sun-beames The IV. Chapter How deservedly God is to be loved and chiefly for himself I Wil sum up the titles by which thou most justly exacts my love and the delinquencies of my tepidity and ingratitude I ought with all ardency to love thee o most amiable Lord both because thou art good and because thou art loving both because thou art a benefactour and my benefactour both because thou art my maker a patient endurer of my imperfections God is so good and beautiful in himself that though he had not made us the object of his love nor the subject of his beneficence nor the issue of his creation yet he were to beloved above all lovers benefactours and Creators whatsoever yea although he should hate us and be injurious on our behalf for that bottomles Ocean of goodnes beauty would expiate any injury whatsoever and much more effectually then doth beneficence If God had beheld thee hereto fore as an object of hatred and being at enmity had offended and sought revenge wouldst thou not pardon and even love him he making so large satisfaction by so many benefits so far as not to spare his own son but give him up to death suffering a privation of that the absence whereof causeth the greatest grief one must pardon an injury in him who is beneficial for the force of a benefit ought to extinguish revenge and anger but Gods previous merits being so great he deserves more then pardon If then his beneficence would suffice to clear him of alinjuriousnes much more would his goodnes the cause of beneficence it being more noble and sufficiently effectual to make amends for all losses and injuries sustaind by him Gods goodnes is greater then his beneficence because this flowes from that and effects rather fall short of their cause then otherwise One said of an ill deserving man I have receivd no good from thee but much harm and yet for all that I cannot but love thee O true goodnes let me rather say of thee then thy image of clay I cannot but love thee although I should receive no good from thee but much evil what then shal I say now when thou lovest me without meane and art beneficial above measure We sometimes love men whom we never saw nor heard off nor they us nor do they rank us in the legend of their love but we affect them merely for the report of their honesty we could take content in their conversation rejoyce at their sight and honour the very memory of them can the goodnes of God be unworthy of that which a mere humane goodnes claymes as its due A mans honesty may be such as to deserve love without any obligation of piety he not being our parent without any obligation of thankfulnes he not being our benefactour without any obligation of love he not loving us at all and shal not the authority of the divine goodnes suffice of it self to the same effect who is not moved with some sense of benevolence towards Ionathas for the loyalty of his friendship notwithstanding the emulation of his Fathers kingdome or towards David for his clemency in sparing the life of his enemy Saul though it had purchased him no les then a good empyre who hath not some affection for Iudas Machabaeus for his singular love towards his law and country and it is not any allyance with them or other particular interest but mere vertue that gaines this good wil. Sum up into one man the perfections of all others and suppose him composed all of miracles let him have the wisdome of Salomon the fortitude of Sampson the beauty of Absolon the fidelity of Ionathas the meeknes of David the fortune of Iosue and as loving towards his people as Moyses who would not be ambitious of that mans friendship or covet once at least to treat and converse with him of how dul a rellish would that man be thought who did not take gust in his acquaintance even prescinding from all hopes of gain o immense God thou art an aggregate of all good things and the total sum of all goodnes why do not we love thee and aspire to thy familiarity o Lord he that loves not thee upon the mere score of thy goodnes how ill-rellished is he how baseminded how unwise he that admires not it alone to the full how ridiculous let us suppose our selves created independently of God and that we should hear of him as of one that ruld in another world what we now believe who would not covet to have such a God who would not admire and love his goodnes and carriage towards the men of that his world whose happines we might wel envy his goodnes then is not one whit the les for his being Creatour neyther ought
our admiration and love towards him to decrease upon that pretense A very forcible motive also to make us love God is because he is of a loving nature No ingredient is more operative in producing love then love it self we carry a good wil towards wicked men merely upon this score that they seem to love us and we take a kind of complacence in being loved by dogs although God were not good nor our benefactor nor Creator yet because he loves he were to be loved and chiefly because he is such an ardent lover The greatnes of which love is renderd perspicuous by the greatnes of its guifts what a love must that be by which he so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son for its redemption o men what can you admire if you do not admire this that God should love the meanest of creatures with such a tender and feeling hart But let us grant that God neyther had lov'd â—s nor made us nor been beneficial to us it is our part at least to love him because he was so to others If the vertuous actions of men deserve praise at the hands even of a stranger or Barbarian and force a kind of benevolence from them shal so many feats of Gods beneficence deserve les their excess both in number and quantity amounting to an infinitude an upright and beneficial man is loved by every one even those that have not tasted his beneficence but although God had left no great monument of his liberality to others yet because he hath towards us although it proceeded not from the motive of love which cannot be done without some love we were still bound to love him yea although he were neyther good nor loving nor beneficial to us or others which nevertheles implyes an impossibility for that sole reason that he made us he were worthy of all love and respect Our Parents although they be wicked though they themselves nursd us not up yet they are to be loved and reverenced souldiers spend their lives and blood for their lawful king though otherwise notoriously naughty God is Father of all things and the lawful head of the world Neyther is his patience a light shaft to wound us with love he tolerating and pardoning us by it while we play the impudent delinquents The patience of an offender and harmer in accepting punishment and standing in a preparation of mind to admit revenge and penalty for the wrong turnes the anger of the party offended into benevolence and how can the patience of an unjust offender force benevolence from one justly displeased and not the patience of the party offended obtain love of him that offends unjustly O Lord with how good title doth my ingratitude and thy pardon exact my love but if this alone be not weighty enough to sway the ballance add to it that he is our Father our benefactour yea and beneficial towards all how much am I bound to love thee whose merits on my behalf are innumerable and love boundles But these impulsives are not the most convincing though they be severe exacters of my love I am much more engaged to love thee for thy sole benevolence wherewith thou lovest me then for all thy other benefits besides for that is the source of them all and consequently more to be prizd and thy love is so far from being exhausted that it is forcible enough if need were to redouble thy benefits and multiply them without stint if they which already abound suffised not for my salvation Thy love is equivalent not only to thy benefits already conferd but even to those in possibility if any greater be possible and comprizeth them all in it self yea if we may use the manner of speech even impossible ones for true love is not confind to the limits of a real power but imaginary wishes which though they have no place in God by reason of the perfect fecundity and allpowerfulnes of his nature the excess of his love is not therfore any whit diminished but â—e are as much endebted to him as if they were The sole love then of God alone is a more convincing motive of love then his boundles beneficence for that comprehendeth all his benefits not only now actual but possible and impossible if any such were unfesible to God There is yet another more pregnant cause of loving him then all the precedent for if we owe him more love for his love to us then for his benefits because these are only its issue and so many sparks leaping from that glowing furnace of divine charity much more must we love him for his goodnes this being the cause of love How great must that goodnes be which is mother of so numerous a progeny of loves and the stock from whence sprout so many benefits yea we owe not only incredible love to the divine goodnes for the present affection he beares us but much greater on our parts for the love he would bear us if we would but dispose our selves better and become less ungrateful and consequently more capable of a more ample charity We are not only endebted to the goodnes of God one infinite love of God but as it were infinitudes of love to an infinite God Wherefore we must love him more ardently for that he is good in himself then for that he is good and beneficial to us O Lord I love thee for thy benefits because I read reverence and embrace in them thy love and I also love thee for thy love because in it I behold adore and love thy goodnes The love of God is one perfection in God but there are many more for which he is amiable all which are comprized in the infinite divine goodnes and perfection which is for infinite respects most worthy of love I see not o Lord how my hart can cease or suffer any interruption in loving thee since thou who art infinite purely out of thy own goodnes lovedst us so incessantly from all eternity The V. Chapter That we are not able to satisfy the goodnes of God HOw do I loose my self o Lord in the consideration of thy goodnes which neyther pen nor tongue nor thought is able to comprehend if all the spirits both of heaven and hell all soules created and creable should make it their task to describe it and if each one had a sea for their inkhorn and a heaven for their paper both the one and the other would be exhausted ere they could make a fit expression of its least parcel If each star and drop of rain were so many tongues their breath would fayl them and they grow mute eer they could utter a congruous elocution If all the minute sands of the sea were changd into so many intelligences all their conceptions would prove but shallow even in respect of its least particle But what am I doing while I dare declare thy goodnes by these similitudes I confess o infinite God that all these exaggerations are ridiculous
be perpetual combining in the same thing a penalty and a benefit justice mercy Therfore because death is so great a good so proper and secure an effect of his goodnes he would not have it lyable to mans free wil or the hatred of an enemy For although it be in any ones power to bereave thee of life no body not even the uncon troulable violence of kings can bereave thee of death This is the property of things of the best quality to be out of the reach of humane power not to be obnoxious to anothers pleasure If one were entangled in any one danger or incumbrance it would be no smal content to find a meanes how to evade it why do we then grieve or dread death which is the gate wherby we may rid our selves of the hazards and incumbrances of this life Many for a meer puntillio of worldly glory have sought and covetted it at least for the glory of heaven let us not fear it O immortal God who wast born not to live for thou wast life eternal as now thou art but to dye a most mortal and bitter death for me why should I that am mortal be unwilling to dye to live a vital eternal and most pleasant life with thee and for accomplishment of thy wil since the desire of a christian is to be with Christ I know not why he should not desire death since but by it he cannot come to that fruition What misery can death bring or what happines can it bereave him of who is not besotted upon the world but hath placed all his felicity in heaven but besides this ocean of content which flowes from the sight and fruition of our beloved it hath moreover this advantage that it puts us out of further danger of offending God Death then is not evil which takes away all evil But if it be evil and an enemy to mankind why do not men treat it like an evil and as one would treat an enemy I wish we would proceed in this manner with it and deal no otherwise then with a foe forecasting that we carry nothing about us which he may make booty of or give him cause of triumphing over us Souldiers are wont to secure their provisions and baggage or els quite spoil them that they may not be serviceable to their enemyes We must leave no plunder for death but if there be any thing subject to its rapine it must