although they be ownd by most grave Doctours they are all ridiculous in order to express it and they destroy themselves and he will shew himself to be ridiculous who hopes to express himself competently by them I am afraid o Lord least while I go thus to work to prayse thy goodnes I may be thought to jeer and deride Would not one that took upon him to set forth in magnifying words the wisdome of Salomon be judged to scof if he should say so great is the wisdome of Salomon that the lame-handed can not describe it nor the dumb utter it nor the distracted make a true estimate of its greatnes if this commendatory be thought derision these other comparisons in respect of thy goodnes are much les to the purpose in order to whose expression each creature is lame dumb and senslesly foolish O Lord my desire is to love thee in the simplicity of my ignorance I will brook it patiently if I do not clearly understand how thou art which is not possible for me to do in this life and although I can conceive nothing worthy of thy goodnes for as much as my conceptions of it are obscure incongruous yet I solace my self in this that thy goodnes is too great ever to be equalized by love I solace my self o Lord that although thou hadst not created us nor been beneficial to us nor made us the object of thy love but hatred as my deserts at least exacted yea although it were impossible for thee to be beneficial and repugnant to thy nature to love us as thou dost nevertheles by reason of thy perfection and goodnes and its matchles worth no body could love thee to the ful Although all the leaves of the trees and piles of grass all the sands of the sea and motes of the sun were all harts yea although they were so many wils of burning Seraphins yea further though all these and all other possible creatures were each one a Hierarchy of Seraphins whose love at each instant redoubled it self through all eternity all this love of them all would be as nothing in recompense of thy goodnes nay it would blush to appear in its presence neyther is my meaning that it would love thee congruously for the whole extent of thy goodnes but not so much as for thy sole patience wherewith thou toleratest me not only while I so heynously offend thee but am so defectuously languid and remiss in loving thee so great a good But in this also I solace my self that though thou art not sufficiently loved neyther canst thou be sufficiently loved by creatures Accept o Lord for my share a smal pittance of love in wish and desire I offer up to thee all the love of all creatures even of those that are as yet but possible sumd up into one oblation I my self alone would for each instant have all that their love which wil actuate them through all eternity and though I were thus furnishd yet stil should I have cause of shame and confusion Pardon pardon me I most humbly beseech thee great Lord nor resent these my slender votes and desires as affronts put upon thee but let my infirmity and thy greatnes plead my excuse Accept of this my wish which cannot worthily be stild a love worthy of thee accept also of the payn I am put to in grieving that all creatures are not enamoured on thee I grieve that so many soules espoused to thee by the ring of fayth and so many harts of men fit to love thee most ardently who might make themselves kings of the world and overtop the heavens should lye wallowing in their own ordures and perish by loving themselves and the fraile and loathsome goods of this earth neglecting thee o beauty of creatures and love of the universe The VI. Chapter How great a benefit of glory we hope for GOd is so good and beneficial that he suffers us while we set a false rate upon his benefits our own good Men are vexed with toyling and moyling all their life long to purchase some temporal good and at length are frustrated of their expectation reaping little or no fruit at all of their labours how can they hope to gain eternal it being no part of their sollicitude they scarse ever admitting it into their thoughts the goods which they make their dayly busines are not obtaind with all their endeavours and those which are distant as far as heaven they hope the earth will afford them without any labour they are deeply afflicted for trifling goods and are not so much as shallowly affected for the most important How is it possible that one can proceed so ridiculously in a joy most serious so stupidly about a stupendious good o most humble majesty of God when I consider this last miracle of thy love I loose my self in a maze of amazement How great is that good whose greatnes made it an unseemly thing in God to be liberal but was to expect the additional worth of vertue and our services though they also be divine benefits In our creation and redemption thou wast munificent when we least expected it anticipating the wishes and intentions of man but to enter upon a state of glory thou expectest our joynt-concurrence with thy grace Good God! how vastly great must that good needs be which obstructs by its greatnes the full current of the divine benignity and requires our endeavour and labour And God sels it at a dear rate though he love otherwise to give all gratis he sold it to S. Laurence for a broyling to S. Paul for the price of his head to S. Felicitas for her children to S. Peter for the death of the cross Yea that he might sell it us so dear he himself would buy it at an intolerable rate to wit his own death and the ignominy of the cross God was pleased to bestow and confer his other benefits to make us covet and acquire this how great must that needs be for the coveting wherof his guifts deeds were so stupendious and yet for all this our harts dilate not themselves sufficiently nor are raised to a congruous strain of desire If God attempted so many meanes to make us covet it what ought we not to attempt to enjoy it if God did and sufferd so great things to legitimate us to a true title of such a guift what ought we to do and suffer to enter upon it it is plain non-sense to perswade our selves that we can attain glory without labour since God laboured so much to be able to give it Notwithstanding all this we incur here a double delinquency in this guift more then in others being lyable both to ingratitude and an action of contempt for as much as we endeavour not to acquire that for the acquiring wherof God was at such expense yea steerd to that end all his actions For his other benefits we are ungrateful for this comtemptuous while we pursue it not with
Men glory in those things of which they ought to be ashamd it lies against all experience in telling them that their riches wil be permanent since they pass through so many hands to come to them who now possess them It holds those things forth for good each one wherof is no less then a triple torment the number of evils and vexations are in such an excess that it affords more then two real afflictions for one seeming happines Ther 's no one thing of all we possess but rackd us with toile and sollicitude how we might compass it and having compasd it we are no les tormented with fear and iealousy of it and when it is lost with grief for its absence and privation O heavenly truth what great God a mercy if I do not covet this meer chaos of deceitfulnes and vexation if I contemn for thy sake a thing so contemptible which were to be contemnd if not for it self at least for my self many heathen Philosophers quitted the world for their own quiet and why shal not a Christian do it for his and thy glory They left it because despicable in it self and why shal not we do it because thou art inestimable and the glory which we hope for invaluable Although the world were good yet it were folly to prefer it before that which containes all good The XI Chapter How Peace is to be obtained THou canst not live wel unles thou dye forthwith and overcome thy nature Thou canst not enjoy peace unles thou make war upon thy self this is the way to purchase true liberty Be readier alwayes to comply with anothers will then thy own thou shalt not know what it is to be at jars love rather to have little then much and thou shalt have no occasion of complaint chuse alwayes the meanest place and to be every ones underling and thou shalt scarse ever be sad have a desire to suffer and undergo somthing for thy IESVS sake and thou shalt think no body burdensome seek God in all things that his will may be fulfilld in thee and thou shalt never be disquieted If thou ought to accommodate thy self rather to anothers wil then thy own why not to the divine wil and rejoyce that it is fulfilld by thee keep these things in thy hart that thou mayst enjoy an uninterrupted peace True tranquillity of mind cannot be obtaind but by a contempt of the world and conquest over our selves This may be done two manner of wayes either by forcing thy self contrary to what seems good and delectable in the world and nature or by knowing them to be nought and weighing all things in the ballance of truth this latter way is the sweeter and more permanent although it must alwayes be accompanyd with a fervorous contradiction of our appetite He nevertheles who in faith and spirit is convined of the verity and vanity that is in things shal with much facility overcome himself and dispise the world Nothing conduceth more to a happy progress then to frame an unbyazd judgment of things and to relish them according to the doctrine of IESVS What hearst thou pronouncd by that most holy mouth of truth it self blessed are the poor of spirit blessed are they that mourn blessed are they that suffer persecution Why wilt thou esteem those things harsh and burdensome which the truth of God held and deliverd for beatitudes how canst thou avoid being deceivd if thou account those things evil which faith teaches us to be good and to render us happy we believe the mystery of the most B. Trinity because Christ reveald it to us the same IESVS also reveald that those things which the world so much abhors poverty sorrow injuries are not bad but good neither is he to be ratherd is believd in this point by him that knowes he taught so then when be teacheth the unity and Trinity of almighty God Let us then make a true estimate of truth and frame our dictamens point blank opposite to worldly maxims O eternal truth grant me grace that according to thy doctrin I may judg all temporal things meer lyes and those far from containing great good which bring so much hurt Grant me that I may not live in an errour by prizing those things highly which I ought to have in hatred If it be a matter of faith that poverty humiliation affliction are