confession into my mouth prayers into my lips remorse into my memory resolutions of amendment into my will T is Thou O gracious God who chiefly actest all this good in me by me and for me O my All do then all in me that thou desirest And particularly overwhelm I beseech thee my whole interiour with perfect contrition not coming from a slavish and servile fear but from a faithful and filial love Grant me a true and intire grief for having offended thee not because of thy promises or threats but because thou art in thy self good amiable adorable 3. Or if mercenary interest do yet more move thee O my sensual and sinful soul For how hainously dost thou take a small injury how deeply dost thou resent a little disgrace the loss of a dear friend of health of honour or the like temporall and perishable commodities O whence is it then that thou so little apprehendest thy loss of grace and thy eminent and imminent danger of eternall damnation Is it a small matter to be Gods enemy To lose the good will of all heaven To destroy Gods image To cut up life root and branch To side with the accursed devils thy Creators sworn enemies to hatch Treason enter Conspiracie with the damned Yea and to kill as much as in thee lyes him who by his own death gave thee life O brutall and unnatural ingratitude Surely the annihilating of heaven The reason is Because the least degree of a higher order surpasses the highest degree of the lower order earth Angels men and all Nature cannot be compar'd with this malicious evil and willfull destruction of thy grace O Lord in my soul O eternal God! what a monster have I then been in grace what a prodigie in nature who have so little car'd to commit such enormous sins But O my Lord I will even now change my life I here detest all sin I make firm purpose of amendment I have a ful confidence in thee my Creator a good wil to do satisfaction and a totall resignation to thy divine pleasure 4. I am the woful criminal O just judge of my soul and I will be also the accuser and witnes the advocate and executioner in this tribunal I summon you therefore O detestable pride O abominable envy O execrable avarice O beastly lubricity and all you accursed crew of sins how long will you reign on earth how long will you dispeople Gods inheritance who brought you in amongst Gods children T is the perverted Will of man O dread Soveraign which hath done all these mischiefs Rectify ô my Lord I beseech thee this my crooked Will and murder these horrible monsters in me and grant that I may henceforth rather expose my body to a thousand deaths than my soul to one deadly sin Thy Saints will rejoyce ô God at my amendment and thy Angels will make a Feast but thy own resentment of joy will be infinite because thy love is infinite which goes hand in hand with thy essence and comprehends all love in supream eminency I will therefore expect from thee O heavenly Father the exact remembrance from thee my Redeemer the perfect knowledge from thee ô holy Spirit a true repentance and from thee ô Sacred Trinity an intire absolution and plenary indulgence from all my iniquities The grief I feel for my past offences the hatred I have against each sin at this present and the resolution I make to avoid all iniquity for the future are not equivalent in me to their enormity and hainousness I therefore humbly crave ô holy Lord God! that thou wilt accept thine own hatred against sin for that which I should and would have and in stead of the sorrow I want I offer that of thy Son my sweet Redeemer with the Sacrifice of his immaculate life and innocent death And since I cannot be impeccable by nature O my Lord nor dare presume to ask to be so by grace give me leave to prostrate my self before thy infinite bounty and clemency and beg by the merits of Jesus Christ thy dear Son and by the desires of thy essential love the blessed holy Ghost that though I may not be impeccable yet I may never sin more and if I must somtimes sin through my frailty yet that I may never sin mortally This thou desirest O Lord this thou demandest this thou commandest O give me what thou commandest and command me what thou pleasest 5. O my good Lord Jesu who art Lord of my life and shouldst be the love of my soul had I not like an ungracious and ungratefull wretch given my heart and sold my affection to fond frail filthy and fading creatures and comforts which are so far from bringing me eyther quiet of mind peace of conscience purity of soul or perfection of spirit that they leave me nothing but trouble confusion and remorse with a world of disquiet and desperate thoughts violent passions and vitious inclinations I find no other refuge or remedy but to return to thee my Centre to convert my self to thee O my good Lord and Master to cast my self in all humility at thy sacred feet and heartily to beg thy mercy pardon and reconciliation O mercifull Father I truly acknowledge my prodigality and humbly confess my treachery and am sorry from my heart that ever I offended thee who deservest so much love and service from me Beseeching thee as a guilty prisoner to be pitifull to thy poor creature and mercifully to forgive me the manifold rebellions and grievous iniquities that I have committed against thy Divine Majesty and goodness and for the love of thee I freely forgive all them who have any way offended or contristated me sincerely acknowledging that I deserve no comfort from any creature but all contempt and confusion and not only to be troubled by all on earth temporally but even to be tormented by the Devils in hell eternally 6. O how ungratefull a child have I been to offend so often and so grievously so loving and liberal a Father so meek and mercifull a Redeemer and so â—weet and soveraign a Majesty who hath always shew'd himself so benigne and bountifull to me tolerating me in my sins and expecting me to his mercy wooing me to his love and calling me to his service by a thousand means all which I have either rejected or neglected and still nevertheless given me time and opportunity to do penance O my poor soul how blind and bewitched hast thou been to leave the bread of Angels and to feed on the husks of swine for vanities villanies shadows and nothings to abandon God and all goodness on whom depends all thy hope and happiness quiet and comfort for time and eternity O blindness O folly O frenzie Would God I had never sinned Oh that I might never sin more O my God what have I done Would I had suffered on the Cross pains of body and pangs of soul when I thus N. sinned Oh what can I say or do more
future And for an acknowledgment of thy extraordinary obligation for thy Saviours sufferings undergone for thy sake with a resolution of amendment thou wilt resolve to serve him love him and suffer for him hereafter The third profit is that thou wilt fall out with thy perverse inclinations The third a persecution of our passions The fourth an imitation of Christs vertues and passions and persecute them to death be they never so little The fourth is that thou wilt force thy selfe to the utmost of thy power to imitate the virtues of thy deare Saviour who endured all this not onely to save thee and satisfy for thy Sinnes but also to give thee an example to follow his sacred steps Another way to meditate on the Passion And now my beloved I will here declare unto thee another method of meditating upon Christs passion which thou maist make use of as thy devotion and occasion shall suggest unto thee If thou desirest for example to obtain patience in imitation of thy Redeemer consider these points following First What the afflicted soule of thy Saviour doth towards his heavenly Father By considering Secondly What the Father doth towards this soule of his Sonne Thirdly What this soule doth towards it selfe and its sacred body Fourthly What doth thy Saviour towards thee Fifthly What shouldst thou doe towards thy Saviour First therefore Consider how the soule of Jesus Christ being totally First how Christs soule carries it selfe towards his heavenly Father intentive upon God Is amazed to behold this infinite and incomprehensible Majesty in respect whereof all things created are as a pure nothing submitted though immutable in his glory to the sufferance of such unworthy usages upon earth for man from whom he never received any thing but disloyalty and injuries And how it afterwards adores thanks and offers up it self intirely to the disposition of the divinity Secondly how the Father towards him Secondly Consider how God willeth and exciteth the soule of thy Saviour to suffer for thy sake all those blowes buffets scourges spittles blasphemies thorns and death upon the Crosse giving him to know how well it pleaseth him to see him thus replenished with all sorts of affronts and afflictions Thirdly passing on to the soule of thy Saviour Christ Consider how with his understanding which is all Thirdly how the soule towards it selfe and its sacred body light knowing how highly his passion pleased God and with his will which is al fire loving the divine Majesty beyond measure which thus invited him to suffer for thee he disposeth himself readily joyfully contentedly to obey his sacred will and pleasure And who can dive into the depths of those desires which this pure and loving soule of thy Saviour had to suffer for thy sake It found it selfe as it were in a Labyrinth of troubles casting about to encounter new wayes of sufferings and therefore freely gave up it selfe and it 's innocent body as a prey to the pleasure and cruelty of the most lewd and worst sort of villains Fourthly Consider in the next Fourthly how thy Saviour carryes himselfe towards thee place thy sweet Saviour amidst his bitter torments fixing his eyes full of teares and tendernesse upon thee and conceive thou hearest him thus expostulating with thee Behold my Child whither thy immoderate desires and unmortified affections have brought me because thou wouldest not use a little violence to thy selfe See and consider how much and how willingly I suffer for thy love and to give thee a pattern of perfect patience I beg of thee ô my deare child and I conjure thee by all these my sufferings and sorrows that thou wilt willingly embrace and cheerfully carry this Crosse and any other which I shall think fit to lay upon thy shoulders and that thou abandon thy selfe intirely into such hands as I shall permit to persecute thee in body or fame how vile contemptible and cruel soever they be O didst thou but conceive the greatnesse of the comfort I should receive in this thy patience and courage But thou mayst read it in these my wounds wherein my love to thee is written in bloudy characters and which I willingly receive as so many precious pearles to enrich thy poore soule with all sorts of vertues and perfections because I love it above all things created And if I thy Lord and Creatour am reduc'd to this extremity for thy love why ô my deare Spouse wilt thou not consent to endure a little to satisfie my hearts desire to supple my wounds and to mitigate these my pains caused by thy impatience which more afflicts my soule than these grievous torments doe my body Fiftly Consider well who he is Fiftly how thou shouldst carry thy selfe towards thy Saviour that speakes thus unto thee and thou wilt find that he is the King of glory Iesus Christ true God and true Man Mark also the greatnesse of his grief the variety of his torments and the manner and indignity of his disgraces too bad for the worst of men or most infamous malefactor in the world Yet thou seest thy Saviour amidst all these affronts and afflictions not onely unmoveable mild and patient but even joyfull and content as if hee now kept his marriage-banquet And as a little water rather strengthens than extinguishes a full kindled fire so by the increase of his torments which were small in respect of his excessive love his content and desire of suffering farre greater was more and more enkindled and augmented Consider further that he endured all this by no externall violence nor for any self-interest but as he told thee for thy love and that thou mightst imitate him and exercise thy selfe in the vertue of patience And then penetrating into that which he desires thou shouldest doe and into the content thou shouldest afford him by this thy practice of patience produce acts of a passionate will to beare not onely this Crosse patiently and joyfully but any greater that so thou maist imitate him more perfectly and content him more abundantly And imprinting in thy mind a lively image of these his sufferings and of his constancy therein be ashamed to thinke thy patience so much as a shadow of his or that thy affections are really any at all being compared with his and tremble that the least thought of not enduring for the love of thy Lord should remaine in thy heart Thy Crucified Jesus my beloved is the best book thou canst read in Christ crucified is the best book to read in and the liveliest image thou canst look upon to draw the perfect pourtrait of all vertue For it being the book of life it not onely informs thy understanding by words but also inflames thy will by example The world is full of books yet all of them together cannot so speedily and perfectly teach the true means of obtaining all vertues as doth the right contemplation of Christ upon his Crosse But they And to learne all
and the rule of discretion will permit elevated to your Lord and love cry continually for his grace knock And sigh after it perseverantly incessantly at the gate of his mercy sigh after him perseverantly seek to perform his will diligently and follow his pleasure purely and perfectly give that day for lost wherein you have not made some progress in the way of perfection and finally rouse up your selves and prick forward your sluggish dulness in devotion with some brief and burning aspirations which you are to have alwayes ready in your heart and mouth As Excâ—ting our sluggishness by frequent aspirations O my Lord ô my God the life of my soul and the only love of my heart when shall I love thee as I desire and thou demandest O my Jesu when shall I die perfectly to the world my self and all things that I may live purely and intirely in thy only charity O when shall I be nothing to any creature and every creature nothing to me but only in thee and for thee alone O that I could go out of my self and get into thee That I could thrust my caitif heart out of this breast to establish thine ô my sweet Saviour in it's place O let thy true love transform me totally into thee Let me not live any longer but in thee Let me not love any creature but by in and for thee my Creatour O incomprehensible bounty Either take my soul out of this world or take the love of this world out of my soul Either bereave me of my life or bestow on me thy love c. In all which raptures and affections the holy Spirit is the best directour whose inward impulse and dictamen you are diligently to follow still according to discretion and obedience with a perpetuall longing and loving sighing and seeking to advance your soul to divine Union 2. Finally I conclude with this hearty and heavenly counsell of S. Anthony to his disciples against this dangerous coldness in devotion An excellenâ— document of S. Anthony My brethren Let this be my generall and particular precept unto you the first and last lesson I teach you Never to lose your first fervour and good purposes nor to grow slack in your observances but to go alwayes forward and renew daily your devout exercises as if you daily were new beginners in the way of perfection This he often repeated and inculcated and being on his death-bed that his last words might remain more lively imprinted in their mindes he bequeathed unto them as his final and never to be forgotten testament this piercing and pithy document able to win wound and melt a flint into fervour and compunction O my loving children I go the way of my forefathers our Lord calls and invites me and my soul thirsts after him and heaven But you ô my bowels what will you do I have often admonish'd you and do at this last gasp leave it you for my will and testament Take heed you grow not tepide and go backward and so on a sodain lose the pains and profit of so many years past Think still you are to begin anew as though what you had already suffer'd for Christ were nothing Let your good will and desires get every day new strength and vigour forget what is past and run to what is before you live and labour with such fervour and purity as if it were your first work that ever pleased God or the last service you should ever render him in this mortal life O devout souls Our dayes pass away swiftly death is alwayes at our heels eternity approches wherein our God whom we have serv'd and lov'd will wipe the tears off our eyes the sweat off our brows the blood off our wounds crown us with glory peace security immortality Let us not lose heart in his service nor hope in his goodness He expects and invites us Angels and Saints offer their helping hands The question is of eternal life eternall light eternal liberty and eternall love THE SECOND TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST or The use and Practice of those necessary weapons which are prescribed in the Treatise of the Spiritual Conflict Here Methodically managed and drawn into seven Exercises Affective Acts or Aspirations according to the dayes of the Week Psal 118. v. 34. Give me understanding and I will search thy Law and I will keep it with my whole heart AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Devout Champions aspiring to Perfection THat you may make the right use O devout souls of these ensuing Exercises you are first to be premonished That Aspirations or jaculatorie prayers are short and fervent acts elevations desires and requests of the Soul to God And they are of divers sorts and may be performed either in the heart only or by the heart and mouth jointly First they may be practised by way of petition begging love vertue perfection devotion c. As O Lord give me light to know thy Will grace to embrace it and force to follow it Help me to overcome my self and my sworn enemies Assist me to disgest difficulties and disgraces for thy love Pitty a poor sinner Pardon a proud beggar Receive a prodigall Child Redeem a perishing soul confirm my frailty confound my Pride comfort my Dull Dark and desolate Spirit And the like short amorous and pithy petitions Secondly they may be expressed by way of wishing and sighing after God goodness piety perfection c. As O Lord vvhen shall I knovv thee and my self When shall I truly love thee and perfectly hate my self When shal I live in thee and be dead to my self Or thus Oh that I vvere truly vertuous truly religious truly mortified Oh that I vvere all thine O my poor soul take courage hovv shall vve abound vvith delights vvhen vve shall see our Master and Maker in his heavenly Kingdom Thirdly they may be performed by way of expostulating and complaining sometimes to God other-times to our own souls and then to all creatures As Hovv long Lord vvilt thou forget me for ever Why hidest thou thy face Why art thou sad my soul O heavens are you shut against me c Fourthly by shorter expressions as by Expressing the whole affection in few words thus Good God! Svveet Jesu Hovv long O fire burn O one O all c. These must differently be made use of according to the various disposition of the souls dryness or devotion In all which you are not to binde your selves to any set form or sorts of words but only use such as holy and fervent love shall suggest unto you And this manner of prayer by fervent Aspirations frequent acts of love and enflamed elevations of the soul is according to the divine doctrine of S. Denys the easiest shortest sweetest and perfectest means of uniting the soul to her last end which is God and consequently of corresponding to our creation and calling This saith he is that admirable holy and hidden Unitive vvisdom which
them all as a sink of sin and filthiness I will be desirous to be esteemed and used as dross among metalls chaff among grain a Wolf among Sheep and as Satan amongst the children of God I acknowledge my self unworthy of all grace and comfort from God or man and worthy of all pain punishment crosses contradiction confusion desolation death damnation I will be henceforth ashamed to complain of any aggrievances and be content to suffer whatsoever the world the devil and hell it self can inflict upon me 2. And to strengthen this my resolution I will rationally consider before thee ô my Lord what I really am what I was and what will become of me both touching my body my soul and my whole being Ay me I have a body all clay a soul all sin a life all frailty and a substance all nothing And this is all I have to vaunt of in thy presence ô my Lord and my maker My material part is but slime of the earth the very worst part of the unworthyest element Ah poor man and canst thou look so big who cam'st from so base an extraction be ashamed to lift up thy head vile mud and dirt since thy pedigree is so well known and the ingredients of thy being are so mean and contemptible And when I consider what this my body was in the womb how it was conceived in concupiscence nourished with filthiness and brought up in darkness I am ashamed to own my own beginning which is so horrid and lothesome and who then can justly boast of state strength beauty or nobility since the ground-work of all is but a little dung and corruption Ah poor worm what a dismal prison wert thou detained in for nine months space of thy time what nasty and poysonous food was thy diet how wretched was thy birth how weak and wofull thy infancy and what art thou in thy best and most flourishing condition in the world but a clog and cage to thy inthrall'd soul a painted sack or pargetted sepulcher full of filth froth and ordure O my Lord give me grace to frame an impartial judgement of what I am and then how soon shall I check all risings of pride and presumption 3. I came into this world ô my Lord with groanes and tears I live in it with griefs and cares I shall go out of it with pangs and fears and lastly I must become a horror to the eyes of my dearest friends a prey of veâ—min and a companion of rottenness Ah! how canst thou be proud of thy perfections poor clay and ashâ—s why shouldest thou look to be so highly priz'd so daintily pampered thou stinking puddle Dust thou art to dust thou must return Hast thou not alwayes before thy eyes these ashes for thy glass and death for thy mistress why then dost thou suffer so many sparkles of vanity to arise from this thy caitiff condition And thou my poor soul the spiritual part of my composition O what shall I say of thee to thy great Lord and maker What thou â—â—st hitherto been I wel know wretched wicked sinful What thou now art I know not being uncertain of Gods grace and love What thou shalt be hereafter I am altogether ignorant because doubtfull of thy correspondency with grace and fearful of thy perseverance in goodness Ah sad condition I came ô my Lord into this world in originall sin I am bred up in actual sin and if death and deadly sin meet together I shall feel the smart of them both eternally O how much need have I then of thy grace ô merciful Lord God to avoid sin since I cannot eschew death O let me rather admit a deadly wound than commit a deadly sin 4. What art thou then ô my whole man consisting of body and soul What wert thou ô N. from all eternity before thy conception in the womb and birth into the world Nothing Ah poor nothing what is less than nothing where dwels this nothing who can describe a nothing which more differs from the least atome in the Sun than Gods infinit greatness from the least of his creatures O proud nothing What hast thou that thou hast not received Nothing Why then art thou puffed up with it as if thou hadst not received it I acknowledge my whole being to be from thy only bounty O my great good and glorious maker and since I possess nothing but what I have from thee since I shall also necessarily fade away into my first nothing if thou withdraw from me thy conserving hand but a moment I will no longer glory in that which is none of mine but I will here lay the foundation of my spiritual edifice upon this sure and solid ground of thy All and my own Nothing I will endeavour to frame a true conceit of my own misery frailty insufficiency and nothing that so I may fully speedily and solidly come to this desired self-knowledge and humility I will run over my lesson repeat my questions learn my answers and strive to grow skilful in this necessary and sacred science What have I received that I have not abused Nothing Body soul will judgement memory understanding affection senses meat drink company habit books prayer Sacraments all creatures Can I then be proud of Sin Filthiness rottenness labour grief infirmity blindness obstinacy corruption death and damnation which are worse than nothing Shall I boast of thy gifts O my God which are not mine or of my own abuses and ingratitudes The one is to rob thee of thy honor the other is to be honoured for thy dishonour 5. What creature ever sinned so grievously as I have done and yet sorrowed so little and suffered less Who ever forsook so great and good a God for so little and vain a toy as I have done What sinful soul is there now in hell that would not have been a glorious Saint in heaven if it had the helps favours feelings and visits which I have both had and abused Who ever received so many mercies so sweet comforts and so great graces from thee O bountifull Lord God and made so little and bad use of them as I have done If I deny all this my conscience witnesseth against me If I confess it oh why am I not more humble Finally If such great troubles temptations and tribulations had hapened to me as have done to others I should by consenting have ere now burned in hell fire but thou O meek and merciful Creator hast spared me because thou knowest my weakness and sent me small crosses because I cannot bear greater c. Wherefore Not unto me O Lord but to thee be all honour for time and eternity O that I could know thee and know my self O that I could truly see my own nothing and totall dependancy on thee my misery and malice and thy perfection and total goodness Ay me weak and wretched N What are my forces that I should rely on them I have nothing O my Lord but what is
I abhor and detest whatsoever I have done said thought or desired contrary to thy holy will O my Lord and my love I renounce all company and occasions which may induce me to offend thee 7. I cast my self at thy sacred feet to be thy slave for ever with a firm resolution to bear thy Cross till death and to do penance and satisfaction for my past pride and pleasure desiring nothing but to live at thy feet like the penitent Magdalen in solitude silence submission O good Jesu Out of thy infinit mercy merits and meekness suffer not me thy poor creature to be damned and separated from thee eternally O amiable eternity O eternall amitie of God! Shall I leave and lose thee for filthy pleasures frail creatures fond friendships fading honours No dear Lord No Lâ—â— it please thee rather to take my soul out of my body than thy love out of my soul let me rather dy miserably then sin mortally Let me pass on the rest of my pilgrimage in thy grace and fear that I may end my dayes in thy friendship and favour which I beseech thee to grant me O most powerfull and mercifull Savior by the love of thy sweet heart by the merits of thy bitter death and passion by the intercession of thy Blessed Mother and by the suffrages of all holy happy and devout souls Upon all which relying as upon so many sure anchors of my hope I commit and resigne my self to thy disposition and providence for time and eternity O my Lord my love and my All fully trusting that thou wilt mercifully pardon my sins carefully assist me in my wants and weaknesses and in the end happily bring me to eternall bliss by such means as thy divine wisdom knows most convenient for me FOR THVRSDAY Of Subduing Sensuality to Reason The Fourth Exercise 1. MY Spirit is willing O most glorious and gracious Lord God to serve thee love thee honour thee and follow thee but my flesh is weak frail and refractory I do not what I desire O my God and what thou demandest but I act that which I hate and what thou forbiddest I feel O my Lord a law of sensuality contradicting the law of my mind captivating my reason clouding my judgement and continually striving to cast me down headlong into sin and perdition Unhappy man that I am Who will free me from this body of death Ah my brutish body ah my burdensom flesh Thou art my dangerous and deadly enemy 'T is thy weight that depresseth my soul thy earth that clogâ— and corrupts my ayr thy contagion and perversity which infects and debaseth my better part and heavenly portion thy sensuality which draws on endangers and almost destroys my reason 2. Ah Sensuality the source of all my misery how justly do I now hate thee and how willingly would I leave thee At my first acquaintance with thee thou defiledst me with original sin In my infancy thou mad'st a beast of me And now in my riper years thou still pursuest me proclaimest open war with me blindest my Understanding with darknes ignorance and errours mak'st my Will refractory to good and ready to all evil distractest my Memory with vain and vile fancies and perpetually tossest me to and fro between love and hatred joy and grief hope and fear and the rest of thy numerous and enormous irascible and concupiscible powers and passions Ay me how sad is my state how deplorable my condition Oh! how long Lord must I dwel with these devils how long must I endure the violence of these passions O my Lord my strength and my salvation break these fetters for me Command a calm O thou only Ruler of Sea and winds and appease the surges of these my unmortified appetites Oh! restore me to my self again reduce reason to her lost dominion in my soul and bring back me thy poor creature to thee my powerfull Creator O let not this passenger perish amidst these boysterous billows nor suffer utter shipwarck in these fearfull tempests I suffer violence O my Lord answer for me the companion which thou hast given me hath deceived me Sense hath corrupted and conquered my Judgment Oh! how I am dragg'd up and down by my al-mastering appetites commanded by my servants and fettered by my slaves O tyranny O indignity Ah my soul O noble spirit fair as the angels formed to thy Creators lovely resemblance stampt with his divine character and heir apparent to his glorious kingdom To be thus subject to the base and brutall desires of flesh and blood O intollerable bondage O unworthy servitude 3. O Father of mercies and only Physician of my soul Thou art almighty and al-mercy and I am all weakness and all misery There is no part left sincere in my whole body and soul from the contagious poyson of passion from the infectious leprosy of sin and sensuality All is out of order O my Lord I acknowledge it to my own shame and confusion each sense is gone astray each member of my body is corrupted each power of my soul is perverted My Understanding is obscured with self-love my Memory distâ—acted with sensual â—bâ—ects my Will posses'd with peevish inclinâ—tions My affections are vain my passions violent my dispositions vitious My body is burdensome my imagination troublesome my life irksome These are my wounds O my heavenly Surgeon O put to thy helping hand I beseech thee see fear and search them before the gangren enter and the grief grow incurable My soul is sick even to death if thou wilt O my Lord thou canst both cleanse and cure me To this end thou descendedst from Jerusalem to Jerico O pious Samaritan from heaven to earth O compassionate Saviour where thou findest me in this pitifull plight sore beaten wounded half dead and utterly despoiled of all natural and spiritual riches by theeves and robbers which are the senses of my body and the faculties of my soul O pass not by me sweet Jesu but mercifully bind up my bleeding wounds with the swathing bands of thy death and passion powre upon them the wine of thy pretious blood and supple them with the oyl of thy heavenly grace 4. I intend ô my Lord strengthen me in this hour I intend O sweet Saviour a total reformation of life and manners an intire mortification of my corporeal senses and spiritual faculties an absolute change in my whole man O grant me I beseech thee my loving Lord the powerful assistance of thy special grace for the performance of this great and good purpose Teach me now ô my blessed Master to live inwardly piously spiritually as I lov'd formerly to live outwardly vainly sensually O let me henceforth yield to thy divine motion obey thy call imitate thy example and follow thy will O let me never more act or omit any thing be it never so little for my own liking but purely and perfectly for thy love 5. Grant ô good Jesu that at each word of my mouth at each glance
of my eye at each morsell I eat at each member I move and at each inward and outward action I undertake I may first ask thy leave and permission and so do it or leave it accordingly as thy holy inspiration answers and allows me O that I could perform each naturall and necessary work with an actual reflexion upon thy praise and pleasure and with a pure intention to be united to thee my Lord and my love Thy outward senses ô my sweet Saviour were exactly subject to thy reason and perfectly obedient to thy sacred soul O let mine be swallowed up I beseech thee gracious Jesu and sanctified by the merits of thine Let me live love move and make use of my senses purely and only in thee for thee and by thee Thy sacred hands ô holy Jesu were harshly nailed to the tree of the Cross preserve mine I beseech thee from all sinfull touching Thy blessed feet were likewise pierced and fastned to the same rood O fix my steps that I run not to evil actions direct them in thy paths and make me speedy in all works concerning thy honour and the assistance of my neighbour Thy holy mouth was free from guile full of wisdom put thy words sweet Jesu into mine let it alwayes speak of thy love and only sing thy prayses Thy divine ears were filled with blasphemies and derisions Let not mine be open to hear vanities and detractions Thy sweet eyes poured out floods of tears for me O give unto mine tears of compassion for thy sufferings and of compunction for my own sins Thy taste was tormented with the novsome potion of gall and vineger O take from me I beseech thee all desire of delicacies let me not eat or drink but for meer sustenance and necessity Thy whole humanity ô gracious Jesu was martyred and murthered O grant that I may be truly and totally mortified Let me not see feel hear tast smell eat drink do any thing or make use of any thing as following my own gust sensuality and self-seeking but in pure conformity to thy divine will and pleasure 6. O mercifull Redeemer how great and grievous were the inward sufferings of thy holy soul O for those thy sorrows and thy tender mercies sake cleanse cure inlighten inform reform and transform all my inward man O permit not my Vnderstanding where the knowledge of thy greatness and goodness should be only seated to be overspread with ignorance and errour Let not my Memory which should be totally taken up with thee be stuffed with vain fancies or impertinent curiosities Let not my Will which thou gav'st me to desire and love thee O my only Lord and love above all thy creatures be inslav'd to any inferiour affection Repair ô gracious Redeemer this lively image of the lovely Trinity which is almost defac'd by my brutish sensuality Grant O dear Saviour that my Understanding Will and Memory may be incessantly busied in knowing loving and remembring thee and that they may forget and forgo all other objects but only in thee and for thee 7. O that my heart were perfectly disingaged from the love of all creatures Drain it sweet Jesu and deliver it from all forreign and domestick affection and fill it up again with thine only that it may never love desire nor will any thing but thee alone O my Lord my love and my All. O that my Will were conformable to thine without any reservation or retraction Take it unto thee Dear Lord freely and fully for time and eternity I will have no will but thine dispose of me as thou pleasest here and hereafter O that my Memory were disincombred from all imaginations and purged from all impressions but of thee only Empty it ô thou only amiable object of my soul and then replenish it with such holy and heavenly notions as may best please thy divine Majesty O that my Vnderstanding were imbued with some measure of the knowledge of thy divinity O my Lord infinite in goodness dreadfull in Majesty and unspeakable in all perfection O my great gracious and glorious God Quicken it sharpen it elevate it and illuminate it that knowing thee I may not choose but love thee and that knowing and loving thee I may be eternally happy Behold Lord I make an absolute divorce with all self-self-love sensuality and affection to creatures and give thee my self by an irrevocable donation Behold Lord the keys the lodging the treasure and the Master prostrate at thy sacred feet Enter freely possesse all fully dispose universally and command absolutely Put me where thou wilt give me what thou wilt treat me as thou wilt Thine I am ô my Lord my love and my All for time and FOR FRIDAY Of Mortification and perfect Abnegation The Fifth Exercise 1. O Eternal and ever Blessed Lord God! Thou hast framed me of soul and body and fitted me with faculties proportionable to attain the end of my creation which is to love thee intirely and to live with thee eternally But alas how far am I from observing thy blessed and beautifull order Thou ô Lord gav'st me a soul to bear all the sway in my body Reason to have the chief regency in my soul thy Law to be the guide of my reason and thy self to be the sole mover and governour of my whole man But Oh! how have I willfully cross'd thy sacred design contradicted thy intention and swerv'd from this perfection My body is all brutish my soul all animall and my reason all sensuall I am all blindness self-love and immortification Yet I know well and thou O eternall verity hast expresly told me that unless I renounce all deny my self take up my Cross and follow thee I can never become thy true Disciple Ah harsh words to my carnall ears If thou wilt be my disciple deny thy self If thou wilt be perfect sell all give away all reform all renounce all relinquish all If thou wilt possess life eternal contemn this life temporal If thou wilt be exalted in heaven humble thy self in the world If thou wilt wear a crown with me bear thy Cross with me But O my soul how wilt thou brook that more dismall sentence Depart from me thou accursed into eternall fire Wherefore O my Lord my love and my all Since Thou hast taught me these things by thy sacred word and shewed them by thy holy example and thou art the way the truth and the life Grant O infallible truth that I may couragiously walk in this thy perfect way that so I may happily come to thee the only true and eternall life and love of my soul 2. What dreadest thou O my fearful and faithless heart Behold Christ thy King and captain is march'd on before thee Take up thy Cross and travell after him he leads thee to a Kingdom heaven is worth thy pains O take courage to mortifie thy self deny thy self and die to thy self that thou mai'st live to Jesus and with Jesus eternally Learn O my soul this short