eyther be wholly abandoned or sent before us with a safe convoy to heaven where all will be throughly secured We must keep no spoiles about us in which it may glory but the luggage of our flesh and we must extenuate it by fasting labour and other pennances that he sieze it not entire If death be evil and adverse to us let us resist it and object a buckler by relinquishing things and all affection to them that its wounds may bite the les upon us if death be evil let us make it good by doing good Why should we dread death more then our selves since it cannot be worse then we are evil yea it is we that make it bad because we do not become good Let us do this now when we have time and may do what we shal wish at its hour we had don and cannot A little respit only remaines for labour and in comparison of eternity not so much as an instant Behold now so many years of our life are past and those which remain are no longer But death is not evil in it self but rather good and we should be very good if we did imitate it and practised what it puts in ure by dispoyling our selves of all things so that if nothing were grateful and delectable in this world it would be pleasing and savory to our pallat He only needs fear death who loves other things and not Christ He is not a faithful servant who refuseth to appear in the presence of his master If I did love thee o Lord I should not have such a horrour of death for it would be contentiue to me to behold thee face to face and cast my self into thy embracements rejoicing that thy wil were accomplishd in me otherwise I play but the hypocrite when I daily beg that thy wil may be done in earth as it is in heaven Thy pleasure was to dye not that we might be immortal in this mortality but that we might dye wel by leading a better life Grant me grace that as thy wil is to be fulfilld in my death though against my wil so I may wil and death fulfil it in a good death by a better and more perfect life I give thee thanks o most benign Lord for this benefit of death as thy wisdome hath disposed it I give thee thanks that I am to dye and that I know not when or where or how I am to dye The certainty of death is good and comfortable to me it being a secure passage to bring me to thy sight and rid me of the miseries of this life and make me despise its deceitful and counterfeyt goods What man if he have but any one grain of wit although he were sure never to experience any adversity but were to be successful in all the contingencies of this life would not contemn it and all its goods since he must needs see that he is to quit them all in death which is wholly unavoydable In which moment all past joyes all present goods now to be relinquishd are no more then if they never had enjoyd a being nay they are les conducible for their very relinquishment wil prove a torture That only which man neyther loves nor possesseth wil not afflict him in that hour of affliction The uncertainty also of the manner place and time of dying is acceptable to me that I may more certainly serve thee o God in all requisite manner time and place as thy worth and dignity doth require This is a divine disposal which breeds in us a certain sollicitude of a better life by reason of the uncertain condition of a contingent death I am throughly perswaded o Lord that I know not whether I am worthy of love or hatred and how it wil fare with me after this life neither do I covet to know because it is expedient for me to be ignorant of it according to the ordainment of thy wisdome But I will not therfore more dread death then desire thee and confide in thy mercies I accept most willingly its great uncertainty this being most certain that it is enough for me that thou art most merciful and a cordial lover of me and both canst and wilt save me if I but humbly trust in thee What imports it that I know not how and when and where I am to dye if I be assurd that thou dyedst for me and dyedst the death of the cross and at noon day and betwixt two thieves upon Mount Calvary to clear all doubt of thy love towards me that I may
which is perfect as also of Gods simplicity wherfore the Trinity of Persons is an authentical testimony of the divine Vnity What complacence doth a soul take in knowing this not as I have rudely explicated it or as it can be explicated for this is only felt by an inexplicable manner for as there are no natural species which can bring us to this knowledg so neyther are there words significantly expressive of what is manifested to some pious soules concerning the word eternal Therfore the soul of a creature is so over joyd when the mutual proportion and harmony of the increated Trinity and Vnity and the necessity of both to the accomplishment of the divine perfection is communicated to it that it is all in jubily and exultation transported besides it self and quite spent through amorous desires and the languishments of true charity thirsting earnestly to discover in the other life this stupendious goodnes of the Trinity Why longst thou o my soul to see any thing else besides this great spectacle of the world for whose sight alone the Seraphins and all the Hierarchies of Angels and Saints were created and introduced into heaven as so many spectatours Where is thy curiosity where thy desire of knowledg if thou covet not to be dissolved and contemplate that mystery and to dive into this hidden secret but thy longing must remit thee to the other life and not put thee upon inquiry in this how he is three and one Thou must not search the cause why he is so since thou art not able to give the cause of what he is Thou seekst in vain a cause in him who hath no cause God were not to be stiled great if he were not greater then our capacity Thou must not â—nquire after what manner he can be so who never could be before he was so Philosophers could never sufficiently penetrate into the nature of divers wormes and no body knowes himself throughly how then canst thou hope to make a ful discovery of the divine nature thy Author wherfore thou must captivate thy reason to the simplicity of faith in this supernatural mystery for that perspicuity which the divine indulgence daignes sometimes to insinuate belongs not to all but only to whom God calls out of the number of those who dwel with his Son in the mount Calvary and in a totall ejurement of themselves who denying self wil have taken up their cross followed IESVS to that mount and wil have them follow him thence to the mount Olivet glory those he priviled geth somtimes in such sort as to make them partakers of his majesty Where I am saith IESVS there also shal my servant be He that shal partake with Christ in suffering shal also partake of this extraordinary light and joy So when our Holy Patriarch Saint Ignatius had wasted exhausted himself with corporal pennances and austerities it was more copiously and clearly imparted to him then one is able to express So that mirrour of fervour F. Didacus Martinus did almost allwayes behold himself environed with a glorious light of the Trinity or some one of the three Persons Nevertheles it appertains to all to covet with most ardent desires the sight of this ancient and eternal novelty in the life to come It was reveald to that holy servant of God F. Iohn Fernandius that a certain religious man of our society was long detaind in purgatory because he had omitted to wish with ardency the sight of the most B. Trinity O my soul why art not thou more enamoured upon the sight of this theatre of the blessed to whose spectacle all minds are summond allrational creatures are invited What a joy wil it be to behold that which now by reason of the narrownes of our thoughts or ignorance through an excess of jubily and love we are not able to comprize how exultingly shall we rejoice while we contemplate these first fruits of the divine perfection that fore-tast and new expression of the divine goodnes where it communicates it self to the Son and that primitive bounty of God what a pledg and assurance wil a soul receive of the divine benignity towards it self when it beholds this profusenes of benevolence if God without deliberation gave all that he is wil he not by the advise and vote of his goodnes grant that we may at least see what he is if he permit us not to be what he is he wil permit us to admire what he is if not to possess him at least to enjoy him if not to live by the same life at least by such another and that eternal of which a soul hath a pawn when it beholds a generation excluding death How can we chuse but love God with all our mind and strength considâ—ring that purple morning of ardent charity which he displaid where the first and Virgin dew of his guifts is the furnace it self of charity love it self in the same substance so that the love is as great as God in the same guift of love he gives his own infinite essence for love it self is the first guift and all that infinite being which is in God What assurances of benevolence wil a soul take hence beholding such a happy and ominous essay of Gods future bounty and such a promising beginning of his goodnes insomuch that it takes huge complacence in being loved by that unparalleld love and doth what it can to love him reciprocally by imitating so great goodnes by giving it self to God by leaving it self nothing since the Father leaves himself no parcel of his substance which he communicates not to the Son and both of them to the H. Ghost In the excess â—â— this consideration and the consideration of this excess by means of a mysterious darknes there passeth an ineffable communication and intimate union betwixt God and a soul The soul passeth into God by grace love which though she remain in herself by nature yet not by affection and God passeth into the soul by indulgence and charity though he still remain in his majesty O immense goodnes of the Father immense wisdome of the Son immense sweetnes of the H. Ghost grant that I may reverence thee in thy Vnity adore thee in thy Trinity admire thee in thy goodnes imitate thee in thy love grant that I may humble my self to thy â—uperexcellency that I may enjoy thy Vision â—dhering to thee through all eternity becoming one spirit with thee and in this interstice â—n adorer of thy majesty In spirit and truth â—et me desire truth spirit to contemplate face to face the more then most true the more then most spiritual and superessential excellency of thy Trinity and Vnity To the honour of the ever B. Trinity the word Incarnate and his V. Mother S. Ioseph and all Saints FINIS A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS Contained in the I. Book 1. THe deceitfullnes of a secular life fol. 1. 2. Of the Truth of the Spirit fol. 8. 3. Of Purity
she nevertheless kissd the pictures of him which stood engraven here and there in his pallace and reverened them exceedingly for their beauty which not withstanding in comparison of the king himself were ugly nor did they intirely resemble all his features but one his eyes only another his hands a third his countenance and they being both together if he desird to imbrace her she turnd her back disdaignfully and loathing his person sought after his image Iudge now o mortals The Lord liveth because the woman that doth this is a child of laughter O I wish I could intrap thee in the snare of Nathan and make thee relent with the penance of David Thou o my soul art this woman This saith the Lord God of Israel I have annoynted thee o man king over all the creatures of the world I have created all things for thy use I have deliverd thee out of the hands of Saul and robbers to wit Lucifer and the divels out of the filth in which thou didst wallow out of the flames of hel to which thou wert sentencd I cleansed thee with my own blood I gave thee the heavenly mansion-house of thy Lord and God and all the delights of heaven together with it I appointed thee the house of this world as a kingly pallace and all creatures to be thy attendants and if these benefits of thy creation redemption and glorification be but slender ones I will heap far greater upon thee for which of all these dost thou persecute and contemne me do my kindnesses seem crimes to thee thou art angry at me and punishes me as men do malefactours who are chastizd with the instruments by which they offended thou abusest my very guifts condemning me in them as if I became criminal by my wel doing Which of my favours deserves these thy injuries tel me and I will amend it I le be thy revenger upon my self because I desird nothing more then thy good wil nor do I desire nor shall I. To make thee love me Iam ready to destroy the world if it were injurious to thee that I made it If I were faulty in dying for thee I le dye again to make satisfaction and come to an attonement If it were a crime that I prepard my glory and heaven for thee upon condition thou wouldst pardon me I would relinquish it once again and evacuate my self depriving my self of my Majesty and glory Why dost thou think those things which if they were done betwixt man and man would be accounted vertues worthy of praise being now done to thee by God to be crimes deserving nothing lesthen disgrace and death But if thou esteem those things as benefits which I have