not only good but beatifying why do not I rather chuse to have litle then much to be dispisd then praysd to be afflicted then swim in delights He that walks in faith and truth accounting those things truly good which CHRIST judgeth such ought to be so far from being contristated for any want or vexation that he should covet them with his utmost desires and rejoyce in them and abhor wholy and not in part only all things which the world loveth and embraceth and admit and desire with his whole hart with his whole soul with all his strength with all his mind what soever IESVS loved and embracd Like as worldlings who follow love and seek with great earnestnes those things which belong to the world to wit honours fame and the opinion of a great name upon earth as the world teacheth and deceives them so those that make a progress in spirit and truth doe seriously follow love and ardently desire whatsoever is altogether opposite to these that is to be clad with the same livery and ensignes of contempt which the Lord of glory wore Insomuch that if it could be done without any offence of the divine Majesty and sin of their neighbour they would suffer contumelies false witnes affronts and be thought and accounted fooles they giving nevertheles no occasion of it because they desire to resemble and imitate in some manner the Son of God For this purpose let thy chief aym and study be to seek thy own greater abnegation and continual mortification as much as thou canst in all things Why wilt thou live in guile and deceit making no reckning of those things which God prizd and honored so highly that he thought them worthy of his best beloved and only begotten Son Verily although they were not raâ—kd amoÌ„g good things yet for this sole reason that IESVS chose them for himself they are honored sufficiently and worthy to be sought by us with the whole extent of our hart and for this sole cause that he dispisd all worldly goods though men have them in so great esteem they are to be held base and infamous and deservedly to be abhord more then death it self IESVS overcome with love of us made choice of these things the world hateth and why shal not we for his sake at least accept them What do I say for love of IESVS we ought to do it for love of our selves He that loves his soul and his life let him love to dye even while he yet liveth If thou lovest life why wilt thou not rather love an eternal and happy one then this wretched and momentary
whosoever loves any thing as good to himself aymes alwayes at that which is more perfect and by good consequence he that loves life must not love a temporal but eternal life who loves good things must not love earthly but heavenly goods wherfore our very affection to things compels us to disaffect all worldly things Ther 's no body that loves any good thing but he wisheth it perpetual though the contrary be absurd yet we alwaies do it for through our love to life and goods we suffer great detriment both of life and goods Tel me o thou wretched of the world who art so forgetful of eternal life whether dost thou despise these transitory things or love them If thou dispisest them it must be for this reason because thou seekst after better if thou lovest them how much are greater things more worthy of love How ever the case stands it is convinced that we ought to love eternal things which will accrue to us so much more copiously by how much the more we are impoverishd disesteemd afflicted for God Notwithstanding all this the sufferings of this life are in no degree proportionable to the future glory for what is here but light and momentary works in us an eternal poize of the same Our provision for eternity may be prepard with much facility and ought to be kept with all carefulnes Each one furnisheth most plentifully the place he intends for his longest abode and where his residence is to be but for a short time that he regards but sleightly and provides it but superficially An eternity expects us in the other life we must lay up store of merits for it least we make our provisions preposterously bestowing great care on a short abode and little on a long But we ought to have transitory things in hatred not only in regard of the eternal life but even in respect of this temporal they disquiet and vex us with a thousand cares while we are procuring them and with a thousand feares and frights least we fal short of them we brook any loss but impatiently which happening so frequently as they do we are tossd in a continual sea of griefe anger and endles vexations He alone who goes contrary to the world lives without contrariety and in a holy repose How then do these things deserve the name of goods which are so noysome and tormenting to us rather the quite opposite ate to be stiled such which far sooner render us such by putting us in mind of our present condition by making us think upon God and have recourse to him by occasioning our greater merit and assimilating us to the only begotten Son of God The lover of men IESVS did most truly tearm those not only good but also beatifying Yea the choysest of the heathen Philosophers held not those things which the world so much adores good but their contrary Some of them hated and rejected temporal riches that at least in this life void of care and fear and perplexity of mind they might enjoy a temporal felicity It redounds to our great shame that heathens should do so who wanted the example of the Son of God who were out of hopes of other goods and this when the world was in its youth and verdure and abounded more with such allurements though false and counterfeyt But we have the glory of imitating IESVS and the incentive of a heavenly reward the world moreover is now grown worse and more deformed and wants not only solid goods but also fading Now it scarse hath where with all to bait a deceitful book its false varnish is washd of in so much that it cannot deceive us unles we deceive our selves The XII Chapter Of the excellency of one that is in the state of grace VVHy seekst thou any thing of the world if thou be above the world why lovest thou any earthly thing since thou art beloved of God How can he stick in the mud of nature who is elevated to the state of grace O good as little understood as much neglected God hath bestowd large and pretious promises upon us to make us sharers of his divine nature Why seeks he any thing besides God who hath found the grace of God which raiseth him above all nature yea even that of the highest Thrones Cherubins and Seraphins if therrs be considerd in it self though so far surpassing all other created substance by which we have God for our Father for our friend and unseparable Achates It 's accounted a matter of high concernment among men to have precedency of place or dignity before others and what wil it then be to have a preeminence above all the degrees of nature Although the world were never so estimable the things in it beyond our valuation yet they ought to be contemnd by one in the state of grace The divel is intolerably proud yet he regards not the opinions of men concerning him nor deems himself one iot the worse for being revild by them he seeks not popular applause he sleights material things he loaths what we relish so savourly he scofs at our affaires and all this for no other reason but because he is of a more sublime nature why then is man who is raisd to a participation of Gods nature who is rankd in the highest class of creatures so sollicitous about these base trifles certainly if he understood throughly the dignity that is conferd upon him by being rightly confessd and put in the state of grace nothing else would be requisite to make him contemne and deride these fopperies of creatures nor were any great store of vertue needful to move him to this but he would do it even by his vicious nature unles we should hold it impossible that grace could be the authour of a misdeed The wicked spirits without any vertue at all have a most mean conceit of these sublunary things and why but because they are of a Superiour nature and rank above them What then ought man to do with vertue who is elevated above all nature If a great king in his robes of state should find a spade or sickle lying in the way he would scorn to stoop to take it up as being of a more eminent condition then a peasant and why doth man when he hath once possessd his soul of Gods grace stoop and debase himself to earthly things since his dignity overtops the heavens O how great is the excellency of grace It lies conceald many times under a course and contemptible garment in a weak body feeble and sometimes loathsome to the eye Consider how much the noblest nature of a Seraphin surpasseth the basest of a silly worme yet ther is not the meanest slave and ugliest Lepar if he be in the state of grace but doth much more exceed the nature of a higher Angel If God should create a select nature in which all under-natures vegetative sensitive rational Angelical were comprehended in so much that these sublime intelligences of