and securing lesson Leave all things and thou shalt find one thing which is all in all Take courage and fight valiantly against thy own bad nature pray suffer stoop bear repugnances swallow down contradictions disgest injuries the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence The end thou aymest at is perfection the reward of thy conqucst is eternall love eternal life eternall happiness Behold ô my Lord my strength and my salvation I am fully resolv'd to lay the ax to the root of this wicked tree Help me I beseech thee with thy grace from above that I may hew my self out of my self that I may kill crucifie and mortifie my inveagling sensuality cut off my evil inclinations rectifie my disordered passions and root out each thought or desire which tends not directly to thy honour will and love O my Lord and my God! 3. I know Lord that it is bootless to study perfection without the practice of mortification I confess I can never love thee truly but in as much as I hate my self really such is the antipathy between self-love and thy holy affection Ah! how can a spirit distracted with contrary inclinations be freely and fully vacant to thy divine contemplation Put therefore I beseech thee a sluce to my unmortified passions put a bound to my distraught heart and powerfully keep back those innumerous concupiscences and corrupt imaginations violently succeeding each other that my united affections may intend thee only the only object of all happiness Gather ô my Lord the dispersed forces of my soul from all multiplicity of worldly affections to the union of thy only love Keep I beseech thee my understanding will memory imagination and all my inward and outward sences from roaming abroad that carefully attending and entertaining thy divine presence in my soul I may attain true introversion simplification and union of my Spirit with thine Reform ô my Lord all the naturall corruptions of my outward man and redress all the spirituall infirmities of my inward man destroy and disperse all internal and external enemies and opposers of thy holy love possess me perfectly and dispose of me entirely according to thy divine will and pleasure 4. To this end O bless my weak endeavours al-mighty and al-merciful Lord God I will subtract all superfluities from my body and accustom it to all sorts of sufferings that so I may fit it up for thee O holy Spirit who dwellest not with them that are sensuall and subject to sin Alas I have not yet resisted to the effusion of my blood and should I spill each drop of blood in my body in this holy quarrel how little ought I to regard it in respect of the great good I expect I will therefore crucifie thee O my flesh with all thy concupiscences I will mortifie my outward senses the windows by which death steals into my soul the hinderers of my hearts tranquillity the destroyers of true devotion the dispersers of inward recollection and the utter ruiners of all the good desires which I conceive and kindle in my prayers Ah how soon is this divine fire cooled and quenched not only by sin but also by the distracting images of outward objects I will keep a speciall and strict watch over my tongue on which depends my spirituall life or death and cheerish thee ô beloved silence which art the key of piety the keeper of innocency and the preserver of purity I will trample down my inferior This is the chief exercise of Gods children not to be carried away with affections of flesh and blood but to conduct themselves according to Gods Spirit nature with all it 's evil affections and motions of love hatred joy sadness desire fear hope Anger c. I will order dispose and direct it according to the laws of reason and thy divine inspirations ô my Lord and my God Grant me courage I beseech thee to quell and curb this most dangerous and my greatest enemy which is the source of all my miseries the citadell from whence sin assails me and Satan fetcheth his forces to fight against me Grant good Lord that I may Therefore every one must strive to know his own natural inclinations and then imploy all his forces and apply all his prayers and spiritual exercises to quel them never yeild to this wicked Eve persuading Adam my Superior will to eat the forbidden fruit to consent to unlawfull pleasures O that I could tame these cruel beasts my naturall passions how soon should I be master of all morall vertues O that I could so till this vineyard so delve this garden so purge it from all ill weeds of affections and prune all superfluous surgeons and shoots of passions that the seed of thy grace ô heavenly husbandman might only there take root increase and fructifie 5. I will also mortifie my Superiour and rationall part with all the curious and fruitless speculations of my Understanding all conceits of self-wisdom naturall prudence proper judgement and good liking of my own proceedings All vain and foolish reflexions of my Memory And all petty desires and affections of my Will which relate not to thee the only object and Lord of my love I am resolved ô my Lord to nip off each budding passion as soon as it peeps up in my soul to trouble it in its true repose and to hinder its liberty and tendance to thy love I will by thy gracious assistance proceed faithfully and sincerely in the hatred denial and mortification of my self and in the prosecution of thy divine love And in order to this only end and aym I make in thy presence and from the very bottom of my heart and soul these particular acts following I renounce ô my Lord for the pure love of thee all affection to worldly things Give them unto me ô gracious God or take them from me as best liketh thy divine Majesty I resign up all my interest in any thing though never so near and dear unto me Behold ô my Lord and lover I uncloath my soul from all affections whatsoever to creatures and desire nothing but thy self-alone O happy nakedness O rich poverty of Spirit O pure obedience to the divine will in all things Be you my hearts delight my whole pleasure and patrinony 6. I renounce all self-seeking Ah! my corrupt nature I abhor thee Adieu all private-interest profit praise and preferment I will henceforth performe all my actions and exercises O my Lord God for thy only pure perfect love I will seek to please and praise thee with an inward ardent and amorous affection for thy self only and not for thy gifts or graces I renounce all sensuality whether it be in meat drink sleep apparel curiosity of my five senses or any thing else whatsoever O my Lord I will make no other use of any thy creatures than I am absolutly compell'd to by necessity of nature I look for no solace but from thee alone My only comfort and content I renounce all
perfectly perceive the abyss of my own nothing and naughtiness and rightly conceive the immensity of thy greatness and goodness whereby I may depress my self unfeignedly and exalt thee only in my soul Let me be content to be contemned by all creatures desire to be despised be willing to be troden on as dirt and dust and the very outcast of the whole world O let me really hate all honour and humbly pronounce with mouth and mind I am nothing have nothing deserve nothing desire nothing but only to please thee perfectly my Jesu praise thee perpetually love thee purely and live with thee eternally 3. Grant me also good Iesu by the merits of these thy wounds the vertue of perfect obedience O let me never tire in trampling down self-will in forsaking my own sense in subduing self-judgement in submitting my spirit inwardly to thy inspirations and outwardly not only to my Superiours injunctions but even to the commands of all thy creatures O let me have no propriety affection or affectation in my own proceedings but wholly mind thy holy pleasure in all things Let me lay down all my desires at thy sacred Feet O my Iesu saying Lord what wilt thou have me do so transforming my will into thine by an absolute forsaking denying and annihilating my whole self Let me receive O my Saviour as from thy secret providence and permission not only patiently but thankfully all pain all poverty all shame all sickness and all sufferings whatsoever acknowledging that I truly deserve worse and desiring willingly to endure more that so I may have a more perfect resemblance of thee my crucified Lord. Let me learn O my Lord by thy blessed example the holy lesson of discreet silence not only from ill and idle talk but even from all needless and unprofitable discourses Let me rather edifie by the purity of my life and conversation than by multiplicity of words and conceptions O give me sweet Iesu a free and frequent access to thy sacred Feet during the whole course of my life and a sure comfort in them at the hour of my death 4. From thy blessed Feet O my dear Lord I raise my humble devotion to thy al-holy Hands and beg leave to cast into the sweet fountain issuing from thy powerful right Paulm my manifold sins of malice and injustice with all my faults of hypocrisie and ingratitude falshood and infidelity rancor and revenge Renew O Lord God a right spirit within my bowels Let exact justice be the square of all my actions truth the touchstone of my words and sincerity the subject of my thoughts Let me be punctual in performing my duty to thee zealous in punishing my self and charitable in compassionating my neighbour Let me ever yield first unto thy sacred Majesty all honour and glory reverence and respect laud and love gratiâ—ude and obedience with my whole heart soul and strength next to my Superiors equals and inferiours and lastly to my own body soul and senses that which is my duty and each one of their respective dues O let me fully perform what I am bound to carefully eschew what is forbidden me and uprightly walk according to my calling O let me never presume to slight scorn suspect judge or condemn any person but sincerely serve succour and seek the temporal and spiritual good of all men whatsoever even of my profess'd and most peevish enemies Lord Iesu give me grace to imitate thy vertues to be gratefull for thy gifts and to make use of thy goodness in order to my souls advancement in the way of thy dear love and desired union with thy divine Majesty 5. And in the Sacred wound of thy left-hand I humbly intomb all my offences of Neglâ—gence tepidity sluggishness cowardise and pusillanimity all my covetous desires all impurity and all intemperance Purge me O my powerfull Lord purifie me O my merciful Savior Give strength comfort and courage to my feeble and frail nature that I may pass undauntedly through all difficulties and dangers to come to thee my Iesu to lay hold on thee and to repose in thee the only Centre of my desires Grant me O my Lord chastity of body and cleaness of heart temperance in my appetites and sobriety in my senses gravity in my deportment and moderation in all my proceedings that nothing may dislike thee in my soul nor dissolve the sacred knot wherwith thou hast fasten'd me unto thee Give me also O Iesu my Lord perfect poverty of spirit O permit not my soul intended to enjoy thee the only solid and satiating riches to be intangled with the least affection to the poor and perishable trifles of this world Behold I cast my self uncloathed from all creatures into thy naked embraces O crucified Saviour I desire to clip nothing in my folded arms but a breast burning with desires to please thee my Creatour and a heart melting away in thy love I make choice of thy bare Cross O Christ for my best inheritance I stretch out my opened folds to meet thy holy and heavenly huggings O let me never more be unclasped from thy blessed bosom Be thou O my great-little-naked-Iesu my rest during the short time of my life and my refuge at the dreadful hour of my death 6. And now O mercifull Saviour I humbly convert my eyes and contemplation to thy sacred Head crowned with thorns and thy divine Face all besmeared with gore and spittle for my sake Here I implore strength O Jesu for the weaknesses of my head and pardon for the wickednesses of my five wits and senses O my Lord I desire to bury in these thy innumerous wounds the enormous number of my iniquities and I beseech thee for these thy sufferings sake to adorn my weak capacity with so much solid wisdom as may fitly suit with my condition O let me never think speak or act any thing which is not seasoned with the salt of discretion Let me seriously weigh each circumstance and patiently wait thy leave and leasure before I leap into any work Inlighten me to see clearly thy will and pleasure and impower me exactly to fulfil and follow it Open the eyes of my Understanding to behold my own baseness and wickedness and give me thy gracious assistance to reform it Help me to form a right judgement of the real vileness and vanity of all transitory things and indue my heart with courage to contemn them Inebriate my affection ô amiable Iesu with the sweetness of thy love and let all worldly solaces savour of bitterness to my soul Let me be deaf blind and dumb to all things which are not thy self ô my crucified Saviour Let me prudently discern and piously perform each parcel of my duty in it's due circumstance of time place order measure and manner Let that holy and innocent simplicity which is the vertue of thy Saints shine in all my actions Let me not be curious to know much but careful to practise much and cordial to love thee much O
my only Lord and love Cleanse my Will from all self-seeking Keep my Memory from all superfluities Close up my Senses fâ—om all vanities that my happy soul separated from all sensible images may quietly tend to thee only sweetly repose in thee and continually enjoy thy blessed presence O let thy pure and perfect love dear Lord Iesu be the faithfull scout-watch over all my proceedings that no forreign affection no sinister intention no self-liking or self-seeking may steal into my heart and defraud or disturb it's happy enjoyment of thee and holy unity with thy divine Spirit Grant O my Lord that I may prudently turn all good events and all bad accidents to my spirituall profit by reflecting wherefore they befall me of what they warn me and how far they concern me Let me learn thereby gratitude to thy goodness fervour in prayer contempt of my self humility of spirit care of my actions resignation to thy will amendment of my life or what else thy holy Spirit shall please to intimate by these fatherly visitations O sacred Head of my crucified Saviour be thou my certain succor during my lives conflict and my sure place of retreat in my last agony with death 7. And lastly I reverently approch to thy dear Heart ô amiable Lord Iesu opened with a cruell launce in the sight of thy blessed Mother and thy beloved Disciple for the love of my soul O my Iesu I here implore thy pardon for all my perverse affections and irregular appetites Give me thy leave ô my loving Lord to creep into this sweet hole of the rock this sacred cleft of the wall this unlock'd closet of heavenly treasures this saving Ark of the new Testament and shut thou O Iesu the door from without that free from the deluges of all wickedness and dangers of the world flesh and devil I may sit solitarily silently and sweetly hearkning to thy divine whispers in my elevated soul Purge all my impurities ô my dear Saviour in the pretious blood streaming from thy patent side and replenish my heart with thy perfect love Oh! drown me wound me burn me and consume me in thy divine flames of affection that I may love thee strongly purely perfectly perseverantly O grant me to leave all things with alacrity for thee my beloved Iesu though never so great to lothe all things joyfully for thy love though never so good to do all things contentedly for thy honour though never so hard to suffer all things patiently for thy sake though never to painfull and to persever constantly in my pious practices for the sole satisfaction of thy holy will and accomplishment of thy blessed pleasure O let me be incessantly calling and knocking at this sacred gate of mercy Let me be still sighing and seeking after thee my Iesus my Saviour my Lord and my love Let me be alwayes thinking ever talking and perpetually tending to unite my heart to thine to conform it unto thine to transform it into thine that I may be all thine and thou all mine for time and eternity Grant also dear Iesu that I may truly love all others in thee and for thee O inflame my charity quicken my faith rectifie my intentions strengthen my confidence in thee destroy all complacence in my self establish me in all these my good purposes and let me be as often minded of my now-promised duty and incouraged to proceed forwards in the path of perfection as I shall eye the sacred image of thy crucified humanity Elevate my desirous soul unto thy self ô Iesu my Lord above all chances changes and creatures Oh! let it be so totally attentive to thy presence so intirely taken up in thy contemplation and so wholly absorpt in thy love that no outward objects may touch or trouble it no inferiour cares or cogitations may intangle it nothing may impede the free intercourse of thy heavenly friendship nothing may stop the sweet influence of thy divine graces or any way interrupt it 's happy quiet and holy tranquillity O dear and opened Heart of my dying Lord Jesus be thou my sweet comfort during this lives pilgrimage and my sure Sanctuary in it's last period FOR SVNDAY Of perfect Union with God The Seventh Exercise 1. O Infinite immense and unmeasurable abyss of all bounty O ever-flowing fountain of mercy O undraynable Sea of love O my Lord my Soveraign my Saviour and my Sanctifier Behold I return into thee the sweet source of my beginning I run into thee the gracious preserver of my being and I desire to rest in thee the only hope of my souls happiness Be thou henceforth O my Creatour the sole subject of my thoughts and the only object of my love Be thou ô God of my heart heart of my life life of my soul and soul of my love my part and my inheritance for ever I choose thee only I offer up my self wholly I consecrate my self heartily and dedicate my self eternally to thy love honour and service Ah good God! where dwellest thou which is the pleasant plaee of thy abode ô King of glory and comforter of my soul I seek nothing but thy lovely presence I desire nothing but the presence of thy love My soul sighs to see thee my heart covets to have thee my love longs to enjoy thee and I can expect no perfect content untill I am totally united unto thee If I now beg a glimpse of thy divine face O my glorious Lord then a drop of thy heavenly grace and afterwards a dram of thy dear affection Yet in all this it is thy self O sweet God which I demand thy whole self is the only satiating object of my boundless desires and unlimited affections 2. I desire to love thee ô only amiable Lord God by all means and beyond all measure until I am totally transformed into thee by love O do thou freely and fully possess my spirit guide it govern it inlighten it inflame it elevate it inform it and transport it how and when thou pleasest Oh! Let all adulterate love be quite banished all multiplicity vanish away and all impurity and self-seeking swallowed up Let thy love be my light my liberty my life Lord I desire but two things in this world To love see tast and enjoy thee my best beloved and to be humbled despised rejected and esteemed a reprobate for thy love O sweet life O loving Jesu what a heaven what a happiness is it to love thee O how lovely how loving and yet how little loved is my God O source of all goodness and centre of all good souls What is the greatest love of mother friend life or any thing else Art not thou my God all this to me and all in all Ah my soul what didst thou ever best love And didst thou love thy Lord God as much I blush O my dear Lord I sigh and am ashamed to answer I will henceforth do any thing suffer any thing and leave all things for thy love I will not live but
I will kiss thee I will conjure thee to remain with me I wil rather lose my self than leave thy presence My beloved is mine his honour is mine his heart is mine his heaven is mine And I am his behold the key the keeper the soul the body the lord the whole ô my God is thine Behold my liberty my life my love all is thine ô my Jesu and thine alone Repose therefore as a sweet posie between my breasts sleep like a bridegroom in my heart and reign like a King in the most intim closet of my soul Come Lord Jesu come quickly take full possession of thy own Come and please thy self love thy self and serve thy self in me as thou desirest and deservest to be pleased loved served Let thy love O King of love be the life of my soul and the lease of my life that when I cease to love I may cease to live In thy love O Jesu I end this act of love though my desire actually to love thee be endless Oh! let me live and dy in thy love and for thy love that by love I may for ever reign and remain with thee in thy Kingdom of love Amen THE THIRD TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST Or The Ascent of the pious soul by Steps and Degrees of Vertues to the happy Mountain of Perfection Psal 83. v. 8. They shall go from vertu into vertu The God of Gods shall be seen in Syon AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Devout Champions tending to Perfection THis Spirituall ladder O dear Souls will shew you how much you have profited in pure solid devotion how far you have proceeded in the way of the Spirit how forward you are in seeking God forsaking your selves what progress you have made in your journey towards heaven Contemplate therefore your selves often in this impartial mirrour bewail your backwardness shake off your sloathfulness increase your fervour and encourage your diligence to climb this sacred Mountain of Perfection and to pass on cheerfully from vertu to vertu Psal 83. 8. till you happily come to the beatifying sight of your Lord God in Sion The Seven Degrees of Perfection 1. VPon the first Step stand they who are Faithfull Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgements and Careful to avoid mortall sin These are Beginners who have little inward light stand upon slippery ground and though they may be saved yet so as by fire 2. On the second Step stand Proficients who strive to avoid venial sins and conquer their sensuality but are slow in tending to Perfection and subject to be self-conceited 3. On the third Step stand they who casting off sloath tame themselves with austerities but their intentions are not pure nor they well grounded in self-denial 4. On the fourth Degree stand they who have gotten into their interiour but yet seek for solaces and are discouraged with adversities 5. On the fifth Step stand they who are fully resigned and perfectly obedient but fail for want of experience and courage 6. On the sixth Step stand they who have gotten a perfect habit of resignation and constancy but desire comforts to enable their perseverance Here also stand they who are indifferent to comforts or desolations but yet they rest in Gods favours with some propriety Here furthermore stand they who are satisfied with God only but are not absolutely as willing to leave divine favours as to have them 7. On the seventh and highest Degree of Perfection stand the elevated and contemplative souls Gods faithfull friends and favourites who are perfectly indifferent resign'd and obedient in all things to his divine will and pleasure The first and lowest Degree of Perfection THe first Step and groundwork of all vertue and perfection is To be well setled in the Vpon the first step of this ladder stand Beginners who are Faithful Catholikes Fearful of Gods judgments Careful to avoid mortal sin Catholick faith Fearfull of Gods severe judgements and Careful to avoid all mortal sin This is the Church porch and entrance into Gods holy Temple but they who stand here remain cold in charity carelesse and undiligent in their lesser duties remiss in spiritual exercises negligent in thinking of their obligation by which they stand ingaged to tend towards perfection and finally they greedily gape after all conveniencies of their corrupted nature and give up themselves to glut and solace their depraved sensuality These Beginners have very little But they have little inward light or no inward light they know not what is the meaning of mortification what it is to get into their interiour or what Introversion signifies but they seemingly satisfie and secure themselves in that they have a will to avoid the known and capitall sins whereby they hope to escape hell and avoid Gods heavy judgements Surely such souls stand upon very unsafe and slippery ground and Stand upon slippery ground their salvation is in a doubtfull and dangerous condition for they are so blinded and bewitched with self-love and sensuality that they cannot well distinguish perfectly discern nor rightly judge what sins are of mortall danger and what not so that conversing dayly amidst such multitudes of perils and shaking hands with the world the flesh and the devil with so much freedom so little care and precaution what do they else but dance as it were upon the very brink of hell from whence if they once tread awry they infallibly tumble headlong into that bottomless dungeon of eternall perdition Yet in case they should indeed And though they may be saved foot it so warily all their life time that death takes them not tripping nor fall'n into mortall offence a thing most rare and not to be presumed on by any one who carries himself so carelesly they shall surely be saved but so as by fire They must expect a most sharp and severe Yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 13. 15. punishment a long and piercing purgatory by reason of their unmortifi'd affections to venial sins their giving scope to their unbridled senses their neglect of Gods love their coldness in charity and their tepidity in tendance to perfection And as for their good works they are not likely to be there much available since their groundwork was servil fear their end self-love and their whole drift and intention altogether sinister and deficient from that purity and perfection wherewith they should have been performed The Second Degree of Perfection THey stand on this second Step who hearkning to Gods holy inspirations following his internall On the 2. step stand Proficients Who are careful to shun venial sins and conquer sensuality attractions and obeying the sweet invitations of his Spirit keep themselves disingaged from all vain affections to the world yield not to the enticements of flesh and blood resist the suggested temptations of the devil and carefully avoid all occasions of offending their Lord and maker so much as venially To help on this pious design they put
the soul is wounded with love fick of love and languishing for love after a long experience in the way of the Spirit and a serious application of her self to the practice of solid vertue having truly gotten into her own interiour and happily ascended the steep mountain of Perfection is become deeply wounded with love sweetly sick of love and heartily languishing after love So that she crys out with that fainting Spouse in the Canticles O tell my beloved that I languish with love This infirmity is not to death but for Gods glory for the Soul in this state defyes all sin deserts whatsoever is not God and desires him only she grows weary and sick of all creatures and aspires after the embraces of her Creator And as an infirm person loseth appetite and loathes all the wonted contents of nature so here the soul feels no gust takes no pleasure findes no comfort in any earthly objects Shee lyes sick and seized on by this mystical feaver caused by the violent heat of heavenly love and here she is in the degree of contemplative purgation when she findes no support no stay no tast no quiet no content in any thing whatsoever And therefore she â—oon soars up from this Step to the next The Second Degree of Love WHerein she rouseth and raises In the 2 she seeks her Physician up her self and casts about which way she may seek and find her loving Physician who can only cure and comfort her she gets up early and eagerly enquires after him without intermission or cessation whom she failed to find in her bed at night in the first degree She faithfully follows the prints of his steps turns over natures book dives into all creatures questions all she meets Oh! have you seen him whom my soul loveth Yet she stays no where stoops not to the lure of any created object she demands and passes on she leaves all for him whom she only loves and longs after She holds no discourse with Angels themselves but listens only to his heavenly voice and desires nothing but to see a glimpse of his beatifying countenance O shew me thy face let thy sweet words sound in my ears Here love bears all the sway and hath made so deep an impression in the pious soul that she is perpetually solicitous for love ever sighing after love and still carping caring and seeking for her well beloved in all things All her throughts tend to him all her discourses drive at him all her affairs end in him If shee sleeps she dreams of him if she wakes she talks of him Finally she is always in all things in all places transported into this object of her love and swayed towards this Centre of her life And recovering new strength ascends upward to a further Degree The Third Degree of Love WHerein she works with more heat and vigour and of which the King-Prophet speaks In the 3. she fears her own unworthiness and the loss of her beloved Psa 111. Blessed is that person who fears the Lord for he will exceedingly desire to fulfill his holy laws Whence may be inferr'd that if Fear which is Loves daughter cause such effectual desires how efficacious will those desires be which proceed immediately from Love it self The Soul in this Degree beleeves that her best works done in the behalf of her beloved are very base inconsiderable she runs over her Registers of accounts sums up her numerous exploits measures her long suffâ—ances and surveys her high services and they seem at best but poor and mean performances of a greater duty she finds them nothing worth by reason of the excess of affection which inflames and consumes her If Jacobs love to Rachel had so powerful an influence upon his spirit that his twice seven years apprentiship seem'd to him but a Gene. 29. 20. few dayes by reason of the ardour of his desire What admirable effects will the Creators love produce in that Soul which it hath absolutely seized upon entirely possess'd and throughly penetrated in this third Degree She will be piously troubled and angry with her self that she doth so little for so great a Majesty and if she might lawfully she would most willingly give up her self to be minc'd into a thousand morcels for his love honor and service and receive therein full comfort content joy and satisfaction It truly seems to her that shee troubles the earth she treads on and the ayr she breathes in and that she unprofitably takes up a place in the world as a barren tree which brings forth neither flowers nor fruit Hence springs a further admirable effect that she verily thinks her self the worst of all things created considering what she owes and calculating what she pays for Love teacheth her how much God deserves and Humility tells her how little she doth and because shee finds that all her best endeavours are full of defects and imperfections and that her highest way of corresponding to the love of her heavenly Lord is so low and unbeseeming his Majesty she is inwardly pained and confounded in her self A soul in this state is far from any puff of pride presumption vain glory or censuring of others and is therefore duly disposed to mount up to the next Degree The Fourth Degree of Love WHich is of suffering for her In the 4. she willingly suffers for love beloved freely and cheerfully without the least repining or reluctancy because true love makes the heaviest burdens seem light and the greatest labours easie In this estate was that Spouse when she spake to her beloved Place me as Cant. 8. 6. a signet upon your heart put me as a seal upon your arm because love is strong as death c. The Spirit hath here such a vigour that it absolutely subjects and subdues the flesh and as much slights all motions of sensuality as a well rooted tree doth the wagging of one of his little leaves Here the soul seeks not at all her own gust or comfort either in God or any of his gifts nor demands any grace in order to her own solace or support but all her care is to cast about her which way she may render some acceptable service to the Divine Majesty and how she may content and please him in any thing which she can do or suffer for that he deserves it for his love and goodness Many seek their own content in God But Few seek to give God content towards her though such her services cost her never so dear Ah! Good God how many of your followers seek in you their own content and comfort sigh after your favours expect your cherishings and run after your gifts and graces But alas how few are they who strive to give you content and to present you with any worthy donative at their own cost and charges without some touch of self love or proper interest You are ever open-handed ô bountifull Creator and ready to showre your heavenly benefits