heapd upon thee with all the extent of my omnipotency and purchase of my sufferings why dost thou seek to affront me stil more and more Perchance my offence was in this that my benefits were so many and great for in each particular I can acknowledg no fault and therfore thou wilt punish me with the greatnes and multitude of contempts and strive to out number my kindnesses by thy affronts Behold thou alone hast pickt up the most notorious debaucheryes of the lewdest woemen against me thy lover to cast them into my dish Thou didst take complacence in the impudency of Putiphars wife and thou itching to practise the same against me covetest to play the harlot with the servants which I assigned thee to witt creatures and thou compelst them to this nor wilt thou learn by their loyalty who run from thee like Ioseph and eyther pass away presently or perish they all are ful of a deep resentment and replenishd with sorrow for the throwes and pangs of those that being violated by thee are ready to be delivered it being much against their will that thou sinnest with them or art enamoured upon them to the prejudice of thy spouse and their Lord and Soveraign But thou heaping iniquity upon iniquity slanderst them for giving thee the slip and complainst of them for running away This is the common complaint of mortals that their Gods are mortal that creatures are fading and perishable Thou criminatest them for being the occasion of thy adultery when they as innocent faithfull to their God and thy wel wishers fly from thee that thou mayst not commit it by loving them with an inordinate affection But thou repliest saying if I were wealthy if I had riches if I enjoyd this or that commodity I would serve God peaceably nor desire more but because I have lost all and the goods of this would fly me I can not but doe thus want compels me to sin poverty puts me upon unlawful desires to the great prejudice of my own spirit Leave of complaining cease to blame them and rather give eare to creatures who teach thee thy duty better then Ioseph Behold say they our Lord forgetful of himself gives thee all neither is there any thing which he hath not subiected to thy power to doe with it what thou wilt this onely excepted not to love us how canst thou be so il-naturd as to offend thy God how can we admit of this thy love which thy Creatour hath reservd to himself He hath given us to thee that thou mightst give thy self to him we serve thee that thou mayst serve him learn of us to serve him to death and play not the adulterer We are destroyd that thou mayst subsist for we have neither scandalizd thee nor given thee il example we covet not to be loved by thee but rather wish thee to give him the best thing thou hast to wit thy love Love him and praise him as we doe Learn zeale of us for to the end thou mayst do so we willingly suffer our selves to be destroyed Learn to dye that the glory of God may live for to the end thou mayst live we dye Learn humility of us for being thy sisters equal in noblenes of parentage yea elder by birth we disdain not to serve thee even in abject things that thou mayst reign with thy spouse and love him That thou mayst live eternally with him we are turnd into filth and corruption nor do we detrect any the meanest offices for thy sake with manifest hazard of our destruction only we cannot brook that on the altar of God that is thy hart idols of us should be placed through a disorderly affection towards us thou thinking oftner upon us then him and sacrificing to us not beasts but thy own soul Fy fy be ashamd to make a celestial soul the victime of a piece of earthly mettal or vain honour or momentary pleasure in it divine grace by that eternal glory Thou tookst content moreover o soul in the treachery of Dalila and forthwith attemptedst to practise the like upon me thy God and thy lover Thou betraydst me into captivity like Samson to my greatest enemies and madest me a slave to the Philistians of thy sins for thou madest me serve thee in them thou madest
spirit he alone that is in grace is a living image of God quickned with his spirit and as it were the child and image of his parent by participation and communication of nature What a deal of difference is there and how far falls a material picture or statue of some king short of the kings own beloved Son the noblest essence and natural perfection of the highest Archangel falls much shorter of a soul that is in grace for there is no substance or nature but it represents God only after a dead manner no otherwise then an Emperour is represented by a piece of wood or marble or a painted tablet Among those that partake of the same nature there is not so much a similitude as an identity or selfsamenes therfore the H. Fathers stile one that is in grace the same with God like as the father and the Son in humane generations are accounted the same person The natural Son of God himself said let all be one as thou o father in me and I in thee that they may also be one in us For although each just man besides the just of justs IESVS becomes only such by adoption there is a greater tye unity betwixt him God then is found betwixt natural parents and their children The children of men have only a smal parcel of base matter and their parents flesh but he that is in the degree of grace receives the whole divine spirit within him Therfore the adoptive filiation of God is a more sublime manner of filiation then that which is naturally found among men O man rejoyce in this thy dignity and do not degenerate from the divine condition thou art raysd to have a care of Gods honour be zealous in his quarrel if not because he is thy God at least because he is thy father and all that he hath shal be thine Children because they hope to inherit their fathers patrimony follow their fathers busines thou being heir to God must not carry thy self like a stranger or alien Although God had not given us our creation yet for this only that he adopted us his children we owe him a cordial love and must discharge our duty in things appertaining to his service with a great deal of zeal O most loving father why am not I touched with a deep resentment for being enrolld into thy family and tasting so singularly of thy providence Wild beasts out of love to their yong ones expose themselves to a hazard of death and what wilt thou do who hast given such a remonstrance of love even for us who condemnd thy natural Son as to take us for thy children O what confidence ought a soul to have in this filiation although God were not a God of providence yet he would be watch fully careful sweetly sollicitous over him that is in grace no les then a mother in widowhood over her only and beloved child yea far greater then this is Gods affection and vigilancy in regard of the just To this we may add that by grace we become the friends of God IESVS himself utterd these words sweeter then honey drops ye are my friends For by grace there accrues a certain dignity betwixt God and man not of a disproportionable degree but so dignifying that it elevates him to the order of things divine and of a mortal man makes him a friend and favorite of the immortal king Although we did not become the children of God yet for this sole respect that grace entitles us his beloved its worth exceeds all valuation A friend is preferrd before a kins man and is held more trusty then nature it self allies are often neglected or become the objects of hatred friends are alwaies beloved men do more for their friend then for their brother what then shal we conceive of friendship with God There are two things which endear much alliance and love and both of them are found in grace To be loved by God is a rich mine of heavenly gold and a magazine of all divine blessings The love of God is not â—oytering and sluggish but most effectual and operative To love one is to wish him wel in God it is the self same to wil and to do and consequently whomsoever he loveth he enricheth him with the treasures of heaven The love of God is an ever flowing conduit or rather a river of celestial blessings If he exposd his life for his enemies what will he do for his friends There is no incongruity or inconsequence to be found in God wherfore if he did so much for those that hated him he wil do incredible things for those that love him carrying a special providence over them If he have so much care of our enemies as to command us to love them what wil he have of his own friends He loved us so affectionately when we were yet his foes that he seemd to love us more then himself and if he did this when we were his enemies wil he do les when he both stiles and accounts us his friends Thou wouldst be glad to have a friend as faithfull to thee as Ionathas was to David but all humane fidelity is a meer toy yea to be accounted but treachery in regard of that which God shewes on thy behalf Men hold it no smal favour to be taken notice of by a terrene king what wil it be to be loved so affectionately loved by God wilt thou know o my soul how signally remarkable Gods friendship fidelity is He is so enamourd upon his friends that he cannot endure to be separated from them If his immensity were confind only to heaven he would relinquish it to come to one that is in grace nor would he ever be from him but would make himself his coÌ„stant sejourner that our society may be with the father his Son Iesus Christ by the mediation of the H. Ghost who is diffusd in our harts Deer and lambs and pigeons are sociable creatures they willingly sort with one another love those whom they know to be of the same kind God is sociable the Son of God is a lamb the divine spirit is tame and affable it loves those that become divine affecting the fellowship of his nature and as it were of the same feather with him If the most sacred Humanity of Christ took such complacence in any one as to be alwaies present with him what should we think of such a singular priviledg and why do we not admire that the Dinity never departs from the just man but becomes his unseparable companion and not only dwels with him as his fellow sejourner but even in him in whom he placeth his tabernacle much more willingly then in the sun What parent so loves his child as with his good wil never to be from him but alwaies in his company yea such a one assignes him a tutour and commits him to his custody But God our parent and friend entrusts us to no body else he
by the same instruments by these Christ ascended into heaven and the members must not think of going another way then by which the head leads them They are not poyson Christ himself sanctified them and tasted them first of all himself yea that a smal parcel of them might only pass to us he drunk up almost the whole chalice of sorrows and afflictions and yet for all that he lives eternally and sits at the right hand of God How canst thou but be confounded whilst seing Christ accursed by all thou seekest so much to be honoured and praisd beholding him prostrate at the feet of Iudas thou preferst thy self before thy betters seing him thirsty and in want of a little water thou covets plenty and delicate fare It is the greatest glory of a servant to follow his masters footsteps To imitate Christ is a busines not only of necessity but dignity and for this respect the main difficulty is removed and a sufficient reward allotted for others that occur If it be a credit to imitate Christ then it wil not be difficult to suffer contempt and the revilements of men for that wil be a high point of honour and there is no contempt where it is a credit to be contemned It wil be also no hard matter to debar ones self of pleasures and superfluous riches to obtaine true glory for worldlings even heathens did more then this when they abstaind even from necessaries for a seeming only apparent glory Let it confound us that some barbarians have bin found so loyal and loving to their soveraign that if he wanted eyes they would put out theirs if he wanted hands they in like manner would cut of theirs and gave this as a pledge of their fidelity and imitation in others why do not we that are calld the faithful imitate the king of glory in things of far les difficulty If Christ had only told us what we were to do though he had not held forth the torch of example we were to have done it how much more when he did it first himself and did it to the end we might do it after him and not only said so in a word but made large encomiums of the happines of afflictions If a Prophet had but intimated it we could pretend no excuse and how much les can we when the very wisdom of Prophets and Gods own mouth hath exaggeratively recommended it and made himself a model of it IESVS never let fal the least idle word and yet he lest so many prayses and magnifying speecheâ— of the happines of poverty and affliction if it behooud us not to suffer the examplary life of IESVS would be to no purpose and his austerity wholly unuseful to us who should be unsensible of his charity who payd such a vast and superabundant sum for our ransome neither should we be taught by so lively an example to love his imitation and detest all sin and sensual pleasures Would God have needlesly thrust his only begotten Son upon such