Of evill many become good we must not disdain them this is to love all for goodnes this is to love all in God when we love for that which cannot be loved without God as goodnes justice vertue and the like If thou didst love the goodnes of God thou wouldst love all in God and covet that all loved him and wouldst put to a helping hand and be sollicitous in this behalf Of a much different strain is the zeal of humane and divine love Humane goodnes is finite and narrow bounded not suffising for all nay not even for many but les wil fall to each ones share therfore men endeavour what they can that none els love what 's dear to them but because the goodnes of God is infinite and more then abundantly sufficient for all and our love of such a limited condition that it cannot correspond to so great goodnes therfore Gods desire is that each one love it and approve our love and cooperate towards it to the end they may discharg and satisfy for that goodnes which we are not able with any love of ours to equalize Thou lovest God imprudently unles thy desire be that all love him for thou must love him more then thy self thy desire is that all love thee though thou be so very bad why are thy wishes on Gods behalf more barren and bounded he being so extremely good O infinite goodnes of God who loved me so much the meanest and very outcast of sinners that being not content to love me thou wouldst moreover that all should love me and commanded it too why shal not I covet that all love thee and procure it to the utmost of my power yea thou hast obliged all by thy precept blood that they should love me no less then thou lovedst me and every one loves himself Give me grace that I also may observe these examples of love that I may love all Thou saidst this is my precept that you love one another as I loved you And again thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Thou o Lord lovedst me eer I loved thee thou o Lord lovedst me not for any commodity redounding to thee but to me thou lovedst me with an immense love for none hath greater charity then this that one give his soul for his friends thou didst love me with a perseverant love thou art he who when he loved his who were in the world he loved them to the end These are the conditions with which thou lovedst me and must be the rule conformably to which I must love others O my soul learn love from the love of Christ love them as thy own life whom Christ loved more then his and wil in then be loved and worshipd If Christ lay sick in bed thou wilt not deem it indecency that he be supposed languishing for our good who for our salvation took really upon him our languours or pinchd with hunger and some other poor body lay also sick in another bed and were pressed with the same want and thou shouldst demand of Christ whether of the two he would have thee to relieve first himself or that other party I believe he would piously answere that other for Christ himself would defraud his own mouth of meat to asswage a poor mans hunger Serve then and reverence Christ in such a one if thou canst not do it in fact do it at least by prayer and compassion not only in corporal necessities but much more in spiritual God prizeth so highly an almes bestowd on the body that he promiseth heaven for its reward nor assignes any other cause of acquitting them in the dreadful day of doom how much more wil he esteem an almes bestowd on the soul for which he daignd to dye o the infinit charity of God o most loving Saviour who gavest thy soul for sinners grant that I may love their soules as thou lovedst them I wil take a pattern from thy love to know how I am to love those whom thou lovedst and not from my own neyther wil I love my neighbour as I loved my self for then I shal love him but untowardly I knew not how to love my self how can I love others How could I love my self who loved my own wil who loved iniquity but I wil love my neighbour as I ought to love my self desiring thy wil may be accomplishd in him and he more plentifully enrichd with thy grace that all may serve thee most fervently and adore thee in spirit and truth THE IV. BOOK The I. Chapter How ungratefull we are to God HOW unhappy is our hart in thy benefits o happines of Saints since a slender courtesy afforded us by some poor miscreant yea even by a savage creature stirs us up to an act of benevolence and yet we are not struck through love into an amazement of the immense beneficence of thy benefical nature how comes this to pass that if a man had done it we should deem it a huge favour and for this very reason that God does it though he do incomparably more we sleight the benefit and seek not to shew our selves grateful doth water loose its nature because it is in its center the sea and not in some sorry vessel shal it forfeit the nature of a benefit because God is the authour of it whose nature is to be beneficial we should rather argue thus it is water because it is drawn out of the sea Can heat because it is in the fire be thought not to becalefactive and that only to be so which is in a forraign and violent subject the ardour of fire is more effectual and warmes more intensely then heat in wood so the blessings from God are more benefical then those from men because God sourceth them It is the nature of gâ—â—â—nes to be benefical as it is of fire to heat â—â—neficence in men is nothing so vigorous or taking because it is not so proper to their nature indigence only being connatural to them Water is purer in the fountain then in the stream and benefits derived from God are more refined then those from men who for the most part mar the nature of a benefit Why then shal blessings loose their prerogative and respect because they are imparted by God which though much meaner if they proceeded from any contemptible man unles we expressed our gratitude for them we could not have the face to appear before men but should blush with confusion so far as to be ashamed of ourselves and become infamous in our own conceit and yet because they are from God we hold our selves priviledgd to be ungrateful and dare without blushing appear before him and his Angels Why are guifts les valuable and of an inferiour rank because they come from God since in them alone are verified all the conditions of being truly beneficial and giving us relief in our greatest distress is a benefit more unhappy for flowing from the fountain of all happines Why do we
our admiration and love towards him to decrease upon that pretense A very forcible motive also to make us love God is because he is of a loving nature No ingredient is more operative in producing love then love it self we carry a good wil towards wicked men merely upon this score that they seem to love us and we take a kind of complacence in being loved by dogs although God were not good nor our benefactor nor Creator yet because he loves he were to be loved and chiefly because he is such an ardent lover The greatnes of which love is renderd perspicuous by the greatnes of its guifts what a love must that be by which he so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son for its redemption o men what can you admire if you do not admire this that God should love the meanest of creatures with such a tender and feeling hart But let us grant that God neyther had lov'd â—s nor made us nor been beneficial to us it is our part at least to love him because he was so to others If the vertuous actions of men deserve praise at the hands even of a stranger or Barbarian and force a kind of benevolence from them shal so many feats of Gods beneficence deserve les their excess both in number and quantity amounting to an infinitude an upright and beneficial man is loved by every one even those that have not tasted his beneficence but although God had left no great monument of his liberality to others yet because he hath towards us although it proceeded not from the motive of love which cannot be done without some love we were still bound to love him yea although he were neyther good nor loving nor beneficial to us or others which nevertheles implyes an impossibility for that sole reason that he made us he were worthy of all love and respect Our Parents although they be wicked though they themselves nursd us not up yet they are to be loved and reverenced souldiers spend their lives and blood for their lawful king though otherwise notoriously naughty God is Father of all things and the lawful head of the world Neyther is his patience a light shaft to wound us with love he tolerating and pardoning us by it while we play the impudent delinquents The patience of an offender and harmer in accepting punishment and standing in a preparation of mind to admit revenge and penalty for the wrong turnes the anger of the party offended into benevolence and how can the patience of an unjust offender force benevolence from one justly displeased and not the patience of the party offended obtain love of him that offends unjustly O Lord with how good title doth my ingratitude and thy pardon exact my love but if this alone be not weighty enough to sway the ballance add to it that he is our Father our benefactour yea and beneficial towards all how much am I bound to love thee whose merits on my behalf are innumerable and love boundles But these impulsives are not the most convincing though they be severe exacters of my love I am much more engaged to love thee for thy sole benevolence wherewith thou lovest me then for all thy other benefits besides for that is the source of them all and consequently more to be prizd and thy love is so far from being exhausted that it is forcible enough if need were to redouble thy benefits and multiply them without stint if they which already abound suffised not for my salvation Thy love is equivalent not only to thy benefits already conferd but even to those in possibility if any greater be possible and comprizeth them all in it self yea if we may use the manner of speech even impossible ones for true love is not confind to the limits of a real power but imaginary wishes which though they have no place in God by reason of the perfect fecundity and allpowerfulnes of his nature the excess of his love is not therfore any whit diminished but â—e are as much endebted to him as if they were The sole love then of God alone is a more convincing motive of love then his boundles beneficence for that comprehendeth all his benefits not only now actual but possible and impossible if any such were unfesible to God There is yet another more pregnant cause of loving him then all the precedent for if we owe him more love for his love to us then for his benefits because these are only its issue and so many sparks leaping from that glowing furnace of divine charity much more must we love him for his goodnes this being the cause of love How great must that goodnes be which is mother of so numerous a progeny of loves and the stock from whence sprout so many benefits yea we owe not only incredible love to the divine goodnes for the present affection he beares us but much greater on our parts for the love he would bear us if we would but dispose our selves better and become less ungrateful and consequently more capable of a more ample charity We are not only endebted to the goodnes of God one infinite love of God but as it were infinitudes of love to an infinite God Wherefore we must love him more ardently for that he is good in himself then for that he is good and beneficial to us O Lord I love thee for thy benefits because I read reverence and embrace in them thy love and I also love thee for thy love because in it I behold adore and love thy goodnes The love of God is one perfection in God but there are many more for which he is amiable all which are comprized in the infinite divine goodnes and perfection which is for infinite respects most worthy of love I see not o Lord how my hart can cease or suffer any interruption in loving thee since thou who art infinite purely out of thy own goodnes lovedst us so incessantly from all eternity The V. Chapter That we are not able to satisfy the goodnes of God HOw do I loose my self o Lord in the consideration of thy goodnes which neyther pen nor tongue nor thought is able to comprehend if all the spirits both of heaven and hell all soules created and creable should make it their task to describe it and if each one had a sea for their inkhorn and a heaven for their paper both the one and the other would be exhausted ere they could make a fit expression of its least parcel If each star and drop of rain were so many tongues their breath would fayl them and they grow mute eer they could utter a congruous elocution If all the minute sands of the sea were changd into so many intelligences all their conceptions would prove but shallow even in respect of its least particle But what am I doing while I dare declare thy goodnes by these similitudes I confess o infinite God that all these exaggerations are ridiculous