possess my heart that there were no room at all remaining for any bastard or base love of things created Good Jesu how truly happy and holy should I be if I could clearly behold my own nothing in thy all if I could embrace crosses as crowns and swallow down all contemprs and confusions as milk and hony O when shall I be so elevated in spirit above my self by extasie of love as to be able and willing to humble my self under all creatures without repugnancy Alas shall I never be content to forsake all and be forsaken by all Yea having lost and left all foâ— One to be left by that One who iâ— my All and so remain quiet iâ— my own nothing How long shall I he wallowing in flesh and blood how long shall I delay and dally in false loves How long shall I sigh and not enjoy seek and not find live and not love Come my Lord and love Lord Jesu come quickly Let the fire of thy sweet love so consume in me aâ—l dross of self-self-love and so transform my spirit into thee that I may take all from thee indifferently give all to thee liberally and rest and repose in thee â—ternally Lord let me be thine or nothing Love or not live The third Part is the Conclusion which consists also of three Acts. 1. Contrition which is a hearty and humble sorrow for our sins ingratitâ—des disloyalties tepiditie c. O my God! how little did I love 3. Part. 1. Contrition thee when I so carelesly offended thy Majesty Oh! that I had never sinned mortally though it had cost me my life immediately O that I were sure never more to swerve from thy sacred will and commandements Let me henceforth endure dear Jesu a thousand deaths of my body rather than admit one deadly sin again into my soul O pity and pardon my past follies and frailties and prevent me with thy gracious blessings against future fallings How great ô Lord is my obligation to serve and please thee were it but for thy favours conferr'd thy benefits bestow'd and thy love powr'd out upon me and yet ungrateful wretch that I am how poorly have I corresponded Oh! that I had so deep a sense of my sins that my heart might break with sorrow Hide not ô Lord thy face from me shut not up thy mercy gates against me for though I have most grievously gone astray yet I am resolv'd upon an entire amendment correction reformation of my whole man this strong resolution which is thy gracious gift grounds my hope in thy goodness emboldens my confidence in thâ— mercy and gives me courage and comfort in thy love 2. Resignation in all our wanâ—â— wishes desolations and distresses â—â— the divine will and pleasure I am indifferent O my dear Lord 2. Resignation to sickness and health to light and darkness to delight and desolation I am thine sweet Jesu put me where thou wilt do with me as thou wilt send me what thou wilt I am content not only to have nothing but to be nothing so thou â— my Lord be all things unto me I acknowledge my self unworthy to beg and less worthy to obtain and therefore I resign my self still to beg and yet still to want even that which I most wish which is all light all liberty all love all comfort all content yea even all vertu peace and perfection so long as it shall please thee O father I am thine ever thine all thine body and soul for time and eternity Live Jesus only 3. Complacence and confidence the first that our God is what he is the next that he will heal our wounds supply our wants satisfie our wishes and turn all to our good I am glad ô my glorious Lord 3. Complacence and Confidence God that thou art so worthy of all love though I of all others am not worthy to love thee I am as joyful for what thou art o great God as if all thou hast were all mine and I will love thee in all I am and have as being all thine Thy Cross is my comfort thy Will my well fare and thy love my life so that if I can but suffer for thee do thy will and follow thy love I shall do all that is necessary I am indeed dry dark and desolate but since it is thy will I am sure it is my good and therefore sufficient for me and satisfactory to thee I hope thou wilt one day compleat thy own heavenly design in my soul healing my wounds supplying my wants fulfilling my desires and filling my yet empty heart with thy sweet presence and perfect love In the mean space I will say and sing Live Jâ—sus Live my Lord my love my life my all whose name bâ— blessed by all whose will be accomplishâ—d in all whose honour be advanced above all An advertisement touching the precedent Exercise 1. We must perform it dayly diligently discreetly and with great confidence and courage 2. Yet without propriety that it may neither hinder the operation of the Holy Ghost within nor works of due obligation and obedience without 3. If in the practise of this introversion we find dryness and feel little devotion we may somtimes fitly resume in lieu of the second part or consideration our wonted exercises whereto our minds are more addicted ending the same with the Conclusion here prescribed being ever duly disposed to follow the holy Spirits invitation to higher matters If we faithfully observe these things we shall infallibly receive comfort and speedily perceive our own unspeakable profit and progress by the practise of this pious exercise as being indeed the end of all other externall devotions and the short sure simple and Râ—gia via leading to a spirituall devout and divine life The third Maxim That of all internal Prayer the affective is most noble necessary and profitable FOr the end and drift of all discoursive Prayer is to move inflame and enkindle our affections in the love of God and vertue and therefore all discourses must be left by little and little as our souls can more and more live in Faith and simplifie themselves from materiall objects images and conceptions and only tend to God by a sweet and secret motion of the will an amourous correspondency to the Divine operations and inward impulses of his holy Spirit treading down and transcending all things under God by discreetly forgetting and unknowing them The fourth Maxim That Meditation is a seeking Contemplation a seeing of God PRayer in generall according to As is more amply declared in our Introduction to the Spiritual Pilgrimage the known division is either Vocall or Mental Mentall Prayer is An Elevation of our spirits into God For as our Creatour is elevated above all creatures so our souls cannot see talk and treat with him purely and perfectly but by leaving them all and lifting up themselves above them all This Elevation is by means of Meditation Contemplation Thanksgiving and Petition Which
4. Essentiall parts of Prayer S. Tho. 2. 2. q. 83. a. 7. are the wings by which our soul fly to God and the four essentiall parts of prayer all others as Preparation lecture examen oblation points conclusion and the like being only accidents and properties thereof The difference between Meditation and Contemplation is this We Meditate when we seek after truths and cast about for reasons The dâ—fference between Medâ—tation and to affectionate our wills to the embracing of Gods love Christian vertues or works of piety and perfection For our Vnderstandings are as it were the Steels and our Wills the Flints which no sooner touch each other but the sparks of holy affections presently fly out inflaming and actuating our disposed souls with heavenly love We Contemplate when we steadily Contemplation and unmoveably behold God by Faith believing that we have him truly with us and within us and so leaving all other subjects objects reasons and discourses to look on him as present love him in silence and feed on his only satiating sweetness And this Contemplation is either Ordinary or Perfect or Transcendent Ordinary Contemplation is when Contemplatâ—on is threefold 1. Ordinary S. Tho. in 3. dist 32. our souls make use of their imagination and such Species as they have drawn from sensible objects first purifi'd subtiliz'd and immaterializ'd by the Vnderstanding to conduct them to their Creatour Perfect Contemplation looks directly 2. Perfect upon the increated light fixes her view upon the eternall verity and perches immediately upon the divine being and perfections without any admixture of fancy or assistance of creatures This is call'd dark Contemplation because our souls discharged from all inferiour objects and receiving no enlightnings from below are wholly daz'led and as it were blinded with the bright splendour of Gods incomprehensible Majesty framing no sensible Idea of him but beholding him with the eys of faith by way of Negation and simple adhesion to his divine Essence Transcendent Contemplation 3. Transcendent mounts up yet higher above all intelligible species and may fitly be term'd the Cousin german of beatificall vision and that last heaven whereunto S. Paul was rap't where not only all use of Sense is extinguisht and all acting of Vnderstanding abolish't but the spirit is totally transported absorpt and inflam'd with Seraphical love and the whole inward man is drown'd annihilated extasi'd and ineffably united to the Divinity so that the thus elevated soul can neither say or consider God is with me or I am with God for such advertency or reflexion is sensible whereas this most eminent Contemplation imports an absolute silence and forgetfulness of our selves and all things whatsoever and an intire conjunction with our Creatour as shall be hereafter further declared The Practise of the four essential The 4. parts of Prayer exemplifi'd parts of prayer is in this or the like manner Taking some mystery of our Saviours life as for example his praying in the garden of Gethsemani As is shewed in the following Maxim for our subject or ground-work we first examine our consciences ask pardon for our sins and make resolutions of amendment Secondly we give up our willâ— irrevocably to God seeking purely his glory and not our own gust c. Then we enter upon the first essentiall part of Prayer which is Meditation considering our 1. Meditation dear Redeemer in his bloody sweat sighing weeping praying and his disciples sleeping Vpon this sad spectacle we make some discourses concerning the person that suffers the love wherewith he suffers the subject for which he suffers Then our affections being moved 2. Contemplatâ—on by these considerations and inflamed in Gods love we slide sweetly and insensibly into active Contemplation leaving all discourses and looking with our eyes of Faith upon our suffering Lord. And having melted away in his 3. Thaâ—ksgivâ—ng loving presence for so long time as our Devotion or the holy Spirits invitation lasts we heartily thank him for having thus suffer'd for our salvation And lastly we implore his grace 4. Petition that we may faithfully follow his steps and above all that he will grant us his love which we must filially affectionatly humbly and confidently beg at the conclusion of all our exercises The fifth Maxim That continual Recollection is the Exercise of Exercises and the immediate way to bring us to Perfection and divine Vnion THat we may rightly conceive the verity of this Maxim let us here in the first place take a view of the whole manner meaning method and practice of this sublime exercise in these ensuing Canons 1. That all places are proper for Recollection but the more quiet the more proper Wheresoever we live we may and should send up our Petitions and breathe forth our affections to our every where present Lord and lover in publick and in private in tempests and in calms amidst all noises of employments and in quiet corners of retreat Job prayed well on a dunghill and Jonas in the Whales belly but Judas did not so in his Apostleship and society of Jesus Yet when solitude silence and repose may be obtained they are the fiâ—test 2 2. q. 188. a. 8. instruments of Contemplation and therefore most highly to be prized and most diligently embraced I Ose 2. 14. will lead him into the desert says our Lord and there I will speak to his heart 2. That to pray on our knees is a posture most pleasing to God Let us not hunt for excuses pretend want of forces nor cloak our laziness and languour with that misinterpreted Maxim That Prayer must have the quietest easiest and least constrained composition of body but rather let us imitate our Lord Saviour since all his actions are our instructions whose humanity lay often prostrate on the earth Matt. 26. 39. Mark 14. 35. Ephes 3. 14. praying and adoring his divinity and let us follow the example of his Apostle who frequently bended his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us I say submit willingly to this direction unless evident weaknes or infirmity hinder us for this adoration and a far higher is due to the divine Majesty and therefore let us conceive the contrary to be a manifest temptation of our enemy 3. That we must especially at first prefix to our selves certain and set times of Recollection Let us not complain for want of conveniency time or opportunity to follow this exercise for if our wills be ready time cannot be wanting If our stomacks call on us for meat or our bodies for warmth we can find time to feed and clothe them are our souls less considerable Let us rather steal time from our sleep and recreation than want it for Recollection And since all our time is given us by God to be spent in his love and service let us re-give unto him at least the tithe thereof and dedicate two hours of four and twenty one in
for practice keep exactly some certain times of silence every day which our calling considered we have enjoyned our selves unto Secondly to decline imperceptibly divers unnecessary and impertinent occasions extroversions affairs companies curiosities c. Thirdly to speak modestly and moderately in time of speaking Fourthly to yield easily to others and not contest in words For all consists in denying and humbling our selves Now in Contemplation there are three sorts of Silence 1. When all fancies imaginations In Contemplation there is a threefold Silence and species cease in the soul So that she is silent as to any created object desiring no worldly thing but driving from her all that is not directly God to whom only she is silently joyfully and quietly attentive 2. When in this great calm she fits with Mary at her Lord's feet in a certain spirituall idleness as it were saying I will hear what my Lord speaks within me to whom he answers Hearken my daughter and behold and forget thy people and thy fathers house 3. When she transforms her self all into God her Will tasting his sweetnesse and she slumbring in his bosome in absolute silence desiring nothing more because fully satisfied So that here is a threefold silence 1. When no creature talks to us as having no objects of them in our Understandings and Memories 2. When we talk not to our selves as totally forgetting our selves and converting our inward man to God alone with a receptive subjection climbing above our selves by the act of Faith whereby our Understanding is united immediately to God 3. When God talks not to us but leaves us in the enjoyment of this divine sweetness and elevation of our selves above our selves O heavenly silence This hath been by some â—xperienced but can be by none sufficiently explicated The 26. Maxim That the perfâ—ct love of God and hatred of our selves must be our constant and continuall employment WE cannot love God except we hate our selves and if How to know whether we love God and hate our selves we would truly know how far we are advanced in this love and hatred First wee must weigh how willingly we can and doe submit our judgement in things contrary to our naturall inclination Secondly how quietly we can and doe suffer such things as are opposite to our sensuality as hard usage pains confusions c. We must not conceive we have any degree of pure and perfect love untill our affections are so totally transformed into God that he freely and fully possessâ—s our spirit guides it enlightens it inflames it elevates it how and when he pleaseth His love being our only light and life and we desiring only two things in the world First to love see tast and enjoy God only Secondly to be humbled despised reviled rejected reputed reprobates for his love O sweet life O loving Lord Jesu What heaven what happiness is this We may stir up our souls to an ardent love of God by these and the like motives First What is the object of our Moâ—ives to love God love and who is the authour of all our good Is it not God only What have we nay what hath he that he hath not given us meerly of love and for love thereby to woo to win to wed our loves our souls our spirits to himself 2. Who created redeemed converted called and conserveth us untill this present What hath he not done and endured to purchase our love 3. What is the greatest love in the world of mother wife friend life soul c. Is not God more than all this to us yea all in all What did we ever best love Did we love God as much O let us blush sigh and be ashamed at our gross ingratitude Live henceforth O Jesu my only Lord and love 4. Whose image doe we beaâ— whose bitter death was our ransome whose body and blood is our daily bread and drink who suffred so much for us and from us expected us so patiently invited us so sweetly received us so mercifully O Lord what shall we doe or say We are bound in thy chains of charity We love thee We are all thine c. 5. Upon whom doe wee depend each moment for our whole being both of nature and grace Our bodies depend not so much on our souls nor our life on air as all things body life soul depend upon thee O powerfull Lord God! O that I had whole worlds to offer thee infinit bodies to suffer for thee and innumerable souls to love thee 6. Have we not an inclination to love For what were we created Can we better employ our love than upon God Doth any Creature better deserve it or more desire it than our amiable Creator 7. Can any thing else fully quiet us in this life or totally content us in the next O no Sweet Saviour thou art my only safety security sanctity Oh what did I ever love in the world which did not in the end bring me remorse and repentance Is not all mix'd with many occasions of sin and misery all vain inconstant fading foolish deceitfull Our souls ô Lord are created S. Augustin to and for thee and untill they turn and return unto thee they will never find perfect peace quiet nor content What quiet had the Prodigal child till he return'd to his loving Father Jerusalem Jerusalem return to thy Lord God Why wilt thou seek after puddle water when as thou mai'st freely quench thy thirst at the fountain head I thirst ô my Lord give me this water 8. To whom must we have recourse amidst all the distresses of this miserable life Who will or can comfort us in the pains and pangs of death Who must be our Judge after death Who must be our eternall bliss and beatitude Thou only O our Lord and love art only all this and all things else to our souls And shall we please a creature to displease thee our Creator No Lord we will dy to all creatures that we may live to thee eternally 9. O my soul Upon what canst thou employ thy whole stock of love more reasonably than upon him who for thy love freely forfeited his own life 10. To whom canst thou give up thy self more profitably than to him who promiseth eternal life for thy love and that he will be all thine if thou wilt be all his 11. To whom canst thou convert thy heart wed thy affections more necessarily than to him who threatens eternal death if thou love him not O King of glory why menacest thou us with hell if we love not Can there be a heaven without thy love or a hell with it Or is there any heavier hell or death than not to love thee Had we not better cease to live than leave to love Oh! what shall I answer if I love not 12. What can make a soul more truly honourable and happy than to love God as he commandeth What privilege to be admitted into privacy with God to enjoy his company
wâ— is conquered and grievously wounded â— his enemies p. 10â— Chap. XVI That wee should keep oâ— hearts ever quiet and joyfull in our Lord p. 10â— Chap. XVII That pious purposes â—â— sometimes the deceits of the Devill â— hinder our progress in vertues p. 111 Chap. XVIII How the Devill endeavouâ— to draw us from the way of vertue p. 11â— Chap. XIX How our Enemy endeavours to make our vertues instrumentall to our ruine p. 144. Chap. XX. That we must never flatter our selves as having subdued our enemies but must often return to our wonted exercises as if we were yet Novices in this Spirituall Conflict p. 199 Chap. XXI Of Holy Prayer p. 200. Chap. XXII What inward or Mentall Prayer is and what Contemplation and the use thereof p. 208. Chap. XXIII How we may joyn Contemplation to this inward Prayer p. 211. Chap. XXIV Of another manner of Prayer by way of Meditation p. 214. Chap. XXV Of a way of Praying by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin p. 215. Chap. XXVI How to pray and meâ—â—tate by meanes of the boly Angels and heavenly Citizens p. 219 Chap. XXVII How to meditate upon the holy Crosse and Christ our Saviour banging thereon to excite and move our affections p. 222 Chap. XXVIII Of sensible devotion as also of spirituall drynesse and desolation p. 236 Chap. XXIX That the worthy frequenting of the most B. Sacrament is an esficacious means to conquer our passions p. 245 Chap. XXX How to excite in us affections of love by the sacred Communion p. 249 Chap. XXXI Of spirituall Communion p. 259 Chap. XXXII Of Thanks giving p. 262 Chap. XXXIIâ— Of the perfect oblation of our selves to our Lord God p. 263 Chap. XXXIV How to petition for Divine grace p. 270 Chap. XXXV Some short Observations concerning Meditation p. 273 Chap. XXXVI An exercise before the sacred Communion p. 278 Chap. XXXVII How we may devoutly offer up the sacrifice of the Mass p. 281 Chap. XXXVIII An exercise after the holy Communion p. 286 Chap. XXXIX A daily examination p. 289 Chap. XL. Being a Conclusion of the whole work p. 294. Lord we have fix'd our hopes on thee Then let us nere confounded be I Kings 15 18. Thou shalt fight against them vntill their vtter destruction With the four weapons of the Spirituall Combatant Diffidence of thy selfe Confidence in God Continuall Exercise and Devout Prayer THE Spirituall Conflict OR Of the Perfection of a Christian life CHAP. I. Wâ—erein Christian Perfection consists And of four things necessary to obtain it IF thou heartily and seriously The importance of this knowledg desirest ô dearly beloved in Christ to reach the sublimity of Christian perfection and to be truly united to thy Lord God by becomming 〈◊〉 spirit with him which is the most profitable employment and the most excellent and divine enterprize imaginable It highly imports thee to understand in the first place wherein this perfection of spirituall life consists 2. For some there are who for Some place perfection in austerity want of this necessary consideration imagine that this high perfection is placed in leading an austere life in the maceration of the flesh in the use of hair-cloth in much fasting watching and the like rigorous exercises and bodily afflictions 3. Others especially women judg Others in reciting many prayers of their progresse in spirituality by their daily recitall of many prayers their assisting at many Masses their frequent Confessions and Communions 4. And there are very many yeâ— Others in their exact observance even some of them Religious and cloyster'd persons who perswade themselves that perfection consists in frequenting the Quire in the exact observance of silence and solitude and in well-ordered discipline 5. Thus some by these pious practices All which are good means but not directly tending to perfection some by other externall exercises tend to this desired perfection but are all wide of the direct way leading unto it For though thesâ— outward and devout employmenâ— conduce very much towards the attaining it yet in them alone and their exactest observance it consists not Ti 's true that the discreet use of them is doubtlesly a forcible means to obtain the Grace of the holy Ghost to fortify us against our fleshes frailty to shield arm us against the deceits and assaults of our common and cruell enemy and finally to perform our practices of piety especially whilst we are new-champions and Novices in this spirituall conflict with more sweetnesse and alacrity Yea they produce plenty of fruits to them also who are well-experienced and skilfull combatants in this holy warfare who therefore afflict their body because it hath been instrumentall â— the offence of their Creatour â—herefore love silence and live in soâ—tude to shun all ocasion of sinne â—nd to attend their heavenly meâ—itations with more quiet and tranâ—uillity being untangled from the â—orlds impediments they are deâ—out and diligent performers of the â—ivine office they are fervent and requent in works of charity in prayer and holy Communion and all this for no other reason than God's honour and Glory and to unite themselves to him by the sacred bonds of sincere affection 6. Yet they who rest here and And they that rest in these lower exercises are in great danger place their end in these outward exercises do oft times endanger their own Salvation and this not by reason of the exercises themselves which are truly and naturally holy and warranted by the practice and example of many great and glorious Saints but for that they are so totally attentive to these lower exercises as they leave their inward man in its naturall affections and unrescuâ—d from the snares of the devill For the deceitfull fiend finding them gone astray in following their affections to those devotions gives them not only peace but also pleasure in the pursuance of them they seeme to tast they very sweets of Paradise yea to walk and talk with God and heare his divine whispers in their Souls such is their vain perswasion And are somtimes so absorpt in their curious and deep fancies of meditation that they conceit themselves even separated from the world sever'd from all creatures and rapt into the third heaven 7. But how dangerously all such As may appeare by the rest of their actions Souls are deceived and how wide they are strayed from the right way of perfection will easily appeare by the rest of their actions For they are commonly very singular curious censurers of their neighbours lives and conversations and prone to murmur at their proceedings And when themselves are advertised of their own errours or never so litle hindred from their accustomed exercises which they frequent chiefly for fashion's sake or barr'd from the ordinary use of the Sacraments you shall presently perceive them fall into passion unquietnesse and despair 8. And if it pleaseth God to the And especcially by their want of resignation in time of
affliction end they may truly understand their own state to send them some infirmity or permit some tribulation to befall them for such trialls are his touchstones whereby he proves his servants sincerity O how soon shall you discover the false foundation whereon they built the edifice of their feigned devotion how rotten is their inward man and how full of secret pride For they refuse to resigne their wills and to humble their hearts under God's powerfull hand in all the changeable courses of prosperity and adversity They will not according to the divine example of God's humble suffering Son subject themselves to all creatures nor take their seeming enemies that which truly they are to be their true freinds as being instruments of God's goodnesse pomotours of their perfection and helpers in the reformation of their unmortified passions which is an evident signe of their dangerous state For the eyes of their souls are dazzled and corrupted by gazing upon these outward actions though good arrogating to themselves I know not what degrees of perfection and from thence falling into self-conceit they judge rashly and contemn others Nor can they be recalled or cured unlesse God himselfe strikes strongly at the doore of their hearts and dissipates the darknesse of their interiour with the divine rays of his gracious light making them see their own danger and seeke the remedie For a great and manifest sinner is more easily reclamed than a seeming Saint whose secret iniquity is shrouded under the appearance of vertue and piety 9. Thus then it is manifest unto True perfection therefore consists in the knowledg of God and our selves thee ô my beloved that spirituall perfection consists not at all in the aforesaid practices and perswasions Know therefore that it is placed in no other thing than In the true knowledge of Gods goodnesse and greatnesse and of our own basenesse miserie and nothing and of the pronenesse of our naturall affections to all malice Also in the hatred of our selves and the love In the love of God and hatred of our selves In resignation to Gods will and denying of our own of God And lastly in the absolute denying of our own will and entire resignation of it to the divine will and pleasure That is that we totally submit our selves not onely to the Almighty God but even to every one of his creatures for his sake and this for no other end than onely to please his divine Majesty who deserves to be purely served highly honoured perfectly praised and glorified by all 10. This is the Abnegation which All which Christ hath taught us by word and example Christ our saviour so often inculcated This is the Obedience to which God's sonne invites and directs his faithful followers both by his words and by his example This is the desirable Crosse which his diligent servants are to lay on their shoulders and so follow the steps of their Saviour This is that love which our Lord so seriously frequently and carefully recommended to the whole world and especially to his Disciples as his particular friends and children after his last supper 11. If then my dearly beloved thou intendest to attaine to this high And we must also do it if we mean to purchase victory perfection thou must use violence to thy selfe and vanquish thine own affections both great and small thou must affect this fight and instruct thy mind to wage this holy war For the crown of victory is conferred only upon the stout and lawfull combatants Nor is there any thing more glorious to our selves or more gratefull to God 12. For as this battell we now treat of is the greatest and of most difficulty so is the ensuing victory most glorious to our selves and most gratefull to God in so much as if thou overcommest subduest mortifiest and rootest out thine own disordinate and unruly affections thou offerest up to God a more agreeable sacrifice than if neglecting this thou shouldst whip thy body till it were embrued in it's own bloud or fast beyond the austerity of the strictest Anchorites or convert thousands of Infidels and sinners to Christ's faith and perfect pennance For though the conversion of souls bee in it self more dear to our Lord God than the renouncing of our own wills in small matters yet it is thy part to will and do that chiefly and most carefully which Hee most strictly requires of thee And this is undoubtedly the serious mortification of thy untamed passions wherein thou shalt better please him than in any other highest and holiest employment 13. Being thus instructed ô dearly But to obtain it we must provide four necessary weapons beloved wherein Christian perfection consisteth and that to obtaine it thou must adventure upon a cruel and continuall warre if thou intendest to be a conquerour It befits thee like a stout Christian champion to arme thy-self with Four necessary weapons which are 1. Diffidence of thy self 2. Confidence in God 3. Continual exercise 4. Devout prayer Of all which weapons I shall by Gods assistance now briefly treat according to their several orders CHAP. II. Of the diffidence or distrust of our selves THis diffidence of thy selfe may be obtained by three manner Distrust of our selves which is gotten First by a deep sense of our own nothing of wayes First by a deepe sense of thine own basenesse and misery truly acknowledging that of thy selfe thou canst not doe the least good thing For man can no more effect any good or meritorious work by his own power than a stone if I may say it is able of it-selfe to ascend upwards and he hath almost the like inclination to evill as a heavie stone hath to the Earth's centre 2. The second way to get this self-distrust 2. By Prayer is to demand it of him whose gracious gift it is with humble and earnest prayers And to prevail in thy petition thou must first yield that thou truly wantest it and that of thy self thou canst never attain to it and thus totally naked present thy prayer with a constant faith and a couragious hope to be heard and to obtain this desired diffidence of thy self But let thy prayer encrease in dayly fervour and expect with perseverance the divine pleasure in the grant of thy petition and then be confident it will sooner or later be granted unto thee 3. The Third is That as oft as thou 3. By often reflecting upon our own weaknesse failest and fallest into sin thou presently turn thy soules eye toward thine own basenesse misery and inabilily to act any thing that is good for untill this be truly known and humbly acknowledged by thee never hope to be secure from falling 4. Whosoever therfore aspiâ—es to And this self-knowledge is leston musâ— needs be learn'd a blessed union with the increated verity must first study this necessary lesson of selfe-knowledg For God permits the proud presumptuous to fall sometimes into some grievous sin
affection towards it So that these too cheif powers of man's soul miserably deceived and misled walk continually as in a circle from this darknesse into others and fall from one great errour into others more grievous 5. Take heed therefore of fastning thy affection upon any thing And the same caveat is necessary also in holy things whatsoever before it be wel weighed and examined by the Vnderstanding and recommended to God in prayer that so thou maist truly discerne whether it be good or evill And to this I exhort thee not only in all indifferent things but even in them also which are good and holy for though they are evidently good in themselves yet they may prove otherwise to thee by reason of some circumstance of time place measure or obedience Whence it often happens that many have endangered themselves in their most laudable and holiest exercises 6. Thou must also warily retain The Understanding is to be also weaned from Curiosity thy Vnderstanding from Curiosity lest it draw that into the soul which may retard it in the intended purchase of victory For a curious enquiry after earthly things which are impertinent to thy spiritual purpose though it may bee sometimes permitted yet t is generally the poyson of the spirit Restrain therefore thy Vnderstanding to thy utmost and strive to make it simple and foolish And made simple and foolish to worldly things As for the changes and chances in the world whether they be great or small if they concern thee not consider them not And when thou needs must heare or behold them let thy Will alwayes contradict them Yea even in the knowledge of heavenly things be sober and humble and content thy self in the onely desire to know thy crucified Saviour and his blessed life and death Abandon all other things for so thou shalt yield to thy Lord a most gratefull service who puts them into the list of his best freinds that desire no more knowledge than what is sufficient to inflame their hearts in the love of his goodnesse and hatred of their own wickednesse for in the search of all other knowledg nothing but self-love and a certain pernicious pride lyes secretly lurking 7. If thou thus weanest thy Vnderstanding How highly this conduceth to perfection from these curiosities thou shalt happily escape many ambushes of thy enemies For the wicked spirit marking the unchangeable will and resolution of those travellers tending to spirituall perfection not to yield their consent to sin layes his crafty plots first against their Vnderstanding that so he may by little and little get the mastery And how cunningly the devill plots against i◠over it and the Will together To this end hee suggests to the learned and sharpwitted sublime and subtile conceits that they may think themselves already united to the divinity so forget themselves and give over the correction of their own consciences the resignation of their wills and study of their own nothing And thus they are insnared By suggesting pride to our understanding with pride and make to themselves a certain Idoll of their own wisdome in their Vnderstandings and are so highly puffed up and perplexed in these vain thoughts that they now perswade themselves not to stand in any need of others counsell or direction 8. O the danger that these souls Which is far more dangerous and more difficulty cured than that of the Will are in and how hardly are they cured by reason that the pride of the Vnderstanding is far more perillous than that of the Will For hee that is proud onely in Will omits not all obedience but submits his judgement sometimes to others which he preferres before his own and beleeves it to be better But he that is puffed up with the pride of his Vnderstanding and assuredly believes his own opinion to be better than that of others ah what hope is there of his cure How shall he be brought to submit to anothers judgement when as he thinkes himself the wiser man For when the Vnderstanding which is the souls eye and should both see and correct its secret pride is it self blind and blowne up with presumption when light it self is become darknesse and the very Rule crooked thou easily conceivest what followes and what the end of those things is like to bee which depend upon such principles Wherefore take timely care to prevent this pride before it pierce thee to the marrow yeeld not up the reins to thy understanding but subject it to counsell and submit thine owne sense to others judgements become a foole in thy own conceit for the love of thy Lord and by this means thou shalt bee wiser than Salomon CHAP. V. Of the Will and the end to which we are to direct all our actions IF thou desirest ô dearly beloved 1. A will to do well sufficeth not to become one spirit with thy Lord God 't is not enough to have a pious and prompt will to doe good works but even that good thou doest must by his divine help and motion be totally referred to Gods honour and to please him onely In But our actions must be performed only to please God this thou must look to have a strong conflict with thine own nature which in all her actions and omissions seeks her own commodity and complacence especially in things spirituall Hence it is that when any good thing is proposed to be performed as from Gods will and pleasure shee readily undertakes to perform it but yet not as a thing pleasing to God or proposed by him but rather because she considers the commodities and content which man reaps by doing the will of God 2. Wherfore to the end thou Which that thou maist attain to maist wrest thy selfe out of this dangerous snare of the Devil and pernicious stumbling block cast in the way of perfection and by degrees get a custome to doe or not to doe because God will have it so and with an intention to please him only who should be the entrance and end of all our actions listen diligently to these following advices 3. When a thing is presented unto Apply thy understanding to Gods will thee to bee performed which is agreeable to the divine Will first lift up thy Vnderstanding unto God before thou appliest thy Will to execute it thus thou shalt clearly discern that it is his divine pleasure thou shouldest perform it and that thou shouldst doe it solely for his Honour and good liking And that thy will is drawn and moved by the divine will to effect this work for this onely end and intention because God will have it so for the honour and glory of his own most sacred Majesty 4. So likewise when thou wouldst omit or refuse the things not willed And take heed of being deceived by God resolve not rashly upon this omission untill thou hast directed the eye of thy Vnderstanding to the divine will as is even