thornes if it imported nothing at all to do what he did that those whom he preelected and predestinated might be made conforme to the image of his Son that he may be the first begotten among many brethren God is not a God of impiety as who could take complacence in being so cruel towards his only beloved child Fierce and savage creatures are most passionately tender over their young ones and how could God who is most meek and ful of mercy be so tyrannically cruel towards his Son if it were not needful for us to suffer The enormity of our sins exacted not such heavy penalties for their redemption one drop I will not say of IESVS blood but of his sweat was superabundant It was therfore our behoof of imitating Christ and suffering it being the road way to heaven that requird such outragious torments and rigour of life God is either cruel and impious or else it is altogether needful for us to be humble afflicted and needy to have a high esteem of divine charity and a meane one of our selves No body knowes the way to heaven who hath not gone it no body ascends up to heaven but he who descended from heaven Christ Iesus who treads the path which he chalkd forth It was a way wholly unknown nor could any give better directions then Iesus who knew it had gone it Iesus did not as some peasants do who with their fingar or speech point out the way to travellers while they themselves sit quietly at home no whit sollicitous whether afterwards they hit or miss for besides that by word he had taught the path that carries to heaven he goes himself before and leads the way that we may be secure from errour Tel me if we were certainly assurd as now we are that there were such a thing as heavenly joyes and that one were to go thither on foot and no more were requird to compass these joyes but only to know the way which he is wholly ignorant of and another good body should instruct him in that who would not buckle himself to this journey though crabbed and ruggy especially if he that shewd us the way would accompany us and go before why then do we not believe Christ and follow him do we feare the wisdome of God being our guide to go astray do we think we can miscarry our B. Saviour going before no certainly Christ shewd us a secure path and traced it out to us so secure that although we die in it the very danger and death breeds security yea if thou didst love Christ thou wouldst not stick to die with him He loves not Christ who doth not imitate him for the vertue of love is assimilation or resemblance O that one could truly say I live now not I but Christ liveth in me carrying the mortification of IESVS about in my body and implanting it in my soul If then thou lovest the Son of Mary wilt become his tabernacle as she was behold with accuratenes and do according to the pattern which is proposd to thee in the mount Calvary and take a view of the whole life of IESVS He chose to live and die in contempt he was derided and set with the wicked accounted not only an idiot but a fool he was beaten as one would not beat his slave he was punishd as if he had been the worst of criminals of his own accord he shund all temporal honour when it was exhibited ther was no miscalling or slanderous nickname that was not appropriated to him they calld him Samaritan idolater possessd person false Prophet seducer belly God devourer drinker of wine blasphemer and transgressour of the law he was thought to be a traitor and conspiratour against his country a friend and abettour of sinners What creature can be namd to which he did not humble himself He humbled himself to the Angels what need was there that an Angel should come to comfort him who was God
he was dead would bequeath to us a pledg of his love by receiving a wound with a speare thou also in this short death must give such an earnest-penny of thy affection And by this meanes as Christ in his sleep of death merited at thy hands by shedding water and blood a special pledg of love at his harts wound so thou also in thy death of sleep shalt even then merit at the hands of Christ for such a precedent desire and disposition Let this be an argument that while thou sleepest thy hart wateheth not unlike cranes who while they sleep carry a stone in their tallon the fall wherof forthwith awakes them The IV. Chapter That we must rise fervorously to our morning prayer IF with loathing thou didst betake thy self to rest thou wouldst with a cheerful alacrity rise in the morning to thy task neither would it be necessary for the master of the family to hire so early his workmen Thou wilt shew thy self too effeminate if thou be not valiant against sleep but suffer thy self to be vanquishd by a thing of all others the most unmanly being chaind hand and foot like a captive without tye in such sort that thou canst neither help thy self nor others but must be content to sit in the shadow of death It would not be needfull that the voice of thy beloved knocking at the dore of thy hart should rouze thee conceive the sound and pulse to be the noise of thy spouse calling and inuiting thee with most sweet and amorous language to open the dore and he cals thee his sister his love his dove his unsported Open to me saith he o my sister my love my dove my unblemishd Love makes him call thee so often his neither can he be satiated with calling thee so O Lord what beholdst thou in me that can so transport and enamour thee can it be reasonable that I disgust thee for a little ease but if thou hasten not o my soul to open because thou art his and for love of him do it at least out of mere compassion To move thee more forcibly he presently adds because my haire is full of dew and my locks of the drops of the night Thou wouldst not demur to open even to a stranger and an enemy in this pitteous plight and why not to thy God thy lover who does it all for thy sake Beware he depart not if thou linger What can be imagind more attractive and comfortable then this voice of the spouse knocking so friendly that he may bannish all lazynes from a pious soul who will not be more confounded then was Vrias to lye in bed while Christ stands expecting not under a pavillon but in the open ayre exposed to the injuries of the night Robbers stick not to rise by night to make their booty and massacre others and wilt thou when the good of thy soul and Gods glory lyes at stake be so tardy the Angel caling Peter when he was a sleep said rise quickly Thou art more then dead when thou art buried in sleep imitate at least the dead in rising In the twinckling of an eye in a moment shall the dead bodies arise at the command of an Angel IESVS will not have thee be flower when he cals then when an Angel The heavenly spirits take it ill they being by nature most quick and agile to see any one whom they awake any whit sluggish or fearing themselves with stretchings and yawnings and they waken us most willingly beâ—â—use the very sight of this drowzines so opâ—osite to their agility is not a little offensive to â—hem A certain servant of Christ one of our society by name Iohn Carrera was every morning before day called by his good Angel to go to praier but this heavenly monitor once absented himself for many dayes till being appeased with continual praiers and long fasts he returned at length to his charitable office admonishing Iohn that for this reason he with drew his comfortable presence because being once overcome with the drowzy wearines of the precedent dayes labour he had not risen with such speed to his accustomed devotions So inconsiderable a fault if it were a fault so highly offended the Angel although it were not perceived by his conscience which was so tenderly nice and delicate They esteem the fervor and prayers of us miscreants so much that they deem not their own officiousnes to equalize the others worth and give us a gentle correction that there may not be so much as a false shadow of idlenes where we traffique in such real goods Therfore be not slow at the hour of rising labour with great speed to overtake any one that is before thee that thou maist be the first that our Lord coming loaden with his guifts shal light upon so to have the first choise and handsale of his graces he disburdening himself upon the first he meets Thou shouldst run towards Christ charged with his cross to ease him of it and be crucified in his place run to him fraught with grace to be enriched by him What soul can be so sensles and prodigal as not to rise with all speed to receive so many guifts and impart kisses to her spouse how can she be said to love God if she return not swifter then any thunderbold to love her beloved whom over night she desired so vehemently One must rise more expeditly then if the bed and bed clothes were all in a flame one will rise more expeditly if the fire of love be enkindled in his hart Procure at that instant to make amends for the vacancy of sleep wherin thou couldst not actuate thy self in the love of God by a most fervorous elevation of mind by a most flagrant charity and a total holocaust of thy self the perfectest that hitherto thou ever didst offer upon the altar of thy hart Suppose thy self in such a condition as if in that moment of thy awaking thou wert newly created by God to love and serve him for that day alone for that sole end is this daies life granted to thy use If one that is in a state of beatitude were annihilated by God and forth with created anew with all his qualities and former perfections with what impetuousnes of will in that very moment would he engulph himself in the abiss of the divinity do thou endeavour to put on a like fervour after this thy annihilation by sleep and resuscitation by awaking How deep a sense and profound reverence did Adam and the Angels conceive â—â—wards their Creator in the first instant of â—â—eir perceived creation imitate the B. Virâ—â—n who being in the first moment of her conâ—â—ption created in grace and priviledgd which â—e perfect use of reason with what intenâ—â—nes of affection did she cast her self into the â—â—mes of almighty God what thanks did Christ our Lord render to his heavenly Father â—â— the first instant of the hypostatical union yea with how great love did he then particuâ—arly think
Of evill many become good we must not disdain them this is to love all for goodnes this is to love all in God when we love for that which cannot be loved without God as goodnes justice vertue and the like If thou didst love the goodnes of God thou wouldst love all in God and covet that all loved him and wouldst put to a helping hand and be sollicitous in this behalf Of a much different strain is the zeal of humane and divine love Humane goodnes is finite and narrow bounded not suffising for all nay not even for many but les wil fall to each ones share therfore men endeavour what they can that none els love what 's dear to them but because the goodnes of God is infinite and more then abundantly sufficient for all and our love of such a limited condition that it cannot correspond to so great goodnes therfore Gods desire is that each one love it and approve our love and cooperate towards it to the end they may discharg and satisfy for that goodnes which we are not able with any love of ours to equalize Thou lovest God imprudently unles thy desire be that all love him for thou must love him more then thy self thy desire is that all love thee though thou be so very bad why are thy wishes on Gods behalf more barren and bounded he being so extremely good O infinite goodnes of God who loved me so much the meanest and very outcast of sinners that being not content to love me thou wouldst moreover that all should love me and commanded it too why shal not I covet that all love thee and procure it to the utmost of my power yea thou hast obliged all by thy precept blood that they should love me no less then thou lovedst me and every one loves himself Give me grace that I also may observe these examples of love that I may love all Thou saidst this is my precept that you love one another as I loved you And again thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Thou o Lord lovedst me eer I loved thee thou o Lord lovedst me not for any commodity redounding to thee but to me thou lovedst me with an immense love for none hath greater charity then this that one give his soul for his friends thou didst love me with a perseverant love thou art he who when he loved his who were in the world he loved them to the end These are the conditions with which thou lovedst me and must be the rule conformably to which I must love others O my soul learn love from the love of Christ love them as thy own life whom Christ loved more then his and wil in then be loved and worshipd If Christ lay sick in bed thou wilt not deem it indecency that he be supposed languishing for our good who for our salvation took really upon him our languours or pinchd with hunger and some other poor body lay also sick in another bed and were pressed with the same want and thou shouldst demand of Christ whether of the two he would have thee to relieve first himself or that other party I believe he would piously answere that other for Christ himself would defraud his own mouth of meat to asswage a poor mans hunger