thou wilt daily perish in them without end Settle it upon things eternal that thou mayst live happily for all eternity and contentedly in this interim till it commence Quit thy self of all love of corruptible things and thou shalt quit thy self of al the miseries which befall man Thou who seekest to be happy by loving why dost thou love those things which by merely loving them render thee miserable love him rather who will make thee fortunate even among the misfortunes of this life Why dost thou love those goods whose fruition makes thee evil whose desire makes thee unhappy why dost thou love men whose non-correspondence makes thee angry whose correspondence ridiculous and effeminate Fix rather thy love upon God whose desire wil make thee good whose fruition wil make thee happy Love not those beauties which deforme thee but love him whose love wil render thee beautiful It is a great fondnes to love those goods the sole love wherof deprives thee worthily of their possession and not to love that good which is only to be enjoyd by love The goods which thou lovest are not thine but thou theirs wherfore thou art in want of them God being beloved by thee becomes thine whom if thou lovest thou canst not want only wantest him when thou dost not love him by not bestowing thy love upon other things God in himself bestowes them upon thee Why dost thou love a good which is needy of another good not that which abounds with all goods when a good is loved which needs another good the misery is augmented not the want diminished All the goods of this world are necessitous none of them is all-sufficient by it self but requires the adjunction of another love that good which is so good of himself as to be indigent of no other good All good things are good by goodnes and consequently all stand in need of it to make them good Goodnes sufficeth of it self and requires no additional consort if thou lovest it thou wilt both be good and happy love him alone who alone is all things Do not love those goods which covet not to be loved by thee but love him whom all things covet to love thy Creator who both loves thee and covets to be loved by thee and created all good things for thy sake It is a kind of absurd stolidity not to love God who covets to be loved by thee and to love a piece of clay which hath no such resentment Why art thou so inquisitive after what may please thy eye and delight thy pallat and art so insensible of what doth perfect thy wil Love is to be squard out only according to the rule of God and therfore it is to be regulated by no other line nor doth it acquiesce in any thing else The shoe of Golias wil never exactly fit the foot of Zacchaeus Love is the first guift to whom is it due but to the first good and prime benefactor love is a guift by it self on whom is it to be bestowd but on him who is good by himself love is a guift by its own nature to whom is it to be offerd but to him who is good by his own nature love is a guift which is the source of all other guifts to whom is it rather to be consecrated then to that essence of good which is the source of all essences Love of it self without the access of other guifts is acceptable and others without it are little pleasing to whom doth it square better then to God who of himself is amiable pleasing and without him nothing must be pleasing o Lord how can I love thee worthily since I cannot serve thee worthily I being not able to afford thee any competent service All things are thine and whatsoever I have it is from thee becoming as it were a servant to me Thou who lovest me as much as thou artable grant that I may love thee more then I am able The X. Chapter That self love must be rooted out TO the end thou mayst love and honour God as it behooves thee it is not enough not to love thy self and the world but thou must hate thy self and esteem thy self the meanest of creatures an obiect provoking all their hatred When a ship sayles too much on one side the mariners ballast it to the other Thou doatedst on thy self in an extremity of love now thou must change it into an extremity of hatred To be able to improve ones leap to the best he must go back some paces and take his race from a further distance to be able to approach God with a more impetuous love yea to be able to love thy self truly and rationally thou must gather force from self disdaign A racer is so much nigher the goal the further he leaves the stand behind him and thou shalt approach the nigher to God the further thou recedest from thy self Thou must depart from thy self to come to God the final end conclusion of all things Thou hast no greater opposite then thy self thou must be at a deadly enmity with thy self because thou art more then a deadly enemy to thy self thou art more offensive to thy self then all the world besides We resent an affront more feelingly at the hands of a friend then of a stranger because it happens beyond expectation and wil sound more ill-favourdly relish more rankly of hatred that thou shouldst be thy own undoer who oughtst to be furthest from any such thought We take it ill if we suffer any bodily hurt from an enemy worse if from a friend of whom we expected a protection how can we brook it patiently if our soul be endomaged and that by our selves and our own exorbitances it would vex us to the hart to have our bodies enslaved though to a great Prince or potentate and we have no difficulty at all to enslave our mind to a vulgar creature or base dung when we are passionately troubled for any affront or injury or other loss O what a burden and discredit are we to our selves shame and discred it follow those properly that do amiss trouble and burdensomenes those that suffer both these miseries attend our condition we are evil towards our selves and we suffer evil from our selves we are a misery to our selves and unmerciful violent and violated provd and base-minded O how pittifully pittiles mercifully merciles are we to our selves when we soothingly compassionate our follies and take not revenge upon them Commiseration and self love in such a case is all one as if out of compassion one should cherish a frozen snake in his bosome which being revived will kill the benefactour with its poysonous sting Most evident it is that in all reason we ought to carry a greater spite and deadlier feud to our selves then all our enemies for as much as concerns self-affection the les it makes thee regard the glory of God and comply with his holy wil and seek the advance
repose by reason of occurrent duties eyther of life or state of life even in that kind of violence it breaths with tacit but connatural aspirations after God and these employments being ended and she left to her self she hastens to her center recollecting her self in her closest retreats with God that to her utmost she may become like the Angels who see allwayes the face of their Father and covet to see it more and more which desire ought to be as connatural and recreative to our harts as is the ayre in which they breath The XV. Chapter That the incomprehensible goodnes of God is to be loved VVHAT am I who am but an abyss of malice in comparison of thee O ocean of goodnes that thou shouldst love me like loves its like why then dost thou who art the best love me who am the worst things more amiable are loved by others thou being most amiable covetest to beloved by me the vilest and loath somest of creatures O love of the world what am I in comparison of thee who deserve to be the hatred and horrour of the world what 's the reason that thou commandst me to love thee why was it needful to lay an injunction upon this what necessity to intreat and sollicit it by so many wayes o sollicitation o most sweet voyce child give me thy hart o petition iterated and reiterated to deaf â—areâ—â— thou makest an exhibition of thy self in each of thy creatures that thou maist be seen at all turnes through the cazements of nature melting away in this most amiable demand in thy search after me Thou accostest me in each creature that thou maist beg it by them all dividing out thy love in so many wayes to gain mine What window soever I open thou as a suiter occurrest to my eyes standing behind the wall looking through the windowes looking forth through the grates If I see if I hear if I smel if I tast lo thy lovely face presents it self thy sweet voyce the odour of my God a honey comb with its honey is forthwith at hand every where suit is made for love If fower or five grave men should avouch any thing or invite others to an enterprize each one would doe and believe what they said why give not I eare to so many creatures while they all invite me to the love of my God since he hath so many vouchers of his comelines why am I so backward in belief if men allurd with the beauty of things thought them endowed with a deity how much art thou the soveraign and aggregate of all beauties more beautiful then them for thou being the source and author of it al I thou allottest to each one the pittance it hath All creatures represent thy love and beauty with silent cryes and invisible colours but what voyce or pourtraiture wil bring us to thy knowledg creatures are not able to paint thee forth All the perfections they contain seem nothing else but so many blemishes Who art thou then or where o my beautifully faire who though thou be every where present with me yet I find thee no where and though thou comprizest all yet thou art none of that all Creatures object themselves to my view as if they carried a resemblance of thee but I look upon them as a riddle Thou art not that o Lord which they delineate thee to be who though they tel not a plain lye yet they chalk thee so forth that thou art not truly what they represent In this manner I sought whom my soul loveth I sought him but found him not I wil rise and