would seem a mote but a mere nothing O my hart why art thou not extasied with such amiablenes and set on fire with such an abyss of light o my hart thy hardnes and heavines is greater then one of iron if this immense loadstone of love do not elevate and attract it But art thou perchance o Lord that clarity and seemlines which I conceit in regard of which so great light of the sun or an Angel multiplied to such an infinity seems no more then darknes no but thou art infinitly seemlier nor after so great light do I see thee though thou be most refulgent I only know that that refulgency is not thee because compared to thee it is darknes but what a one thou art is wholly unknown to me thy light dazlingly blinding me and the brighter it shines it leaves me in greater darknes But I never behold thee more clearly then in this mist nor do I find true day that is the ancient of dayes but in this night at noon day clear to me by reason of its obscurity and mid night O eternal love take now my hartand all my love But why do I say take it if thou hast forcibly siezd it why commandst thou me to give thee my hart if thou hast already robd me of it not in one hair or one eye of thine but in my blindnes and the hair-braindnes of my extravagancies Thou hast robd me because so great thou art that I cannot discerne thee thou hast robd me because though I so contemptibly dwarfish have offended thee thou so majestically great covettest to be loved by me But thou o Lord who hast wounded my hart with thy goodnes must out of the same power into it the oyl of thy mercy that it may be a healing salue to the wounds of my sins O hidden God if thou even in this ignorance of thee be pleasing to me above all I know what wilt thou be when I shal know thee intuitively and face to face in thy clear sun shine Sieze and dispoil me of my hart take all my wil never restore it to me again permit not a knife to be in the hands of a mad-man but reserve to thy self mannagement of it for what remains for me in heaven or what do I covet besides thee on earth I rejoice that my hart faileth me because thou hast taken it from me Let my hart be alwaies upon thee because my treasure is placed in thee O truly God of my hart because now thou art Lord of it but because thou art mine though my hart hath faild me yet a better then mine wil not thou wilt supply its room thou o God art my hart thou art that part which hath faild me To witt thou shalt be my hart eternally therfore supply for the functions of my hart Thou canst actuate my wil for me provide what thou knowest expedient in my behalf it shal only be my task and emploiment to love thee Thou shalt love me insteed of my self that all my love may be wholly bestowed on thee in such wife that self love may no way impede me O happy loss of my hart if God supply in lieu of it The last Chapter Of the superessential light of the most B. Trinity O Most clear shining light of the divine Vnity if thou be so great that thou dazlest the eyes even of the strongest understandings by thy dim shadow appearing in creatures and renderst them more purblind then the sun beames do the owl what an abyss of light wil invest thee in thy Trinity a shadow wherof is not afforded by creatures but it was to be reveald by IESVS if thou be here so refulgent to our eyes how wil these splendours of sanctity which never break forth shine within thee if the shadow of thy unity be so illustrious how radiant wil the light of thy Trinity be which cannot be shadowed O most lightsome darknes when some clarity of such a mystery is communicated to a soul that light is an abscurity because a soul sees not it self but is lost as in a maze Like as one that walk in darknes knowes not where he is so the mind surprizd in that light is ignorant what becomes of it self and having regaind it self in that brightnes which must needs be so it being in God there it looseth it self because it finds God which happens when being sequestred from the traffique of inferiour objects and becoming conforme to Christ crucifyd by a constant mortification and crucifixion of its wil it fixeth an undazled eye and humble mind upon the stupendious secret of the Trinity there it rellisheth life in its original purity as in its fountain there it admires the nature of a most simple simplicity in all points consonant with a Trinity When we know any thing worth our admiration we are touchd with a pleasing desire of beholding it What more admirable and consequently more pleasing then to know that most simple unity into which the Trinity of Persons combines it self as also that Trinity which a most simple simplicity doth not destroy Vnity doth shine distinctly in the Trinity the Trinity for as much as it relates to what 's within is conspicuous in Vnity The Father is the source of the Son the Son issues from the Father according to the distinction of a Person and remaines in him according to the unity of Essence from the Father the Son proceeds the H. Ghost and his substance remaines both in Father and Son where a Trinity hinders not Vnity nor Vnity impedes Trinity yea where Trinity furthers Vnity and Vnity favours Trinity Therfore God is more one because he is also three What more pleasing then to see those things mutually conspiring which seem repugnant to one another There would not be in God the greatest simplicity imaginable unles there were the greatest efficacy there would not be the greatest efficacy unles there were a Trinity of Persons there would not be a Trinity of Persons unles there were an Vnity of Essence The divine simplicity is so far from obstructing a Trinity that both Trinity contributes to unity and a most united Vnity requires a Trinity Therfore the more simple God is in his nature the more is he triplifyd in Persons and as no greater simplicity is conceptible then that of the Divine nature so there can be no truer distinction then that of the Persons in that Vnity The more things partake of simplicity and purity the more efficacious they are according to the tenet of Philosophers Because fire shares more eminently of these two qualities it is the most active amongst the elements and upon this score the heavens more then sublunary natures and spirits then bodies Vertue the more it is united and condensd the more forcible it is in its operations and the more simple a thing is the more it hath of the forme which is both its act and activity now in an infinite simplicity which is a most pure act and