Serve then and reverence Christ in such a one if thou canst not do it in fact do it at least by prayer and compassion not only in corporal necessities but much more in spiritual God prizeth so highly an almes bestowd on the body that he promiseth heaven for its reward nor assignes any other cause of acquitting them in the dreadful day of doom how much more wil he esteem an almes bestowd on the soul for which he daignd to dye o the infinit charity of God o most loving Saviour who gavest thy soul for sinners grant that I may love their soules as thou lovedst them I wil take a pattern from thy love to know how I am to love those whom thou lovedst and not from my own neyther wil I love my neighbour as I loved my self for then I shal love him but untowardly I knew not how to love my self how can I love others How could I love my self who loved my own wil who loved iniquity but I wil love my neighbour as I ought to love my self desiring thy wil may be accomplishd in him and he more plentifully enrichd with thy grace that all may serve thee most fervently and adore thee in spirit and truth THE IV. BOOK The I. Chapter How ungratefull we are to God HOW unhappy is our hart in thy benefits o happines of Saints since a slender courtesy afforded us by some poor miscreant yea even by a savage creature stirs us up to an act of benevolence and yet we are not struck through love into an amazement of the immense beneficence of thy benefical nature how comes this to pass that if a man had done it we should deem it a huge favour and for this very reason that God does it though he do incomparably more we sleight the benefit and seek not to shew our selves grateful doth water loose its nature because it is in its center the sea and not in some sorry vessel shal it forfeit the nature of a benefit because God is the authour of it whose nature is to be beneficial we should rather argue thus it is water because it is drawn out of the sea Can heat because it is in the fire be thought not to becalefactive and that only to be so which is in a forraign and violent subject the ardour of fire is more effectual and warmes more intensely then heat in wood so the blessings from God are more benefical then those from men because God sourceth them It is the nature of gâ—â—â—nes to be benefical as it is of fire to heat â—â—neficence in men is nothing so vigorous or taking because it is not so proper to their nature indigence only being connatural to them Water is purer in the fountain then in the stream and benefits derived from God are more refined then those from men who for the most part mar the nature of a benefit Why then shal blessings loose their prerogative and respect because they are imparted by God which though much meaner if they proceeded from any contemptible man unles we expressed our gratitude for them we could not have the face to appear before men but should blush with confusion so far as to be ashamed of ourselves and become infamous in our own conceit and yet because they are from God we hold our selves priviledgd to be ungrateful and dare without blushing appear before him and his Angels Why are guifts les valuable and of an inferiour rank because they come from God since in them alone are verified all the conditions of being truly beneficial and giving us relief in our greatest distress is a benefit more unhappy for flowing from the fountain of all happines Why do we
all the cagernes of our hart and spirit but prefer a momentary pleasure before the grand affaire of eternity What is it that we are so ambitious off unles we be very greedy of glory what hunt we so earnestly after one moment sufficeth for the purchase of eternity If the largest extent of the earth be but a point in respect of heaven which is limitable what will the narrow bounded life of man be in regard of an unlimited eternity and is it possible that time can be spard from the pursuit and attainment of glory if having exposd a full exchequer of gold God should say to some needy beggar thou art yet to live a thousand yeares and shalt have nothing to sustain thy want for so long a respit of time but what thou canst carry out of this treasury in the space of an hour would he thinkst thou play the trewant in that short interim or spend that remnant in play or sleep why do we not bestir our selves an eternity expects us nor can we lay up provision for it but in the short interstice of this life why do we interrupt so laudable a commerce and sit still with our hands in our pockets a thousand yeares carry les proportion to an eternity then a moment to a thousand yeares what then wil ten or twenty yeares the utmost tearm of thy life be in regard of an endles duration why ceasest thou from doing good life flyes from thee death runs towards thee eternity stands still and thou nevertheles art slow in coffering up eternal riches What a tedious journey under took the queen of Saba for no other end but to enjoy the sight of Salomon her intention aymed not at any long stay but to return presently to her country many come from remote lands to behold a man whom fame hath cryed up for some rare talents of wit or art with how much more reason ought we be content to employ before hand prolix endeavours to be able but once to contemplate God in the height of his majesty if permission were given to all of making our journey to heaven on foot and nothing else were prerequired but only a pilgrimage of a thousand yeares no body I believe would decline the enterprize Thy journey thither is much more compendious thou needst not lift thy foot over thy threshold nor out of thy bed and why dare we not aspire with all our might to compass a good which is so nigh us the sole lustre of gold or flashings of a gem are able to make men brook the roughnes and danger of the seas and the clarity of God strikes us no more then if we were insensible neyther do we prize an invaluable good at so much as the value of a little labour But what do I insist upon eternity although glory were not eternal but momentary yet it is a good so boundlesly great that an eternity of suffering should not be deemd too much to purchase it but for a moment we beholding God intuitively in that instant O how exquisite must that needs be which God hath provided for his friends if he prepared and gave himself to be crucifyed even for his very enemyes how exquisite must that needs be which cost God so dear for which he was at so great expense at no les then his life auctority passion and omnipotency If Gods manufactures as the heavens the motions of the stars the nature of beasts orderd onely for the use of man be to us such an object of admiration what will that be which he exhibits to the ostentation of his majesty if we admire the artifice of an eye though in a loathsome creature or carriage-beast what wil that be which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the hart of man if he hath made the fabrick of this world which is but the cottage of miserable Adam a bridewel of sinners acave of brute beasts of such an admirable structure that heathens at its contemplation were rapt into extasy what shal we think of his own royal Pallace as much as a nasty stable falls short of the court of some great Monarch which is adornd with guilded roofs paved with pretious stones hung with most rich tapistry yea as much as the magnificence of the heavens exceeds the horrour of a stinking prison so much far more must thou imagin the dwelling place of the blessed to surpass the beauty of this universe which respectively will be found but an object of loathsomenes All the comelines of this world falls so far short of the seat of the blessed that all this artifice which the Philosophers admired with so much astonishment is in respect of it but an eye sore and blemish of deformity If heaven and nature which God provided as it were by the by and with as much ease as one can speak be so ravishing what wil that be which he hath from all eternity on set purpose prepared for those that make him their love In the guifts of nature God carried himself master-like he made them all with a commanding word but in his glory he resembles an industrious servant passing to and fro seeking as it were to give content If the beauty of this visible world where he was not so sollicitous to please be so winning and enamouring how much more pleasing wil he be in that where he made it his task study to please The whole machin of the world was no more chargable to him then the expense of one voyce he made it with a word but glory made him as it were set his wits on work and as obsequious as a servant yea most patiently to brook disgraces torments and death it self If thou shouldst bestow a hundred yeares in speculating the greatnes of glory shouldst frame some high conceit of its worth thou mightst wel deem all to be nothing and thy conceptions to fall so far short of comprehending it that thou canst not so much as conjecture thy self to have come nigh it But in that imperfect idea which thou hast conceived rayse thy self to the gates of heaven beholding it open take as clear and exact a view of it as thou canst that being done cast thy eyes upon the earth and what is remarkable in its rarities compare then the goods of both together and see whether earthly things wil abide the test Wonder then at so many unfortunate endeavours of men in purchasing a little worldly pelf or rather nothing and their trewantly sluggishnes in seeking after the true good Contemplate thence from the top of the stars the frustrated labours of mortals and their certain hazards in obtaining an uncertain good and do thou hear thy soveraign inviting thee in such like words come enter into possession of my kingdom heavenly treasures This is a most certain guift seald with no les a promise then that of divine faith and recommended to us by the diligence and death of Christ heaven having so voted
thou wilt daily perish in them without end Settle it upon things eternal that thou mayst live happily for all eternity and contentedly in this interim till it commence Quit thy self of all love of corruptible things and thou shalt quit thy self of al the miseries which befall man Thou who seekest to be happy by loving why dost thou love those things which by merely loving them render thee miserable love him rather who will make thee fortunate even among the misfortunes of this life Why dost thou love those goods whose fruition makes thee evil whose desire makes thee unhappy why dost thou love men whose non-correspondence makes thee angry whose correspondence ridiculous and effeminate Fix rather thy love upon God whose desire wil make thee good whose fruition wil make thee happy Love not those beauties which deforme thee but love him whose love wil render thee beautiful It is a great fondnes to love those goods the sole love wherof deprives thee worthily of their possession and not to love that good which is only to be enjoyd by love The goods which thou lovest are not thine but thou theirs wherfore thou art in want of them God being beloved by thee becomes thine whom if thou lovest thou canst not want only wantest him when thou dost not love him by not bestowing thy love upon other things God in himself bestowes them upon thee Why dost thou love a good which is needy of another good not that which abounds with all goods when a good is loved which needs another good the misery is augmented not the want diminished All the goods of this world are necessitous none of them is all-sufficient by it self but requires the adjunction of another love that good which is so good of himself as to be indigent of no other good All good things are good by goodnes and consequently all stand in need of it to make them good Goodnes sufficeth of it self and requires no additional consort if thou lovest it thou wilt both be good and happy love him alone who alone is all things Do not love those goods which covet not to be loved by thee but love him whom all things covet to love thy Creator who both loves thee and covets to be loved by thee and created all good things for thy sake It is a kind of absurd stolidity not to love God who covets to be loved by thee and to love a piece of clay which hath no such resentment Why art thou so inquisitive after what may please thy eye and delight thy pallat and art so insensible of what doth perfect thy wil Love is to be squard out only according to the rule of God and therfore it is to be regulated by no other line nor doth it acquiesce in any thing else The shoe of Golias wil never exactly fit the foot of Zacchaeus Love is the first guift to whom is it due but to the first good and prime benefactor love is a guift by it self on whom is it to be bestowd but on him who is good by himself love is a guift by its own nature to whom is it to be offerd but to him who is good by his own nature love is a guift which is the source of all other guifts to whom is it rather to be consecrated then to that essence of good which is the source of all essences Love of it self without the access of other guifts is acceptable and others without it are little pleasing to whom doth it square better then to God who of himself is amiable pleasing and without him nothing must