other creatures in order to our service IN our Redemption he sent no Angel but his onely Son to pay our ransome not by the corruptible value of gold and silver but by the infinite price of his own precious bloud and by his dolorous and disgracefull death IN our Preservation Preservation each houre and moment fighting our battails for us against our enemies preventing and accompanying us with his heavenly grace and leaving with us his deare Sonne alwaies ready for our support and sustenance in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar THESE verily And many other benefits and many more are evident tokens of the high price he puts upon our meanesse and misery and of the love which our great Creatour bears to us his poore and caitif creatures and are in themselves such inestimable benefits that none but Which are so great that none but God himselfe can comprehend them his own divine understanding is capable to comprehend the least thereof And how much then are we bound in exchange to doe for so excellent a Majesty who hath done such things for us For if worldly Potentats receiving honour from private persons of lowest rank think themselves bound to return them reciprocall honour what ought our vilenesse endeavour towards the supreme Monarch of the Universe who so highly courts and cherisheth us CHAP. VI. Of a two-fold Will in man and the continual fight between them THou must take notice my dearly 2. Wills Rationall and Sensuall beloved of two Wills in man The one of Reason which is therefore called Rationall and superiour The other of Sense and so is named Sensual inferiour and sometimes sensuality appetite concupiscence flesh passion and the like And though each one of these is in man yet because the use of Reason truly makes us and denominates us men wee should never own any thing which our meere sensuality dictates till our superiour and rationall Will gives her joint consent 2. From this diversity springs all The Rationall is seated between Gods grace and our sense our spirituall conflict For our superiour Will and Reason being middled between Gods Will which is above it and our Sensuality which is under it still tempting and enticing it to naughtinesse therefore both of them that is Gods Will and our own Sensuality strive to get this our rationall Will to side with them and sometimes that othertimes this renders her subject and obedient to them 3. But this battail is of no great And the truly vertuous persons yield promptly to Gods will difficulty to them who are either truly vertuous or downright vitious For they who are vertuous come no sooner to the knowledg of Gods holy will but they presently yield their consent and bridle their brutish sensuality And the wicked do And the vitious to their sensuality contrarily according to their appetite checking the divine will which contradicts it They therefore chieflly feele the brunt of this battail especially at first who have been great sinners and are now resolved upon amendment and to this end sever themselves from worldly and fleshly delights the better to love and serve their Lord Jesus Christ for the future For the inward feeling and strokes of Gods will which their But they who of sinners are become converts have the greatest conflict Reason receives from above and the cruel contradictions and adverse motion of their Sensuality which it must necessarily suffer from below are so powerfull on each side that the poor Reason is between them both brought into extreme straits and perplexities 4 Wherefore let none think to Who must therefore resolve to beare patiently the losse of their pleasures gain the victory who is not instructed prepared and resolved to support patiently all such pains as he shall endure in leaving his past pleasures For this surely seems one of the chief causes why so few attain to true perfection because feeling grief and trouble in the beginning of their conversion and in the quitting of their depraved affections and desires they stand not fast to their resolutions but yield to their enemies who treacherously invade them not making manlike resistance with the sword of Reason but rather like cowardly souldiers they skulke away throw downe their armes yield themselves to the mercy of their enemies and become againe their bondslaves who will now more than formerly tyrannize over them EXPLICATION ANd amongst these one may Divers sorts of unmortified souls pick out some who indeed neither take away nor detaine their neighbours goods wrongfully but yet have their affections fixt excessively upon them which they possesse justly so likewise they will not purchase honours unlawfully but they love and desire them passionately They will keep the commanded fastings punctually but care not to mortifie their gluttony They will live continently but are loath to leave pleasing company which hinders their union with God and greatly retards them in their tendance to perfection From all which and the like petty-affections Whose affections are accompanied with much imperfection it follows that their good works are performed with a certain irksomnesse of mind and are accompanyed with divers self-interests and secret imperfections yea with self-conceit and good liking of their own actions and with a longing desire to be liked and loved by others But all these not only make no progresse in the way of spirituality but even return backwards and And who make no progresse in spirituality are in eminent hazard to fall into their former follies because they are neither inamoured with true vertue nor gratefull to their loving Creatour who hath freed them from the tyranny of the Devil They are moreover strucken with Ignorance and blindnesse since they But are full of ignorance and blindnesse neither understand nor see their owâ— danger but falsly and foolishly fancy themselves to be in a state of security 5. And here thou mayst perceive a Text. A danger in the choice of spirituall exercises discovered very perilous and pernicious deceit which very few take true notice of For many beginners in a spirituall course out of self-love make choice of such exercises as are most pleasing to themselves rather than most profitable unto their souls when as indeed they ought to begin with the knowledg of their own natural affections and the naughty desires of their sensuality and to make their first and fiercest encounter with these enemies and so long falling on and following this fight till they be entirely subdued to Reasons Empire as farre forth as in this life is possible CHAP. VII Of the fight against Sensuality and of the inward way of the Will to acquire Vertues AS often as thou feelest thy self assaulted by the motions of 1 When Sensuality rebels thy Sensuality convert thy minde quickly to thy Lord God and resist manfully And that thou maist become a conquerour in this combat furnish thy self with these severall wayes and wards against thy foes
thou thinkest which God forbid thou shouldest that thou hast done sufficient penance for thy petty-offences then reflâ—ct with thy selfe that none can enter the heavenly Kingdome but they must passe through the narrow gate of selfe-deniall and of patience in tribulation for thus Gods holy Sonne himselfe and all his blessed Saints ascended to their glory 7. Fourthly Nay put case thou And if there were another way yet thy duty to God binds thee to chuse this couldst find out some other way to get to heaven yet thou art obliged by the law of love and duty not to doe nor desire it For the Sonne of God chose the way of thorns and crosses by which he would enter into his glory and this for thy love and that thou shouldst imitate him who left thee this exact pattern of perfect patience 8. Lastly know for certain that As being most gratefull and pleasing to his Majesty amongst all the pious motives and meditations which thou makest use of in these or the like events and necessities for the comfort and confirmation of thy Will this seems to be one of the most efficacious To think what a joy and content it is to thy Lord God how he likes and loves thee when he beholds thee fight so stoutly for his sake For nothing surely can be more gratefull to thy Creatour than that thou kill and cut up by the root all depraved desires and plant true vertues in their places and this meerely for that thou well knowest it to be his holy Will and pleasure CHAP. IX That we must not shun the occasions of these combats ANd now my dearly beloved 1. The way to get true vertue is not to avoid but to seek the occasions of combat I adde to all these meanes hitherto mentioned for the acquisition of vertues this as a short and certain memoriall That thou neither feare nor fly the offered occasions of fighting against thy passions For if thou art desirous to have the habit of any vertue as of Patience for example thy way is not to shut thy selfe up from conversing with men or to shun those things whether words actions or cogitations which move thee to Impatience No thou As for example to get Patience shun not the company must not shun them I say but seeke them out desire them and love their company and conversation who are the causes of this thy disquiet And as often as thou shalt have occasion of intercourse with them prepare thy selfe and make ready thy Will to receive joyfully and endure patiently all tribulations and troubles which they can any way bring upon thee And this is thy onely way to accustome thy selfe to Patience 2. In like manner If thou art Or the imployment which is tedious to thee weary of any work which growes tedious and troublesome unto thee either for that the person who commands it displeaseth thee or because it is of it selfe offensive or that thou art thereby hindred from some other employment which thou wouldst more willingly embrace yet omit it not upon any termes but rather set sooner upon that work than any other be it never so painfull or displeasing And although the leaving it undone seems to settle and quiet thy mind yet still see thou desist not from doing it For thus thou shalt become more and more instructed in the way to get perfect Patience Nor is that supposed quiet at all solid because it springs not from a heart sincerely purified from all disorderly passion 3. And I teach the same lesson And the same rule is to be applied to troublesome thoughts concerning such thoughts as sometimes trouble and contristate thy mind To wit that thy aime be not utterly to expell them but kindly to entertaine them and treat them as gratefull guests because the trouble of their company inures thee to the patient suffering of all contrarieties And whosoever shall otherwise instruct thee ô my bâ—loved commands thee to fly that very thing in affliction which thou seekest to obtaine by fighting that is the vertue which thou desirest to gaine by conquering thine enemies 4. But yet a young and unexperienced Yet a young Scholar must be wary in waging this war Soldier in this spirituall conflict must warily enter the list to wage this warre with wicked thoughts and therefore I counsell him sometimes to oppose them othertimes to exchange them for others according as he perceives this or that way best profits him in the acquisition of vertues but never so But never desert the field to fly from them and totally leave them as to seeke to be quit of all trouble and irksomenesse which thence ariseth For though by this flight he cuts off the occasion of impatience yet he gets no strength or constancy of heart against the next rising motions thereof 5. Whence it followes that if the same Sergeants of Impatience doe at â—or then he will stil be unprovided another time seize on him he is soone terrified and quickly conquered because he was unprovided of armes convenient for the combate that is he had not fortified his mind with customes counsells thoughts and resolutions to keepe perfect patience in all events of Adversity This way is usefull against all imperfections carnality onely excepted And this way of warring is very profitable not onely against Impatience but all other Imperfections the carnall still excepted whereof shall be hereafter treated CHAP. X. Of the Fight against suddaine temptations and passions HE that is not yet accustomed to receive suddaine adversities and troubles with a calme countenance and quiet mind may thus enure himselfe thereto Let him first diligently consider them with his Vnderstanding then earnestly desire them with his Will and finally always expect them with a ready resolute and prepared Minde 2. The manner to ponder such First thou art to ponder them in thy understanding And foresee what is like to befall thee adversities by the Understanding is this Mark thine owne state calling and condition as also the place and persons where and with whom thou art like daily to converse thus thou maist easily foresee what may probably befall thee and how thou must carry thy selfe and fortifie thy mind against any suddain surprisall of thy passions And if some accident not foreseen chance to happen then besides this former strength already gained by that first resolution to bear all crosse events with an evennesse of mind thou maist thus farther help thy selfe 3. When thou perceivest that thou But if some other crosse happens not foreseene fly to the thoughts of Gods love and providence art sleighted scorned or any way injured presently enforce thy mind towards thy Lord and maker and weigh his immense bounty and infinite love to thee from which thought it will forthwith occurre to thy understanding that he is the chief cause of this thy trouble and tribulation and that he expresly permits it to befall thee that thou maist
the errour and idlenesse of them who out of sloathfulnesse think upon nothing but to make a speedy end of what they have enterprised litle caring to doe it well but onely striving to dispatch it quickly that they may the sooner enjoy their over much-desired quiet and repose 2. And because there is no better Text. remedy to recall one fallen into this sluggish vice than thus to settle him to some good work though the sloathfull man loaths all such employments having more thought upon the labour which he must undergoe The fruit of good works must be discovered than the fruit which follows it Therefore this good must be discovered and made apparent unto him and he must be given to understand that one hearty elevation of the mind to God or one onely bending of the knee humbly to the earth for his honour is more worth than all worldly wealth and treasures EXPLICATION ANd that as often as we make a diligent hast to speed a good work by using a certaine force and violence to our selves so often the holy Angels bring crowns of glorious victory from heaven to adorne our soules and that God by litle and litle takes away from the tepid and negligent those graces which he had formerly given them encreasing them to his faithfull friends and followers And as for the paine which is to Text. be taken in the prosecution of vertuous practices it must be so dexterously And the pains disguised hid and disguised from him that it may seeme lesse and lighter than it is As If thou shouldest perchance employ thy selfe in the exercise of pious meditation for the space of one whole houre and that seemes too long to thy lazy disposition use a pious fraude and perswade thy sensuâ—lity that after half a quarters time well spent in prayer thou wilt presently leave of And againe when this short space is past get thy body to have patience a litle longer before thou ceasest thy devotions and thus continuâ—ng from space to space the whole howre will soone be overpassed and thy sloath easily shaken of 4. But if indeed thou findest a reall Unlesse there be a reall disability disability of body to beare such labours thou maist lawfully leave it off for a time till by degrees it becomes accustomed to performe these practices of piety with more fervour and alacrity EXPLICATION THis I tell thee as condescending to thy sloath and weaknesse But if thou wouldest habituate thy selfe to make all labour light and all paines pleasant the best though the But the best way to get a custome of induring is to expect crosses continually most difficult way is to get before it expect it cheerefully embrace it at the first incounter whence thou wilt find that all tediousness in the performance thereof wil be turned into perfect quiet content since what thou dost thou dost voluntarily and willingly whereas if on the contrary thou seekest to shun labour it will And not to seek how to shun them not onely seeme irksome when it comes to be performed but formidable before-hand to thy apprehension so that thy very quiâ—t will be subject to trouble and the feare of this surprisall will continually alarme thy fancy thou wilt abhor all pains-taking as a thing loathsome and still dread the occurrence of such occasions persons or objects as are like to impose it upon thee 6. Marvaile not that I so much presse this point and inveigh against Negligence is highly prejudiciall to perfection this vice of Negligence I doe it for that it is seldome perceived and yet highly prejudiciall because it persecutes and pursues us most secretly and subtilly it falls upon us not by force but flattery it gnaws the very root of all spirituality and insensibly gangrens the marrow of our piety and devotion And our enemy hath no better or more alluring bait to And the most alluring bait of our enemy entice any one into his treacherous ambushes especially them who aime at spirituality Be thou therefore vigilant ô my dearly beloved pray heartily performe good works diligently and delay not the spinning of the wooll for thy nuptiall robe untill the marriage day be come when thou shouldest be ready and arrayed to goe before thy deare Spouse Reflect that thy God who Therefore take timely care to prevent it gave thee the morning doth not promise thee an evening therefore improve each moment to thy profit and remember the strict account which will be exacted thereof I And account that day loâ—â— in which thou hast done no goodaction conclude and counsell thee to give that day for lost though thou hast dispatcht never so many affaires wherein thou hast gotten no victory over thy enemies nor thanked God for his benefits CHAP. XIII How to governe our Sensuality THy Sensuality ô dearly beloved is the ordinary gate whereby the Devill enters into thee Let it be therefore thy chief care so to keep and curb it that it may rather be a doore alwayes open to let in thy Lord God to thy Soule Therefore in all thy commerce with earthly creatures be sure to have thy heart Keep thy heart disingaged from earthly creatures free and disingaged from them and often elevating the eye of thy affection to thy God looke upon him hidden in that creature as in his own work and then reflâ—ct that thy same Lord and love is within thee also and thou maist begin to confer with him in this sort O my mercifull maker and eternall Lord God thou art ever present with mee Thou art more within me than I am in my selfe and I ungratefull and forgetfull wretch remember thee not love thee not honour thee not 2. At other times elevate thy And contemplate thy creatours greatnesse thoughts to the contemplation of Gods incomprehensible perfections and rejoyce in those his goods greatnesses and glories more than if they were all thine owne And be more glad that he is incomprehensible in his Majesty than if he were within the reach of thy understanding and capacity 3. And when thou remarkest any And reduce all â—reated â—erfection to him the fountaine main perfection either of Grace or Nâ—ture in any man or woman as wisdome understanding piety justice and the like lift up thy selfe to him who is the bountifull bestower and consider them not as they are in that creature but reducing them to thy Lord God say Behold these ô my God are rivulets flowing out of thee the true living eternall and increate fountaine these are the rewards of thy servants issuing out of the immense Ocean of thy ineffable bounty 4. But when the beauty of any And all earthly beauty to heavenly glory creature allures thee to any delight and complacency passe presently from earthly beauty to the thought of supernall glory and therein onely taking pleasure say O my God when will the happy day come that I shall take in thee onely
for that he is impeded from the practice of good wotks So that the cause of Divers pretences for our impatience his impatience relates not to the sicknesse or adversity it selfe but partly to himselfe as deserving it partly to others whom he must be forced to trouble against his will and partly to the omission of his spirituall exercises 5. Thus he who failes in his ambitious But all unwarrantable seeking of honours and offices will tell you he complains not for his owne sake but for the necessity of his family and friends whom he might thus have helped Now that such men deceive themselves is made apparent by this that they are not much troubled when the very same effects come to passe by some other meanes or persons which seemed to afflict them and under which they covered their owne imperfection 6. For example Thou tellest me As is explained by an example that thy sicknesse makes thee not impatient because it is in it selfe grievous to thee but for that they who are about thee are thereby overburdened But should they whom thou so much compassionatest be as much overburdened in serving other sick persons it would not much trouble thee From whence it is evident that not the sense of their trouble but thine owne desire and selfe-love was the true root of thy Impatience And in this manner thou maist discover the hidden deceits in the rest of thy affaires EXPLICATION TO remedy this I advise thee The remedy is to separate the pain from the pretended circumstances my beloved that as soone as thou doubtest of such a deceit thou presently separate by the help of thy conception the pain which presseth thee from those circumstances which are pretended excuses for thy impatience and then reflecting upon that alone force thy selfe to produce true and efficacious acts of patience and resignation to suffer it willingly Thus thou wilt either become a true practiser of vertue or at least thine eyes will be opened to discover thy owne defects whereof thou wert formally ignorant 7. Wherefore I exhort thee that Text. Therefore desire not to be freed from thy Crosse if thou art able to carry thy Crosse with patience thou never desire to be freed from it for this desire brings with it two great evills The one is that if it destroyes not thy patience yet it disposeth thee by little and little to impatience The other is That it deprives thee of merit before God who esteemes that only a work of perfect Patience though short in reference to time which is done with the resignation of our wils to his divine pleasure 8. In this therefore and in all But conforme thy will to God's thy other works and proceedings follow this Rule Withdraw and purge thy heart from all other desires and demands than that onely purely and simply which is conforme to God's will And this is the way to be no more disquieted with adversity since no such thing can befall thee without his will and liking 9. But when some lawfull meanes Yet thou maist use lawfull meanes so thou takest heed of self-love must necessarily be used for the expelling of some overburdening adversity take heed left selfe-love creep into thy heart with them and see thou apply them not to bee thereby freed from thy pressure but onely because it is Gods pleasure that thou shouldst make use of those instruments and then thou canst not be discontented in case they should not conduce to thy deliverance from adversity EXPLICATION How to oppose the Devill striving to deceive us with indiscretion VVHen the Devill perceives 1. How to oppose the Devill striving to deceive us with indiscreâ—ion that thou walkest on warily in the right track of vertue so that his common cunning is become uselesse to his designe of making thee goe astray he then transformes himself into an Angel of light and solicites thee with delightfull thoughts flatters thee with passages of sacred writ and suggests examples of the Saints that so conceiting thy selfe climb'd up to the top of perfection thou maist fall more dangerously into the precipice which he hath dig'd for thee To this end he presseth And pressing us to afflict our bodies thee to the punishment of the body with disciplines abstinence hair-cloath and other extraordinary austerities that either thou may'st be puffed up with pride as thinking thou dost very much or mayst destroy thy health and so become uncapable to doe good works or lastly that having endured much in this kind thou maist grow weary of doing penance and abhor thy spirituall exercises and so become a prey to thine enemies and a slave to fleshly and worldly pleasures which hath hapned to very many whose presumption having led them on and left them to the conduct and violence of an indiscreet zeale after they had gone beyond the limits of their owne vertue by immoderate rigours perish'd at last in their owne inventions and so became laughing stocks to their enemies all which disasters will never befall him who diligently observes this doctrine Whiâ—h though it is sometimes good Yet it must be tempered by discretion For all cannot imitate the Saints in austeâ—ity of life 2. For although these voluntary pernances are sometimes praise-worthy and may be meritorious when strength of body and humility of spirit doe correspond and accompany them yet they must be temper'd and moderated by discretion according to each one's nature and quality Thus hee that is unable of body to imitate the Saints in severity of life may right well be able to imitate their vertues by being fervent in devotion frequent in prayer continually aspiring to his Lord and love setting naught by the world and himselfe and loving silence and solitude HEE may be humble and affable to all patient in suffering affronts glad of the occasions to doe good to his greatest enemies and finally resolved to performe his Lords will and promote his honour to the utmost of his power and never to offend his divine Majesty in the least matter whatsoever 3. All which inward acts and But each one may imitate their vertues mortifications are far more pleasing to God thâ—n the outward macerations of the flâ—sh and therefore I counsell thee to be very punctuall in those things which concerne thy duty and obligation but as for extraordinary rigours be rather backward and fearfull than indiscreetly forward â—o embrace them 4. Yet I speak not here to those Yet take heed of too much addicting thy self to delicacies c. delicate ones who though in other things they are sufficiently spirituall are over-much inclined to indulgence towards themselves and to an exâ—ct doting and diligence in the preservation of their health under Under pretence of health or the better performance of thy duty pretence of being thereby better able to serve God and perform their duty for they strive to couple two capitall enemies together the Spirit and the flesh
by the means of the most glorious and ever-blessed Virgin and Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ Wâ—ich thou mayst thus easily practise First fix thy mind and meditation upon God the Eternall Father then upon Jesus Christ his deare Son and our sweet Saviour and lastly upon Mary the First fix thy minde and meditation upth ' eternall Father ever-blessed Virgin-Mother 2. In thy meditation of the Eternall Father take these two points for thy subject and offer them up to his Divine Majesty First the great liking and content hee had in himselfe from all eternity concerning this perfect creature the Virgin before she had a being Secondly the wonders hee wrought in her and the content he took in her when she was borne into the World 3. And as for the first of these considerations Soare aloft and Considering the content he had in himselfe concerning her from all eternity exalt thy thoughts beyond all time and above each thing created penetrating the very eternity of the Deity and then consider what celebrity of joy and delight the Divine Majesty had within himselfe concerning this sacred Virgin and her high perfections And there finding thy Lord amidst these joyes and delights lay hold of the opportunity and addresse thy Petition unto him with full hope and confidence that for this his great joys sake hee will impart bountifully some Grace Strength and Courage unto thee whereby thou mayst be enabled to encounter and conquer thine enemies especially this vice which now chiefly tempts and troubles thee 4. Hence proceede to the consideration of those admirable vertues great gifts and singular graces conferr'd upon this most glorious Virgin And the wonders he wrought in her when shee had a being and sometimes present the whole bulke of them to the view of the eternall Father other-times choose out some particular perfection to lay open before him imploring and intreating for his owne boundlesse goodnesse sake and in respect of these vertues and merits of this his dearly beloved Spouse that hee will graciously heare and mercifully grant what thou so greatly needest 5. Then turne thy thoughts towards the Sonne of God our Lord Secondly upon God the Son Jesus and represent before him the sacred wombe of his Virgin-Mother which enclosed and carried him for nine moneths space as also the singular reverence wherewith shee received him from her wombe into her bosome when he first appeared in the World assisting him and acknowledging him true man and adoring him as eternall God as her own poore child and as her powerfull Creatour Put him further in minde of her eyes of compassion towards his poverty of her sacred Armes which so often embraced him her Kisses wherewith shee cherish'd him her Milk wherewith shee nourish'd him her labours suffered for him all his life time and her dolours at his Death by which and the like relations from the deare Mother thou shalt use as it were a certaine violence to her beloved Son to grant thy Petition 6. Lastly come to the sacred Virgin Lastly come to the sacred Virgin her selfe lay open before her her owne privileges prerogatives and perfections how shee onely amongst all Virgins and Women was especially elected by the eternall Power Prudence and Goodnesse of God to be a Mother of Gâ—ace and of pitty to be an assistant and advocate of all mankinde and that next to her dearly beloved Sons humanity wee can apply our selves to none but her for better supplies of our necessities or truer solace in our sorrowes or greater hopes of happinesse Tell her also of that true and tryed saying that no one did ever faithfully call upon her who received not a mercifull answer and present assistance by her holy Prayer and Patronage Lastly put before her eyes all her Sons sorrowes and sufferings upon Earth and beg of her for his sweet sake for his onely honour and for his glory that thou mayst impetrate by her pious intercession the effect of this thy Petition which that thou mightst obtaine he patiently underwent his so bitter Death and Passion CHAP. XXVI How to pray and meditate by means of the holy Angels and Heavenly Citizens 1. ANother powerfull meanes to obtaine thy Petition is by the Angels and blessed Saints in Heaven which is also practised two manner of ways First apply thy thoughts First addresse thy selfe to the eternall Father to the Eternall Father and present before him the Love Honour and Praise wherewith his Heavenly Court worshâ—ps and exalts him and withall lay open all the miseries labours and molestations which his Saints suffered and by his grace surmounted here upon Earth 2. The other way is by applying thy selfe to these glorious spirits as Next unto the glorious Angels and Saints themselves to them who not onely remember us amidst their joys but earnestly desire our perfection beg therefore their faithfull assistance in thy fight against vices and sometimes implore their ayd and assistance at the houre of thy Death against thy dreadfull enemies 3. Other times reflect upon those excellent gifts and graces wherewith their Lord God indued them exciting in thy soule a lively feeling of love and joy that they possesse these high perfections as much yea more than if they were thine owne since such was the good will and pleasure of the Divine Majesty 4. And that thou mayst more Dividing them into Quires according to the days of the weeke easily and orderly performe and practise this pious exercise divide the Quires of this blessed company according to the week-days in some such manner as followeth Upon Sunday meditate upon the nine Quires of Angels Upon Monday of the holy Apostles Upon Tuesday of the glorious Martyrs Upon Wednesday of the blessed Bishops Upon Thursday of the holy Doctors Upon Friday of the holy Confessours Upon Saturday of the sacred Virgins 5. But let no day passe without But every day praying to the B. Virgin To thy particular Patron some speciall devotion to the most glorious Virgin Mary to thy Proper-Angel and to that particular Saint and Patron to whom thou owest singular duty and Veneration EXPLICATION AMongst which I perswade thee to place S. Joseph the deare Spouse of the sacred Virgin who as experience and contemplative persons testify will assist thee by And to S. Joseph his holy Prayers in all thy temporall and spirituall necessities and particularly advance and direct thy Soul in its spirituall Exercises of Prayer and Contemplation And surely if our loving Lord so highly esteemes his other Saints because they yielded him his due honour and obedience upon earth how much more doth hee value this most humble and happy Saint and how prevalent are his prayers like to be with that Divine Sonne who honoured served and obey'd him upon Earth as his Father CHAP. XXVII How to meditate upon the holy Crosse and Christ our Saviour hanging thereon to excite and move our affections 1. I Have before shewed thee O my
dearly beloved the manner of meditating and praying upon our Saviours Passion now I will instruct thee how thou mayst thereby stirre up good motions and enkindle holy affections in thy soule When therefore thou hast taken some Article of Meditation upon Christs Crosse and Passion as for example Of his How to enkindle holy affections in meditating on the Passion Crowne of Thornes thinke thus with thy selfe How thy most innocent and amiable Lord Jesus was with greatest derision and scorne cloathed in a purple coat crowned with sharp Thorns cudgelled with a hard Cane besmeared with filthy spittle How this King of eternall glory whom millions of Angels adore in Heaven was by the worst and wickedest sort of men mocked upon Earth as a counterfeit King with scoffing Adoration and Reverence 2. Now when by these and such other points of Meditation thou desirest to raise in thy soule the true feelings and affections of Love By reflection upon Christs Love and goodnesse elevate thy heart often-times whilst thou art meditating to acknowledge the boundlesse goodnesse of thy Lord God and his love towards thee which thou mayst easily gather from the multitude and the bitternesse of his sufferings for thee By this acknowledgement of his Goodnesse thy love will be more and more inflamed and a true contrition for thy sinnes will bee more easily obtained especially if thou considerest that thou hast againe and againe offended this thy most bountifull and loving Lord God who was thus cruelly slâ—ine formerly for the Ransome of thine iniquity 3. To raise also a constant hope in How to get a constant hope thy soule looke upon thy Lord Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of Lords reduced into the extremity of misery to free thee from the slavery of Sinne and snares of Satan to reconcile thee to his Heavenly Father and to give thee confidence to come to him cheerfully in all thy necessities 4. And if furthermore thou wouldst by these Meditations on thy Saviours passion move thy selfe to spirituall joy warn thy thoughts from And a spirituall joy remaining any longer upon his pains and passe to the profits fruits and effects of his sufferings There thou wilt finde thy selfe and the whole World absolved from thy sinnes by them the Divine wrath appeased the Devill defeated Death conquered the lost sheep reduced the Angels seats supplied Joyne to all this the Joy of the sacred Trinity and of the whole Church both triumphant and militant who all rejoyce in the profit issuing from Christs cruell Death and As aâ—so affections of sorrow and compassion Passion 5. But to raise affections of sorrow and compassion towards thy suffering Saviour thou maist weigh not onely the many wounds of his sacred body but the multitude of anguishes griefs sadnesses of his most holy foul For he well knowing the eminent and infinite dignity of his heavenly Father whom he so highly loved must needs be grieved above measure to see this benigne and bountiful Creatour of all things after so many and so great benefits to be so rashly so maliciously and so frequently offended and deluded by his owne creatures 6. And this sadnesse of thy Saviours soule was much augmented by the foresight he had of that vast multitude of men who by their owne sinne and sloath were to be damned eternally The same grief was further aggravated by seeing the immense dolours of his deare and worthily beloved mother and the same sword spared not his which pierced her heart with sorrow Moreover Christs sacred foule which was all-knowing by reason of the divine union suffered in all the Martyrs and tender Virgins torments sustained for his faith and affection 7. In these and the like meditations And acts of contrition for thy sinnes upon thy Lord and Saviours passion thou must often reflect that thou by thy grievous sins and defects wert the cause and occasion of these his afflictions and from hence conceive acts of true sorrow for thy shamefull ingratitude and humble thy selfe at the feet of his Majesty And know that to be the best pleasing and most acceptable compassion when thou persecutest thine owne disordered affections and strivest to ruine those enemies and root them out of thy heart which were the cause of thy Lords so cruel pains and passion 8. And to move thee to a perfect With a perfect hatred of them hatred of thy sinne think seriously in running over all these points of thy dear Saviours passion as if all these his sufferings were for no other cause than to stir thee up to detest all sinne and destroy thy unruly passions and affections them especially which most endommage defile and distract thy selfe and most displease thy Saviour 9. Lastly That by these meditations upon Christs death and passion thou maist be moved to the admiration And to admire Gods goodnesse by considering 6 circumstances 1. Who suffereth 2. For whom of his goodnesse Consider attentively First Who he is that suffereth these things Surely the onely Sonne of the Almighty God who to save thee came from heaven and became man Secondly For whom he suffered Surely for us poor worms the works of his owne hands and who always are prone to offend him Thirdly By whom he suffered Surely By the vild and 3. By whom vulgar crew and the very refuse of all nations Fourthly What he suffered 4. What Surely disgraces contumelies contempts wounds and torments more than can be named or imagiâ—ed Fifthly How he suffered all 5. How this Surely with a most patient meek and willing mind neither shewing any signe of distast nor speaking any word of reproch against his most ungratefull and malicious persecutors but like an innocent lamb led on to the slaughter he complained not of their violence and his owne sufferings but laid down his life his heart remaining full of sweetnesse Sixthly 6. When where When and where he suffered Surely at the time of their Paschall solemnity and in their prime and sacred City and in the presence of his dearest mother and finally in the view as it were of the whole world EXPLICATION A further Declaration of the profit which may be drawn from the meditation upon Christs Passion and particularly of the imitation of his vertues AMongst the infinity of profits The first profit is a confusion at the sight of our imperfections which may be drawn from this holy exercise One is that thou must needs conceive not onely a sorrow for thy sins past but feel also a shame and confusion in thy soule to see that those unruly passions which put Christ Jesus to death upon the Crosse doe yet lurk and live within thy heart The other main profit which flowes The second a desire and demand of pardon from the former is that being truly sensible of thy sinnes and ashamed of thine Ingratitude thou wilt heartily desire and humbly demand pardon for what is past and grace to amend for the