sin humbly I sin a new arrogantly I could wish I went to hel if it were possible by doing so to obtain thy grace But how dare I that am nothing but an extract of sin wish that which thy greatest Saints and choisest favorits have made their suit and humble petition How dare I wish onely a hel who alone am the sinner of sinners What place shall I pretend to there Shall it be in the very center of it at the feet of Lucifer If some one of thy friends had an ambition to be there how dare I pretend it that place was desird by some of thy Saints and proved to them a ladder to heaven Thy servant B. Vrigman of the Order of S. Dominick when he could find no fit place for himself but in the bottome of hel under Lucifer was invited by a voice from heaven to mount up thither to a most sublime throne the hart of God the father and how then dare I covet that place what then will there remain some other place for me below all who am a sinner above all Shal it be at the feet of ludas but this is already taken up by thy servant Saint Francis Borgia who not withstanding quitted it when he reflected that sometime it had bin the seat of my Lord and master the humble IESVS What place then remaines for me Shal it be at the feet of him who gave IESVS the buffet on the face I having given him many more such injurious blowes or at the feet of Caiphas being I daily condemn Christ and his doctrine or at the gate of hel that all who enter there may tread upon me or shal I expect the precipice of Anti-christ into that infernal pit that I may suffer under his feet o most bountiful soveraign worse then the worst of all sinners am I there is no place for me in hel who am unworthy of al place I hold my self not worthy even of the fellowship of divels in so much that according to my desert a viler and more penal hel ought to be prepard for me I am the disgrace of nature the scum and refuse of mankind If thou o father wert capable of shame thou wouldst be ashamd of nothing save only preserving me in the world such a horrid and abominable moâ—ster as my sins have made me Nay I am a discredit even to the divels themselves and they might deservedly discard me from their infernal community Am I not worse then the divels It is clear I am in my nature and I do not deny it in my behaviour and carriage yea I see many things in my self which force me to grant it For they were damned for one sin and that of thought only whereas mine are infinite and most enormious and of fact also What difference then or excess is there betwixt my malice and theirs as much as there is betwixt a single unity and a number that 's numberles But though we alter these conditions yet stil I must acknowledge my malice greater then theirs although they had bin damnd for innumerable offences and I but for one For they did not sin against a God who for their sakes became an Angel neither had they such a ful proof of his goodnes they did not sin against a God who for them vouchsafd to be crucifyd they did not sin against a God who made himself the food of their soules they did not sin against a God who left them such a sublime Priesthood they did not sin against a God who by his example gave them the documents of a good life and did undergo the incessant labours of 33. yeares in inculcating them But I have sinn'd and why dost thou not o my soul dissolve into teares at the very thought of it against a God who so often hath bin so immensely good on my behalf who dy'd for me who wept for me upon the cross with loud out-cryes and not a joint of his body but bewaild each of my offences in the garden with teares of blood I am more unworthy then Lucifer more unworthy then the divels more vnworthy then Iudas who had not as yet seen Christ dying for him more vnworthy then Anti-christ who will not so often as I experience the great mercy of God deservedly therfore may they disdain my company neither is hel worthy of me nor would it willingly receive my sinfulnes T is more then this hel that I deserve I have merited to be cast out of all nature least I dishonour it who have disgraced its graceful glory I have murderd as much as lay in me its parent I have taken the crown of creatures from of his head I have dishonourd each creature by contemning their Creatour therfore I ought to be the but and object of all their hatred and they all rejoyce at my destruction Perchance I should beg this if it were possible that I who am the reproach of nature the dispite of grace the moth of the divine wil could not have had a being Notwithstanding because I deserve to be tormented what place shal I find fit for it Thou o infinite power o incomprehensible wisdome o immense justice thou canst tel what to doe with me In the meane time till a place be found and prepard I le expect not beneath Satan nor at the feet of Iudas nor wil I before hand take Anti-christs place of all which as yet I acknowledg my self unworthy but I wil place my self at the feet of the Son of God and his B. Mother standing weeping at the foot of the cross of my IESVS for they are better stored with patience and wil tolerate me whom neither the divel nor Iudas nor the rout of the damned would be able to endure Pardon me I beseech thee if I intrench upon the patience of thy Son and his Virgin Mother Let me lie at the feet of IESVS and Mary they know long agoe how to tread underfoot venimous creatures I am that poysonous and sauage Chimera that four-formd deformity that manifold monster having the eyes of a basilisk the head of an asp the clawes of a lion and the fiercenes of a dragon But o father of mercy because my IESVS cannot as now walk upon me a basilisk and aspe nor trample down this lion and dragon for my sins keep his feet fast bound to the cross therfore let the heel of the most B. Virgin Mary my Mother in the interim bruize this malice of mine let her crush the head of this serpent by her merciful intercession I am cause of her sorrow guilty of her teares she may justly complain of me and take revenge upon me The feet of the purest IESVS are welinurd both to tolerate and take away the monsters of our sins I seek not them amidst banquets and delights as did the Magdalen but among nailes and sorrowes and because I cannot water them with my teares I covet to be washd with their blood I wil not intangle those feet which I
infinite and such that neither power nor knowledge remaines to the Father whereby to exceed in rewards the merits of his Son If God then be of such a munificent nature that of his own accord he is beneficial to sinners if so just that he rewards them beyond their merits and goes out of himself that he may be bountiful to all expecting no just title which exacts his beneficence wil he proceed partially with his Son alone and not have regard to the prescript of their agreement of which as yet the divine liberality in all its extent fals short what will he do when he sees that he cannot outstrip the merits of his Son but that all the rewards he gave him and all men for his sake are infinitly below his services will he that was profuse to sinners be injustly pinching to his own Son will he refuse to give what he demands or we ask for his sake supposing he cannot reward him too much nor hath hitherto done it sufficiently if God be munificent beyond all expectation to wit when men judge punishment more due then favour wil he be niggardly and sparing when they think him bound not only to do it by way of friendship but also in a manner claymd as a due debt if God hath bin bountiful to some masters for a silly servants sake because he did his duty what will he be to his beloved Son in whose sole service he took more complacence then in all the world besides if he esteem men so highly that he usd those expressions for lacob my servants sake and Israel my chosen and elsewhere for David my servant c. and this when he was in