be pleasing o Lord how can I love thee worthily since I cannot serve thee worthily I being not able to afford thee any competent service All things are thine and whatsoever I have it is from thee becoming as it were a servant to me Thou who lovest me as much as thou artable grant that I may love thee more then I am able The X. Chapter That self love must be rooted out TO the end thou mayst love and honour God as it behooves thee it is not enough not to love thy self and the world but thou must hate thy self and esteem thy self the meanest of creatures an obiect provoking all their hatred When a ship sayles too much on one side the mariners ballast it to the other Thou doatedst on thy self in an extremity of love now thou must change it into an extremity of hatred To be able to improve ones leap to the best he must go back some paces and take his race from a further distance to be able to approach God with a more impetuous love yea to be able to love thy self truly and rationally thou must gather force from self disdaign A racer is so much nigher the goal the further he leaves the stand behind him and thou shalt approach the nigher to God the further thou recedest from thy self Thou must depart from thy self to come to God the final end conclusion of all things Thou hast no greater opposite then thy self thou must be at a deadly enmity with thy self because thou art more then a deadly enemy to thy self thou art more offensive to thy self then all the world besides We resent an affront more feelingly at the hands of a friend then of a stranger because it happens beyond expectation and wil sound more ill-favourdly relish more rankly of hatred that thou shouldst be thy own undoer who oughtst to be furthest from any such thought We take it ill if we suffer any bodily hurt from an enemy worse if from a friend of whom we expected a protection how can we brook it patiently if our soul be endomaged and that by our selves and our own exorbitances it would vex us to the hart to have our bodies enslaved though to a great Prince or potentate and we have no difficulty at all to enslave our mind to a vulgar creature or base dung when we are passionately troubled for any affront or injury or other loss O what a burden and discredit are we to our selves shame and discred it follow those properly that do amiss trouble and burdensomenes those that suffer both these miseries attend our condition we are evil towards our selves and we suffer evil from our selves we are a misery to our selves and unmerciful violent and violated provd and base-minded O how pittifully pittiles mercifully merciles are we to our selves when we soothingly compassionate our follies and take not revenge upon them Commiseration and self love in such a case is all one as if out of compassion one should cherish a frozen snake in his bosome which being revived will kill the benefactour with its poysonous sting Most evident it is that in all reason we ought to carry a greater spite and deadlier feud to our selves then all our enemies for as much as concerns self-affection the les it makes thee regard the glory of God and comply with his holy wil and seek the advance
fruition of good things is sayd to be casual because they happen casually but seldome so doth not the multiplicity of evils wherfore his joy wil suffer les interruption who joyes least in wordly solaces O what a content is it to disburden ones self of himself and to live exempted from all importune and carking care of self seeking interest I conceive that he who hath quitted and relinquished himself hath evaded in greatest part the miseries and vexations of this life Neyther is it a mean fruit of a serious and sincere hatred of our selves that it causeth us to love others Consider how insolent and powerful an enemy self love is it hath so much of the tyrant that it intrencheth upon charity and outing it supplies its functions both towards man and God himself it alone consuming and devouring all the affection intended for both He that loves himself disordinately knowes neyther how to love God nor his neighbour he that truly hates himself will love even those that annoy and persecute him he wil rejoyce if any one do wrongfully oppress him knowing that to be depressed in him which is his main obstacle opponent and ought in all reason to be hated and persecuted by him and since no body takes it ill if one jointly together with him molest and infest his deadly enemy but rather holds him worthy of thanks so he that is a hater of himself wil rather love then be otherwise affected towards one that lends a helping hand to persecute him Another and no sorry fruit of self hatred is that it makes us detest sin all that viperous brood descends lineally from self love which is the parent and nurse of all vice and concupiscence and from it all the rest of that gang derive their pedegree He that rejoyceth at an injury wil not offend by being angry nor he that covets to be contemned by pride nor he by impatience who esteems himself worthy of all punishment It is no mean fruit that it removes all impediments in the love of God it is no smal benefit that it subdues thee to thy self and puts thee in a full and peaceable possession of thy self Lastly if thou wilt know what huge advantages arise from self hatred thou must consider how much grace surpasseth sin and vertue vice it is so much more excellent to hate ones self out of vertue then to love out of vice If men even to their utter undoing hate those that have much les endammagd them then thou thy self thou who of all others hast been thy saddest foe must out of the motive of vertue prayse recompense do no les The XI Chapter How we are to love our neighbour O Amiable Truth grant that I may love thee above all and all others for thee give thy self and not riches nor deceitful goods unworthy of love to my friends and all those whom I wish wel Learn o infirm spirit to love creatures without being injurious Many times the manner of loving stands parallel with that of hatred or contumely Thou wilt do a friend whom thou lovest a great injury if thou wish him riches as a real and solid good for by so doing thou shewest thy self to love them better then him for them thou lovest as being all sufficient him as needy wherefore thou wilt rather chuse to want him then them Hence fortune is the umpyre of friendships and its vicissitude is the death of love and birth of treachery Hence an equal danger ariseth to sincere fidelity whether thou lovest thy friend for riches or riches in thy friend As it is also a like tenour of true friendship when thou lovest all for God when thou lovest him alone in them because he alone is the object of thy love Thou wouldst love nothing els but God in all if thou lovedst nothing but him This must be the touch stone of thy love to try whether it be true charity or no. He that loves not riches at all cannot love them as good to another Let God be the common benefit which thou intendest to bestow upon all whom alone if thou give thou wilt make them rich enough And be sure to regard more such benefits in which thou lovest all then such by which thou shalt be loved by all for he that loves all truly as it behooveth shal be saved but he shall not therfore be saved because he is loved by all We must not be so base-conceyted of love as to hold it saleable at any rate it must allwayes be given gratis He sels God who bestowes a charity upon another out of any other motive then charity Cast thy courtesyes into no bodies dish but as thou esteemst whatsoever is conferd upon thee by others as so many blessings coming from God and thankfully attributest them to him alone so must thou esteem it Gods blessing not thine whatsoever thou impartest to others yea reckon this as the greatest of all that he would be pleased to use thee for his instrument and Almner in dividing his benefits Ground thy love towards others not upon temporal motives but spiritual for that foundation which is layd upon them and not upon the H. Ghost is covetousnes not charity not love towards man but list and lust of creatures In like manner be as forward in doing good offices to others as thou wouldst have God to be towards thee proceed upon no other tearmes with others then he doth with thee Grant o love of loves that I may love all as thou lovedst me and all grant that I may love all for thee and none love me for my self I could rather wish if it might be done without sin that each one should hate me rather then love me if they would love me for my self for if each one did hate me I should have but my due if they loved me for my self I should usurp what is thine All that love is impure which is not purely for God The sole love of God alone is onely sincere and refind from â—ll dregs since it neyther mixeth it self nor suffers mixture with contrary affections Other loves are wont to occasion eyther envy or anger or hatred against the party beloved or some other the love of God is immutable and eternal other loves are flitting â—â—eeting Therfore I shal reckon it among my gaines to be loved for thee my God not for my self The XII Chapter That nothing is to be covetted but what God willeth VVHich is more conforme to reason that thou by conformity subject thy wil to the divine or that it servant-like become conforme to thine wilt thou perchance be so self conceyted as to think that thou eyther art better then God in thy wishes or more sound in giving advise remember how often thou hast preferd evil before good how often thou hast stood in thy own light and on the contrary what a sure and certain proof hath God given of his good wil was it perchance a sinister wil to become
Incarnate for love of thee was it such to remain with thee in the ever B. Sacrament was it such for thy sake to embrace death lo it is one the self same wil which hath done all this for thee and which now orders that thou suffer this affliction trouble griefe or injury He ordaines both out of the same motive of love and for the same end attending with much sollicitude what wil make most for thy good But if it made wel for thee that God daignd to suffer torments want and ignominy that thou mightest not suffer them thou must also perswade thy self when he calls thee into the lists of suffering that it is very expedient and wil prove for the good advantage of thy soul That most excellent act of his wil which made him become man for our sake merited throughly at our hands a preparation of mind to undergo some hard task if he should think it expedient why doth it not also merit that we be conformable to him since he covets nothing but for our good it was our duty to suffer much that in something at least we might comply with his wil we seing it now accomplished in much why shal we not willingly suffer somewhat what canst thou wish better then to wish and have what is best and this alone is that which he thy God who is best both in himself and to thee wils and covets God is infinitly powerful infinitly wise infinitly good and benevolent he loves thee far more then thou dost thy self he desires far more seeks thy good he knowes much better how to compass it he is of force to remove all obstructions and to effect what is conducing to that end what is thy meaning then when thou takest on and grievest for some cross event when thou repinest at some malady wrong vexation misfortune whether appertaining to thy self or another whether publick or private doth God err and is deceived or doth he afflict us out of enuy and malice did his omnipotency fall short that he could not go through with what he intended to avert this which thou deemst a loss it happend not through any weaknes in God or malice or deceit but out of his power providence and immense goodnes why dost thou reject and seek to annul what the divine attributes ratify and make the subject of their employment Put thy self into the hands of God that he who created thee to his glory may conduct and govern thee he orders all to this end and without all doubt wil bring thee thither unles thou frustrate his designes Covet not to be governd according to thy own fancy He that makes a journy by sea takes not upon him to steer the ship but leaves that entirely to the Pilot when a storm ariseth then is he most tractable and wil neyther do nor permit any thing to be done contrary to the others appointment Dost thou hold God les skilful in ruling the world then a pilot in steering his ship what thou permittest then to a man who is to land thee safely in thy harbour why wilt thou not permit to God who is to carry thee to the port of heaven God knowes most exactly wel how to mannage his family the world I mean he needs not thy advise leave all that care to him he wil carry thee to the land of salvation God is either propitious or angry when he sends thee these crosses so disrellishing if propitious why wilt thou not acquiesce to thy own good and add thy own suffrage to those things which make so much for thy advantage if he be angry thou must give way if it be but to mitigate it An angry man if any contradict him waxeth more angry if no body cross him he is presently calme in like manner God will be pacified if thou not only hold thy peace and brook it but