wants and thy weaknesse saying in thy mind Thou seest ô my sweet Saviour how I am possessed with this passion and pestred with this perverse affection Thou also well knowest ô my Lord my weaknesse to resist it and that â—â— is not possible for me by my owne diligence to be delivered Therefore this battail is thine I resigne this my quarrell against these enemies into thy powerfull hands and from thee alone I look for the victory 9. After thou hast thus silently And constantly hope for the divine helpe prayed turn thy selfe to the eternall Father and piously present his deare Sonne Jesus unto him for the same effect for which thou now receivedst him into thy soul And expect with constant hope his divine helpe which although thou presently perceivest not yet thou shalt infallibly and plentifully receive when it shall be most expedient for thee CHAP. XXX How to excite in us the affections of love by the sacred Communion IF thou desirest to stirre up in thy soule by meanes of this most holy Sacrament that fervent love of thy Lord God which destroyes and consumes all self-will and selfe love within thee Settle thy selfe in the evening which precedes thy communion to meditate upon thy Lords immense love and liberality towards Consider Gods love and liberality thee unworthy wretch the worke of his owne hands how not content to have formed thee of nothing to his image and likenesse and to have sent his onely Sonne from heaven to inhabit our earth and to serve thee for the space of three and thirty yeares in continuall labours and travails and lastly to undergoe his most bitter passion and ignominious death for thy redemption He would further bequeathe this his Son unto thee in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist for the perpetuall food and refreshing of thy soul 2. And that by the due consideration Especially shewed in the sacred Communion of this speciall benefit of sacred Communion thou maist become all fire and love thou shalt thus order thy devout exercise Consider in the first place Who it Weighing first who it is that comes thus unto thee is that conferres on thee this so large and liberall gift Surely it is thy Lord God himselfe the divine and increated wisedom and goodnesse whose worth and perfection infinitly exceeds the reach of all created capacity 3. Then looke upon the gift it self 2. What he gives thee which is the true and onely Sonne of God of equall height nature and substance with the heavenly Father and holy Ghost Now if a small gift proceeding from a King hath its high value in respect of the giver how highly is this gift to be valued by us which is God and given by God himselfe as a token of his true love and a perpetuall memoriall of his tender affection towards us 4. Again reflect upon the eternity 3. The eternity of his love of this love by which it was decreed by his most divine most hidden and most holy wisdome that he would thus give thee himselfe for thy food and refection and hence begin with joy and jubily of heart to sing and say within thy selfe O infinite goodnesse of my God! and is it even so that thou lovedst me in thy endlesse eternity didst thou ô my Lord and my God so much value me thy poor and unworthy creature that thou remembredst mee in thy blessed eternity and hadst an ardent affection and desire to give me thy self for the food of my soul 5. And finally looke into the purity 4. The purity of his love of this love which so great a Lord shewes unto so mean a worm How different is it from all earthly affection how free from the least mixture of profit and selfe-interest How farre is it above thy merits and how purely is it a worke of his onely mercy and bounty 6. Having thus seriously and sweetly with affection and admiration meditated of the divine goodnesse Thy heart may breake forth Hence break forth into admiration into these raptures Whence is it O my Lord that thou so lovest me an abject creature Why O King of glory wilt thou so nearly joyne me to thy selfe who am but a litle dust and ashes I well conceive thy designe O my deare Lord this thy excessive love towards me It is to win me reciprocally to thy love O the purity of divine love Thou lovest me ô my God and givest thy whole selfe unto me for no other end but that I may in gratitude give thee my love life and all entirely and this for no need thou hast of me but meerly for thy mercies sake and for my advancement and profit that by this sweete tye and happy union of love my earthly heart may be raised up to become one with thy divine heart ô my Lord and my God EXPLICATION HEre all ravisht with joy to see And ravishment to see thy self so highly prized thy selfe so highly prized and beloved of thy Lord God withdraw into the secretest part of thine owne heart and there acknowledging that all this powerfull love is to intice thy poore and inconsiderate selfe unto his divine Majesty make so And make an intire oblation of thy self to him absolute an oblation of thy selfe unto him that thy memory may scarcely thinke of any thing but thy God thy affection may abhor all content which comes any way without him and thy Vnderstanding may admit of no other object for its continuall entertainment than him who is the onely satiety and satisfaction of all thy inward faculties and outward senses And since there is no action amongst And this being the chief act of Religion all them which concern our Religion and loyalty to God which can compare with this of receiving him worthily in the most holy Sacrament either in appeasing Strive to perform it most perfectly his anger or uniting us to his love Force thy selfe to the utmost of thy power to prepare purifie and open thy heart unto him and to shut it against all things created 7. Then offer and dedicate thy self humbly and wholly with heart and Text. affection to the divine pleasure Dedicating thy self wholly â—o him and retaine an ever ready and inflamed desire to please God and follow his blessed will And when this holy desire and affection shall be throughly enkindled in thy soul thou wilt see me to move thy Lord God also to be so much enamoured with thee that he desires thou shouldest freely open thy heart to him that he may the next morning enter And freely open thy heart to him in unto thee feast with thee and take his full delight in thee Then doe thou also declare thy mutuall desire to receive him with these kind of Jaculatory prayers O heavenly and divine manna when will that wished houre come that I shall to thine owne content receive thee into my soul Ah when shall I be surely united unto thee by
sincere affection When shall I O onely life of my soul relinquish all self-will and vanquish all my passions and imperfections 8. In these and the like devotions thou maist spend the evening and morning to excite cherish and encrease thy desire to receive thy deare Saviour that so thou maist perfectly please him and be most happily united unto him And in thy pious practices of these things take this Caveat Be sure to keep each power and faculty of thy soule pure and But take heed of vanity and curiosity free from all curiosity of worldly things and from all idle and vaine thoughts Take also the like care of thy outward senses lest thy heart steale out by them and so thou lose all thy devotion EXPLICATION THe time of the sacred Communion At the time near the Communion drawing nigh think thou art to receive the Lord who created this great Universe and thee to his owne likenesse the Sonne of God who died for thee nâ—ked on the 1. Think what thou art going to doe Crosse that increased goodnesse which hath so often freed thee from danger death and damnation which thy sinnes deserved Thanke him with most profound Thank humility and adore him uniting Adore Implore all thy spirits and forces of body and soule togeather as true God and true man Beg also his pardon for thy faults and that the same love which moves him to grant thee this great gift may also induce him to purge thy soule from the staines of all sinne and uncleannesse thereby disposing it to a more pure and perfect union with his divine Majesty When the Priest pronounceth those sacred words Domine non When Domine non sum dignus is sayd sum dignus O Lord I am not worthy accompany him with these following and speak to thy Lord and love from the bottome of thy heart I am not worthy to receive thee ô my great Lord before whose Majesty the Angels of heaven tremblingly confesse their owne nothing I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest enter into my heart who am one of the meanest weakest and ungratefullest creatures upon earth I am not worthy ô my Lord that thou shouldest lodge with me because I love thee not and I remember thee not though these are prime reasons of thy instituting and remaining in this most blessed Sacrament Thus humble confound and abisme Humble and Confound thy selfe thy selfe at the serious consideration of thy sinnes malice and misery but then raising up thy heart with hope by the following words Sed But still raising up thy heart with hope tantum dic verbo sanabitur anima mea Doe thou onely speak the word ô my Lord and my soule will be saved Enter ô my love into this unworthy harbour and make use of thine infinite power and goodnesse in pardoning my sinnes supplying my defects and protecting me from my enemies 9. And after thou hast received Text. Having communicated entertaine thy guest with amorous expressions this divine Sacrament betake thee presently to the innermost closet of thy heart and there enter into communication with thy holy guest using these or the like loving and respectfull expressions What hath moved thee O great King of Kings to enter in to me who am nothing but a miserable despicable vild blind and naked creature And he will answer thee Love for thou art my dove my friend my sister my spouse and my dearely beloved Then thou maist reply O increated love ô sweetest dilection ô friendly and faithfull charity what wouldest thou have me doe what demandest thou what desirest thou I ask nothing saith he but love I would have nothing burne in the harth of thy heart but the fire of my love that it may devour all forraine love within thee and destroy all self-wil and seeking This this is my desire because I would be truly thine and would have thee likewise be totally mine Which can never be compassed untill thou freely deliverest up thy selfe to my will and pleasure For without this entire resignation thy fancy will be alwaies fastned to the loving and liking of thy selfe and thine owne actions be they never so meane I desire therefore that thou shouldest hate thy selfe that thou maist have the love of me I demand thy heart for my habitation that I may joyne and unite it unto mine for to this end was my heart opened to thee upon the altar of my Crosse My will is I say ô my dearly beloved spouse that thou desire nothing think nothing understand nothing see nothing feel nothing but my selfe onely that so I onely may be in thâ—e and thou totally turned into me and that thou maist possesse in me perfect quiet and I in thee pleasant context 10. Lastly thou shalt offer the holy And Lastly offer up the divine Sonne to his heavenly Father Sonne to his heavenly Father for thy selfe for the whole world and for the soules departed in memory and union of that divine oblation which he offered upon the holy Crosse presenting in like manner all the unbloody sacrifices to the divine Majesty which are that day offered up in his universall Church CHAP. XXXI Of Spirituall Communion ALthough my beloved thou canst receive thy sweeet Saviour 1. Thou maist thus often Communicate sacramentally onely once a day yet thou maist receive him spiritually every houre and moment For nothing can hinder thee from this but onely thine owne fault and negligence And this spirituall Communion may sometimes prove more profitable to thy soule and pleasing to thy Saviour than the sacramentall especially if there be a defect in thy due and diligent preparation 2. For as often as thou desirest By frequent desires to receive thy loving Lord God thus spiritually into thy soule thou shalt find him ever ready to feast thee with his owne sacred hands and thou mayest thus easily dispose thy selfe unto it Turning thy selfe to thy Saviour to this end reflect upon thine owne frailty and frequent failings and conceive an inward sorrow and detestation of thy defects then make thy supplication with a loving affection that he will not disdaine to enter thy poor cottage and feast thee with his owne true body and blood 3. So also when thou art moved And it is an excellent exercise against passions with a pious zeal against any perverse Passion and desirest efficaciously to mortify it or to plant some vertue in thy soule make use of this spirituall communion by converting thy thoughts towards thy Lord God and invoking his aid with ardent prayers beseech him to enter and possesse the secret part of thy soule Or calling to mind thy last sacramentall communion speak to him with an inflamed desire When ô my good God shall I againe welcome thee into the closet of my heart Come now O my Saviour and comfort me spiritually with the like strength and vertue EXPLICATION IF thou wilt practice this pious How to make
great use of this exercise for thy spirituall profit exercise of spirituall Communion with more reverence and profit frame thy intention over-night to apply all the mortifications of thy vicious passions all the acts of vertue and whatsoever good thou shalt any way performe for the obtaining of this happy effect and that thou maist worthily open the gate of thy heart to give due entertainement to so divine a guest And in the morning settle thy thoughts upon the serious consideration of the great happinesse of that sweet soule which worthily receives this most holy Sacrament whereby sins breaches are repaired lost vertues are restored languishing forces are recruted and each good returnes to its first beauty by the communication of the fruits of Christs merits and passion Then force and excite thy heart to an ardent desire of these comforts by thy Lords comming and turning towards him say O my Lord and my love I am not worthy to receive thee sacramentally but doe thou ô increated goodnesse and unlimited power pardon all my imperfections and make me worthy to receive thee spiritually to the honour of thy holy name and the true comfort of my poor soule CHAP. XXXII Of Thanks-giving ALL our good actions are of All goodnesse is from God God and from God and therefore a thankfull gratitude is due to him for all our well performed exercises for each victory obtained against our enemies and for all and singular his blessings and benefits 2. And that thou maist not be defective To whom therefore all gratitude must be shewed in this point of duty Remember that the chiefe motive why our omnipotent creatour conferres his mercies upon his creatures is that they should correspond to him in pious perpetuall and worthy thanksgiving And because our Lord God in bestowing his benefits intends principally his owne honour and secondly our profit doe thou likewise First therefore acknowledge his goodnesse in receiving them acknowledge in the first place his power wisdome and goodnesse which most gloriously shine in each one of them 3. And in the next place reflect upon And then thine own unworthynesse thine own unworthinesse of so great favours who art nothing else but ingratitude misery and basenesse And Lastly submit thy selfe to obey his divine will and pleasure and study to performe what thy Lord in lieu of these benefits expects from thee which is to love him chiefly to serve him carefully and to offer and dedicate thy selfe to him freely and totally as I shall now teach thee CHAP. XXXIII Of the perfect oblation of thy selfe to thy Lord God AFter thanks-giving for received favours the soule presently breaks forth into that delicious affection of the Royall Prophet What shall I render to my Lord for all the good things he hath given me That therefore thou maist doe something seeming like satisfaction by offering up to his Majesty all that thou art hast and canst and that entirely absolutely voluntarily and by an efficacious act of thy inward man 2. Consider first with a serious attention First consider Gods greatnesse and glory the greatnesse and glory of thy Lord God for upon this depends the perfect oblation of thy selfe and thou wilt find that there is a reverence and feare due to this his greatnesse and glory that there is a love due to his goodnesse that there is a hope confidence due to his mercy and so of his other attributes and perfections And thou shalt congratulate and rejoice with thy Lord God that he is what he is to wit the best greatest most wise most holy most happy most powerfull most infinite and that he hath all the perfections which he possesseth Thus multiplying many such amorous acts of complacence in thy heart 3. Then bow down the knees of soul and body with most profound 2. Adore and acknowledg him c. reverence before thy Lord and maker adoting his divine Majesty and acknowledging him to be the supream governour of all his creatures And particularly that whatsoever good thou hast by nature and by grace is his proper gift since he alone confer'd it upon thee and he alone conserves it in thee for thus thou must needs confesse thy self to be his debtor though thy offering be never so great because thou canst present him with nothing which is not already his owne and first proceeding from his liberality and bounty neither doth he lose his dominion thereof by conferring it upon thee 4. In the next place passe on to the 3. Offer up all thy interest in any thing oblation it selfe and deliver up all thine owne interest in whatsoever thou hast or canst into the holy hands of thy heavenly creatour with all possible cheerfulnesse and integrity that is offer up unto him all that he hath given thee and so restore thy whole selfe to thy God in perpetuall bondage to dispose of thee both in time in eternity as he best pleaseth Neither shall it suffice thee to make this oblation generally by presenting unto him the root and beginning of all thy thoughts words and works but thou shalt doe it peculiarly by presenting even those also which by reason of thy state thou art obliged to exercise to the honour glory of his sacred name 5. Lastly thou shalt unite this entire oblation of thy selfe and all that And unite all to the merits of Christ belongs to thee unto the merits of Jesus Christ the sweet spouse of thy soul that from thence it may have that value and esteeme which from it selfe thou canst not hope or expect And thus thou shalt end thy exercise by presenting the eternall Father with thy whole selfe and the Preâ—â—â—â—ing both together to the eternall Father holy merits of his onely Son joyned together with all his actions and sufferings from the crib unto the Crosse for all these are thy treasures which he at his death bequeathed by his last will and testament unto thee whom he left entitled to all his merits But remember that thou makest not this oblation for thy selfe alone but also for the universall Church and her members for thus it will be far more acceptable to God being sweetned with the incense of perfect charity 6. In like manner when thou wilt offer up thy fastings prayers or other So Likewise in offering thy works of piety pious works to thy Lord God consider that his holy Sonne thy sweet Saviour hath already presented them together with his owne to his eternall Father and so hath conjoyned and united them both together doe thou therefore offer up the same in the same manner by which thou shalt know that thy oblations proceed from a sincere heart And if thou practisest this in time of adversity thou wilt easily master all misery anguish pain and perils whatsoever duly fulfil Gods holy pleasure 7. If furthermore thou desirest to make an oblation of Christs actions for thine own offences he have thy How to offer
adoring and praising his divine Majesty 2. Then implore his grace that since 2. Imploration of his grace he beyond all desert of thine hath vouchsafed to enter thy poor cottage he will be likewise pleased to furnish it with all such ornaments of holy vertues as may best like himselfe and to illustrate thy soul with the beams of his celestiall light as he did that of holy Simeon that with him receiving thy Lord into thy loving embraces thou mayst sweetly intone thy Nunc dimittis c. 3. In the next place consider that 3. Consider whom thou hast within thee he whom thou hast now within thee is thy sâ—me Lord God of whom before Communion thou conceivedst such high things And render him humble thanks for this immense benefit of communicating and uniting himselfe unto thee intreating him that it may not be a sleight and as it were a passing visit but a permanent abode with thee 4. After this look upon thine 4. Mark thine own unworthynesse own unworthinesse to receive such a guest how homely is thy habitation how beggarly yea how beastly is thy heart how full of the noyse of passions and perplexities and draw from hence acts of sorrow for thy sins of shame for thy negligence and of confusion for the uncleanesse of thy soul 5. And lastly ask with a most fervent desire that he who is the King 5. Make thy Petition of glory and goodnesse and the source of all sanctity and purity will garnish thy soul with his vertues and wash away all thy filthyness with the water of his celestiall grace and so inseparably unite and joyn thee to himselfe that nothing created may evermore make a breach between thee and him but that he will strongly lock up the closet-doore of thy heart and mark it for his own habitation with the signet of his sacred love that so he alone may there peaceably and perpetually take up his rest without the least disturbance of any forrain guest CHAP. XXXIX A dayly Examination 1. FOr the keeping clean of thy Conscience it will be necessary for thee to go down daily into it and sweep each darkest corner thereof with the besom of diligent examination that all uncleanesse may be speedily cast forth of dores 2. Wherefore thou art to do three Every Morning thou art to do three things things every Morning First Give God thanks for all his benefits bestowed upon thee in the night past and particularly for thy delivery from sodaine death and from the deceits of the Devil 2. Then make a cordiall oblation of all things thou shalt thinke speake or do in the day following and intreat the Blessed Virgin that shee will bee pleased to present with her purest Hands this Oblation of thy self and thy actions together with thee to her onely Son 3. And lastly conceiving a confidence of the Divine assistance make a firm purpose by his grace not to offend him that Day in the least veniall sinne 3. And at night a litle before thou At night thou art to examine thy selfe betakest thy selfe to thy rest examine thy selfe how stoutly thou hast stood to this good purpose But before thou descendest to particulars thinke of thy Lords Presence to whom thou art now ready to give in a reckoning of that days transactions and indeavour to feele a certaine shame and confusion in thy self like an ill servant before his most indulgent master or like a perfidious Souldier before his pious Soveraign who rays'd him from the dunghill to the highest degree of honour for how much more reason hast thou to be ashâ—med in the sight of thy God whom thou hast served so negligently and offended so impudently 4. Begin therefore with a generall Begin with a generall acknowledgement of Gods favours acknowledgement of thy Lords love and favours conferred upon thee from the first instant of thy being to that present houre rendring him particular thanks for the benefits that day received from his Bounty And invite all the Angels and Saints and chiefly the sacred Virgin to help thee make a worthy thanks-giving for thy Creation Conservation Redemption Vocation Remission of thy enormous crimes and expectation of thee so long to penance c. 5. Secondly demand light and grace Then beg light and grace to see thy defects and negligences which thou hast that day committed and to feele a true sorrow and contrition for the same For they are so secret that without this light thou canst not discerne them and so enormous that without this ayd thou canst not truly judge of them 6. Thirdly run over each houre of Next descend to particulaâ—s the day and discusse with diligence what were thy Thoughts Words Actions or Omissions in every of them that thou mayst punctually perceive wherein thou hast particularly transgressed 7. Fourthly indeavour to excite a true sorrow for thy sinnes which is And indeavour to excite a true sorrow for thy sins the main drift of this examen and let this grief touch thy heart because thou hast offended so good a God rather than for any other inconvenience which thereby thou incurrest Let it proceed I say not from any feare of punishment which thou hast deserved but from a true reverence and high esteeme which is due from thee to the Divine Majesty of thy Lord God whom thou desirest to love and respect above all things and resolvest to practise it for the time to come 8. Fiftly therefore and lastly beg And lastly implore his pardon for the past and protection for â—he future his pardon for thy past negligence and his assistance for thy future amendment promising particularly and resolving effectually to shun foâ— his love this or that occasion of sinne and to lay hold of this or that opportunity for the correction and bettering of thy selfe 9. And if thou happily findest by this serious discussion of thy selfe that thy transgrâ—ssions are not so grievous as to excite thee to this sorrow and shame refer all this to the Divine mercy and not to thy own diligence or vertue And reflâ—ct upon thy former faults and the grievous failings of other worldlings and conclude that thou hadst surely fall'n more foulely had not his Heavenly Grace upheld and prevented thee EXPLICATION Another method of Examination QUestion thy selfe concerning three things First Wherein thou hast that day fallen and offended Secondly What occasion'd it Thirdly How diligent thou hast been in the practice of vertue Concerning thy fallings read and follow the 15 foregoing Chapter Concerning the occasions resolve to cut them off for the future And for thy practice of vertue strengthen thy will with these three Cordials distrust in thy selfe trust in God Prayer Suspect thy past victories and rely not upon thy former good works but rather forget them lest thou fall into selfe-complacency looke alwayes forwards upon what thou yet wantest how much rests to bee done And acknowledging Gods Grace to be the
without any foregoing meditation or precedent search into divine mysteries draws up forthwith the lovers affection to his beloved Lord which is more and more stretched intended and inlarged by these ardent ejaculations of the soul thus familiarly conferring communing treating and talking with her Creator and raising up her self to him by acts of love and desires of conjunction And we may fitly say that the solid foundation of invvard perfection is contained in such acts motions and tendances of our Souls towards God their neighbours and themselves as the outvvard consists in the practical performance of our duties in relation to the same three objects Make use therefore O dear souls of these affective Devotions daily diligently and perseverantly and you shall soon perceive a happy and heavenly change in your souls you shall feel your faith strengthned your devotion actuated your good desires prepared and put in real performances your pious intentions ripened for executions and your well-made purposes and resolutions forwarded to leap into the punctual and particular observation of each part of your duty towards God the world and your selves The Seven Exercises The 1. Exercise For Monday Of the Knowledge of God and Confidence in him The 2. Exercise For Tuesday Of the Knowledge and Diffidence in our selves The 3. Exercise For Wednesday Of obtaining Remission of our sins The 4. Exercise For Thursday Of subduing Sensuality to Reason The 5. Exercise For Friday Of Mortification and perfect Abnegation The 6. Exercise For Saturday Of Conformity to Christ Crucifyed The 7. Exercise For Sunday Of perfect Vnion with God FOR MONDAY Of the Knowledge of God and Confidence in him The First Exercise 1. TO know thee O divine fountain of goodness is to be truly happy and yet none can know thee O boundless and bottomless Sea of all perfections but through thine own manifestation and mercy Vouchsafe therefore I beseech thee ô most loving and liberal Lord to enter this poor empty heart of thy meanest servant to inform my ignorant soul with a glimpse of this necessary science and to inflame my cold affection with a small spark of thy holy love O omnipotent Creator of heaven and earth both which thou fillest with thy greatness and glory O God of infinite power excellent wisdom unmeasurable goodness and incomprehensible love my soul thirsts after thee the essential source of all felicity my heart seeks thee the proper place of it's repose it sighs to thee the natural centre of all it's hope and happiness IN thy blessed mind ô my God it first rested in it's eternall possibility and similitude thither it must again return and there it must either rest eternally or perish for evermore O let it now find thee that it may ever love thee 2. O Lord most good glorious and gracious most blessed and bountiful most high and holy most excellent and ineffable What words or thoughts can express thy purity and perfection Let me know thee O thou life of my soul Let me see thee O true light of my eyes Let me seek thee O thou only solace of my spirit Let me find thee O thou desired of my heart Let me embrace thee O my heavenly Spouse Let me possess thee O thou soveraign sweetnes and full satiety of all my inward and outward senses O that my heart could alwayes think on thee my will ever love thee my mind still remember thee my understanding continually conceive thee my reason perpetually adhere to thee and my whole man incessantly praise thee O hide not thy face from me my joy my light and my life If I may not see thee and live O let me dy that I may see thee I desire to dy here and be dissolved that I may see thee know thee come to thee live with thee and love thee eternally O ever blessed and glorious divinity O Father who of thine own substance bringest forth an ineffable goodness coequal consubstantial and coeternal with thy self which is thy Some O Father and Son who loving each other with infinite charity and content are united together in one Holy Ghost equally and unspeakably proceeding from you both I admire thee adore thee and worship thee with all the powers of my body and soul 3. O sacred Deity O Tri-Unity and Vni-Trinity O Father Sâ—n and Holy Ghost Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts who wert art and shalt be for ever almighty I thy poor creature prostrate before the Throne of thy Divine Majesty from the abyss of my own nothing invoke adore and acknowledge thee the abyss of all perfection I present thee with al thine own gifts goods and graces which thou hast plentifully powred out upon all thy creatures I offer up to thy praise the affections of Angels and men the properties of the elements the beauty and motion of the whole universe and the essence of all being O that my soul were capable to comprise unitedly all their severall affections and perfections how joyfully would it employ them in thy praise how sweetly would it melt away in thy presence Behold O my God I make an intire oblation of them all I acknowledge and adore thee with them all and desire to do it as frequently as I breathe and as often as there are minutes in time stars in the firmament sands in the Ocean and numbers in all nature O my Lord whose love is the life of my soul increase my knowledge of thee that I may enlarge my love to thee Alas I love thee not ô amiable Lord God because I know thee not I know thee not because darkness and sin hath covered and incompassed my understanding Wherefore ô bright light who illuminatest all things expell this darkness from my soul drive off these clouds from my understanding draw the curtain from off the face of the abyss of my mind that I may see and know thee and then I shall not choose but love thee O my dear Jesu shew me thy divine Father dart a beam of thy heavenly splendour into my dull heart that I may have some degree of that holy science which may help me in thy love make me obedient to thy will and resolute in thy service To know all things of this world ô Jesu and not to know thee is but ignorance and folly let me therefore know thy eternal Father and thee whom he sent for my salvation and it sufficeth me O give me this knowledge that I may give thee my love and I ask no more Let me be unknowing ignorant and a fool in all other things so I may wisely know thee only ô my God and my all 4. O King of glory I acknowledge thy perfections to be above all knowledge but that of thy own divine understanding I confess that thy height is unreachable thy goodness unchangable thy greatness incomprehensible thy light inaccessible And all other thy divine attributes and perfections are so mighty and so many so good and so glorious so excellent and so admirable