a veine of indulgence wil he misprize his beloved Son most dutyful to him and be harsh and unmerciful to him in whom he so gratifid us o men let us make our demands securely nay most securely by Christ let us approach with confidence to the throne of his grace because how great guifts soever we demand God wil remaine indebted for greater and because he excuseth not himself nor disclaimes the debt he will never remaine ungrateful or unjust but will give what we ask since he neither hath nor can give all that his Son meriteth Behold behold I now see more clearly then the sun that it is wholly impossible for him to deny whatsoever â—e ask for his Sons sake supposing our petition be made as it ought for we seem many times to petition but perchance do it so coldly and foolishly that it is no better then a mock-petition But he that makes it truly and really in the name of Christ not only intreats but as it were conjures and exacts Christ is the object and delight of all the divine senses God sees nothing that 's seemly but by Christ he hears nothing that 's harmonious but by Christ nothing is fragrant sweet to him but the good odour of Christ he annoints heales nothing with his mercy but by the oyle of the name of Christ nothing lastly rellisheth savourly to his pallat but what is seasond and sweetned with the passion and gal of Christ Whatsoever he feels all is grateful by Christ so regarding us in him because we resemble Christ we are pleasing to him as one that looks through a green glass all that he sees is green and agreable to his sight though before disagreeing that colour which of all others is most pleasing to the eye tempering the incongruity of the object O how far would God be from tolerating our loath somnes and nastines if it were not for his sake o how often would he be out of patience with us even after we are once put in the state of grace which we deservd to forfeit for our ingratitude and non-compliance and many other venial sins if he did not think upon him who sustaines us and supplies for our defects He alone is a lenitive to his Father to make him relish les noy somely our impudence and unthankfulnes The world had perishd a thousand times long ago unles it had been detaind maintaind by him who by offering a daily sacrifice infinitly pleasing to his Father conserves both it and us so shamelesly impudent Christ interposeth himself betwixt us and his Father who beholding us in him our deformity doth les offend him as he that beholds a dead dog but in a looking glass feels not the stench it sends forth hurtful objects when they are seen through a glass are not offensive to the eyes It fares with God as it did with that Emperour who having a very faire emerald which like a mirrour reflected objects he beheld in it all spectacles of horrour as combats of duellists slaughters and whatsoever causd aversion to the end that the pleasingnes of the stone might abate and sweeten the distastfulnes of the fact so our misdemeanours do les exasperate God when he beholds them represented in Christ Christ is a gem and most pretious emerald nothing is more pleasing to the eye then that stone whose only sight is said to exhilarate it and it shuts not up this grateful colour within its own inclosure but imparts it to the neighbouring aire void otherwise of all colour So Christ causeth joy to God and communicates his merits to us who have none of our own to the end that being endowd with his grace and the verdure of hope we may confide that by him we shall be acceptable to God All our good and graces are but only the exuberancies as it were the superfluities and offals of the merits of Christ The IV. Chapter How devoutly we ought to be affected towards the most B. Virgin Mary HOw great is our misery and malice since though the mercy and goodnes of God be infinite it nevertheles â—â—ands in need of other helps and industries for our redress Christ the incarnate truth was a wonderful invention to satisfy the divine justice but because this instrument of mercy was to be our Iudge Gods love towards Christ provided another organ of pure mercy his most sacred Mother for which among other immense benefits of the divine goodnes we ought to be thankful What had become of us if Mary the mother of mercy had not been by whose prayers though our malignity and shamelesnes which is alwaies affronting God deserve a continual scourge yet his revenging hand is suspended and the scourge changd into a guift Christs reverence towards his Mother is more prevalent then our irreverence towards him If he offerd his life for his enemies and those who by crucifying him deprivd him of life what wil he not do for his dearest Mother of whom he received life if God did so great and remarkable things of his own accord and unrequested for creatures to whom he gave a being what will he do for her of whom he took his substance and Humanity she especially mediating and urging him by her intercessions as it were commanding him by the right and prerogative of a
integrity of his nature Man was created in a degree much superiour to other creatures Mary was exalted above the Cherubins glorifid more then all these glorious intelligences surmounting them as far as Adam did the common creatures She alone seems to be twice as great with God and much deeper in his favour then the whole world besides towards which though the Son of God shewd a wonderful dignation in descending from heaven for its redemption yet it could not receive the H. Ghost unles heaven first receivd him again but the Virgin Mother at the self same time entertaind both him and the H. Ghost in his superventions Therfore the prayers of Mary are effectual with Christ for two respects both for observance due to a Mother and for the consummatenes of her merits and sanctity for she is heard both for respect and reverence oweing to him and worth and dignity due to her self for the reverence of her maternity for the worth of her vertue and sanctity and we also are heard for her sake whose intercession is not only proficuous but also necessary Therfore let us fly to Mary in all our distresses as the child doth to his Mother who is beaten by a stranger she knowes how to support and uphold the tottering world with her prayers nor think that thou laiest a heavy burden upon her The fourth cause may be an assinity and kind of alliance contracted with the most B. Virgin not only spiritualy and after a mystical manner but even real and according to the body and nature For no body is nigher in kindred to another then the sacred Virgin is to thee He that receives Christs body in the Eucharist becomes by a real kind of union one flesh with him insomuch that there is no other union among men straiter then this not even betwixt man and wife wherfore thou must also esteem thy self akin to the Mother of Christ and perswade thy self that thou sharest in the same flesh with her There interceeds also a greater physical and real conjunction betwixt God and thee then there is betwixt thee and thy father how great then will that be which thou contractest with the Mother of God what created and real union can be imagind greater then