also be conforme and thankful O sensles man how darest thou say I wil not have this or I wil have that being thou knowest not what wil make for thy good why dost thou refuse to suffer crosses injuries humiliations perchance thou hast forgotten that thou art a sinner or rememberst not that God can turn these afflictions and humiliations into instruments of glory the hatred of the brethren and that inhumane sale of his dearest child occasioned safety to Iacob and glory and a kingdom to Ioseph that was sold for although Consuming envy made the brethren sel Their brother to the just all falls out wel This is the work of grace c. as devoutly saith the great Alcuinus God in the heavenly chimistry of his beneficence knowes how to extract great good out of ewil and this is the chief art and master-piece of grace Why dost thou repine at the loss of thy health or goods or of any one 's that concerns thee for eyther they were to be laudably expended and then God wil accept of thy good wil in lieu of the fact and wil also augment the merit of thy patience or to be sin fully wasted in riot and vanity and then thou hast reason to congratulate with thy self because such a stumbling block of offence is to thy hand removed out of the way Esteem thy self to stand in a superiour degree to thy wil and content and that thou art created for much greater matters Thou art not made to thy own glory nor to enjoy thy own wil nor pleasure nor to save thy self alone nor to enrich thy self nor advance thy fortunes nay nor only to enjoy God in his kingdom thy end is more sublime then all this thou art to witt created to the glory of God which was the but and scope of his wil and power in creating all things O end of a high elevation and it maist thou compass by suffering whether it be in ordinary labours or extraordinary torments Thou art not thy own but Gods nor born to thy self but to him so neyther must thou aym at any thing but the glory of God and how to pleas him and that his wil be accomplished in thee That wil only prove fuel for the fire of purgatory whatsoever nourisheth in thee thy own wil. Covet nothing whether it be spiritual consolations or other guifts though very holy but what God covetteth above all since he wisheth thee more happines and sanctity then thou canst thy self by this meanes thou shalt enjoy though it be not to be sought for continual comfort All the afflictions and miseries which annoy man in this lifes intercourse consist in the wil because it stands not in a true conformity with the divine The harts of men are disquietted eyther because they have not what they would have or because they would not have what they have wherefore he that quits himself of all self wil quits himself also of all trouble He that stands parallel with God in willing or not willing shal possess perpetual joy because he shal perpetually enjoy his wish for that is alwayes
repose by reason of occurrent duties eyther of life or state of life even in that kind of violence it breaths with tacit but connatural aspirations after God and these employments being ended and she left to her self she hastens to her center recollecting her self in her closest retreats with God that to her utmost she may become like the Angels who see allwayes the face of their Father and covet to see it more and more which desire ought to be as connatural and recreative to our harts as is the ayre in which they breath The XV. Chapter That the incomprehensible goodnes of God is to be loved VVHAT am I who am but an abyss of malice in comparison of thee O ocean of goodnes that thou shouldst love me like loves its like why then dost thou who art the best love me who am the worst things more amiable are loved by others thou being most amiable covetest to beloved by me the vilest and loath somest of creatures O love of the world what am I in comparison of thee who deserve to be the hatred and horrour of the world what 's the reason that thou commandst me to love thee why was it needful to lay an injunction upon this what necessity to intreat and sollicit it by so many wayes o sollicitation o most sweet voyce child give me thy hart o petition iterated and reiterated to deaf â—areâ—â— thou makest an exhibition of thy self in each of thy creatures that thou maist be seen at all turnes through the cazements of nature melting away in this most amiable demand in thy search after me Thou accostest me in each creature that thou maist beg it by them all dividing out thy love in so many wayes to gain mine What window soever I open thou as a suiter occurrest to my eyes standing behind the wall looking through the windowes looking forth through the grates If I see if I hear if I smel if I tast lo thy lovely face presents it self thy sweet voyce the odour of my God a honey comb with its honey is forthwith at hand every where suit is made for love If fower or five grave men should avouch any thing or invite others to an enterprize each one would doe and believe what they said why give not I eare to so many creatures while they all invite me to the love of my God since he hath so many vouchers of his comelines why am I so backward in belief if men allurd with the beauty of things thought them endowed with a deity how much art thou the soveraign and aggregate of all beauties more beautiful then them for thou being the source and author of it al I thou allottest to each one the pittance it hath All creatures represent thy love and beauty with silent cryes and invisible colours but what voyce or pourtraiture wil bring us to thy knowledg creatures are not able to paint thee forth All the perfections they contain seem nothing else but so many blemishes Who art thou then or where o my beautifully faire who though thou be every where present with me yet I find thee no where and though thou comprizest all yet thou art none of that all Creatures object themselves to my view as if they carried a resemblance of thee but I look upon them as a riddle Thou art not that o Lord which they delineate thee to be who though they tel not a plain lye yet they chalk thee so forth that thou art not truly what they represent In this manner I sought whom my soul loveth I sought him but found him not I wil rise and make a turn about the citty through the lanes of nature the streets of the heavens I enquired of the formes of creatures of the consorts of musique of the fragrancy of parfumes the tasts of inebriating rellishes the embracements of lovers and they all said we are not thy beloved he shines in such sort that no place is capable of his splendour he sends forth a sound but such a one as no wind doth carry a long he yealds a sent but so as that no ayre disperseth it he gives such a rellish that no hunger can bite upon it he is so inherent that no satiety can cause a separation I enquired of the earth and it made answer I am not he if the heavens of beavens do not contain him why art thou so inquisitive of me I enquird of the sea and it trembling said I am not his abyss much exceeds mine and it is no wayes to be waded through I enquird of heaven and it said I am not thy God he mounts much above my sphere If none of all you creatures be he tel me where I may receive some â—ydings of him the watchful intelligences and guardian spirits of this world made reply he made us seek him above us When I had passed a litle beyond them I found the beloved of my soul whom I could not find among creatures In this respect only I behold and find thee o light placed in the midst of lights that I am able neyther to behold nor find thee for how can I comprehend what is incomprehensible fly fly my beloved in this respect I wil comprehend thee because thou fliest me I know so much the more of thee the more I know thee not to be knowable and I approach nigher to thy knowledg the more thou recedest from my comprehension I sought in my bed and the retirednes of my solitude night by night the beloved of my soul The splendour of things beautiful in respect of thee is a night the seemlines of the heavens is a night the very beauty of the sun its refulgency and any other I wil not say created but falsly imaginable comelines is a night If each star were more resplendent then the sun and the sun himself did by as many degrees exceed these stars as there are sands of the sea and motes illustrated by the sun he would be an eye sore in respect of thee nor would be more conspicuous then the stars now are in presence of the sun But to what purpose do I bring these deformed beauties of visible things these rustick forms even of the sun morish lights Let us draw into resemblance these spiritual and candid ones whose lovelines is such that an Angel appearing to the devout Father Iohn Fernandez of our society the sight so affected him that he fainted through excess of joy was not able to support himself affirming that all the beauties of this world were but blemishes and deformities in regard of this Imagin then that the comelines of that Angel were as much greater then it is as there are â—â—omes in the aire and that each Angel were endowed with such comelines there being millions of millions of them or in a manner a number numberles sum up all this comelines of them all into one it would be ill-favourd and ugly in comparison of the beauty of God and I say not
of Spirit fol. 13. 4. How Truth is made manifest by faith and of the fruit and practise of this vertue fol. 19. 5. Of the hope of pardon and zeal of pennance 25. 6. The model of a sinner is set before our eyes 30. 7. The â—â— part of the Parable and how we must use Creatures fol. 38. 8. The affections of a true Penitent fol. 45. 9. Of the ardent desire of those that serve God 55. 10. Of contemning relinquishing the world 58. 11. How peace is to be obtaind fol. 62. 12. Of the excellency of one that is in the state of grace fol. 69. 13. How penances and corporal afflictions help us f. 85. 14. That too much love of our flesh hinders the Spirit fol. 90. 15. Of the loss of temporal things fol. 94. 16. How profitable temptations are fol. 98. 17. That we must fear God and hope in him 102. 18. That we cannot but suffer something and of the good of patience fol. 108. In the II. Book 1. OF diligence in Prayer fol. 114. 2. That we must not intermit our practise of Prayer fol. 122. 3. How efficacious the grace and favours of Christ are fol. 127. 4. How devoutly we ought to be affected towards the most B. Virgin Mary fol. 142. 5. That we must imitate Christ and of the sorrow and suffering of his most B. Hart. fol. 156. 6. How farr we are to follow Christ fol. 166. 7. That necessities and afflictions sent by God are to be born patiently fol. 176. 8. How purity of body helps the Spirit fol. 183. 9. That our practise of mortification must be continual fol. 187. 10. Of the sufficiency and good of poverty fol. 193. 11. That Patience is necessary in all occasions fol. 201. 12 VVhat a great good it is to be subject to another 206. 13. How great harm proceeds from daily and light defects fol. 213. 14. Of exactnes in smal things fol. 225. 15. That self-praise is to be avoyded fol. 231. 16. Of the basenes of man fol. 235. 17. VVhat things ought to humble man and that he can have nothing besides God alone fol. 243. 18. How much we owe to the grace of God Christ fol. 248. 19. That man must not only esteem himself nothing but also a great sinner fol. 256. 20. VVhat it is to stile ones self a nothing a great sinner fol. 262. 21. That Gods glory is alwayes to be sought fol. 266. In the III. Book 1. HOw careful we must be to do our actions wet fol. 275. 2. That we must shake of all negligence fol. 280. 3. How incommodious a thing sleep is fol. 287. 4. That we must rise fervorously to our morning prayer fol. 297. 5. That our daily fervour must be retaind fol. 304. 6. Of maintaining our fervour fol. 310. 7. How constant one ought to be in the practise of good works fol. 315. 8. How sollicitous we must be to increase grace 321. 9. How God is to be praised fol. 328. 10. How great a dignity it is to offer the Sacrifice of Christ. fol. 335. 11. That God is to be desired and received with longing in the Eucharist fol. 343. 12. That in time of refection we must not be more indulgent to our bodyes then necessity requires fol. 354. 13. That one must take account of his proceedingâ— by a frequent examen of himself fol. 364. 14. How we must be affected towards others fol. 371. In the IV. Book 1. HOw ungrateful we are to God fol. 377. 2. That Gods benefits are without number 382. 3. That Gods love in our redemption appears infinite fol. 388. 4. How deservedly God is to be loved and chiefly for himself fol 395. 5. That we are not able to satisfy the goodnes of God fol. 402. 6. How great benefit of glory we hope for 405. 7. Of suffering death fol. 415. 8. That man must give himself to God for his benefits fol. 422. 9. That God alone is to be loved fol. 425. 10. That self love must be rooted out fol. 429. 11. How we are to love our neighbour fol. 442. 12. That nothing is to be coveted but what God willeth fol. 445. 13. That we must give no care to our own wil. 448. 14. That we must continually be mindful of God 456. 15. That the incomprehensible goodnes of God is to be loved fol. 463. 16. Of the superessential light of the most blessed Trinity fol. 469. FINIS