make a turn about the citty through the lanes of nature the streets of the heavens I enquired of the formes of creatures of the consorts of musique of the fragrancy of parfumes the tasts of inebriating rellishes the embracements of lovers and they all said we are not thy beloved he shines in such sort that no place is capable of his splendour he sends forth a sound but such a one as no wind doth carry a long he yealds a sent but so as that no ayre disperseth it he gives such a rellish that no hunger can bite upon it he is so inherent that no satiety can cause a separation I enquired of the earth and it made answer I am not he if the heavens of beavens do not contain him why art thou so inquisitive of me I enquird of the sea and it trembling said I am not his abyss much exceeds mine and it is no wayes to be waded through I enquird of heaven and it said I am not thy God he mounts much above my sphere If none of all you creatures be he tel me where I may receive some â—ydings of him the watchful intelligences and guardian spirits of this world made reply he made us seek him above us When I had passed a litle beyond them I found the beloved of my soul whom I could not find among creatures In this respect only I behold and find thee o light placed in the midst of lights that I am able neyther to behold nor find thee for how can I comprehend what is incomprehensible fly fly my beloved in this respect I wil comprehend thee because thou fliest me I know so much the more of thee the more I know thee not to be knowable and I approach nigher to thy knowledg the more thou recedest from my comprehension I sought in my bed and the retirednes of my solitude night by night the beloved of my soul The splendour of things beautiful in respect of thee is a night the seemlines of the heavens is a night the very beauty of the sun its refulgency and any other I wil not say created but falsly imaginable comelines is a night If each star were more resplendent then the sun and the sun himself did by as many degrees exceed these stars as there are sands of the sea and motes illustrated by the sun he would be an eye sore in respect of thee nor would be more conspicuous then the stars now are in presence of the sun But to what purpose do I bring these deformed beauties of visible things these rustick forms even of the sun morish lights Let us draw into resemblance these spiritual and candid ones whose lovelines is such that an Angel appearing to the devout Father Iohn Fernandez of our society the sight so affected him that he fainted through excess of joy was not able to support himself affirming that all the beauties of this world were but blemishes and deformities in regard of this Imagin then that the comelines of that Angel were as much greater then it is as there are â—â—omes in the aire and that each Angel were endowed with such comelines there being millions of millions of them or in a manner a number numberles sum up all this comelines of them all into one it would be ill-favourd and ugly in comparison of the beauty of God and I say not
first fruits of life to the Authour of life presenting thy self in the morning before him We must prevent the sun to thy benediction and adore thee o Lord at the rising of the same in the midst of our sleep it being as yet night when the pulse of the bel or some inspiration calls us to rise and behold thou our spouse comest and it is requisite to go forth to meet thee To make this encounter fruitfully it conduceth not a little to prepare oyle over night least the lamp of thy love o my soul want fewel to feed its flame and thou like a foolish Virgin be shut out which is too terrible Premeditate what language shal deliver thy first salutes to thy spouse and what affaires thou art to negotiate in time of prayer this being done if thou betake thy self to rest with sorrow thou wilt rise with cheerfulnes if thou hast a loathing of sleep thou wilt covet watching with much alacrity How can a soul enamoured upon God chuse but grieve that it must cease to love him prayse him improve its stock of merits and that all advantages of increasing his glory and its love towards so dear a spouse must be suspended how can it endure to see it self sustained by God loved by him and regaled in this interim with innumerable benefits and not to be able to relove him or as much as be thankful for such high favors Wherfore it is requisite both before and after sleep to make amends for that suspension of love and merits with more ardent affections and celestial desires supplying that loss of life wherin we cannot power out our whole harts upon God and be absorpt in him We must procure by this very cessation of merit and love to merit as much if it were in our power as if we were awake Vsurers even while they sleep increase their mony and thou wilt do the same if conforming thy self to the disposals of heaven with obedience and resignation thou make an ardent oblation of thy self and beare with patience this misery and the incident necessities of mans life He that embraceth patiently a necessary death whether it proceed naturally from some disease or be violently caused by another man he merits by it and so shalt thou if it be harsh and noisome to thee to repose and sleep as it is to those that serve love God fervently if I say thou accept of this necessary burden with equanimity it being wisely so ordained by the author of all wisdome Perchance if thou consider things in themselves and how much more burdensome sleep is then death to a true lover of God thou maist merit by sleeping patiently for his sake as by dying for patience Merit resides amidst great patience and patience is there greatest where greatest aggrievances are born most patiently Among all the burdens of mans life and all the annoyances which besiege it so closely none is greater then that of sleep or more worthily to be repented sin being excepted Other calamities are only tormentours of life sleep for its interim bereaves us of it other calamities are only opposite to the commodities of life sleep for a time impugnes its substance other calamities are in such sort noisome to our temporal life that they exceedingly conduce to eternal by affording matter of merit by raysing our minds towards God and drawing our affections as by an attractive quality sleep in it self during its raign is an enemy both to corporal and eternal life for as much as it causeth a vacancy both from merit and all thought of heavenly things other calamities are most welcome to Gods zealot because in them he doubles his spiritual advantages love is put to the rest God is glorified but sleep hath nothing at all desirable a cessation both of loving and honouring God attending it step by step wherfore sleep is more noisome and for a two fold yea manifold reason more burdensome then death it self to one that is enamoured upon God Death tyrannizeth only over the body sleep over both body and soul sleep on this behalf seems so much worse then death by how much the soul is better then the body nay much more to wit as much as the whole man soul and body is better then the body alone for death only deprives thee of thy body but sleep of thy soul also as wel as of it Death aymes only at the destruction of our body a thing frail and corruptible sleep at the soul also a thing eternal immortal which gives life to the body it being wholly insensible but for it death destroies a man sleep doth as much for a space of time as annihilate him Death is not to be dreaded for it leaves the best part of man untouched to wit his soul which makes him a man by which he loves God and apprehends his mercy and goodnes which is the glory of a man and ought to be his sole content and joy yea it leaves it more refined without impediment that it may honour love God more expeditly sleep overwhelmes and enters the noblest part of man unsouling as it were the soul it self Tel me I pray which wouldst thou resent most to die or to be annihilated if thou give glory to God by dying because such is his B. wil wilt thou not do the same if thou covet upon the same motive to be annihilated therfore if a patient acceptance of death be meritorious so wil also a patient acceptance of sleep if thou relish it as an equal burden If thou merit by embracing with patience the vexatious incumbrances of this life why shalt thou not also merit by sleep if it be the greatest incumbrance of all yea it being the sole and only thing which living and dying we must deem cumbersome for neither in this life nor after death is there any thing sin being set aside more burdensome to one that is feelingly devoted to the service of God What are accounted the burdens which press so heavily upon this life but its sufferings and miseries but one should be so far from esteeming sufferance a burden that it ought to be the scope and but of his desires next after God there is nothing more expetible then to suffer for God exhibiting this as the credentials of our love for by so doing we perfect the knot of true charity being more straitly united to him we dilate the confined raies of his glory and merit to be partakers of the same No body knowes throughly how burdensome sleep is to us besides him who is able to make a true estimate of the immensity of Gods glory the invaluablenes of his love and the least degree of grace in order to all which for this interim there is a dead surcease a suspension of all traffique for new merits After the cloze of this life what is noisome to the just besides purgatory but if thou be then in a condition of suffering it ought not to be resentive at all