that which passeth betwixt the divine word and his most sacred Humanity derived from the very bowels of the most H. Virgin and what link of consanguinity can be straiter then that betwixt Christ and his B. Mother Therfore the affinity and tie which we have even according to nature with her exceeds all affinity among men And if men upon this score of alliance by blood and kindred do mutually help one another and have recourse to them for reliefe in distress why shall not we have recourse to her with whome we are linkt in the straitest bonds What shall I say of the neernes and as it were spiritual kindred which we have contracted with her he by whom thou receivedst the grace of baptisme or stood for God father to thee in that Sacrament becomes thy kinsman and thou art bound to honour him as thy parent how much stricter a propinquity and filiation contract we with the Virgin by whose meanes we have so often receivd grace who hath so frequently brought us forth to God and into the light and truth of a spiritual life I acknowledg thee o Mother of God Mother of grace and mercy for my Mother and beseech thee that thou wilt not forget that sweet name in which thou thy self takest so much complacence Thou art stild Mother of grace and mercy and what ennobled thee with this title but our misery because we stand in such need of thy grace and commise-ration wherfore since I am the most miserable of all I challenge a greater right over thy maternal bowels then all Thy dignity accrues from my indignity thy sanctity from my sinfulnes and therfore I claime the first place in thy mercy because I am the first and greatest and unworthiest of sinners The sins of men made thee the Mother of God and my sins alone were sufficient to make thee the Mother of mercy discard me not from thy protection since all the Religious of our Society are shelterd under thy mantle as thy most devoted child F. Martin Gutierez beheld once in a wonderful vision For who can lay a better claime to mercy then he that is most miserable remember that I alone by my innumerable offences can only maintain this title of honour in which next to that of a Virgin Mother thou art wonto glory above all others I that am most miserable confide o Mother in thy mercy for heaven and earth wil sooner perish then thy mercy and grace wil frustrate those that truly and seriously implore â—y assistance and bestow themselves in thy service Admit me among them that with joyfulnes and teares I may employ my self in honouring thee but because my tepidity keeps me cold and dul as one that am wholy of an earthly complexion I envy thy clients a little of their fervour and wish as did that most devout Father Iohn Trexus to sweep thy chappells with my mouth and water them with my teares And to accomplish this in deed that good zealous Father and devout child of the Virgin made on foot a pilgrimage of some miles The V. Chapter That we must imitate Christ and of the sorrow and suffering of his most B. Hart. HOw can that man relish any thing of gust who thinks upon IESVS afflicted for the gust of men One drop oâ— his blood was more then sufficient for our redemption how happens it then that the effusion of the whole and such a world of sorrowes afflictions and disgraces are not an effectual incentive to imitation did the Son of God suffer such and so much in vain and to no purpose since the least prayer he made was a superabundant satisfaction for a thousand worlds and able to purchase grace for all mankind And yet so great an excess of torments sufficeth not to stir up me alone to his imitation for Christ sufferd for us leaving us an example The least swarvings of our wil cost God no les then the most exorbitant of our offences O if I did but seriously ponder my works o Lord how should I be siezd with fear Thy works are wonderful I wish my soul could throughly know them prodigious wonders which thou hast placd upon the earth wonderful testimonies of thy love and my ingratitude and hard hartednes I wish my hart would become like melted wax I set thee as a signet upon it that so I may rellish no gustful thing in this life but imitate thy griefes and afflictions I will place that sad hart of my IESVS which was in a perpetual crucifixion as a signet upon mine so shall I have it alwayes in my mind and my soul will wast within me What can be imagind more effectual to extinguish in us all gust of our own will then the memory of IESVS
very thing for him by which he forewarnd thee that thou shouldst adore nothing but him Go too cross thy own desire curbing whatsoever it covets by interposal of the divine goodnes that in the desire of things thy appetite may ayme at nothing but God Is any thing presented as pleasant and delightful oppose God forthwith as a strong shield and say how wil this be in my spouse I will not busy my self about this crum of handsomnes about this mote of sweetnes but wil drink larged raughts of pleasure in God and glut my self with his delicious relishes I wil no longer feed with Lazarus upon crums If a slubberd busines can delight thee will not much more a fair coppy Bulls are diverted and amuzd by casting a cloak or some other thing before them on which without hurt to the man they spend their fury and doe thou object God to thy roaming desires that spending themselves fruitfully on him they may be diverted from created things By this meanes o effeminate spirit thou shalt both wholsomely and in its own kind defeat the poison of thy own appetite effecting that the very affection to things which induceth an oblivion of God become to thee a memorial of divine love and incentive of charity The desire wherewith the covetous man thirsts after a piece of mony wil be more hightend if an offer be made of a piece of gold because the value of silver is not only equalizd but outstript in gold so must thou object God to thy itching desire of riches and pleasures the value of them all being containd in him with a vast excess Hence thou shalt experience incredible fruit God shal incessantly be proposd to thee as present and thy love towards him shal be so improved that thou mayst traffique among the necessary affaires of wordly employments without any great prejudice til thy-spirit being more refind and robustious thou beest admitted to the strayter embracements of thy spouse creatures now not disquieting thee but becoming so noysome that this very visible heaven wil be loathsome to thy eyes in comparison of my God and my IESVS He that sees the sun is blind to the stars and creatures compard with their Creatour are unsightly and unsavoury Stars because they borrow their light from the sun are as it were nothing in his presence they being invisible so all things that are because they take from thee o God the lover of men their essence and beeing as it were nothing before thee before thy superessential essence and goodnes But there is yet another important commodity redounding to him that loaths creatures Dost thou hear of any one that loves or desires them blush and lament that one so leagved with thee in nature should be so forgetful of God and stir up thy self and labour to repaire this common disgrace