it were lively and vigorous the first time we hear that saying of Christ Blessed are the poor of spirit because theirs is the kingdom of heaven the last sillable should no sooner be pronunced but we should forth with renounce whatsoever is in our possession O our shame and confusion there have been some philosophers who have relinquishd all their goods gold silver and whatsoever els for this sole end that with les disturbance they might contemplate this material heaven and we refuse to quit meer toyes to become Lords of the empireal Ethnicks though they denied the immortality of the soul did preach up and chuse poverty even out of a temporal motive that they might rid themselves of all cares and we neither for any commodity of this life nor hopes of an eternal can be induced to imbrace this vertue Thou esteemst content of mind and temporal repose more then all the kingdoms of the world how much more oughtest thou to value eternal cōtent and above all God himself one should make a most rich purchase if he gave all the treasure of Croesus the revenues of Salomon the Empyre of Augustus for one buffet for Gods sake and why dost not thou buy of God at a far cheaper rate the kiss of friendship his sweet imbracements his intuitive and beatifical vision when Adam was cast out of Paradise and a guard placed at its entrance with a flaming and two-edged sword if he had been hopeles of a redeemer but were to bribe the Cherubin with mony for a returne to his ancient and happy state where he lived in such poverty that he was not worth a suit of apparel would he not willingly have given all he had in the world so fertil of briars waterd with his sweat how much more industrious must we now be to come to the glory and fruition of God to gain and possess God himself shall we perchance be more excusable for having a redeemer since for this respect we are much more obliged if we be capable of gratitude to imitate him and follow his admonitions and believe his words who said that it was harder for a rich man to enter into heaven then for a camel to pass through a needles eye O most amiable Lord if thou be the reward of poverty take what is mine and in the first place my self I wish I were so poor that I were not owner of my self for he is rich enough who hath himself since he is master of a man He that hath relinquishd other things and not himself doth no great feat in contemning those things which are of themselves but earth and dust which for the most part contain some evill and by which we become evill the compassing whereof is ful of vexation the possession of fear the deprivement of sorrow It is no great busines to leave those things that otherwise will leave us and in the interim are many wayes hurtful Thou o Lord becoming man gavest thy self to man for man that by such traffique thou mightest gain man and not the riches of man man must render himself into thy hands and not esteem himself more valuable then God It is a high piece of injustice for man to deny himself to God who bought him at so dear a rate Man must set a true estimate upon God and retaliate the injury he sufferd by Iudas who rated him only at 30. Pence A Christian must prize Christ more then the whole world and a creature rate God higher then it self He that relinquisheth other things and not himself is so far from lessening his desire that oftentimes he more augments it Privation causeth an appetite and want stirs up desire All things are only a just price for him that is all All things must be abandoned in which man himself is concerned for if one retaine an appetite though he relinquish the thing it self his smootherd desire will soon revive We must not only relinquish the things themselves but the very desire of them It is not enough to abandon what thou hast but thou must moreover not seek any thing else nor accept of what is offered or given thee nor as much as may be even borrow things for thy use It is not the propriety but use of things that is noxious Let it be grateful to thee to have less then the rest avoiding singularity which is a stumbling block of ill example laid to the detriment and overthrow of the rest It is a singular beast or beast of singularity which wasts and depopulates the vinyard of our Lord many religious men are less cautious in this behalf they think their spirit is not disquieted so long as they feel no anxiety nor desire but when any thing is proferd and given without perceivance of these in themselves they deem themselves free from all danger especially when they are not further annoid with sollicitude of other things But they are not out of danger for although there be none in acquiring the thing yet there is in the use and possession of it The things themselves cause an appetite of other things wherfore although the man himself have no desire of others yet the things themselves have and they stir up an appetite in their possessour for one thing is alwaies craving another Besides if thou hast relinquishd thy own why wilt thou have another man annull thy fact that which thou approvedst as conforme to the doctrine of Christ why makest thou another to disapprove it is because thou intendest to dismiss relinquish again what is now given thee thou mayst make a shorter cut then this by not taking it The chiefest prayse of poverty consists not in leaving much but in having nothing reserving nothing for his own use Why was the glory commendation of the Apostles so eminently great was it perchance because they abandond their poor fishing nets or rather because they retaind nothing for that indeed is to relinquish all If another importune thee to take any thing thy poverty must contend with his liberality thou wilt prove thy self a poultron if thou be overcome Thy own poverty over came thy liberality why cannot it do so to anothers thou didst rather chuse to be poor and needy then reserve any thing of thy own wherwith to be liberal why preferst thou anothers liberality before thy own poverty would he be thought to give good advice who should say keep this that thou mayst not abandon all no certainly neither must thou acquiesce to his suggestions which are repugnant to the counsel of Christ Suppose him that gives to say in like manner beware thou yeald not but having forsaken thy own do not accept of what 's anothers but contemne for the love of God those things also which thou hast not nor art in possibility of having Such a love of poverty is wont to be ingenderd in the servants of Christ that if even IESVS himself for whose sake they quitted all should restore them something or command them to
possess the goods of this world they would reply and appeale to the throne of his mercy as deeming that two great a punishment O how rich will he be who is so poor of spirit that not so much as in affection he covets any thing of this world for as soon as he hath made this renouncement of worldly treasures in his hart he transfers them into heaven becoming Lord of them and selling them to Christ without any prejudice at all either to him that ownes them or that hath them in use Such a one is strangely enrichd by those things which neither are his nor ever shal be having treasures in heaven and no want upon earth for poverty is not burdensome to him that loves it but ful of sweetnes and content unsavory only to them that hate and inveigh against it and what wonder if it be offensive to its persecutours and enemyes Nevertheles it is hurtful to none but good to all for it is no hindrance at all to those who contemne all from their hart for God and very advantagious to those that gape after terrene commodities making them even against their wils forbear a great many sins which in plenty they would have committed plentifully Wherfore although it seem to such bitter and distastful yet they cannot deny i◠to be extremely beneficial The XI Chapter That Patience is necessary in all occasions PAtience is a thing to be wished above all others thou must regard it more then thy life for there is a greater necessity of suffering then can be of living Thou art not born to live easfully for a time but thou livest that thou mayst suffer for a time and thou sufferest for a time that thou mayst live eternally Thou art born to a life which shall not be interrupted it is requisite then that in this its interim thou suffer without interruption This life is not for it self for neither do passengers travel that they may only be sayd to be in motion we live for a more sublime end What is this life but toile and labour to which man is born that by it he may purchase beatitude God could have created us in glory what needed we fetch such a circuit about pass through so many windings unles we were to go by the path of suffering Give credit to what I now say register it in the book of thy hart nothing is more necessary to life then patience because nothing is more obvious in it then sufferance In troubles which cannot be avoided it is a lenitive asswageth griefe which impatiēce augmenteth Thou mightst have some pretext for being impatient if thy impatience would ease the affliction but it is a thing beyond all excuse to forfeit the ample fruits of patience which thou mightst reape almost out of every action and adversity without any fruit at all Do not omit nor performe thy vertuous exercises perfunctoriously by reason of any incumbrances of this life or the hard measure thou hast from men for it would be esteemed injustice to make God pay for an injury done thee by man God who is innocent must not satisfy for the default of the nocent If thou inure thy self to take these tribulations patiently thou shalt become after a manner impassible and a lover of afflictions Fire doth not burn ashes nor suffer they any harme from it they rather love the fire foment and help to its conservation so the more patient one is the more joy many times by a certain divine priviledg doth he feel in his greatest pressures Patience doth not lessen the labour but the pain and that 's enough it is so deserving at our hands that it wil not defraud us of any part of our merits but only asswage the noy somenes of the affliction so it hath found a meanes to make us enjoy both the fruits of our labours and not be contristated with the labours themselves God takes complacence in nothing almost more then in sending adversities confusions humiliations to him that 's truly patient because he loves most cordially one that is thus throughly mortified enricheth his friends with merits whose harvest is in labours and afflictions God shewes no greater argument of love nor imparts any guift with more tendernes and affection of hart then labours the bitter cross of his B. Son and nothing ought to be higher then this in thy desires The most loving hart of Christ expected revilement and misery and how canst thou be his disciple if thou hate and shun it seek not to beloved by God upon other motives then was his only-beloved Son nor covet to affect any thing besides what he loved and affected Thou wilt not be patient enought unles thou desire practise of patience which is sufferance thou wilt be but half-patient if thou only beare the wrong done thee unles thou be also ambitious of them but this without any others default To what end makest thou thy complaints the true patient speaks not of his wrongs nor makes rehearsals of his aggrievances to another because he placeth not his comfort in excuses and condolements but stands indifferent whether his griefe be eased or no. Why resentest thou so heavily to supply what is wanting to the sufferings of Christ he for the glory of God would not only endure scourges and the cross but in desire and preparation of mind he covered all the afflictions of all men and this very anguish that now annoyes thee which was wanting to his Passion that is to a most ardent desire of greater sufferance and all torment imaginable Rejoyce that thou endurest this for Christ who oughtest to deem it an inestimable favour to receive one stripe that it might not be inflicted on him but if thou brookst this sleight affliction which was wanting to his desire with patience Christ will take content in it and thou wilt afford him no smal comfort O most loving IESVS why am I afflicted in my tribulations if I have this solace that thou art solaced by them Thou didst seek o Lord some one who would condole with thee couldst find none behold me here of my own accord I wil be afflicted and sorrow with thee that I may be a companion of thy sufferings and death Who wilgrant me that I may die with thee o Son of God and if thou be pleasd to send me only this light tribulation why do I refuse to be lightly afflicted for thee others solace themselves if only some men be joint-sufferers with them why should not I solace my self if I be joint-sufferer with my God This is enough for me neither do I covet the compassion of men I will grieve no more o Lord that I see my self alone injured my self alone contemned nay this shal be a comfort to me that besides the fellowship of my suffering IESVS I suffer all alone and behold none of my brethren involved in the like distress O my IESVS I find nothing in this tribulation which gives me just