upon thee by name when it stood â—ritten in the front of the book that he was to do the will of God he said o heavenly Father even for that contemptible Caytif Iohn will I also undergo a whipping a crowning a cross ignominy even death it self I give I offer I sacrifice my self wholly for his salvation And will it not be also thy duty to reflect upon Christ and say o my God this day for my Saviours sake wil I embrace all corporal labours and anguish of mind that I may love serve and glorify him with all the extent of my affection If God had created thee in the state of grace in an ample freedome of will and had by divine revelation indoctrinated thee in all the mysteries of our faith and thou didst see thy self dear to him and his B. Son become man and crucified with unspeakable love for thy sake were it not thy duty in these circumstances to give thy self wholly to God and power thy self forth upon him it is all one as if he had but just now created thee be oâ— good courage thou shalt awake in the state of grace behold thou findst thy redemption accomplishd to thy hand by the death and torments of thy God and this with so early a love that Christ sufferd for thee a thousand and so many yeares before thou wert born that he might have plenty of grace in store for thee Neyther Adam nor S. Michael nor Gabriel nor any other of the Angels no nor their queen her self the sacred Virgin found such preventing diligence such a feat of love to wit that God had already died for their releasment Be inflamed then forth with with a recipocal love and burning desires towards so magnificent a goodnes so speedily provident over thy affaires and do not contemn such an anticipation in what concerns thy eternal weal. Adam stood in expectation of this benefit the space of 4000. yeares but the benefit it self hath expected thee already above 1600 and it is neyther right nor reason that thou requite such sedulity and quicknes with so much sluggishnes and delay Procrastinate no longer thy conversion to God who hath so long expected thee in a great deal of patience Put case a proffer of coming to life were made to the soules which now are only in a possibility of existence and this upon the same conditions helps and favours which God hath daignd to bestow this day upon thee how would they joy how happy would they esteem themselves how officiously would they spend that day how would they in the very entrance of life sacrifice themselves to such a benefact or And what if he should make this proffer to those whom this very night he hath sentenced to hel fire while he so lovingly stood centry over thee in thy repose with what incredible fervour would they at their first return to life consecrate themselves to Almighty God as also the remnant of that day and their whol life if they did but once behold themselves adornd with divine grace with supernatural habits and such opportunities of serving so beneficial a God Be thou confounded for not sacrificing thy self more fervently to him who is much more munificent towards thee it is a greater matter to have preserved thee from damnation then to have reprieved thee being once condemned Spur up thy self to outstrip the fervor of many just soules and be thankful that thou findst not thy self this morning plungd in hell but freed from it as also from so many dangers and sins which innumerable others have this night incurd Do thou alone wish to give him if it were possible that glory which all the Saints will be still rendering through the great day of eternity which desire thou must unfaignedly iterate in the course of the whole day and that with sighs from thy very hart neither in the morning only but oftner as if then newly set on foot and created begin the journey of Gods service allwayes with a fresh and vigorous courage The V. Chapter That our daily fervour must be retained THOV providest but fondly for this dayes life neyther art thou secure of that if thou delayst it till to morrow If the use of this dayes life be granted thee live wel and perfectly for he only is said to live who lives wel Thou diest miserably being yet alive if thou leadest not a good life Each morning when thou awakest purpose to live that day as wel as possibly thou canst as if thou wert undoubtedly to dye the same night Delay not the amendment of any defect till another day which perchance thou wilt never see eyther the day or thy wil wil fayl thee The day to come wil go wel with thee if the present do One must never hazard a thing so good as is a good life but be alwaies in an active fruition of it Thou art industrious in avoiding any thing that may endanger life and why dost thou by delaying prepare and call danger to a good life Live to day and protract not to amend what is amiss after this week or month or the disposall of this affair To day God is our Lord and to day must thou be the servant of God for he is thy servant to day since he to day makes the sun rise to thy behoof He delaies not his guifts till to morrow neither must thou thy services To day God heaps benefits upon thee which thou canst not challenge be not thou wanting to services which he exacts The services of another day wil not suffice for the beneficence of their day why wilt thou have them satisfy for the day past and for the benefits of the present its own goodnes is not sufficient to pay its debt why wilt thou make it pay for the malice of another God especially redoubling thy debts and his graces to day God is God and to day thou art his creature to day Christ is thy redeemer and thou to day his redeemed IESVS is Christ yesterday to day thou hast a being to day and shalt perchance not have one to morrow To day and every moment art thou a debter to God who impends continually his omnipotency to thy behoof thou also must each moment impend all thy forces in his love and service How darest thou incur the loss of one hour since thou canst not make recompense for the least benefit which thou receivest this instant flowing from the ocean of Gods infinite love How darest thou suspend the quitting thy obligation for the interval of one day or hour for if God suspended his munificence but for a piece of an hour thou wouldst not be in the world or if he suspended his indulgence thou wouldst be in hell An eternal salary is promised thee thou must not merit by interrupted services If thou wilt truly live never intermit to live wel this is an eternal truth O Truth give me grace to serve thee truly henceforth for all eternity and that I may eternally
all the cagernes of our hart and spirit but prefer a momentary pleasure before the grand affaire of eternity What is it that we are so ambitious off unles we be very greedy of glory what hunt we so earnestly after one moment sufficeth for the purchase of eternity If the largest extent of the earth be but a point in respect of heaven which is limitable what will the narrow bounded life of man be in regard of an unlimited eternity and is it possible that time can be spard from the pursuit and attainment of glory if having exposd a full exchequer of gold God should say to some needy beggar thou art yet to live a thousand yeares and shalt have nothing to sustain thy want for so long a respit of time but what thou canst carry out of this treasury in the space of an hour would he thinkst thou play the trewant in that short interim or spend that remnant in play or sleep why do we not bestir our selves an eternity expects us nor can we lay up provision for it but in the short interstice of this life why do we interrupt so laudable a commerce and sit still with our hands in our pockets a thousand yeares carry les proportion to an eternity then a moment to a thousand yeares what then wil ten or twenty yeares the utmost tearm of thy life be in regard of an endles duration why ceasest thou from doing good life flyes from thee death runs towards thee eternity stands still and thou nevertheles art slow in coffering up eternal riches What a tedious journey under took the queen of Saba for no other end but to enjoy the sight of Salomon her intention aymed not at any long stay but to return presently to her country many come from remote lands to behold a man whom fame hath cryed up for some rare talents of wit or art with how much more reason ought we be content to employ before hand prolix endeavours to be able but once to contemplate God in the height of his majesty if permission were given to all of making our journey to heaven on foot and nothing else were prerequired but only a pilgrimage of a thousand yeares no body I believe would decline the enterprize Thy journey thither is much more compendious thou needst not lift thy foot over thy threshold nor out of thy bed and why dare we not aspire with all our might to compass a good which is so nigh us the sole lustre of gold or flashings of a gem are able to make men brook the roughnes and danger of the seas and the clarity of God strikes us no more then if we were insensible neyther do we prize an invaluable good at so much as the value of a little labour But what do I insist upon eternity although glory were not eternal but momentary yet it is a good so boundlesly great that an eternity of suffering should not be deemd too much to purchase it but for a moment we beholding God intuitively in that instant O how exquisite must that needs be which God hath provided for his friends if he prepared and gave himself to be crucifyed even for his very enemyes how exquisite must that needs be which cost God so dear for which he was at so great expense at no les then his life auctority passion and omnipotency If Gods manufactures as the heavens the motions of the stars the nature of beasts orderd onely for the use of man be to us such an object of admiration what will that be which he exhibits to the ostentation of his majesty if we admire the artifice of an eye though in a loathsome creature or carriage-beast what wil that be which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the hart of man if he hath made the fabrick of this world which is but the cottage of miserable Adam a bridewel of sinners acave of brute beasts of such an admirable structure that heathens at its contemplation were rapt into extasy what shal we think of his own royal Pallace as much as a nasty stable falls short of the court of some great Monarch which is adornd with guilded roofs paved with pretious stones hung with most rich tapistry yea as much as the magnificence of the heavens exceeds the horrour of a stinking prison so much far more must thou imagin the dwelling place of the blessed to surpass the beauty of this universe which respectively will be found but an object of loathsomenes All the comelines of this world falls so far short of the seat of the blessed that all this artifice which the Philosophers admired with so much astonishment is in respect of it but an eye sore and blemish of deformity If heaven and nature which God provided as it were by the by and with as much ease as one can speak be so ravishing what wil that be which he hath from all eternity on set purpose prepared for those that make him their love In the guifts of nature God carried himself master-like he made them all with a commanding word but in his glory he resembles an industrious servant passing to and fro seeking as it were to give content If the beauty of this visible world where he was not so sollicitous to please be so winning and enamouring how much more pleasing wil he be in that where he made it his task study to please The whole machin of the world was no more chargable to him then the expense of one voyce he made it with a word but glory made him as it were set his wits on work and as obsequious as a servant yea most patiently to brook disgraces torments and death it self If thou shouldst bestow a hundred yeares in speculating the greatnes of glory shouldst frame some high conceit of its worth thou mightst wel deem all to be nothing and thy conceptions to fall so far short of comprehending it that thou canst not so much as conjecture thy self to have come nigh it But in that imperfect idea which thou hast conceived rayse thy self to the gates of heaven beholding it open take as clear and exact a view of it as thou canst that being done cast thy eyes upon the earth and what is remarkable in its rarities compare then the goods of both together and see whether earthly things wil abide the test Wonder then at so many unfortunate endeavours of men in purchasing a little worldly pelf or rather nothing and their trewantly sluggishnes in seeking after the true good Contemplate thence from the top of the stars the frustrated labours of mortals and their certain hazards in obtaining an uncertain good and do thou hear thy soveraign inviting thee in such like words come enter into possession of my kingdom heavenly treasures This is a most certain guift seald with no les a promise then that of divine faith and recommended to us by the diligence and death of Christ heaven having so voted