by loving thy Creatour for both Deem thy self guilty of all the affection which the world bestowes upon perishable things and make satisfaction by loving eternal Account thy self a debter for all the inclinations by which things are carried to their center nor prolong the payment rearing thy mind and love more impetuously towards heaven then a stone is carried downwards from heaven All created things seeking by an in bred propension to partake of happines shew that they love a trace of the divine goodnes be thou confounded and lament that thou lovest not more eagarly true goodnes and happines it self since grace is prevalent above nature O what a thing must that needs be whose shadow creatures love with so much vehemency to which the total love of all things lives and breaths do thou endeavour to collect in thy self all the dispersd inclinations all the errours of desires that thou mayst hasten towards God and make amends for the forgetfulnes of man The VIII Chapter The affections of a true Penitent TRansfer transfer my sins from me o most loving father who art in heaven for so I am confident to cal thee animated therto by the consent and doctrine of thy best beloved Son IESVS so to distinguish thee from that father in hel to which I adopted my self by my sins chusing by them to become a child of the divel and such I was for a long time I lay open my horrid and numberles crimes before thee which if it were in my power I would conceale from thee and wash them away with my harts blood that thy sacred countenance might not be defild with such a spectacle But because the blood neither of al men nor beasts can cancel so much as one of them therfore I shew them to thee that with one drop of the blood of thy beloved Son IESVS thou mayst quite obliterate and deface them I shew to thee what I have committed against thee for my malice doth not lessen thy goodnes After all my malignity and innumerable misdemeanours thou o father remaines still good If then I who am evil nay stark nought am replenishd with horrour at the sight of my offences how much more wilt thou who art good yea goodnes it self how wilt thou be able to endure such monsters not forthwith abolish and destroy them Thou being so good dost more detest sin then I that am so bad either now hate it or ever heretofore loved it I tried to wash them away with a flood of teares but no soap will take out these staines besides the blood of thy beloved IESVS I am in the hel of my own wickednes and demand not a drop of water as that rich glutton did of Father Abraham but I that am rich and most wealthy in all iniquity beg a drop of Christs blood of the father of mercies My intent is not to defraud thy justice by this my petition but only not to offend thy goodnes I do more earnestly beg that thou wilt wash of the staine then remit the paine O heavenly father I do equally and with the same armes embrace and welcome thy justice upon me as I do thy mercy towards me I do not so much beg a forgoeing of the penalty as pardon of my faultines I wish most earnestly and from the bottome of my hart that I could collect the desires of all creatures into one and could make them all beg with joint consent that thy justice would take revenge upon my delinquency I would willingly undergoe all the paints of hell inflicted both on men and divels neither should they appale me upon condition that thy countenance might not terrify me Sin is a more hideous evil then they yea beyond all comparison because my sin alone is evil they are good because thou inflicts them Yea and if they were all heapt upon me they would not render me more evil my malice being mixt and attemperd with their good neither should I be compounded meerly and purely of malice but should have some ingredient of good from thee derived to me from thy justice But o father of mercy I am afraid least while I seek to detest
his own Son so pretious to him The XIII Chapter How Penances and Corporal afflictions help us THorns conserve plants in a garden austerities grace in a just man A fresh vigour of mind flourisheth many times in a tottering and witherd body That Physitians may cure the body they more and more afflict it by bitter potions by abstinence by breathing a veine by searing it and other wayes yet more penal if it be exacted of thee to afflict it in some sort for the good of thy soul no great matter is demanded He that is ill at ease amidst his gripes and paines casts up what annoyd him so the peccant humours of our soul are not purgd by living pleasantly since the maladies of our bodies are not curd without annoiance A flint being beaten yealds flashes of light and the flesh by chastisements illuminates the mind That soul shewes it self a very beast which treats not its body like a beast Even as afflictions and crosses sent by God make men relent think upon him indoctrinate them enkindle fervour increase familiarity with God and raise their harts so voluntary austerities have like effect they make man have a more frequent recourse to God and being voyd of sensible gust they dispose him better for divine illustrations The curbing of nature is a fit disposition for increase of grace this is the ayme and endeavour of grace to divorce us from temporal corporeal and visible things and a penitential life finds this half done to its hand supposing it be accompanyd with divine grace without which nothing is beneficial to us nothing profitable The depth of our humiliation together with bodily austerity is the throne and kingdom of grace and a step to glory and the crucifying of our flesh the exalting of the spirit Thou armest thy self with voluntary afflictions against necessary ones learning thus in the school of patience how thou art to embrace those which are sent thee from God By these skirmishes thou art taught to overcome thy self and consequently disable thy greatest antagonist by whom the rest assaile thee thou also findest a more speedy redress at the hands of God in thy addresses to him Although Christ crucifyd be a sufficient warrant for our penitential austerities yet we might specify many more and principally our innumerable defaults and penalties due for them that we may make amends for what is past and lessen future misdemeanours Thy soul must be the executioner of thy flesh for this end through the great mercy of God it is repriev'd and rescued from the paines of hel fire Sometimes it happens that of two criminals sentencd to death the one partner is quitted upon this condition that he execute the sentence of death upon his companion becoming his hangman for want of another Our soul and body are joynt sharers in sin let the soul be the executioner of divine justice over the body and punish it in a due manner she when she first sinned being repriev'd from eternal damnation Suffer nothing to pass unpunished make thy self formidable to thy self as one that can be cruel against thy self a most impartial and severe chastizer of all the delinquencies and soothings of the flesh all must undergoe their due penalty There 's no citty wel governd unles its penal lawes be in force and vigour nor can that conscience be wel orderd where