so worthy and so wonderfull that were all the power and prerogatives all the vertue wisdom and qualities of all creatures united in one individual nature it were not so much in respect of thy glory and greatness as the least drop of water is in comparison of the vast Ocean Wherefore I beg of thee O immense and inaccessible Godhead only so much to know conceive believe and understand of thy hidden majesty as may efficaciously move my will to thee and I content my self with so much light of thy divinity as may force me to love thee ardently effectually perseverantly O my Lord and my love Fill my heart with the sweet influence of thy heavenly grace that I may in some measure discover how good and gracious thou art to me and to all thy creatures O let me still remember thy mercy ever dread thy justice and continually admire and adore thy power and providence Ah! my noble Soul stampt with thy Creators lovely image endowed with the excellencies of understanding to know him of will to love him of Memory to rest in him why adherest thou not fast to him only in pure and perfect delight forgetting and forgoing all sensible and worldly objects 5. O that I were so ravished with thy love and liking my only amiable Lord God that through joy jubily and admiration I might feel no self at all no sense no change no inequality That no prosperity might puff me up no adversity deject me no accident separate me from thee ô my God of infinite love and liberality O that I could be ever joyful in thee ever gratefull to thee and ever mindfull of thy inhabiting presence within me Thou are alwayes nearer to my soul ô my good God than my soul is to my body alwayes conserving counselling disposing directing inciting and inspiring it to thy love and wilt thou not ô my sensless and sinful soul be alwayes cautious and circumspect how thou behavest thy self in thy Lords presence who is so tenderly carefull of thy safety O let his love be no longer neglected his sweet invitations no longer slighted O that thou wouldst henceforth walk before him as befits his chast and holy Spouse with all respect and reverence fear and fidelity courage and constancy preparing thy self diligently for his divine embraces 6. Grant I beseech thee ô mighty and mercifull Creator that my whole time and thoughts may be totally taken up in the contemplation of thy unmeasurable benefits and bounty towards me For I know Lord that I am truly nothing and yet thou carest for me ô my loving maker as if thou hadst no other creature in heaven or earth thou deliverest me from innumerable dangers adornest me with many gifts and graces givest me leave at all times to have free access to thy throne of mercy so that with one holy thought one humble sigh one devout desire I may draw neer to thee and enjoy thee and in thee all comfort and content O divine privilege To discover to thee my wants lay open my wounds and boldly declare my wishes as to my neerest dearest and trustiest friend and familiar and to be sure of supplies salves and succour in all my necessities O what goodness what grace what mercy is this O my soul How loving and liberall a Lord have we how loving in mercy how liberal in bounty Ah! our unthankfulness to requite our unworthiness to deserve his favors Up my heart be no longer ungratefull and unfaithfull to so great good and gracious a benefactour Yes ô blessed and bountiful giver I now say cordially and will ever stand to iâ— coâ—ragiously I will henceforth love thee ô my Lord my love my life my strength my support my home my harbor and my happiness I will remember thy sweet words to all sinners Why will you perish O children As I live I desire not the death of a sinner but that he would turn to me anâ— live I will behold thy sacred wounds suffered for me able to move a rock to love and compassion And though I am ashamed to think what I have been and how little I have done how much thou hast endured for me how long thou hast expected me how lovingly thou hast besought me and how poorly I have corresponded to thee Yet I know ô my Lord thou ceasest not to be God and good though I am weak and wicked Therefore I will take yet courage in thy service and confidently hope that thou who sought'st after me a lost sheep wilt mercifully receive me now I seek after thee my loving shepheard with a right intention real resolution and inflamed affection 7. Yes ô my Lord and my love heaven and earth shall sooner perishâ— than my confidence in thy sweet mercies and my Saviours merits If thou repell me I will run after thee If thou shut thy door against me I will never leave knocking and if thou kill'st me yet I will trust in thee I wholly cast my self upon thy holy will providence and protection I protest with heart and mouth that I now am and henceforth will be entirely thine that I have nothing seek nothing fear nothing desire nothing demand nothing want nothing will nothing but thee onely My Lord my Love and my All. And I firmly purpose to serve and love thee ô sacred and supream Majesty simply sincerely purely and perseverantly not for any fear of pains or punishment not for any self-interest of what this world can offer or the next afford not for the least hope of heaven or happinesse but I will thee seek thee and love thee for thy self only ô my all-sufficient Lord God who art the sole object sweet compleatment and solid contentment of my soul Pardon me protect me and provide for me For thou art my only hope and happiness FOR TVESDAY Of the Knowledge and diffidence in our selves The Second Exercise 1. WHat is man ô Omnipotent Creator what is this man that thou shouldst be mindfull of him He is nothing ô Lord and I am the least and worst of those nothings because I have least corresponded to thy grace and made worst use of thy gifts O give me ligâ—t reach forth thy hand to this blind creature crying after thee O thou true light of the world and life of my soul that now at length I may duly diligently cordially and abyssally dive into my own basenes weakness misery nothing that knowing what I truly am I may really loathe hate distrust despise and deny my self and all my own proceedings sincerely love thee only trust and hope in thee and rely wholly upon thy divine providence and protection I am not only content ô my Lord God but even willing and desirous that all thy creatures should take me and treat me according to my true condition and unworthynesse And I am resolved by thy grace to humble my self not only under thy mighty hand but also under all their feet as their servant and slave to be troden on abhorred avoided and detested by
disordered love to any woâ—ldly person No favour or friendship ô my only amiable Lord God no greatness or goodness of any one shall make me fwerve from my exact duty to thee-wards No carnall affection to kindred No tenderness of amitie No private or publick respect No connivency or correspondency shall make me partiall in the reproof of vice or praise of vertue O take up my whole heart with thy holy love that thy perfect image and perpetuall memory may blot out all species of forreign objects I renounce all vain vicious idle and unprofitable thoughts fancies and imaginations O let my mind not only yield no consent but no entrance unto them O let me never more contristate thy holy Spirit with these vanities nor hinder my souls advancement and union with thee by these divertisments I will henceforth compell my heart to some good employment I will no longer permit it to wander and wast it self in any idle and superfluous curiosities No my Lord and Saviour thy bitter and blessed passion thy blessings and benefits shall be the continuall occupation of my interiour O what have I to do with transitory things who am made for eternity I renounce all care and solicitude which necessity obedience and charity do not oblige me to No naturall passions of joy sorrow hope fear love hatred anger or shamefastness shall make any impression in this heart of mine which is preingag'd in thy affection sealed up and setled in thy contemplation No pretext of lawfulness nor shew of fittingness nor conceit of compassion nor excuse of necessity shall procure the admittance of such passions into my soul as may any way distract darken or dull the point of my affection and devotion towards thee my only Lord and love I renounce all bitterness of heart against any one Is he good be thou eternally praised in him and by him O bountiful bestower of all blessings Is he wicked Correct him ô mercifull Creatour comfort encourage and raise him to amendment Hath he offended affronted injured or sleighted me I deserve ô great God to be troden on by all creatures and therefore I freely forgive him for the past and give him free leave to add stripes to his injuries for the future Am I denied the grant of my most lawfull and just demands Thou best knowest O eternall wisdom what is best for my state and condition O deny not thy love to my soul and let me be refused in all other my requests whatsoever I renounce all vain-glory all self-liking and pride which may arise from worldly praises al delight springing from any gift of nature or grace which is in me Not unto me Lord but to thy holy name be given all honour and glory Alas what am I what have I what can I All is thine O my bountifull Lord God Nothing is mine but sin and therefore I deserve only shame and confusion 7. I renounce all desire of delight in my devotions all sensible gusts of grace and all sweetnesses and solaces in the inferiour faculties of my soul Ah my heart what is all this to thee follow thou thy Saviour Thou seekest thy crucified Jesus This is not he but his gifts O my Lord it is thy self I seek and sigh after If thou send'st me comforts for the incouragement of my weakness be thou ever praised for thou dost like a most benign and bountifull God If thou withdrawest them still blessed be thy providence which hath secret and severall wayes of conducting souls to thy self and if thou wilt make triall of my fidelity by permitting me to be dull dry and desolate in my devotions be thou equally and eternally blessed I renounce all scrupulosity of Conscience which reflects any way upon the least diffidence or distrust in thy mercy I am a sinner O Jesu but thou art a Saviour I have great reason to dread thy justice but greater to hope in thy goodness Heaven and earth shall sooner fail than my confidence in thee my mercifull maker If thou kill me I will trust in thee And if I had formerly hated thee and betrayed thee as Judas did I would now with penitent Magdalen run to thy blessed feet weep and bemoan my misery and hope to obtain thy mercy And finally O my Lord I absolutely intirely and irrevocably renounce my whole Will in all things and totally resigne whatsoever any way concerns me to thy holy will and pleasure I offer up unto thee the full sacrifice both principall and accessorie of all that by thy gift and grace I am have and can my self goods graces body soul senses heart will all I leave no right or title to any selfness in any thing whatsoever I am no more my self but thy slave O Lord not my will but thine be done for time and eternity O let me will what thou wilt or not will at all Let all my desires be involuntary if they swerve never so little from thy divine pleasure Dy self-will Live Jesus my Lord my Love my All. FOR SATVRDAY Of Conformity to Christ Crucified The Sixth Exercise 1. CRucified Iesu thou only Lord of my life life of my love and love of my soul O that I could reform my life Deiform my love and conform my soul to thee the absolute pattern of all perfection O that I could imprint thy lively and lovely image in my heart fasten all my affections and imperfections to thy sacred Cross drown all my desires and defects in thy dear wounds put off my self totally and put thee on intirely O sacred humanity ô my suffering Saviour O that I could perfectly imitate thee the pure exemplar of all vertues that I could give up my whole self to thee by an act of irrevocable donation as thou demandest and commandest But alas I am yet O my Jesu all self-self-love sin and sensuality I acknowledge O my Lord what I have and what I want I know what I desire and what I deserve I confess I am wounded I am wicked I am wretched and I tremblingly come to thee my heavenly Physician to be cured converted comforted O sweet Saviour for thy mercies sake and for thy passions sake Forget and forgive what I have been pitty what I am satisfie for what I deserve and supply what I desire 2. Behold most mercifull Iesu I first cast my self at thy sacred Feet pierced and fast'ned to the cruel Cross for my transgressions Pierce my flesh O my Lord with thy fear and fasten my soul to thy love O let not pride and presumption nestle any longer in that heart which thou O meek Saviour lovest so tenderly and redeemest at so dear a rate O my vain glory and arrogancie what have I to do with you how much do I now detest you Wash off these stains O Iesu from my poor soul in these sweet streams flowing from thy wounded Feet O drown these my imperfections in these sacred Seas of piety Give me O Gracious Lord such true humility of spirit that I may
languish not breathe but burn by reason of extasie and excess of love 3. O fire O flames Burn consume annihilate Alas Beauty of Angels how late and how little do I love thee O come into my soul behold a poor lodging yet such as it is it is all thine I conceal nothing I reserve nothing heart soul spirit all is thine own compose all dispose of all depose all unruly passions impose what penance thou pleasest I accept it o my Lord only repose peaceably in my soul and let no foul or false affection interpose it self or disturb this blessed union O that I could please and praise thee purely perfectly perpetually Oh that I could love thee faithfully freely and fully in all and above all things ô my all and only love I acknowledge my self bound ô Lord in thy chains of charity I am burned in thy fire I am wounded and won to thy love But what shall I say What can I give All I have is not worthy of thee and yet is thine already Ask my sweet Lord and have choose and take make me such as thou desirest and then take me to thy desire Give thy self ô great God to my soul and then take my soul with thy self in it My life liberty love and all is thine own My last will is already made in which I bequeath all to thee Thine own death and passion all thy mercies and merits all the praises and perfections of thy dear Mother and the blessed Saints and Angels and all the goods glories and splendors of all thy creatures All that I am have and can both spirituals and temporals kindred friends riches health honors estates offices devotion all is at thy disposition I am resolute ô my Lord I am resigned and indifferent to have them increased or diminished to use them to thy glory or to lose them altogether 4. I give thee back ô merciful Maker my whole being either to be what thou wilt or to be nothing at all to love thee or not to live at all I offer to thee ô pious Redeemer my sins to pardon my works to perfect my will to purifie I offer thee my wounds to cure my soul to cleanse and my spirit to comfort I offer to thee O holy Spirit my intentions to rectifie my inclinations to sanctifie my affections to deifie Finally I offer all for one I give all to one and all I desire is to be all one with thee my all and only Lord and love Thou hast given me O my bountiful Creator the whole world in free-hold for one penny of Rent saying Child give me thy heart O Lord Let this penny never want the superscription of thy grace and let me never want thy grace to pay this rent O my Lord all that I have is but two small mites I cast them into thy hands and had I more I would give more Dispose of them both dear Lord of my body and soul as best pleaseth thee that thy will may be perfectly performed and thy name purely sanctified in both O sweet God of my heart Let me embrace thee in the two arms of profound humility and perfect charity O let my heart faint and melt away in the fire of thy divine love let me lose my self to find thee be out of my self to live in thee and be empty of my self to be full of thee O fun of Justice dissolve with a beam of thy brightness the frost of my heart and resolve it into tears of affection 5. O beautiful and best-beloved of my soul I am weary of this wretched world and I breathe thirst and sigh after thee the sweet fountain of life-giving and soul-saving waters O thou true rest and refresher of my faint and feeble heart out of whom there is neither comfort nor content Let me shroud my self under the shadow of thy wings untill iniquity and infirmity have an end Come Lord Jesu Speak thy sweet words of love to my languishing soul for thy servant hears thee Give me courage alacrity fervour and fidelity in thy service the few remaining moments of my wretched and wearisome pilgrimage O rest long expected and much sighed after where shal I seek thee and when shall I find thee where sleepest thou O dear Spouse at midday in the heat of love Where is thy secret cabinet of Contemplation which thou hidest from the wisdom of worldling and revealest to little ones and humble of heart O shew me the bed of divine Union wherein thou reposest with the simple solitary and mortified soul O let my poor heart have the honour and happiness to rest in thee to remain with thee and to be united to thee O God of love wound my soul with thy sweet wounds of love which nothing can cure but death wean it from the worlds vanity and wed it to thy increated verity that treading all creatures under me I may be rapt into thee my Creator above my-self and there like the happy Dove in the secure Ark repose my weary and faint lims in the bosom of thee my Soveraign Lord and lover 6. O divine wisdom Lead me into the solitude speak unto my heart teach me thy holy will in all occurrences My deep sighs and secret desires are not hid from thee Thou knowest nothing can fully cure comfort and content me but thy self the one and only necessary thing O take my self and all and give me that one thing in whom are all things O sweet waters of divine Love which flow from the blessed bosom of the divinity and from the open side of my Saviours humanity Run into my bowels and like pure oyl penetrate and possess every parcel of my spirit Irrigate and inebriate it overflow and absorp it that it may be transformed and conformed to the divine Spirit so that all my actions cogitations and affections may be spiritual divine and Deiform O let my ravish'd soul full of life and fire break forth into these flames of joy and jubilation I have found him whom my soul loves I have him and I will hold him This is he which by reading I sought by meditation I found by prayer I desired and by contemplation I enjoy O how the earth stinks how loathsom are all creatures to me O tast O sweetness O true and solid pleasure O how great is the difference between this spiritual and all fleshly delights O the multitude of thy sweetnesses which thou hast laid up O Lord for them that fear and love thee O lights O delights O extasies of spirit Wound me O sweet God burn me consume me crucifie me Let me cry out with that Lover Retain O Lord the floods of thy grace or inlarge my heart for I can hold no longer I thirst Lord give me this water O when how long how much 7. O my soul how good is it for us to be here O sweet and secure home and harbour Let us remain and rejoyce here for ever I will keep thee O my dearly beloved and
upon this same Stair stands Here also they stand who are intirely indifferent also another rank of holy persons who have brought their inward man to an intire indifferency in all things whom neither prosperity puffs up nor adversity dejects who have their Lords will for the sole law of their actions and his only love for their All in all They desire to be truly conformable to their crucified Saviour and to keep an internall quiet content and constancy in all desolation and dereliction They are well grounded and setled in a simple and sincere affection to their Lord God which enables them not only to act great and heroique things but also to suffer all grievous and hard matters These illuminated souls receive But yet rest in Gods favours with some propriety many sweet and secret graces from the hands of the heavenly bounty as rewards of their sincere fidelity their Understandings are replenish'd with clarity their Memories are possest with objects of piety their Wills are burnt and consumed with perfect charity But yet these aboundances of divine favours may somtimes turn to their prejudice when they rest in them with the least spirituall gust and propriety Here furthermore are seated those Here furthermore they stand who are satisfied with God only almost perfect souls which have really resigned up themselves and all purely to Gods pleasure are fully contented with him alone and remain wholly satisfied with all that he either sends or suffers looking upon himself only and not upon any of his gifts or goods These are yet more frequently visited from above with divine illustrations and solaced with high and heavenly comforts but because But are not as willing to leave divine favours as to have them they are not as really resigned to leave them and to be bereft of them as they are ready and willing to have and enjoy them they seem to have yet a little point left of secret propriety within them and must therefore take yet a higher flight before they can pearch upon the upmost round of this spirituall ladder which is The Seventh and highest Degree of Perfection WHereunto those elevated and perfect souls are soared up which are throughly inflamed absorpt and extasied in divine contemplation On the 7. step stand the perfect contemplatives wholly dead to the world abstracted from flesh and blood and living as it were only by vivacity of Gods love and quickning of his holy Spirit within them These are the dear darlings blessed minions holy favourites and Gods faithfull friends and dear favorites happy spouses of the most high though they somtimes live here below in perpetual oblivion and obscurity They are brim full of heavenly gifts and graces lifted up above themselves to taste the unexplicable sweetnesses and behold the unspeakeable glimpses of the divinity Yet they rest not in these sublime prerogatives with the least pleasure or propriety but utterly renounce all self-seeking and interrest being securely grounded in solid faith cloathed only with naked charity and accompanied with abyssal humility counting themselves worthy of all abjection conceiving themselves the very worst of all creatures and contenting themselves to be by all so taken and treated Their whole comfort is in the Cross of Christ they neither look for such plentifull showers of heavenly feelings visitations illuminations and influences of the Spirit nor ungratefully neglect them but remain in perfect indifferency and Who are perfectly indâ—fferent and absolutely resigned and obedient offer up themselves as obedient instruments to all that the holy Ghost shall vouchsafe to operate by or in them They receive all things from their Creators hands into their open and disinteressed souls as if they felt them not ever praising the divine piety admiring his liberality returning all to his honour resigning all to his will and being satisfied with his providence and disposition in all temporall and spirituall events whatsoever Finally their outward man desires no earthly consolation their inward man breathes nothing but the pure love of God and the whole compositum begs nothing but a perfect conformity to his crucified Lord and master in all things but especially in self-denial and abnegation the only safe and secure guide of each Step in this his long pilgrimage towards perfection THE FOURTH TREATISE OF THE SPIRITVALL CONQUEST Or The Triumph of the elevated Soul in the amorous embraces of her divine Spouse Canticles 5. v. 8. Tell my beloved that I languish with love Cant. 2. v. 16. My beloved to me and I to him AT PARIS M.DC.LI To the Loving Spouses ayming at divine Vnion with their heavenly Bridegroom HAving thus happily 1. 1. The Spâ—rituall Conflict Fought and foiled your ghostly enemies O Victorious souls 2. Prudently 2. The Seven Ambushes discovered and avoided their dangerous ambushes 3. Gotten the right use of your 3. The Seven Exercises Spirituall weapons by the frequent and faithfull practice of your pious exercises 4. And 4. The Seven degrees of perfection couragiously climb'd up from one degree of solid vertu to another from the lowest Step of Devotion to the highest degree of Perfection It only remains that you now take your 5. last 5. This ladder of divine love consisting of seven rounds and sublimest flight from this mountain-top to the throne of divine love and Union to facilitate which heavenly enterprise you may fitly make use of this holy ladder rais'd up for your souls assistance in those her high-soarings that so she may conveniently repose herself upon each mysticall Step thereof prune her wearied wings fetch breath a while and get new strength and more light to ascend higher and higher till she arrives at the full height and head of it which leans upon the very bosom of the Divinity it self and leads into the bedchamber of her beloved Bridegroom where finding a sure footing and a secure resting place forgetting the whole world her self and all the multiplicity of things which she left below and from which she hath happily unfetter'd disingaged and loosned her-self she sits silently solitarily quietly and contentedly attending to that One alone whom she only loves in whom only she lives and from whose sweet embraces she desires never more to be separated The Seven Degrees of divine Love 1. In the first degree the soul is wounded with love sick of love and languishing with love 2. In the second she seeks her Physician 3. In the third she fears her own unworthiness and the loss of her beloved 4. In the fourth she willingly suffers for love 5. In the fifth she is impatient in her desires of love and must either obtain or dy for it lightly swiftly and nimbly after love grows bold and confident in love and becomes united to her beloved 7. In the seventh she enjoys her beloved perfectly and perpetually The first round of this ladder of divine Love UPon this first Step stands the pious soul which In the first degree
upon our heads but we are always loath to employ that in your love which we receive from your liberality though this is the only way to have them continued and increased This degree of love is very high and heroick For as the soul here seeks her Lord so seriously and adheres to him so sincerely that she is ready willing and desirous to suffer any thing for him So his divine Majesty often ordinarily rewards thiâ— her fidelity with putting her in possession of joy and giving her many secret sugred and delicious visits For the immense love of the Word incarnate Christ Jesus permits him not to see his loving Spouse suffer purely for his sake without hastning to her comfort and succour Hence she speedily gets up to The Fifth Degree of Love WHich moves the inflamed soul to a certain holy impatience In the 5. she is impatient in her desires of love in her desires of being joyned to her beloved She is seiz'd with such a vehement ardour to overtake him and to be united to him that all stay and tarriance seems to her tedious and insupportable She thinks often to have found him caught him in her arms clasp'd him in her bosom but perceiving her self still frustrated of her desired object faints through her eagerness of spirit as he did who cry'd out My soul covets and decays after the Courts of Psa 83. 1. my Lord. She cannot subsist long in this And must either obtain it or dy for it condition She must either obtain her love or cease to live she is as eager in her desires as Rachel was to see her self a mother when she said to Jacob Give me children or Gen. 30. 1 else I dy Here the soul feeds altogether on love as she only hungers and thirsts after love So that she quickly raises her self up to The Sixth Degree WHere she runs lightly swftly and nimbly after her beloved In the 6. she runs lightly swiftly sweetly after love Isai 40. 32 being fortified with Faith lifted up with Hope and quickned with Charity Of which degree the Prophet speaks They who hope in our Lord shall exchange their strength shall take Eagles wings and fly without fainting The reason of this lightness is the overspreading and dilatation of these three Theological vertues in the soul whereby it becomes so elevated that it wants but little of a totall purification Wherupon that enlarged soul said I have Ps 118. 32 run over the way of your commandments when you dilated my heart Hence she grows hardy in love grows bold and confident in love and putting on a confident boldness is piously amorously and strongly transported beyond the ordinary limits of reason So that she stays not according to judgement retreates not according to counsel nor governs and represses her impetuosity violence and forwardness by the rules of modesty and shame-fastness because the peculiar favor which her best beloved shews her communicates to her a holy and heavenly audacity In this state was that hardy spouse which beg'd a Cant. 1. 1. kiss of her beloveds mouth And Moses when he peremptorily said Exo. 32. 32 to God Either pardon this people or blot my name out of the book of life wherein thou hast registred it And then burning sweetly in and becomes united to her beloved pure and perfect union with her beloved she cryes out I have found the long desired object of my affections I will not let go my hold nor permit him to escape out of my embraces c. Here her holy thirst and hunger is satisfied and she enjoys such unexplicable treasures of delicious love that were whole volumes fill'd up with the description thereof the greater part would still be left uncomprised And from thâ— estate the amorous Soul passeth â— to the last Degree which belong not to this mortall life The Seventh and last Degree WHich likens her totally to her well-beloved Creator by In the 7. she enjoys her beloved perfectly c. the clear vision of divine essence This she enjoys as soon as being here in this world arrived at the Sixth degree of this divine ladder of love she departs hence to her happy eternity These blessed Souls which are very few in number are sufficiently purged and purified by Love which hath done that in them here which Purgatory doth in others elswhere so that to them belongs that Beatitude Blessed are the clean-hearted Matt. 5. 8. for they shall see God Now we say this divine vision causeth a totall resemblance of the soul with God following that sentence of S. John We know that when he shall appear we shall be like 1 Joh. 3. 2. him because we shall see him as he â—â— So that all that which the soul â—s and hath shall be like God by â—articipation Here nothing at al can â—e concealed from her according â—o our Saviours words In that day Joh. 16. 23 you shall ask me nothing Because â—he eyes the clear glass of the God-head wherein her self and all things are most plainly and perfectly contained But untill that day comes though the soul be perched never so high yet God is alwayes hid from her in some manner as far forth as there wants in her somthing of this totall resemblance with the Divinâ—â—y Thus ô amourous souls by climbing this mysticall ladder of divine love upon which God himself leaneth you get out of your selves and all things and fly up into the divine being for love like fire tends alwayes upwards with a perpetual desire to be plunged and ingulphed in the Centre of its proper Sphere Apply your selves therfore seriously to this holy and inward exercise that you may attain to these heavenly effects Embrace with open heart and arms your good great and gracious Lord and love and resolve with that holy Spouse I have laid hold on him and I will never leave him Draw near Cant. 3. 4. Psal 33. 6. this divine Sun and be illuminated he will clear your darkness errours and ignorances dissipate all your dulness in devotion dry up the dirt of your concupiscences encourage you in the carrying of your Cross give you a general alacrity in the performance of all your actions and undertakings and replenish your souls with unspeakable sweetnesses comforts and contents Come I say and only bring with you these three companions Faith Love and Resignation and leave all other things to the divine disposition Represent to your thoughts a wofull and bedridden creature lying grievously tormented with a burning feaver his Physician prescribing abstinence from drink as the only and assured way for his cure and recovery his compassionate friends visiting him seeking to divert his pains with their pleasant discourses and to charm his disease with the delight of musick c. Ah! what unwellcome comforts are all these things to him who can fix his mind on nothing but drink who thinks on nothing talks of nothing demands
abstraction introversion annihilation This is to begin your heaven upon earth and to fortast that endless felicity in which your faith shall be turn'd into clear vision your hope changed into full possession and your charity knit to her beloved centre and perfection where you shall praise God incessantly love him intirely and enjoy him eternally The Table of the Maxims 1. That our end is Perfection and divine Union and that Prayer is the way to it 2. That Beginners may profitably make use of the following Exercise of mentall Prayer and Introversion until they obtain greater light and more experience in the way of the Spirit 3. That of all internal Prayer the affective is most noble necessary and profitable 4. That Meditation is a seeking Contemplation a seeing of God 5. That continual Recollection is the Exercise of Exercises and the immediate way to bring us to perfection and divine Vnion The practice of this Exercise is declared in ten canons 1. That all places are proper for Recollection but the more quiet the more proper 2. That to pray on our knees is a posture most pleasing to God 3. That we must especially at first prefix to our selves certain and set times of Recollection 4. That we must frame an act of pure Intention at our entrance iâ—to Recollection 5. That we must briefly examine our Consciences and produce acts of Contrition self-confusion humility and resolutions of amendment 6. That we must also make an Act of perfect Resignation before we fall upon this Exercise 7. That we must bring with us some theam subject or groundwork of our Prayer and Recollection 8. That we must look on God by Faith and leave off all discourses 9. That we must carry God with us from our Prayer 10. That we must put on Christ and imitate his example in all our actions 6. That for this pure perfect and Transcendent prayer no certain Rules can be prescribed 7. That the Contemplative must be very observant of the divine visits lights and calls 8. That the only way to get true peace of mind is to be totally resigned to God 9. That a Contemplative soul must lay a solid groundwork to serve her in time of desolation 10. That in this high Exercise of Recollection the three Theological vertues Faith Hope and Charity must perfect and possess the three powers of our souls Vnderstanding Memory and Will 11. That our Vnderstandings must be setled in pure Faith 12. That our Memories must be setled in pure Hope 13. That our Wills must be setled in pure Charity 14. That this Exercise of Recollection and Annihilation is the short secure way to divine Vnion 15. That all sorts of people may safely addict themselves to this holy exercise of Recollection 16. That outward Observances are helps in the practice of this Exercise 17. That Prayer for others is best practised by a general intention 18. That all vertues are best practised by addicting our selves to Contemplation or this internal Exercise of Recollection Some examples for the practice of this divine way of Prayer Some further Advices for the same practice of this pure prayer 19. That corporal austerities must be alwayes subject to obedience 20. That Contemplatives must alwayes have the seven verities which concern the divine nature whereupon all Contâ—mplation is grounded either habitually or formally in their memories 21. That Jâ—culâ—tory Prayers are the nearest dispositions to Contemplation 22. That the Presence of God is the great exâ—rcisâ— of Contemplatives and the shortest way to divine Vnion A more sublime way to practise the presâ—nce of God 23. That Humiliation is a relique of Gods love 24. That Humility is the solid groundwork of all spirituality 25. That Silence and Solitude are our heaven upon earth 26. That the perfect love of God and hatred of our selves must be our constant and continuall employment 27. That Confidence in Gods goodness is the main support of our Spiritual Edifice 28. That the measure of our progress in Perfection is the Conformity of our will to the divine will 29. That Vnquietness of mind is the bane of Devotion and curse of Contemplation 30. That Crosses are to be suffer'd not sought to be taken not made to be conceal'd not complain'd of 31. That Temptations cannot hurt us if we cast our whole care upon God 32. That Desolations derelictions afflictions distractions are to be transcended by generous Resolutions 33. That Perfection consists in putting off all propriety and putting on pure and naked charity 34. That Zeal and eagerness must be temper'd with Moderation and discretion 35. That we must never rely upon our own naturall judgement experience and knowledge 36. That we must seek no comfort in any creature 37. That we must walk and persever in these our Spiritual Exercises with the two feet of Faith and Obedience Vnder this Maxim are solved many materiall doubts arising in our dayly progress to Perfection The first doubt If we fear that God will forsake us by reason of our Ingratitude and disloyalty 2. If our sins trouble us in respect of Confession and satisfaction 3. If we can neither pray with fervour nor suffer with patience neither feel God present nor be content in his absence 4. If we are doubtfull that God is angry with us that we want grace that we only seek our selves that we yield to all temptations c. 5. If our consciences are unquiet and our souls fearfull by reason of our proness to sin c. 6. If we are full of fears and apprehensions of our estate by reason we feel in our souls such slender effects of Gods grace and love and have little devotion no inward peace c. 7. If some extream cross calamity or affliction hath seiz'd our hearts c. 8. If we desire to conquer the Devil and overcome all temptations whatsoever 9. If we want comfort in long and dangerous temptations and troubles 10. If we wonder that God will have us suffer temptation sithence our frailty is subject to yield and so offend his divine Majesty 11. If we are solicited by our enemy to unchastness 12. If we are in extraordinary desolation and darkness 13. If we are tempted to despair of Gods mercy by reason of our frequent falls and relapses into sin 14. If we are perplexed with great sadness c. Other remedies against Sadness Another antidote against melancholy and pusillanimity 15. If we suspect that our Sadness and temptations proceed from our own fault or negligence or some secret sin or our want of correspondency with Gods grace c. 16. If we doubt that God is displeased with our Prayers that our afflictions befall us through our own occasion and cannot satisfie our selves to think we have done what God requires 17. If nature hath shew'd her self a Stâ—p-mother unto us in giving us a hard and harsh disposition whence proceeds a reluctancy to works of vertue and mortification of vice So that we distrust of ever overcoming