a forme the simplest of all others as being most refind and remote from matter there must needs intercede an infinite efficacy in the production of an infinite Person by the communication of an infinite substance from all eternity My soul stands amazd while it contemplates this simplicity and transported out of its self it adores this divine perfection in the equality eternity of the Persons for the more simple things are as they are more effectual so are they also more perfect in themselves Perfection is not taken from the matter but the forme wherfore the more any thing partakes of the forme the more it also partakes of perfection and by consequence being the simpler things are the more they have of the forme the more also they have of perfection and for this reason Angels are more perfect then sensitive creatures Seing then that the greatest simplicity is the chiefest sole and total forme or act it must by good sequele be the most perfect wherefore the Son of God is equal and Coeternal to his Father by reason of the immense simplicity of the divine nature Among men the Father is greater then the Son because to make a creature capable of engendring it is requisite that he be in a perfect state and since God from all eternity is immensly simple he is from all eternity perfect and consequently from all eternity generating and the Father is not greater then the Son Among men no body is born a Father God from all eternity is Father nor was he sooner God then a Father Among men it is highly prizd if the Son produced carry a resemblance with his Father in the lineaments and features of his face and that child which most resembles him is most in his love what a fecundity doth it intimate where the Son is produced not only like in accidents but the same in substance how great a subject of love where the Son so resembles his Father that the Father is not liker himself nor more himself and after so great similitude the Son is only one and begotten by him without intermixture where the Father is a Virgin and begets him a Virgin and the Son not an infant and born without a Mother wherfore the Son doth not lessen affection as dividing it with a Mother there being none here nor the Father with a spouse But the Father loves intimately his only Son the Son loves intimately his only Parent Where the Son is not begotten of a particle of his Father but of his whole paternal substance whatsoever the Father beholds in his Son is own of himself whatsoever the Son bebeholds in his Father he knowes him to have coÌ„municated without envy or partiality How can they chuse but infinitly love one another they being so infinitly one while these and such like are after an ineffable but intelligible manner by a profound silence thunderd forth to a soul and are made apparent to it how can it chuse but be all set on fire when in so great light and with all its powers it shal be enamoured upon that superessential and superexcellent perfection of Vnity and Trinity challenging all the Angels and Seraphins in that smoak which replenisheth the house arising from this furnace of ardent charity and crying Holy Holy Holy flying thither with the spread wings of its hart partly refrigerating this heat of love and partly raising new flames But there chiefly it remaines like one extasied wholly inebriated with divine love when it considers that Ocean of goodnes wherwith an infinite nature is communicated to the Son and those ardours of love in which is made the Procession of the H. Ghost Here a created Spirit is at a non-plus and through excess of affection perisheth as it were in it self becoming a prey both to fire and water it is drownd in an Ocean of so great goodnes it burnes in the pile of that stupendious love Nothing can be imagined more efficacious to convince and attract our harts to a pure and sincere love of God then that inconceptible goodnes wherewith the Father communicates himself to the Son and both of them to the H. Ghost Nothing can be imagined more devoutly more tenderly more sweetly affecting then that out-burst and excess of goodnes in the eternal emanations nothing more cheerful more pleasing more delectable to a soul then the Nativity of the eternal word For if it be goodnes in it self which is allective and the booty which wel-orderd love preys upon that towards which the wil is carried with all the poyze of its affection what greater goodnes imaginable then that the infinite goodnes it self which according to the nature of good is diffusive communicate not a part but all it self entirely not only what it hath but also what it is This prosutenes of communication is a greater subject of admiration then any other infinite perfection of the divine nature If a man had some new and out landish jewel or some other exquisite rarity for which all esteemd him hapâ—â— and had nothing at all but it that being the sum of his treasures verily though that pearl seemd strange to thee yet this would seem much stranger if he without any hopes of gain should give it gratis to another The divine nature is an object of wonder but wil not this seem a greater wonder that it should be gratis bestowd upon the Son by that admirable communication and yet a greater then this that it should be done after such a manner as stil to remain in the giver Besides if love be an argument of goodnes for diffusion and communication never proceed but from love where can greater love be imagind then where all that is is love Love seeks equality in the lover and beloved and here is so great love that the parties beloved carry not only a similitude but even an identity betwixt them in so much that both their loves are one and the self-same From whence necessarily followes the greatest fidelity and joy conceptible since they cannot chuse but love and be beloved equally This their love is so efficacious and legitimate that though the Father and the Son were not by their eternal generation one the same nature the H. Ghost would make them such This is the aym of charity this is the function of love to make the lover and beloved one and since that love is of a God most infinitly perfect towards him that is also God it must needs be most intense and wholly efficacious But if it wrought not an Vnity it would not be altogether perfect but like the love of a thing limited and towards a thing limited not towards an infinit only begotten equal to his infinit Father where both the lover and beloved are infinite Where there is such an excellent and genuine love how much goodnes must needs intercede so that the Trinity is a most pregnant argument of an infinite good and consequently of a divine perfection that being good
it were lively and vigorous the first time we hear that saying of Christ Blessed are the poor of spirit because theirs is the kingdom of heaven the last sillable should no sooner be pronunced but we should forth with renounce whatsoever is in our possession O our shame and confusion there have been some philosophers who have relinquishd all their goods gold silver and whatsoever els for this sole end that with les disturbance they might contemplate this material heaven and we refuse to quit meer toyes to become Lords of the empireal Ethnicks though they denied the immortality of the soul did preach up and chuse poverty even out of a temporal motive that they might rid themselves of all cares and we neither for any commodity of this life nor hopes of an eternal can be induced to imbrace this vertue Thou esteemst content of mind and temporal repose more then all the kingdoms of the world how much more oughtest thou to value eternal cōtent and above all God himself one should make a most rich purchase if he gave all the treasure of Croesus the revenues of Salomon the Empyre of Augustus for one buffet for Gods sake and why dost not thou buy of God at a far cheaper rate the kiss of friendship his sweet imbracements his intuitive and beatifical vision when Adam was cast out of Paradise and a guard placed at its entrance with a flaming and two-edged sword if he had been hopeles of a redeemer but were to bribe the Cherubin with mony for a returne to his ancient and happy state where he lived in such poverty that he was not worth a suit of apparel would he not willingly have given all he had in the world so fertil of briars waterd with his sweat how much more industrious must we now be to come to the glory and fruition of God to gain and possess God himself shall we perchance be more excusable for having a redeemer since for this respect we are much more obliged if we be capable of gratitude to imitate him and follow his admonitions and believe his words who said that it was harder for a rich man to enter into heaven then for a camel to pass through a needles eye O most amiable Lord if thou be the reward of poverty take what is mine and in the first place my self I wish I were so poor that I were not owner of my self for he is rich enough who hath himself since he is master of a man He that hath relinquishd other things and not himself doth no great feat in contemning those things which are of themselves but earth and dust which for the most part contain some evill and by which we become evill the compassing whereof is ful