so many depraved affections are on foot without its courts and sword of justice The punishment thou inflictest upon thy self must be corresponding to thy fault beware God call thee not to an account for contemning corrupting justice Take pennyworths of thy self both because thou pleadest guilty hast playd the naughty judge in acquitting thy self so often by being indulgent to thy self Iustice is exercisd in cityes rather to terrify others by such an example from offending then to lessen the guilt and punishment of him that is nocent but thou reapest more ample fruit by chastizing thy self thou shalt not onely henceforth deter others from offending but thy self that thou mayst not commit new ones and diminish the punishment due for the committed Thy severity is not a piece of justice but indulgence for mans revenge works Gods pardon Yet in all thy proceedings be mindful how prayse worthy is obedience and how profitable discretion least thou practise austerity unadvisedly with decrease of thy own profit and les increase of Gods honour and service for the divel is ready to catch at all turnes Nevertheles be careful above all and at all times rather to chastize thy will then thy body but as far as a prudent circumspection divested of self love and the advice of thy superiour with regard to each ones age condition strength inclination employment and necessity shal permit such austerities thou must without mercy and self-flattery not be sparing in inflicting them O mercyful truth how can I flatter and pamper my self if I call to mind the hardship and torments which my most innocent IESVS sufferd for my sins and the paines that are indured by the soules in Purgatory It would be accounted a huge priviledge if God should permit a soule in those scorching flames to redeem its sufferings as we now may by undergoing voluntary afflictions Let us now make use of this his indulgence If a creditour should remit to one a debt of a hundred talents upon this condition if within a prefixt time he payd him only one would he think you refuse so gainful a bargain What a madnes is it in us to chuse rather to pay a hundred in the other life then one in this But what need of remission of these terrifical paines the gracefulnes and beauty which accrues to our flesh in the life to come is a sufficient incentive Remember how glorious and seemly our bodies will be in the future resurrection which shal share of comelines and splendour according to the rate and proportion of their now-present sufferances The robes which are to vest them in eternity are woven by the home spun temporal afflictions of this life Some not to appear deformed to the eyes of men have sufferd their limbs and bones to be cut and rackd half the tearm of their short life eternal beauty is purchasd at a far easier rate it is not requird that we cut them but only that we do not pamper them a litle vex annoy them Our H. Patriarch S. Ignatius understood this excellently wel who being not as yet converted to almighty God to avoid deformity commanded a bone to be cut out enduring the pain without a tear without a sigh without the least sign of grief or torture but after his conversion he judgd it an act far more heroical upon consideration of a future comelines that is to invest us in the resurrection to undergoe austerities to fast for whole weeks together to disciplin himself thrice a day to make prolix genuflexions lying on the bare ground wearing a rough hair-shirt clad in sackcloth going barefoot treating his
to wit divine grace merited for us by his Passion and remaining inherent in us He satiates our hungar with his own Body he quencheth our thirst with his sacred blood he enricheth our penury with the ample treasure of his inexhaustible merits If thou wilt know how much Christs merits are thine how thou maist employ them to gaine grace offer them to God to obtaine mercy hence gather it to wit because he reput'd thy sins his It was said in the person of Christ the words of my offences Yet we must not think his merits so to be ours as that it is not needful to have any of our own but may be saved by sitting stil doing nothing for Iesus died not that we might be negligent but fervent and zealous in the divine service Even as the soul of Christ could not suffer damnation for thy sins unles he committed some himself which was impossible so neither shalt thou be saved by the merits of Christ unles thou do good works and have grace inherent in thee which nevertheles is also from Christ He gave us then his merits that we might use them as our own to appease Gods wrath and indignation no otherwise then he took upon him our sins as his own to make satisfaction he grieved he deplored them he satisfyd for them as if they had been his own delinquencies He gave us not his meer naked works but cloathd in their robes of dignity that is as performd by a divine person insomuch that as he took upon him our sins as committed by most vile and abject creatures his servants so we should partake of his merits as treasurd up by the Son of God equal to his heavenly father Let us imitate Christ in as much as he appropriated to himself our faults that we may learn how to use his merits and appropriate them to our selves Deem o sinner Christs merits thine and upon that account make thy demands with great confidence for this is to ask in the name of Christ His merits given to us are far more available to this then if we had done the same our selves had been crucifyed for the glory of God for in that case they would not be the works of God but man a sinner Lo then how much thou art obligd to Christ who took upon him thy sins and gave thee his merits who quitted thee of so great evil and bestowd upon thee so great good These two scores upon which he demands this satisfaction of thee are infinitly obligatory to wit that as he satisfyd for thy sins as if he had committed them so thou must not offer the merits of Christs otherwise to God and procure grace by them then as if they were thy own O most sweet IESV that I could but understand what benefit and advantages have do accrue to us so wretched from thee we were monsters of horrour and now by thy meanes we are become a spectacle grateful to God we were in the very mud and bottom of hel and now we are in the bosome I wil not say of Abraham the father of nations but of God thy father we were in the throat of the infernal dragon now we are in the hart of God himself we were an object unworthy of the divine eyes now we are worthy of his embracements we were slaves comdemnd to the prison of hel now by thee we shal be crownd kings of heaven Who can conceive whither we had precipitated our selves and to what thou hast exalted us our misery ought to have been throughly contented if thou hadst only freed us out of hel but not thy mercy unles thou hadst also elevated us above the heavens and so many Angels thou hadst done too-much when we were involud in an irreparable misery and so desperately that all redress seemd wholy impossible if thou hadst only obtaynd of thy father a surcease of his anger but thou gottest us also our pardon thou hadst done too much in getting our