our selves 18. If on the contrary Our nature is so facil and flexible that we scarcely find difficulty in any thing We wonder to hear mention of rebellions contradictions desolations c. From all which we are secure and quiet And therefore we fear our actions proceed rather from a natural promptitude than solid vertue 19. If we so addict our selves to Recollection that we look upon works of Obedience and the external practices of our duty as impediments to Perfection 20. If we find such a calm in our passions imperfections and temptations that we hope the worst is past 21. If scrupulosity overwhelms us 1. We must obey our Spiritual Directour 2. We must do our best endeavour But here arise two difficulties 1. If our Directours knowledge be small his experience less c. 2. If we cannot satisfy our selves that we have done our best c. 22. If we fear we detest not sin sufficiently because we feel not so great sorrow for the offence of God as we do somtimes for a temporall loss 23. If we cannot ground our selves in a firm hope of mercy for that we are so frail and inconstant we sin dayly and amend not our lives we repay unto God evil for good we promise fidelity and practise nothing less 24. If we go not on with alacrity because we know not that our sins are forgiven that our Confessions are good and that we are in the state of grace 25. Though we cannot in this life assure our selves infallibly to be in good state yet if we could comfort our selves with most probable tokens of grace whereby we might feel the pulses of our hearts and somwhat ease our anguish 26. If we are troubled because we know not well when we give consent to sinfull thoughts 27. If we cannot well distinguish between Venial and Mortal sin 28. If these sayings of Divines terrifie us They sin who do against their doubt And In doubtfull things the securer part is to be followed 29. If finally we are apprehensive and fearfull lest we should grow weary in the way of vertu and not persevere constantly in our Spiritual Exercises Maxims of Mystical Divinity The first Maxim That our end is perfection and Divine Vnion and That Prayer is the way to it IT is not sufficient for us who are resolv'd upon a spiritual course to lead an ordinary good life which consists in the avoiding of sin and scandal and in the punctual performance of our external duty to God and our neighbour But our end and aym must be to attain the perfection of Gods holy love and a happy Vnion of our souls with their first beginning by living in abstraction recollection and perpetuall Contemplation as far forth as Gods holy Spirit shall enable us and our frailty can correspond The chief means to attain this our end is Prayer without which all Religion is but a shadow without a body or a body without a soul and all outward observances will prove but a superficial not a real devotion For it is the constant doctrine of Divines that what God S. Augustine S. Basil S. Chrysostom S. Thomas 2 2. q. 83. a. 2. in his eternal disposition hath determined to bestow upon us he gives us in time by the intervention of Prayer tying as it were to this instrument the conversion of sinners the advancement of souls the perfection of Saints c. So that as his divine decree is that we must till the earth if we will reap the fruits thereof and provide mateâ—â—als if we will raise up buildings and the like so his absolute order is that we must pray if we will have spiritual benefits to be powred into our souls and supernatural gifts and graces to be granted unto us Let us therefore in the first place resolve to prosecute Prayer couragiously constantly and perseverantly at set times if we intend to make speedy progress in sincere vertue and lay a sure groundwork of solid spirituality and let nothing upon any pretext whatsoever hinder or divert us from it as far as obedience and discretion will give us leave Lord heal my wounds supply my wants satisfie my wishes The second Maxim That Beginuers may profitably make use of this following exercise of mental Prayer and Introversion until they obtain greater light and more experience in the way of the Spirit THis divine Exercise consists of three parts in general and Nine points in particular 1. Preparation of 3. acts 1. An affective lively apprehensioÌ„ of Gods presence 2. A cordial and profound act of humility 3. A pure intention to please and praise God only 2. Consideration of 1. My wounds both internal and external 2. My wants which are many in every degree 3. My wishes and humble desires 3. Conclusion also of 3. acts 1. Contrition for my sins 2. Resignation in my wants 3. Complacence in God and Confidence in his goodness A more ample and practical description of this Exercise The first part is Preparation of three Acts. 1. A lively apprehension of Gods Presence not only in all places and all creatures by his power and essence but in our souls by his mercy love care and providence O my Soul Where are we 1. Part. 1 Preseâ—ce of God who seeth us What is he that is with us and within us by whose light we see by whose fire we burn and by whose love we live Live my most glorious and gracious Lord in whose presence I kneel in whose arms I rest and after whose love I breathe O that thou wert as dear to my soul as thou art near it Alas why doth she not care as much for her God as he doth for her good Why do I not love thy presence ô my amiable Lord since thou art present by love Thou art my Father my Physician and my food hear me heal me help me I am wounded I am wicked I am wretched Out of thee there is no rest without thee there is no hope remain with me reign within me Let me be thine all thine ever thine 2. Profound and cordial humility acknowledging unfeignedly before God and his Angels our wickedness weakness and wretchedness what we are and what we deserve and so resting quiet in our Centre of nothing O my Soul What have we 2 Profound humility been What are we What have we what can we do What do we deserve What do we desire What hath our loving Father and liberal Lord that he hath not given us What have we proud and prodigal children that we have not received meerly from his mercifull hand and heart What have we received that we have not abused by self-love or self-delight O sweet Jesu Give tears to my eyes words to my tongue sighs to my heart and love to my spirit for I need them all to deplore my misery and implore thy mercy to admire thy beauty and adore thy bounty to sigh after thee and suffer for thee What I have been it grieves me to
the morning and the other in the evening to his particular honour 4. That we must frame an act of pure Intention at our entrance into Recollection as thus I intend ô my God to employ each moment of the short time I shall remain in thy presence in adoring thy Majesty admiring thy goodness begging thy pardon for my offences thy mercy for the souls in Purgatory thy succour for the Churches necessities thy assistance in such an extremity thy strength against such an inclination thy grace for the getting such a vertue I am here on my knees ô Lord to perform these homages and present these petitions This Intention will virtually endure the whole time of prayer and make our seeming idleness and stâ—lâ—ess active and meritorious 5. That we must briefly examine our Consciences and produce acts of Contrition self-confusion humility and resolutions of amendment Saying from the very bottom of our hearts in this or the like manner O my Lord my God my 〈◊〉 thou deservest all praise honour and service because thou art good gracious and glorious I will henceforth rather lose all than leave thee ô my God without whom all is nothing and since thou art so good in thy self and so good to me I will by thy grace never more offend thee I will confess my sins amend my life perform my penance walk carefully humbly obediently resignedly in thy presence to all which I am principally moved by the infinite greatness beauty and bounty of thine own divine being and perfection In the particular examen of our consciences which must never be omitted in the beginning of our Recollection we must mark to what vice we are most inclin'd and wherin we are most frail and then trample Read the Spir. Confl c. 7. n. 1. 4. that down violently and resolutely for this Captain-imperfection being conquered the rest will soon yield and submit And in the next examen we must impartially search and censure our selves and see whether our falls in that kind are still as frequent as they were formerly and so set upon our enemy again with fresh fervour vigour courage and constancy till we have gotten the compleat victory 6. That we must also make an Act of perfect Resignation before we fall upon this Exercise Leaving our selves intirely in Gods hands He is our father let him dispose of his children and all that concerns them as he best pleaseth saying O my Lord my father my lover do with my life my health my temporals my spirituals my body my soul all all as thou wilt I come not hither to receive my own content but to learn how to conform me to thy will in all things and to remain in that very state neither more nor less nor otherwise which best pleaseth thy divine Majesty 7. That we must bring with us some theam subject or groundwork of our Prayer and Recollection As some mystery of our Saviours life death Passion mans last ends some vice to be conquered some vertue to be attained some divine perfection to be admired or some jaculatory sentence to be so long stayed on and chewed till our souls feel themselves inclined to quit all discoursing and acting and to remain quiet in an exercise of pure Faith and perfect Resignation as followeth 8. That we must look on God by Faith and leave off all discourseâ— When lively conceiving by Faith that our Lord is in us and in all things we humbly beg him to teach us the holy lesson of divine love and so keeping our selves in his presence bidding good night to all creatures objects and images whatsoever as at this time nothing concerning us we only and immediately eye the beloved object of our souls and rest quietly contentedly silently and sweetly absorpt into the Diviniâ—y 9. That we must carry God with us from our Prayer Let us not leave our dear Lord in the Oratory when we rise from Recollection but bear him along with us continually in our hearts talking still with him and of him eating and drinking in his company sleeping with him in our arms negotiating walking recreating doing all things with him in him for him and ever praying and praysing him whom we have with us and within us in the closet of our souls 10. That we must put on Christ and imitate his example in all our actions Our Saviour Christ is our Master let his life therefore be our modell and his practises the patterns which we always study to express and imitate Let us comport our selves in eating drinking sleeping speaking praying and doing all things as we conceive Christ did or would do upon the like occasions if he were now living upon earth in his humanity Let us study to have this Rule of three alwayes at our fingers ends 1. To think as Jesus did 2. To speak as Jesus did 3. To do as Jesus did So striving to become as it were a Jesus Christ by imitation Thus briefly we have the whole manner and method of this transcendent Prayer and divine exercise of Recollection to wit 1. To get into our retreat 2. and there placing our selves on our knees 3. Twice every day 4. to frame an act of pure Intention 5. To examin our consciences and produce acts of Contrition 6. and Resignation Then to 7. think on the subject of our prayer 8. Leave off all discourses and look on God by faith 9 Carry God with us from prayer and 10 lastly put on Christ by imitation Which is the short and secure way to divine union and Deiformity being faithfully performed discreetly practised and carefully accompanied with profound humility perfect obedience and an absolute submission to our spiritual director as shall be more fully deduced in the subsequent Maxims The sixth Maxim That for this pure perfect and Transcendent prayer no certain Rules can be prescribed THe ground of all Prayer even purest is as hath been said some mystery some devout sentence some vertu or some jaculatory dart c. untill our affection be moved Now if by continuall Introvâ—rsion and peculiar grace our Wils are drawn incontinently by the simple view of our beloved Lord it is needless to use this ordinary means When our affections are thus enkindled they break forth into flames of love and aspirations Then the heat increasing our Prayer grows more inward our sighs deeper our love greater our hearts more ardent in their desires of Union which is active Contemplation Wherewith our souls being overcome and drowned in tâ—eir lovers presence leave him to speak move act all things with us and within us and so we sleep in passive Contemplation freed from all objects of creatures and sweetly united by pure love to our Creator The degrees therefore of Prayer in generall are these 1. Devout reading or mix'd Prayer The degrees of Prayer in generall 2. Vocall Prayer 3. Meditation or consideration 4. When the affection is excited Vocall aspirations 5. The heat and light encreasing mix'd partly Vocall partly Mentall
affections 6. Then more still abstract and simple Prayer 7. After which come's Active Contemplation 8. And lastly Passive In which estate we may and must leave all Rules and help our selves by experience and the â—â—ght â—f Earth but especially by following and humbly obeying the internall motion and attraction of the holy Spirit of God upon whom chiefly depends the perfection of this great work For further explication whereof The seventh Maxim That the Contemplative must be very observant of the divine visits lights and calls WE must take heed of tying our selves to any set forms of words points or methods of Mental prayer after we have made We must ty our selves to no set methods some progress in this practice of Recollection for this were directly to impede the free operation of Gods holy Spirit within us When therefore we shall perceive our souls drawn from discourses to this higher exercise we must humbly and readily relinquish our former hold and give scope and leave to the divine invitation busying our selves no longer in our former fears and customs but making use of such inward or outward expressions as fervent love will suggest and furnish us withall conforming our selves perfectly to God's will and cooperating with his grace yet so as not to run before it which is the other extream equally hindring the divine Spirit 's intention Wherfore a quiet indifferent and industrious attention and correspondency still willingly giving way to Obedience for fear of delusion is the very best disposition to receive these heavenly visitations We must not then be troubled But willingly quit our old customs if we break our old customs to embrace Gods will he is the end of all our exercises and the end being obtained the means must cease O how many are called by God who refuse and resist him by tying their Spirits to this or that practice and so bar him from elevating their souls to himself as he pleaseth They are loath to leave God in their usuall Devotions for God in Contemplation If they begin not their prayers thus and thus end them they think they have done nothing and remain wholly unsatisfied Thus they become proprietarians in their Wils and slaves to their exercises and because they cast not themselves absolutely into the two arms of Gods will and love they make small progresse in the way of solid perfection The eighth Maxim That the only way to get true peace of mind is to be totally Resigned to God REsignation is a putting away of What Resignation iâ— our own Will and a placing of Gods Will in its stead it is as it were a certain transfusion of our Wills into his and an uncloathing our selves of all desires but only that God's holy Will be fully accomplish'd in heaven and earth Without this Resignation we There is no true quiet without it shall never find quiet in God nor our-selves and the way to attain to it is to receive all that happens as from Gods holy hands and to be content to bear it as long and in what manner and measure he pleaseth Let us not be troubled under a false pretence of zeal at this place that company c. For it is not that but our selves who stand in our own light First then let us seek God purely in all 2. See him present in all 3. Take from him all 4. Return to him all Let us be indifferent in all praise God in all bee quiet and content in all in sickness and health in light and darkness in peace and trouble in life and death To be expell'd out of Paradise with Adam to lye full of sores and sorrows with Job on a dunghil to be forsaken by all with Christ on the crosse to bee poor needy naked nothing being ever ready to say cordially cheerfully and with an humble and habituall indifferency Yes O Father yes I will It pleaseth thee it shall pleaâ—e me well good best of all So be it my good Lord for time and eternity in this and in all things A soul thus resigned can never be troubled with any cross or calamity for she eys Gods Will and embraces his Providence in all occurrences nothing toucheth her but only thâ—t his divine pleasure is not perfectly performed in her self and in all creatures If in her prayers she be seiz'd with How to be resigned in desolations drynesse dulnesse desolation shee gratefully confesseth that state to be best for the perfecting of her spirit She neither complains of nor considers her inproficiency in her pious exercises for she comes not to prayer for gusts or graces but to doe Gods will to receive what he pleaseth to suffer what â—e permitteth And because this Resignation is the Key of her true progress she makes frequent and fervent acts thereof in this or the like manner Take my Will totally to thee O Acts of Resignation my God! govern it absolutely and submit it perfectly to thine own and because I cannot deliver it up O my dear Lord as thou desirest take it from me by violence cut off all impediments break all my fetters for me bring me forcibly and bend me absolutely to a blessed conformity with thy Will and pleasure Let my whole employment in this life be the practice of this point Let me neither think of pain nor look upon recompense but resignedly behold thee because thou art in thy self so good so great so glorious so amiable so admirable I give up my Will O divine Artist to bee plung'd purified polished hammer'd filed and fired in the fornace of thy love O doe with it and with me as thou best knowest and pleasest 'T is for this I now come to prayer and for this only that I may be taught this happy lesson of denying mine own and doing thy Will Or thus briefly Lord I put my Will and alâ— that concerns me inwardly out wardly temporally eternally intâ— thy holy hands dispose of all aâ— thou pleasest and direct me in aâ— to doe thy divine Will Having made this act and oblation let us reflect seriously upon what we have said and done and that in giving away our Will wee have put the best pawn wee have into Gods hands and out of our own power let us then beware of so infamous and ignoble an action as to re-take the gift so solemnly delivered or to doe again our own wil in any thing whatsoever The ninth Maxim That a Contemplative soul must lay a solid groundwork to serve her in time of Desolation FOr no soul can in this life be alwaies elevated to the Divinity and therefore will sometimes need a stay to rest upon till she can take breath and repair her forces in order to her higher soarings in Contemplation This resting place This groâ—ndwork may be Christs humanity may most fitly be the Humanity of Christ which is the very way and dore to the Divinity upon which when she returns to her self after she hath been absorpt
as the working of miracles c. And we must uncloath our wills from any Joy proceeding from these prerogatives since they may be conferred upon reprobates Or they are such goods as have relation to sanctifying grace as Faith c. Which if they are not accompanied with perfect Charity and final Perseverance are nothing worth and nothing can be no true subject of joy We may here take notice how little reason some persons have to be troubled because they have not these extraordinary gifts when as they may be rather impediments if ill used or over-much adher'd unto than helps to divine Union For says S. Denys all these things are S. Denys not God but only some effects of his favour ordered by his providence to indear us in his love Thus the three powers of our souls Understanding Mâ—mory and Will are to follow their three objects Faith Hope and Charity Now our Lord is our loving Master to whom we must have continual recourse and who seeing our longing desires and diligent indeavours will infallibly instruct us in the particular and unexplicable ways of this divine and perfect Contemplation The fourteenth Maxim That this Exercise of Recollection and Annihilation is the short and secure way to divine Vnion FOr a soul which is truly humbled and annihilated hinders not at all Gods holy operation within her but leaves her self in his hands not at all relying upon any discourse or imagination which is coined in her F. Cisnerius ch 29. own mint as a child in his mothers arms who corrects it cherishes it washes it and orders it as she pleaseth And must not this needs be the shortest nearest surest and most proportionate way to divine Vnion For before God created us we were either nothing at all or we were in Gods Ideal being and so were God himself because all that is in God is God now his divine Majesty gave us our present being and we losing our selves because we abused this our being have no better way to regain our selves than by a no-being that so we may come to be that which we are not by denying that being which we are O secure annihilation What can hurt that which is nothing If we thus leave our selves will-less self-less being-less we sodainly become plunged into the increated being of God and living in him only by Faith Hope and Love our enemy as is already said finds nothing to lay hold on because our annihilated souls are no where but in God where they are securely covered and protected under his wings and who is obliged if we may say it to be our bulwark of defence against all assaults of our enemies The fifteenteth Maxim That all sorts of people may safely addict themselves to this holy exercise of Recollection 'T Is true that this way of Prayer is delicate and slippery for Beginners to tread in Yet if they will faithfully observe those few necessary precautions here prescribed they will find to their unspeakable comfort that most true in themselves which experience hath proved F. Cisnerius ch 22. to be true in others who though deeply ingaged in worldly vanities and affections falling seriously resolutely couragiously and humbly upon Divine Contemplation and Recollection became after some time employed in purging their souls from sin and setling themselves in vertue according to counsell and obedience quickly truly and totally changed and were conducted as it were by a nearer cut without pains and tediousness to higher perfection than by the ordinary wayes of discoursive meditation they could in long time have attained For this is most certain That If we use our endeâ—vors Goâ— always gives us his grace God denies not his grace to them who do what ly's â—n their own power Now any one of us being assisted with Gods grace and a good will may do this which follows 1. We may purge our souls from sin by Confession contrition satisfaction the means ordained by God and his Church 2. Resigne and give up our selves and all that we have are and can to Gods Divine Majesty 3. Adore him in spirit and truth and present our selves before him as his poor needy naked creatures 4. Abstract our Vnderstandings Memories and Wills from all objects and images of creatures though never so good high and holy 5. Enter into the obscurity of Faith hope and love and leave our souls as it were sleeping and swallowed up in the abysses of the Divinity Finally all we have to do is briefly this We must leave our houses empty that our Lord and lover may take full possession and then we may assure our selves that at the very instant in which our dear Lord shall find our hearts vacant he will enter presently into them inhabit them instruct them and shew them how sweet he is to those souls which Lam. 5. 25. truly seek him Let us but persever constantly and couragiously in this pious practice and we shall soon perceive our unspeakable profit and progress and though it seems to our selves that we perform it with much impurity and imperfection yet our continued endeavours enabled with Gods concurring grace will speedily raise us up to divine Vnion The sixteenth Maxim That outward Observances are helps in the practice of this Exercise ALl externall practices duties and mortifications as fastings Read F. Cisnerâ—us ch 68. disciplines retirements vocal devotions c. must be directed to further our internal conversation with God and to help us in the acquisition of solid vertue and divine Vnion for else they will but puff us up and make us proud of nothing profiting little with much labour Yet we must be wary of offending against the least ordinance of We must not offend against the least ordinance c. the Church order of the House or disposition of our Superiours we must be conscientious careful and punctual in each ceremony and constitution omitting nothing upon pretence that it is no great matter not commanded under sin or not much conducing to our spiritual advancement For this is a token of an ignorant unfaithful or indiscreet spirit Gods will is as well in little as in great things and who so is careless in small matters will soon fail in higher The seventeenth Maxim That Prayer for others is best practised by a general intention WE are not lightly to promise We must not lightly promise the performance of particular Prayers for others either living or dead This sort of charity hinders diverts and dissipats our souls breeding multiplicity when as one thing is only necessary We must therefore omit all such obligations as may renew old affections and Nor oblige our selves to pray for others labour to forget and forsake all that we may more purely adhere to one who is our all in all wherefore let this generall vertuall and cordiall intention suffice for all cases of this nature First that we desire to be partakers of all prayers sacrifices and merits of the whole Church
militant and triumphant as far as God shall please and we need Next that we intend to pray for all and especially for them who have desired it or to whom we stand any way ingaged as we do for our selves And this without any personall reflexion is more profitable to our friends and less prejudiciall to our selves All which is to be understood when no peculiar promise occasion or circumstance induceth a speciall obligation and performance The eighteenth Maxim That all vertues are best practised by addicting our selves to Contemplation or this internal Exercise of Recollection THe chief way to practise vertue and prevent temptations is not by a direct and formall reflexion upon them which imprints images in the soul and averts her from attending purely to God in her interiour But by a vertuous and vigorous The practice of all vertues in contemplation binding of her will to God for being thus seriously and sweetly intent to him only she can by a happy disdain forget and pass over or through all occurring dâ—fficulties and so behave her self orderly and discreetly as to content both God and man Now that all vertues in particular are thus most excellently practised it appears first in Faith Whereof Of Faâ—th we are taught to make a lively Act in the entrance to this exercise And what way can this vertue be more heroically put in use than to have our souls lifted above all sensible objects all discourse all humane wisdom Hope is here practised for we Hope ly prostrate at Gods feet as poor beggers hoping to obtain his grace in order to the performance of his Will and expecting all good from his meer mercy Here also our Love is exercised Charity because our Will covets nothing but to content our Creator and rests separated from all that is not himself for the sole love of him Here is the practâ—ce of perfect Resignation Resignation for we wish neither quiet nor disquiet glory nor infamy pleasure nor pain but only the fulfilling of Gods Will and a desire to be left in what state he best likes Patience must be here necessaâ—ily Patience practised in respect of the crosses and contradictions suggested by So called by Thaulerus sensuality in this afflicting exercise All sin is here destroyed For that is an aversion from our Creator and a conversion to creatures but Destruction of sin here by means of perfect Faith we remain as it were agglutinated to God and governed by his inward grace which stills all outward motions stifles all concupiscences and makes us unknowing and forgetfull of our selves and all things created As for Mortification it is here Mortification S. Greg. the great practised in a high degree For he that tasts the sweets of the Spirit growes soon disgusted with all carnal delights here the flesh is totally supplanted and the senses quieted for the eyes see no outward object rhe ears attend to no noyse rhe tongue remains silent the understanding contemns all curiosities the memory drawes a curtain over all images the will is disingag'd from willing or nilling any thing finally here is an entire destruction of all sensuality Obedience is perfectly practised Obedience because the wings of discourse are clip'd and the understanding captivated by Faith Humility can no where more Humility appear than when a soul is so annihilated as to trust neither little nor much to her-self O Rich nothing What spirituall mines what Masses of treasures doth a soul find that hath thus happily lost her self in her loving Lord Adoration sacrifice devotion and Adoration and al acts of Religion all acts of Religion are here effectually practised in a word if we wil be perfect sayes Thaulerus we must learn this abstraction that is this suspension of discourse and silencing all the workings of Fancie understanding memory will leaving our souls to the absolute conduct of our Loving Lord according to the doctrine here delivered which is the short and secure way to make all our actions divine and celestiall Some examples for the practice of this divine way of Prayer 1. Receiving the Blessed Sacrament Examples How to communicate I say to my heavenly guest My God make me partaker of these sacred mysteries that my soul may enjoy the effects for which they were by you instituted Then being secured by my act of Faith that I have received his body blood soul divinity c. I settle my self in this holy idlenesse and abstraction before described and remain silent and recollected hearkning what my dear Lord will speak within me 2. So when I have taken some point of my Saviours Passion for How to pray the subject of my prayer I say O my Lord communicate to my soul what you endured in this mystery to the end she may enjoy those effects for which you suffer'd it c. 3. In like manner when I goe to How to take our rest take my rest I say Silence my soul for our God is here present with us and within us and in this verity Recollecting my self in him I rest all night in prayer or at least my Lord allows it me as if I did because my soul covets to continue in the same happy abstraction recollection and annihilation during the whole time of sleep 4. Thus a vertuous introverted And doe all things to God's glory 1 Thessal 5. 17. and recollected soul doing what lys in her to rest alwaies in her Centre which is God may follow and fulfill the Apostles counsel which is to pray continually and doe all things even her naturall and necessary actions of eating drinking sleeping c. to Gods glory and these pure desires and intentions render them all meritorious Some further advices for the practice of this pure Prayer 1. Before we thus recollect our selves in God we may make what The first advâ—ce acts we please but after wee are entred into it we are to remain still quiet silent insensible unmoveable as a stock to be fashioned or a stone to be carved according to the heavenly workmans design we must leave our selves entirely to be moved and managed as best likes our great Master who both knows what bee our necessities and how and when to supply them 2. We must take speciall notice The second advâ—ce That as all Arts have their proper tearms So this sacred science of Mystical Divinity hath its peculiar phrases and expressions Divine matters may not bee handled according to the manner and method of School subtilties but are to be represented only with simplicity piety and a holy liberty of words which Contemplatives make use of without metaphysicall questions and arguments When therefore we find in St. How to understand mysticall writers Bonaventure Eschius Thaulerus Rusbrochius Blosius and others That a soul divinely and intimately united to God doth clearly see and experience what shee obscurely beleeved by faith we are not to infer Read
Cisnâ—rius ch 29. that shee therefore loseth her faith in this life for this Mysticall experience takes not away our faith but fortifies comforts anâ— clears it So when it is usually said bâ— these spirituall writers That sucâ— a degree of Contemplation of vertue or of pure love is the very tâ— of perfection It is not meant thaâ— a soul which is ascended thither can climb no higher in this heâ— exile for that highest degree oâ— perfection hath a latitude of many degrees of grace whereby a soul may still encrease in sanctity and ascend each moment to a nearer vicinity with her Creator When likewise we meet with this doctrine A soul arrived at Union and Transformation carries her self passively she acts not but suffers God doth all within her c. We are to understand that such a soul doth very little or nothing in comparison of what she did in her former discoursive exercises because she here in this state finds all done in an instant and therefore leaves those painfull employments to repose sweetly in a kind of holy idlenesse of Contemplation and Union with God which pacifies all her senses silences all discourses and lulls all her powers asleep with his charning love and ravishing presence All which notwithstanding she remains still here actually loving and looking on her Lord and consequently is not totally idle but is in cooperation with his grace In this sense St. Denys said The S. Denys Ch. 7. de div nom Soul of Blessed Hierotheus was heightned to such a Union with God that it sufferd more than it acted because in this passive contemplation the soul follows not her accustomed operations as wee see our Understanding works not so much when it receives its aliment from a higher knowledge as when it gets it by constrained and laborious discourse nor our Will in like sort which commonly follows the motives proposed by the Understanding to which it is united The 3. advice of the practice of â—aith Hope and Charity 3. That which is most important in this exercise of Recollection is the practice of Faith Hopâ— and Charity For by the Act of Faith all our knowledge is annihilated by the act of Hope all ouâ— worth is evacuated in denying ouâ— own forces and relying meerly oâ— Gods assistance by the act of Charity all our wills and affections which are not God in God for God are abandoned So that by these three Acts the whole maâ— is drowned suppressed stifled and consequently our enemy the Devil finds nothing at all to lay hold on nor any way open for his entrance into our annihilated hearts but is constrained to return alwaies foiled and ashamed of his ineffectuall efforts 4. Beginners in this exercise The fourth advice For Beginners must vigorously apply themselves unto it for some time till use and experience fashion them into a habit of recollection they must therefore in the first place carefully cleanse their interiour from all objects whatsoever and then lock up themselves wiâ—h God in this inward retreat for as in vain wee shut our dores and windows if the thief bee already hid in our house so the closing of our senses from exteriour objects furthers little or nothing if in our interiour there lurks any thing which is not God 5. In all our vocall and mentall The fifth advice of our attention to God devotions our chief aym must be Attention to God There are three sorts of attentions 1. To the words which is good 2. To the sense which is better 3. To God who is the only end of all our prayer which is best of all Let our S. Tho. 2. 2. q. 83. a. 13. thoughts therefore abstract from all created objects though never so good and fix stedfastly upon the increated and essentiall goodness This is the main thing wee must aspire to during the whole course of our life not only in our prayers but in all our practices To bee more attentive to our Lord and love than to the action we have in hand This is the Philosophy of perfect lovers to live more truly where they love than where they breath 6. It is not here intended by The sixt advice the precedent doctrine that a soul should not at all meditate upon the That from Meditation we must rise to Contemplation subject or theame of her prayer nor chew it first by attentively considering it No this is not disswaded but counselled Only we add thâ— assoon as affections are sufficientâ— kindled and that our elevated souâ— can procure to put themselves upon the aforesaid abstraction recollection and contemplation they presently embrace it and leave off all discourses which are proper for Schools Sermons not for Prayer and Contemplation It sufficeth us therefore to remember the mystery apprehend it throughly imprint it deeply in our hearts and then to observe the prescribed order For when one hath sufficiently heard and understood what can be said for his good he needs neither hear nor speak more of it but presently fall to practise In this case to hearken after new things seems more tending to satisfy curiosity than to the increase of inward vertue as he that eats before he hath disgested his former meals nourisheth bad humours but nothing betters his own bodily strength 7. When therefore any distinct The 7. advice That we must stay upon no objects or images notions forms or images intrude themselves into our memories let us not stay in them but return amorously to our Lord present within us think no more of all those varieties than is absolutely necessary for the knowledge and performance of our duties The best way therefore to increase our inward strength of spirit is to work couragiously and suffer patiently in silence and solitude forgetting all creatures unkowing all objects transcending all humane events and accidents What though the whole world perished though the frame of heaven and earth were dissolved What is that to tâ—ee follow thou thy Lord and love For indeed he that hath his mind diverted and The 8. advice How God is to be proposed to our understanding in an eminent and Negatâ—ve way distracted with such fancies in prayer is little attentive to Gods presence 8. As concerning our Vnderstanding and Will We are to take notice that when the Vnderstanding proposeth God to the Will as just wise powerfull or under anâ— particular attribute the Will is elevated by that sight alone and so that act of love is limited lock'â— up and less perfect than if God were proposed under a most eminent way and as the supream being surpassing infinitly all that can fall within the verge of humane conceptions in this life Though therefore the Vnderstanding may and can propose some positive and particular conception of God to the Will yet it is far better and of higher perfection to do it in common confusedly and negatively for our truest knowledge of God S. Greg. the great l. 5. moral