of vexation the possession of fear the deprivement of sorrow It is no great busines to leave those things that otherwise will leave us and in the interim are many wayes hurtful Thou o Lord becoming man gavest thy self to man for man that by such traffique thou mightest gain man and not the riches of man man must render himself into thy hands and not esteem himself more valuable then God It is a high piece of injustice for man to deny himself to God who bought him at so dear a rate Man must set a true estimate upon God and retaliate the injury he sufferd by Iudas who rated him only at 30. Pence A Christian must prize Christ more then the whole world and a creature rate God higher then it self He that relinquisheth other things and not himself is so far from lessening his desire that oftentimes he more augments it Privation causeth an appetite and want stirs up desire All things are only a just price for him that is all All things must be abandoned in which man himself is concerned for if one retaine an appetite though he relinquish the thing it self his smootherd desire will soon revive We must not only relinquish the things themselves but the very desire of them It is not enough to abandon what thou hast but thou must moreover not seek any thing else nor accept of what is offered or given thee nor as much as may be even borrow things for thy use It is not the propriety but use of things that is noxious Let it be grateful to thee to have less then the rest avoiding singularity which is a stumbling block of ill example laid to the detriment and overthrow of the rest It is a singular beast or beast of singularity which wasts and depopulates the vinyard of our Lord many religious men are less cautious in this behalf they think their spirit is not disquieted so long as they feel no anxiety nor desire but when any thing is proferd and given without perceivance of these in themselves they deem themselves free from all danger especially when they are not further annoid with sollicitude of other things But they are not out of danger for although there be none in acquiring the thing yet there is in the use and possession of it The things themselves cause an appetite of other things wherfore although the man himself have no desire of others yet the things themselves have and they stir up an appetite in their possessour for one thing is alwaies craving another Besides if thou hast relinquishd thy own why wilt thou have another man annull thy fact that which thou approvedst as conforme to the doctrine of Christ why makest thou another to disapprove it is because thou intendest to dismiss relinquish again what is now given thee thou mayst make a shorter cut then this by not taking it The chiefest prayse of poverty consists not in leaving much but in having nothing reserving nothing for his own use Why was the glory commendation of the Apostles so eminently great was it perchance because they abandond their poor fishing nets or rather because they retaind nothing for that indeed is to relinquish all If another importune thee to take any thing thy poverty must contend with his liberality thou wilt prove thy self a poultron if thou be overcome Thy own poverty over came thy liberality why cannot it do so to anothers thou didst rather chuse to be poor and needy then reserve any thing of thy own wherwith to be liberal why preferst thou anothers liberality before thy own poverty would he be thought to give good advice who should say keep this that thou mayst not abandon all no certainly neither must thou acquiesce to his suggestions which are repugnant to the counsel of Christ Suppose him that gives to say in like manner beware thou yeald not but having forsaken thy own do not accept of what 's anothers but contemne for the love of God those things also which thou hast not nor art in possibility of having Such a love of poverty is wont to be ingenderd in the servants of Christ that if even IESVS himself for whose sake they quitted all should restore them something or command them to
possess the goods of this world they would reply and appeale to the throne of his mercy as deeming that two great a punishment O how rich will he be who is so poor of spirit that not so much as in affection he covets any thing of this world for as soon as he hath made this renouncement of worldly treasures in his hart he transfers them into heaven becoming Lord of them and selling them to Christ without any prejudice at all either to him that ownes them or that hath them in use Such a one is strangely enrichd by those things which neither are his nor ever shal be having treasures in heaven and no want upon earth for poverty is not burdensome to him that loves it but ful of sweetnes and content unsavory only to them that hate and inveigh against it and what wonder if it be offensive to its persecutours and enemyes Nevertheles it is hurtful to none but good to all for it is no hindrance at all to those who contemne all from their hart for God and very advantagious to those that gape after terrene commodities making them even against their wils forbear a great many sins which in plenty they would have committed plentifully Wherfore although it seem to such bitter and distastful yet they cannot deny i◠to be extremely beneficial The XI Chapter That Patience is necessary in all occasions PAtience is a thing to be wished above all others thou must regard it more then thy life for there is a greater necessity of suffering then can be of living Thou art not born to live easfully for a time but thou livest that thou mayst suffer for a time and thou sufferest for a time that thou mayst live eternally Thou art born to a life which shall not be interrupted it is requisite then that in this its interim thou suffer without interruption This life is not for it self for neither do passengers travel that they may only be sayd to be in motion we live for a more sublime end What is this life but toile and labour to which man is born that by it he may purchase beatitude God could have created us in glory what needed we fetch such a circuit about pass through so many windings unles we were to go by the path of suffering Give credit to what I now say register it in the book of thy hart nothing is more necessary to life then patience because nothing is more obvious in it then sufferance In troubles which cannot be avoided it is a lenitive asswageth griefe which impatiēce augmenteth Thou mightst have some pretext for being impatient if thy impatience would ease the affliction but it is a thing beyond all excuse to forfeit the ample fruits of patience which thou mightst reape almost out of every action and adversity without any fruit at all Do not omit nor performe thy vertuous exercises perfunctoriously by reason of any incumbrances of this life or the hard measure thou hast from men for it would be esteemed injustice to make God pay for an injury done thee by man God who is innocent must not satisfy for the default of the nocent If thou inure thy self to take these tribulations patiently thou shalt become after a manner impassible and a lover of afflictions Fire doth not burn ashes nor suffer they any harme from it they rather love the fire foment and help to its conservation so the more patient one is the more joy many times by a certain divine priviledg doth he feel in his greatest pressures Patience doth not lessen the labour but the pain and that 's enough it is so deserving at our hands that it wil not defraud us of any part of our merits but only asswage the noy somenes of the affliction so it hath found a meanes to make us enjoy both the fruits of our labours and not be contristated with the labours themselves God takes complacence in nothing almost more then in sending adversities confusions humiliations to him that 's truly patient because he loves most cordially one that is thus throughly mortified enricheth his friends with merits whose harvest is in labours and afflictions God shewes no greater argument of love nor imparts any guift with more tendernes and affection of hart then labours the bitter cross of his B. Son and nothing ought to be higher then this in thy desires The most loving hart of Christ expected revilement and misery and how canst thou be his disciple if thou hate and shun it seek not to beloved by God upon other motives then was his only-beloved Son nor covet to affect any thing besides what he loved and affected Thou wilt not be patient enought unles thou desire practise of patience which is sufferance thou wilt be but half-patient if thou only beare the wrong done thee unles thou be also ambitious of them but this without any others default To what end makest thou thy complaints the true patient speaks not of his wrongs nor makes rehearsals of his aggrievances to another because he placeth not his comfort in excuses and condolements but stands indifferent whether his griefe be eased or no. Why resentest thou so heavily to supply what is wanting to the sufferings of Christ he for the glory of God would not only endure scourges and the cross but in desire and preparation of mind he covered all the afflictions of all men and this very anguish that now annoyes thee which was wanting to his Passion that is to a most ardent desire of greater sufferance and all torment imaginable Rejoyce that thou endurest this for Christ who oughtest to deem it an inestimable favour to receive one stripe that it might not be inflicted on him but if thou brookst this sleight affliction which was wanting to his desire with patience Christ will take content in it and thou wilt afford him no smal comfort O most loving IESVS why am I afflicted in my tribulations if I have this solace that thou art solaced by them Thou didst seek o Lord some one who would condole with thee couldst find none behold me here of my own accord I wil be afflicted and sorrow with thee that I may be a companion of thy sufferings and death Who wilgrant me that I may die with thee o Son of God and if thou be pleasd to send me only this light tribulation why do I refuse to be lightly afflicted for thee others solace themselves if only some men be joint-sufferers with them why should not I solace my self if I be joint-sufferer with my God This is enough for me neither do I covet the compassion of men I will grieve no more o Lord that I see my self alone injured my self alone contemned nay this shal be a comfort to me that besides the fellowship of my suffering IESVS I suffer all alone and behold none of my brethren involved in the like distress O my IESVS I find nothing in this tribulation which gives me just