pardon but thou moreover ga inedst us his good will his love and his favour thou hadst done too-much and a thing deserving admiration if thou hadst only won his good will but thou obtainedst for us also guifts and graces thou hadst done too much and what might worthily make us amazd if thou hadst obtaind for us but the least guift at Gods hand but thou hast gotten us his kingdom and thy own inheritance thou hadst done too much if thou hadst effected this but once but thou hast effected that it should be given us innumerable times if we faulterd so often supposing we had recourse to thee by true pennance lastly thou obtainedst for us whatsoever God possesseth vouchsafedst to admit us as loathsome abominable as we wer to share with thee in thy patrimony Behold o man from whence Christ hath deliverd thee and where he hath installd thee if thou unwittingly and at hap-hazard hadst freed another not from death but some casual distress what thanks and gratitude wouldst thou expect from him savage beasts are grateful even for some benefits a fierce lion for one thorn pulld out of his foot was mindful of the good turn after a long time and requited it and why make we the immense benefits conferrd on us by Christ of an inferiour rank to those of wild beasts and rather stand not amazd and at a nonplus through desire of gratitude but perchance Christ was obligd to do for us what he did or did it with case and with out expense nay we were his enemies and the busines was most difficult and desperate and the atchieving it cost him no less then the price of his blood and pretious life O Immense charity of God what hast thou done for hatefulman when we were in an impossibility of salvation and knew not which way to turne our selves thou o most merciful God foundest out a remedy a devise a stratagem of stupendious mercy and when the compassing of it was out of our reach thou thy self wouldst execute the design But what kind of remedy was it what captive durst wish much less ask of his king that to gain his freedom he would become prisoner Thou o my IESVS wert content for our sakes to do more then we durst either hope or wish Thou being the king of glory wert bound for us hand and foot and treated as one that pleads guilty yea condemnd and executed for us thy enemies that stood impeachd of high treason It were an act worth admiration if an Emperour should daigne to visit a peasant cast into prison for his misde meanours and how much more if his own betraier what if he should quit his throne for him and in a disguisd habit remain prisoner while the malefactour made an escape Thou didst this o most loving IESVS His praise is never sufficiently renownd who made himself captive to redeem his friend nor that servant who to rescue his king exposd himself both to his enemies death nor that parent who
by the same instruments by these Christ ascended into heaven and the members must not think of going another way then by which the head leads them They are not poyson Christ himself sanctified them and tasted them first of all himself yea that a smal parcel of them might only pass to us he drunk up almost the whole chalice of sorrows and afflictions and yet for all that he lives eternally and sits at the right hand of God How canst thou but be confounded whilst seing Christ accursed by all thou seekest so much to be honoured and praisd beholding him prostrate at the feet of Iudas thou preferst thy self before thy betters seing him thirsty and in want of a little water thou covets plenty and delicate fare It is the greatest glory of a servant to follow his masters footsteps To imitate Christ is a busines not only of necessity but dignity and for this respect the main difficulty is removed and a sufficient reward allotted for others that occur If it be a credit to imitate Christ then it wil not be difficult to suffer contempt and the revilements of men for that wil be a high point of honour and there is no contempt where it is a credit to be contemned It wil be also no hard matter to debar ones self of pleasures and superfluous riches to obtaine true glory for worldlings even heathens did more then this when they abstaind even from necessaries for a seeming only apparent glory Let it confound us that some barbarians have bin found so loyal and loving to their soveraign that if he wanted eyes they would put out theirs if he wanted hands they in like manner would cut of theirs and gave this as a pledge of their fidelity and imitation in others why do not we that are calld the faithful imitate the king of glory in things of far les difficulty If Christ had only told us what we were to do though he had not held forth the torch of example we were to have done it how much more when he did it first himself and did it to the end we might do it after him and not only said so in a word but made large encomiums of the happines of afflictions If a Prophet had but intimated it we could pretend no excuse and how much les can we when the very wisdom of Prophets and Gods own mouth hath exaggeratively recommended it and made himself a model of it IESVS never let fal the least idle word and yet he lest so many prayses and magnifying speecheâ— of the happines of poverty and affliction if it behooud us not to suffer the examplary life of IESVS would be to no purpose and his austerity wholly unuseful to us who should be unsensible of his charity who payd such a vast and superabundant sum for our ransome neither should we be taught by so lively an example to love his imitation and detest all sin and sensual pleasures Would God have needlesly thrust his only begotten Son upon such thornes if it imported nothing at all to do what he did that those whom he preelected and predestinated might be made conforme to the image of his Son that he may be the first begotten among many brethren God is not a God of impiety as who could take complacence in being so cruel towards his only beloved child Fierce and savage creatures are most passionately tender over their young ones and how could God who is most meek and ful of mercy be so tyrannically cruel towards his Son if it were not needful for us to suffer The enormity of our sins exacted not such heavy penalties for their redemption one drop I will not say of IESVS blood but of his sweat was superabundant It was therfore our behoof of imitating Christ and suffering it being the road way to heaven that requird such outragious torments and rigour of life God is either cruel and impious or else it is altogether needful for us to be humble afflicted and needy to have a high esteem of divine charity and a meane one of our selves No body knowes the way to heaven who hath not gone it no body ascends up to heaven but he who descended from heaven Christ Iesus who treads the path which he chalkd forth It was a way wholly unknown nor could any give better directions then Iesus who knew it had gone it Iesus did not as some peasants do who with their fingar or speech point out the way to travellers while they themselves sit quietly at home no whit sollicitous whether afterwards they hit or miss for besides that by word he had taught the path that carries