worldly imaginations and to apply her self to God by recollection let her content her-self in breathing forth heartily these or the like short words O my Lord when shall I love you When shall I embrace you Let her repeat them affectionatly and perseverantly and she shall sooner be inflamed with divine love than by the subtle consideration of the greatest secrets of heaven for 't is the Will which unites us to God not the Vnderstanding These acts of the Will are the spiritual wings of the soul to lift her up unite her to her beloved obiect they are short sharp and swift darts and desires shot by our burning hearts and reaching heaven in an instant Our forefathers the Saints frequently Read the 10. collation of John Cassian c 10. used them and most highly prised them for being short they trouble not the memory being fervent they rowse our dulness and dryness to affection and devotion being frequent they still renew our attendance to Gods presence and put us perpetually in mind of our duties The practice of this exercise is Read the Spiritual Confl ch 13. n. 12. to take occasion from all objects actions and accidents to pray and praise God Do we eat let us give God thanks Do we walk abroad Let us praise him who produced all things which we behold from the abyss of nothing Do we look up to heavens beauty Let us admire the Creator in his creatures c. Have we sinned or are we tempted Let us lift up our hearts to God and say O Lord permit me not to fall and offend thee To dy alas I am content when thou disposest but to sin O prâ—serve me from this disaster Other times let us burst forth into aspirations of love as My beloved for me and I for him Of Resignation as Not my will ô Lord but thine be done What do I desire in heaven or earth but thee ô my God Of pure intention as 'T is for you ô my God that I fast 't is for your sake that I obey my Superiour 't is to please you that I study work pray c. Your will ô Lord is mine your content is mine I have no other I or No but as you will or will not all my pleasure is only to please you c. This rule is to be observed that An observation though all jaculatory prayers are good yet those are best most profitable and powerfull which our hearts moved by God conceive of themselves though they be expressed in words never so plain and simple Nor is there any need of much variety of aspirations for one onlâ— word being often and amorouslâ— repeated may serve for many days when our souls find therein guâ— and profit and speak unto him whom they look upon as presenâ— with their eys of Faith This exercise is most easy and most efficacious and they who shall piously persever in it shaâ—l soon find their hearts inflamed with God's love and changed from all worldly affections The 22. Maxim That the Presence of God is the great exercise of Contemplatives and the shortest way to divine Vnion THis exercise is called great because Why call'd the great exeâ—câ—se God himself taught it in the worlds infancy to his faithfull servant Abraham I am thy God saith hee and thy protectour walk in my presence and thou shalt be perfect It is called the shortest way to And shortest way to union divine Union because it is a summary of all the exercises of prayer and which alone will conduct our souls to the hidden treasure of perction and replenish them with those celestiall riches which our loving Lord is wont to communicate to his dearest friends in this life God is present in severall manners How God is present in divers manners according to our understanding 1. He is every where present by his essence which being infinit cannot bee contained within the limits of any place 2. He is every where present by his power He moves the heavenly orbs fixes the earth governs all his creatures c. 3. He is particularly present in heaven by the demonstrations of his glory 4. He is specially present in holy places by grace benediction and readiness to hear their Petitions bless their persons and accept their sacrifices of praise who shall there unanimously meet to present them 5. He is especially present in the hearts of his holy people by the inhabitation of his holy Spirit 6. He is especially present in the consciences of all men where he sits as witnesse and judge of all their actions good and bad For the practice of this exercise Seven similitudes for the practice of Gods presence of Gods presence we may help our thoughts with these seven similitudes stirring up in our souls an ardent desire to feel the like effects of his Al-present Majesty 1. How the soul is in the body all in the whole and all in every part of it moving animating informing all giving it life beauty c. 2. How the meat we eat is disgested and changed into our substance c. 3. How a little worm lying in the warm Sun-shine is environed about with the beams made bright hot and as it were burned and inflamed c. 4. How a black coale amidst a great fire is ignified all on fire and well nigh all fire 5. How a little piece of paper is pearced through with oyl falling on it which by degrees dilates it self all over that the whole seems rather oyl than paper 6. How a small quantity of water in a vessell of wine is swallowed up lost changed annihilated and turned into wine 7. How a sponge in the midst of the Ocean is all compassed within and without absorpt imbued possessed and as it were inebriated with water c. O that we could alwaies have S. Augustin de verbis Domini c. 3. this actuall faith and thought that God stands a present witnesse and judge of all our doings that if we goe forth he spies us if we goe in he sees us if we light the candle he observes us when wee put it out he also marks us should wee not behave our selves as becoms so holy a presence should we not be very impious and impudent to give up the reigns to sin and sensuality O that wee would alwaits ruminate and remember this reall verity That God is the great eye of the world watching over our actions an ever-open ear to hear all our words and an unwearied arm to crush sinneâ—s into ruin how speedily would sin cease amongst us how soon should we obtain an habituall fear and reverence of God What greater ingagement can wee have to walk unblameably than to consider wee act before that judge who is infallible in his sentence Boetius l. 5. de consola all-knowing in his information severe in his wrath and powerfull to inflict punishment This perpetuall eying of God is properly a building to him a Chapell in our
and conversation enter into his secret cabinet eat at his table repose on his breast be his minion become all one with him O honour most admirable O holyness most amiable O happiness most Angelical O life O love The 27. Maxim That Confidence in Gods goodness is the main support of our Spiritual Edifice WE must be confident that our Loving Lord will First pardon our sins Secondly strengthen us in all necessities Thirdly bring us finally to eternall happiness And to strengthen this Confidence we must deeply ingrave these two Maxims 2. Maxims in our souls and then we shall easily be content to leave our selves in the arms of his paternall providence and lose our selves in the abyss of his piety First That what ever befalls us comes immediately Rusbrochius Read the Conflict c. 10. n. 3. 4 either from his will or his permission Secondly That he will turn all even our frailties and failings to our spirituall good We may further weigh what wonderfull cause Motives to put our Confidence in God First in heaven we have 1. Viscera misericordiae 2. Vulnera misericordiae of confidence and comfort we have First In heaven where we have 1. Bowels of mercy in God the Father we cry dayly to him as his Son taught us Our Father which art in heaven Will not a good father forgive the fault and forget the folly of his returning and â—epenting childe 2. Wounds of mercy in God the Son the least of which was sufficient to redeem a thousand worlds whereby we being reconcil'd and made his friends will he deny us any thing that is necessary Is not each drop of his dear blood a motive of loving confidence and able to melt us into a filiall dependency on him 3. Promises 3. Promissâ— misericordiae of mercy in God the Holy Ghost who hath assured us of his continued comforts till the worlds consummation 4. Words of mercy 4. Verba misericordiae when he said O why will you perish you of the house of Israel As I live I desire not the death of a sinner but that he turn to me and live What hard heart would not be touch'd with tenderness and say reciprocally As I live ô my Lord God I detest all sin and convert my self totally to thee that I may live with thee and love thee eternally O holy Conversion O happy contract 5. Brests of mercy in the 5. Vbera misericordiae Mother of Jesus O Jesu be to us a Jesus O Mother of Jesus be to us a Mother of mercies Let the care of thy honour be ever in our hearts and the care of our welfare always in thine 6. Castles of mercy in the Angels who are before and behind 6. Castra misericordiae us to watch over and protect us 7. Oracles of mercy the prayers and suffrages of all the Saints pitying 7. Oracula misericordiae our misery and purchasing pardon for us If we put all this together we shall find all heaven for us What matter then if hell be against us O thou of little faith whereof canst thou be doubtfull or fearfull c. Secondly On Earth in the Church Secondly On Earth militant what is not for us Sacraments Scriptures Examples Prayers If we go not to heaven where is the fault What could God do that he hath not done and what could we have more than we have for our consolation and salvation Who can choose but take courage comfort and confidence Thirdly Look upon Christ Jesus Thirdly In Christ 1. Why came he into this world 2. How did he carry himself in it towards sinners both in his life and death 3. Why was he called Jesus and tearmed a friend of Publicans and sinners 4. Why did he â—â—y That he came to call sinners and not the Just and to do mercy and not justice 5. What access and comfort gave he to all sinners 6. What was his last will and testament c 7. What his last words Father forgive c. Fourthly Ponder Gods Perfectious Fourthly Look on Gods perfections 1. He is our maker we the work of his hands Doth not each Artist love his own handy-work Hath not every one a naturall proneness to protect improve profit and perfect his own Even so our loving Lord takes care of us he hides and harbors us as the Hen her Chickens under her wings he defends us as the apple of his eye If a mother can forget the fruit of her womb yet will I never forget you say's our Lord because I have graven you in my hands and heart 2. He is All-mighty All-wisdom All-goodness Put these together I have a Father and Maker that loves me exceedingly he knows my necessities and what is best for me he is rich enough to provide for me Will he let me perish will he reject me Then reason thus further with your-self In whom shall I confide if not in God In my self or others We are all inconstant all ignorant of what is best all impotent and want means to help O how much better is it to trust in God than men Fiftly Reflect upon your own Fiftly our own experience Experience 1. Whom did God ever deceive in his promises 2. Who ever called heartily on him and was refused 3. Hath he not hitherto merveilously protected and preserved you and disposed all for your good Why then should you doubt or distrust his providence for the time to come No Lord Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee Heaven and earth may perish but no tittle of my hope in thee my Dear and only Saviour This shall be my Anchor and stay If he kill me I will trust in him I will rest Secure in his Divine providence and endeavour to get an habituall and stable trust in his paternall protection without any care or fear as doth a child in his fathers bâ—som This is the ready way to become unmoveable and immutable quiet and content Is he God Is he good Is he my God my Father my Jesus Jesus crucified Is his goodness infinit Doth he want power wisdom or Will to pardon protect and perfect me I must surely have little faith less hope and no love If I will not take thy words O Lord thy works thy wounds thy life and thy love for secure pledges of thy care towards me and sufficient motives to place my whole confidence in thee The 28. Maxim That the measure of our progress in Perfectionâ— is the Conformity of our Wiâ—â— with the divine will 1. FOr our perfection consists in love and the greatest signe of love is to have one and the same Will with the beloved So that look how much we have of our own Will so much less have we of Gods will and love and consequently are so much the further from the Union of our spirit with him 1. In this exercise of conformity consists all perfection O what holiness and happiness what privilege and
neighbours The practice of this spirituall uncloathing of our souls Behold ô my Lord and love I generally and totally renounce all things but thee casting my self into the arms of thy most holy disposition and protection O my soul return sweetly to thy seat of rest repose quietly and confidently in the bosom of Divine bounty Remain here without diverting or distracting thy self to other objects Rely securely upon his mercy and providence cutting off incontinently all superfluous cares and solicitudes and protesting thou desirest nothing but the advancing of his honour accomplishing of his will his love and himself Take courage my naked soul for if thou art uncloathed somtimes and deprived of thy Lovers embraces feelings of his comforts and pleasures of his presence it is only that himself alone may purely possess thee O my Lord and lover Look upon this soul which I have endeavoured to strip entirely from all sensuall affection therefore I have not only abandoned but hated Father Mother brethren sisters lands living liberty yea and my own life that I might become thy disciple And were it yet to do again I would cast off Mother and run over Father to come to thee my loving Jesus Confirm O Lord my courage Live O rich nakedness Live my beloved to me and I to him Let me see no one but only Jesus Let alone his other gifts though never so excellent and holy I am indifferent to leave them or keep them in the manner and measure he pleaseth 't is naked Jesus I only seek and sigh after Uncloath me then my Lord 1. Of all sin great and small 2. Of all affection to it even the least venial 3. Of all curiosity 4. Of all sensuality 5. Of all inordinate passion 6. Of all vanity 7. Of all self-love and self-will Let me be reduc'd to nothing Put off my self and put on me thy self crucified Deprive me of all that distasteth thee that thou mayest say of me This is my beloved son in Mat. 12. 18 whom I please my self This is my disciple whom I Jesus love This is my rest for ever Here I will dwell because I have made choice of it In this heart is my harbor there you shall infallibly find me The 34. Maxim That Zeal and eagerness must be temper'd with Moderation and discretion WE must moderate our natural vivacity activity and agility of spirit by shunning all precipitation and indiscreet forwardness and fervour Soft and sure Let us look before we leap Let us take our eyes in our hands For that which is well done is twice done and a thing warily begun is well nigh half brought about Let us lend our hands and not give our hearts to any work Let us endeavor to perform all our actions with a free and disinteressed mind without which all is drudgery and slavery Let us not be over eager Perfection consists not in multiplicity of action but in simplicity of intention not in variety of exercises and devotions but in peace of mind and purity of heart not in saying or doing much but in suffering and loving much c. Let us sometimes check our importunate spirit as Jesus did Martha Martha Martha thou art Luc. 10. 41 troubled about many things when as there is but one thing only necessary which is A real cordiall and totall Abnegation of thy self in all things Let not indiscreet zeal serve for a cloak to cover our passionate hearts and inward hatred of others True Zeal is ful of compassion free from indignation and perfect charity either will not see what is amiss in others or seek out the best interpretation of it excusing the fault and pittying the party The 35. Maxim That we must never rely upon our own naturall judgement experience and knowledge THis hath deceived many and cast them headlong into confusion despair hence so many Apostasies rebellions dissensions divisions and scandals in Religion O how pleasant beautifull and edifying a thing is it to see persons of great perfection glorious endowments venerable for age honourable for learning renowned in dignity c. to be truly humble supple simple soft like Wax capable of any impression and condescending to others reason and command Blessed are the meek humble and obedient spirits for God will not permit them to goe astray or be deceived The 36. Maxim That we must seek no comfort in any creature FOr the practice of this We must The practice cheerfully forsake all and be content to be forsaken by all resting only in God by prayer patience and confidence Adieu friends familiars Confessours counsellours books exercises Angels Welcome solitude crosses eclipses shames wounds want◠darknesses desolations deaths Yes O Father because thou so pleasest Is the creature in which I delight more loving lovely or beautifull than God my Creator Hath it been more bountifull or beneficiall tome Can it more justly require or more liberally requite my love Can it make me holy or happy quiet or content Shall I leave light for darkness life for death substance for shadows All for nothing Answer impartially and resolve effectually The higher practice of this The higher practice Maxim in order to Contemplation is To estimate things according to Read the Spir. Con. ch 4. n. 3. their reall value And then Alas what comfort can a devout soul which hath tasted the sweets of her beloved in Contemplation find in the best of creatures How far are they from affoording her any solid and substantiall satisfaction in her spirituall sorrows sadness or desolation Therefore shew wisely and carefully keeps her self to holy Recollection resigns her self absolutely to the divine pleasure continues stedfastly in the presence of her Creator seeks to treat with him one to one and leaves worldlings to follow their appetites as the horse and mule which are void of under standing Oh! how much more happiness is it to suffer in the sweet company of God than to enjoy all such false and phantasticall pleasures as all creatures can confer in the company of men My soul refuseth this comfort I remember my God and in him I am only delighted And indeed they who faithfully The true Contemplatives are never sad or solicitous and fervently addict themselves to spirituall Recollection are neither sad nor solicitous but only in shew For what can they want who are with God In him they find gardens to walk in fountains to bath in pallaces to dwell in dainties to feed on and all pleasures to delight in with such infinit advantages that they ravish'dly cry out My God and All These contemplatives need not your compassion O worldlings They are not so drownd in melancholy so plung'd in sorrow so little enjoying themselves as you esteem and censure No your own poor souls are seriously to be pitied which are so wide of wisdom and so wedded to sensuality as to relinquish true life and liberty sincere comfort and content for the shadows smokes of the world For this is
life past having endeavoured to discharge our consciences once of them in Confession 5. That we may and must convert our hearts to God at any time humbly and confidently in what estate so ever we be without hesitation or apprehension preferring his will before our own quiet 6. That in saying our Office or Prayers it sufficeth that we have a good intention to praise and please God and satisfie our obligation using morall diligence in driving out bad thoughts and we need trouble our selves no further 7. That so long as we make choyce of God for our God and of his will for our only end and can say cordially I love God I will no sin we need fear nothing 8. That we are not bound to do still that which our Conscience dictates or what our fancy tells us is a divine call for this is the way never to have true peace and to be ever subject to illusions Therefore The old plain rule Trust and obey Let pass and Pray let us follow the old simple and secure rule 1. Trust and 2 Obey 3 Let pass and 4 Pray these will prove our safest haven in the Sea of this world and our heaven upon earth thus we may enjoy the peace of God and lodge in our hearts the God of peace be blind and yet see God Note well that these aforesaid warrants are to be followed according to discretion and with the approbation of our spirituall director The 6. Doubt If we are full of fears and apprehensions of our estate by reason we feel in our souls such slender effects of Gods grace and love and have little devotion no inward peace c. SUch souls can never be cured till they submit their judgements look with more confidence upon Gods mercy and seek less their own satisfaction and assurance For this is an infallible truth That in An infallible maxim this life without revelation we can have no certainty of our estate but must still live in ignorance as to that knowledge to hold the contrary is an heresie and to seek it inordinately is self-love and curiosity We must therefore work our salvation betwixt fear and hope and if we should see or feel any thing in our selves which should make us secure it were very suspitious and dangerous Let us humbly observe these three points 1. Resolve still to serve and please God in the best manner we can 2. Resign our selves to his will and divine ordinance for time and eternity without further reflexions Read Blosius in spec spirituali cap. 7. Read the Imit of Christ l. 3. cap. 59. 3. Build upon the word and warrant of our guide and rest quiet and confident They who seek more knowledge and satisfaction by feelings and reasons seek but their own trouble and ruine and if we find not here peace and comfort we may thank our selves since it is our disobedience and self-seeking which causeth it The 7. Doubt If some extream cross calamity or affliction hath seized our hearts c. LEt us hasten to our Lord God with an humble and confident affection and placed before him 1. Kiss the Crucifix saying O my The practice dear Lord O my sweet Jesus O my all and only good 2. Then tell him you are troubled as you would tell your Spirituall directour and that you know not what to say or do 3. Acknowledge heartily that you deserve no comfort but to have heaven shut against you and hell let loose to torment you 4. If you would seek comfort you would not have it out of him or in any thing contrary to his Divine Will and liking 5. Then say O Lord I have no other Physician for my soul but thee behold my wounds thou art my Father behold my wants thou art my only Friend behold my wishes and desires then expose them unto him and hearken what counsel and comfort he will give you 6. Take again the Cross kiss it embrace it resign your self to suffer 7. And with an internall act of indifferency being confident that this cross and trouble is his will and will be for your good desire to bear it and whatsoever else he shall lay upon you knowing he will enable you to do it 8. Have no recourse to creatures for your contentment but drink purely and plentifully at the fountain head and be not weary you suffer for eternity The 8. Doubt If we desire to conquer the Devil and overcome all temptations whatsoever LEt us often read observe and General Remedies against temptations The 1. Remedy Jam. 4. 7. practise these generall Remedies The first is A strong courage and firm resolution to fight and get the victory and not to yield even to our last gasp If we resist the Devil he will fly from us if we fear him he will follow us and insult over us If we play the Pigmeys he will play the Lion but let us be Lions and he will soon shew himself a coward Let us then fight manfully as befits Christs Souldiers to give him the honour and the Devil the terrour who is already chained to our hands and may bark S. Hierome Thou maist perswade but canst not precipitate 1 Cor. 4. 9. but cannot bite unless by blindness and madness we come within his reach Let us remember in our combats that we are made a spectacle to God his Angels and all his heavenly court who would not fight valiantly and confidently before such spectators God beholds us as our Judge to reward and crown us if we overcome Christ as our Captain helps us to overcome all the rest pray for us that we may overcome Fear not my soul there 2 Par. 32. 7 are more with us than against us God and his Angels are on our side who can withstand us Let us further reflect that we plead not only our own cause but Gods whom in our persons the Devil seeks to injure and dishonor Let us then rather dy than suffer our good Masters honour to be stayned by our cowardise our dearest blood will be well spilt for such a King and countrey Oh! what privilege to suffer for Jesus sake Arise Lord let thy enemies be dispersed Psal 42. judge thine own cauâ—e Thine is the quarrell We are thy Champions Let us also ponder well what S. Paul tells us on Gods part That he is faithfull in his promises and will not permit us to be tempted 1 Cor. 10. 13. beyond our strength but will draw our good out of our temptations he knows what mold we are made of what force we have and which is above all he loves us as the apple of his eye If he seems sometimes to sleep a while yet he both sees and succours us Courage therefore if we be already at hell-gates he can wil bring us back again if we walk amidst the shadows of death Psal 22. 4. let us fear no ill c. The second Remedy is A distrust The 2. Remedy Psa
seriously such Remedies as are proper for the preservation of this Jewell Amongst which the chiefest is Mortification of our rebellious flesh by Austerities hence S. Thomas cals Chastity from chastising S. Thomas of Aquin. It is better our Stomakes pain us than our Consciences and that we lose health of body than purity of soul and salvation of both This remedy of Mortification is absolutely necessary when carnall motions arise first in the body and thence redound into the Imagination but if from the Fancie they descend to the body we are to apply these following remedies 1. Let us avoid idlenesse 2. Let us Amor otiosorum negotium change our Employments if we are assaulted in company let us seek solitude if in solitude let us hasten into company c. 3. Silence temperance S. Ephrem and custody of senses are three powerfull preservers of Chastity 4. Let us make great account of little things and shake off the first Motions of this nature as wee would a burning coale from off our new garment 5. Ler us humbly but modestly and discreetly lay open their nature and manner to our spirituall guide 6. Let us carefully avoid all suspected company familiarity meetings c. though our intention be never so spirituall 7. Let us strive rather to slight scorn and neglect these temptations than formally to resist them 5. In vehement temptation 1. Make the sign of the cross upon your heart 2. Use some brief and burning aspirations as Lord deliver me I suffer violence O my God answer for me I am thine O Jesu body and soul help me 3. Defy the Devill with St. Antony Fy Isay 38. 14. S. Antony beast thou wert an Angell I who am now a beast will aym to be an Angell and get thy lost place be gone the lodging is already taken up Iesus is here who is my Lord and love I am preingag'd in a former and purer affection 6. Let us prepare before-hand certain places of refuge for our shelter and succour till the storm be pass'd over 1. The presence of God and his Angels saying How is it possible God sees me and shall I sin in his sight 2. Death and eternity The delight is momentary the punishment is eternâ—lâ— death is at my dore and shall I adventure 3. Christs sacred wounds let us there hide and secure our selves and say My God hangs on the Cross and shall I think of taking my pleasure 4. The love of God O Iesu my love and my life I will either love thee or love nothing at all Let me rather lose my life than thy love 5. Humility Thou art just O my Lord God thy will be done My Pride is cause of this villany which I feel c. And take We must be humble or we shall not be long chast this for an infallible truth wee must be humble or we shall not be long chast Let us be obedient to our Superiors or let us not look to have our flesh obedient to our spirits 6. Devotion to Saints excelling in this vertue especially to the chastest Virgin Mary 7. The last Remedy is to make use of these antidotes timely orderly and discreetly without which no rules documents or directions will ought avail us The 12. Doubt If we are in extraordinary Desolation and darkness WE must live by Faith in this case and know that a sensible choice of God and goodness is not now necessary but a Rationall adhering to him is sufficient Our fidelity to God is shew'd in the performance of our duties now as at other times without losing either our Confidence in him or seeking Comfort in our sufferings but aspiring if not sweetly yet sincerely in this or the like manner Lord I choose thee and accept of thy divine pleasure and providence in all things I reject whatsoever may possess that place and dominion in my soul which is due to thee alone Dispose of me and mine as shall be most for thy honour and glory Let me be either all thine or nothing at all The 13. Doubt If wee are tempted to despair of Gods mercy by reason of our frequent falls and relapses into sin THis grievous Malady springs from three causes or errors For they who are troubled in this point doe not truly weigh 1. What God is 2. What sin is 3. What contrition and sorrow of heart is 1. Almighty God is a boundless 1. What God is and bottomless Sea of mercy he is natural bounty it self he is ever ready to receive revive and relieve a penitent soul though she alone had committed a thousand times a day the sins of the whole world He considers not what she hath been but what she desires and resolves now to be and who so denys his power or Will to pardon sinners as often as there are moments in time goes about to deprive him of his honor and divinity it self for he could not be God if he were not good and faithfull in his promise O loving Lord God who art not only ready to receive a penitents petition but even wooest him to present it Who can truly consider what thou art and despair of thy mercy 2. Sin 2. What sin is a voluntaâ—y and deliberate Aversion from God and Conversion to creatures 3. Contrition is of that efficacy that it delivers from all sin 3. What Contrition giving confidence of pardon for the past and courage to avoid it for the future Let us apply this to our comfort The 14. Doubt If we are perplexed with great sadness THis Passion is a great hindrance to devotion and perfection it is the bait of the Devil the bane of our spirits the root mother and nursery of infinite miseries and mischiefs The chief causes of Sadness The causes of sadness 1. Nature are these 1. Nature when Melancholy over-sways the sanguin humour this can neither merit nor demerit but the Devil takes thereby occasion to fill our spirits with unquietness These have need aswell of corporal as spiritual Physick 2. A tenderness of heart and 2. Self-love passionate love of our selves we cannot brook the least contradâ—ction c. but we sigh and sob as if all the world were interessed in our misfortune and should bear a part in our dolefull ditty The Remedy were to bid such weep on for their penance or use some coporall austerity 3. An immortification of our Passions which when we seek in 3. Passions good earnest to root out assault us so strongly that it seems impossible to cure them and hence we grow sad The Remedy is to conquer this bad nature by counsell courage and diligence c. Let us pray heartily suffer willingly stoop humbly 'T is for heaven we fight and suffer 4. A secret root of pride vain 4. Secret Pride esteem and false opinion we have of our selves when things fall not out according to our liking expectation or importunate desire whereupon we grow sad and troubled
strivest to undermine my Perseverance But take courage ô my soul thy time of enduring will soon end and thy ensuing joy will be without end Hearken not to thy sworn enemies enchantments sit not stand not sleep not but pray watch and walk whilst thou hast light and life that the darkness of eternal night and death overtake thee not And since thy Loving Lord is both able and willing to succour and support thee and to turn every thing to thy advantage â—ven thy imperfections frailties and failings For thou art warranted that so Rusbrochius sure as God is God so sure it is that he will permit nothing to befall us but for our greatest good and his own glory and that it is most gratefull unto him we so judge of him doubt not of his providence and protection not fear to permit him to deal with thee as he best pleaseth and to remain in a perfect indifferency to all his divine ordinances and dispositions saying Since it is thy will O Lord it is certain to be nâ—y good be it so I am as sure thou lovest me as that thou livest with me A way then all diffidence disloyalty inconstancy How many Saints have you perverted how many souls have you damned Without thee O holy Perseverance all is lost with thee all is seâ—ure Grace till the end Glory without end Welcome holy Confidence the main support of my life and the life of my Perseverance I am content O my Lord to be conducted by thee for time and eternity as thou best pleasest Lead me by land or water by desolation or devotion by darkness or day by sickness or health I will adhere to thee constantly If it be thy blessed will O Loving Lord that I creep as a snail towards Perfection I will neither be troubled nor dismayed I desire not to fly faster than thou enablest me I quiet my self with the grace thou givest me which I acknowledge to be not only beyond my deserts but better for me than my own desires Finally I here make a generall Resolution and a generous Resignation of my whole self into thy holy hands hoping that it will give worth and value to all my actions and sufferings O my Soveraign and sweet maker A form of generall Resolution my whole Will and desire according to my great obligation former profession and present protestation is to serve and love thee and to fulfill thy blessed Will in all things and to be wholly thine at all times and in all things whatsoever 'T is thy Honour I only aym at thy Glory I only intend and thy Will I only seek to accomplish To thee alone I render and wish all benediction and eternall praise and with cordiall Joy I say Amen to all that is possessed by thy most amiable and perfect goodness and joyning my humble desires and devotions with all those that love thee I implore that we may be all thine and that thou wilt be All in us all And now O my soul since thou hast in some sort happily begun a course of Prayer Recollection Abnegation and Humility according to Obedience and supported by Confidence For further helps to perseverance read the 22. 23. 24. ch of St. Teresa's life Written by her self And her book entitled The way to Perfection Let the Devill storm let Flesh and blood rebell let the World murmure Answer them all Quod scripsi scripsi my Vows and Promises must and shall stand I am content to sign it with my blood I will sooner dye than swerve from my well-setled Resolutions or cancell the free deed and gift of my self to my Saviours service Darkness Desolation Death and Devill shall never make me change Live my good Purposes to love my dear Lord unchangeably irrevocably eternally Cant. 2. 16. My beloved is mine and I am his 2 Tim. c. 4 v. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which our Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing James 1. 12. Blessed is the man that indureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which our Lord hath promised to them that love him Revelation 2. 10. Be thou faithfull untill death and I will give thee the crown of life FINIS Errata In the Conflict PAge 32. line 2. for from read form p. 45. l. 15. for weary r. wary p. 69. l. 25. for mediations r. meditations p. 143. l. 28. for his r. he p. 143. l. 29. for its r. his p. 161. l. 29. for ordinary r. ordinarily p. 201. l. 2. for pleasure r. please p. 277. l. 2. for many r. may In the Conquest PAge 3. l 29. for some r. son In the Exercises Page 103. l. 12. for â—at his r. eat aâ— his In the Maxims