to heaven he goes himself before and leads the way that we may be secure from errour Tel me if we were certainly assurd as now we are that there were such a thing as heavenly joyes and that one were to go thither on foot and no more were requird to compass these joyes but only to know the way which he is wholly ignorant of and another good body should instruct him in that who would not buckle himself to this journey though crabbed and ruggy especially if he that shewd us the way would accompany us and go before why then do we not believe Christ and follow him do we feare the wisdome of God being our guide to go astray do we think we can miscarry our B. Saviour going before no certainly Christ shewd us a secure path and traced it out to us so secure that although we die in it the very danger and death breeds security yea if thou didst love Christ thou wouldst not stick to die with him He loves not Christ who doth not imitate him for the vertue of love is assimilation or resemblance O that one could truly say I live now not I but Christ liveth in me carrying the mortification of IESVS about in my body and implanting it in my soul If then thou lovest the Son of Mary wilt become his tabernacle as she was behold with accuratenes and do according to the pattern which is proposd to thee in the mount Calvary and take a view of the whole life of IESVS He chose to live and die in contempt he was derided and set with the wicked accounted not only an idiot but a fool he was beaten as one would not beat his slave he was punishd as if he had been the worst of criminals of his own accord he shund all temporal honour when it was exhibited ther was no miscalling or slanderous nickname that was not appropriated to him they calld him Samaritan idolater possessd person false Prophet seducer belly God devourer drinker of wine blasphemer and transgressour of the law he was thought to be a traitor and conspiratour against his country a friend and abettour of sinners What creature can be namd to which he did not humble himself He humbled himself to the Angels what need was there that an Angel should come to comfort him who was God
he would be touched with a sense of compassion and how much more if he did see his own child in such a calamity o most mercyful Father how can that venial fault be tearmed little which it is unseemly for thee to compassionate though thou seest thy own children by grace whome thou affectest so tenderly so scorched and tortured in that piaculary fornace and yet for them it was thou gavest thy life pretious blood Neither paternal bowels replenished with pitty nor infinite wisdome was wanting in thee thou art not an ignorant God who can be deceived in the estimate of a fault nor a cruel one who takes content in punishing but against thy wil wherfore if thou tormentest him so rigorously whome thou lovest so tenderly it must needs be a vast evil towards which mercy it self is so unmerciful Let us imagin a man void of all knowledg of hel or purgatory and beholding only by revelation the state of some one soul pittifully afflicted by those flames for a venial sin but wholly ignorant what might occasion such a punishment what I beseech thee would he guess to cause it any smal or petty trifle or rather some huge exorbitancy which so benigne a God resolved to chastize with so much rigour Again shal that be tearmed little which he in this life punisheth with the greatest of all punishments death If God cannot err in inflicting penalties since he inflicts so dreadful ones how great must that needs be for which he inflicts them behold for one venial sin he punished his own servants Moyses and Aaron with death for one venial sin also as is probably thought Oza and lots wife were suddainly struck with the like disaster For one venial sin the Abbot Moyses was deliverd over to the divel and for a space possessed by him and in very deed it were a les evil to have a thousand legions of divels in ones body and be vext by them then to have the least venial sin in his soul and take complacence in it The divel laboured tooth and nail for 40 yeares together to make a certain servant of God commit but one venial trespass Is the divel such a fool that he would wait and lie in ambush so long to surprize him for a matter of smal moment why shal not we be watchful at least one day to avoid so great mischief o most pure truth purify my impure spirit from such an evil and illuminate me that I may not esteem it light because I regard it but lightly since the divels themselves take it so to hart but let me esteem that great which is done against a God so great nor let me repute that contemptible and sleight which I a contemptible sleight and inconstant creature commit by sinning upon all occasions and constantly but therfore let me hold it great because I who am vile and contemptible dare do it against a God the best and greatest How great must that needs be which rather then we must but once commit deliberately it is better to embrace a thousand deaths it is better that heaven and earth returned to their first nothing and all mankind were sentencd to damnation If choise were given to the Virgin Mother while she stands at the foot of the cross bewailing the torments and death of her beloved Son whether she would have him released from these paines and disgraces and behold him presently seated at the right hand of his Father and the salvation of a thousand worlds accomplished at that instant or consent to one sole venial sin she would chuse not to do this latter and would also perswade me to do so too nay rather then this she would chuse to see her Son and the Son of God once more naild to the cross yet without any default at all and if it were needful and lawful would strike in the nailes with her own pious hand and sacrifice him with greater charity then Abraham did his Tel me I pray would it be a slender courtesy and comfort to the Virgin her Iesus if some one man were found who would put himself upon the mount Calvary in the room of Christ and be crucified and suffer in his steed perswade thy self for all this that they would rather desire a greater comfort at thy hands which is to eschew all venial sin Consider now whether that would be little which should preponderate such a piece of service nor do thou deny this solace to thy suffering Christ and his compassionate Mother Let us then cancel and abolish this opinion that that evil can be light or little which the Virgin Christ God his Father deem so great and punish so exemplarly That is not little which hinders things orderd to a great and sublime end which lessens the love of God in this life and delaies his vision in the other It is no smal rub which puts as it were a stop and let to the most speedy and powerful mercy of God and his desires Would it be accounted a smal violence that should suspend a millstone falling from heaven in the aire while it were poasting to the earth its center it is therfore no smal sin which suspends the divine munificence and the ardent desires of an enamoured soul that they cannot reach their center God and the promisd holy land of beatitude but detaines it in the flames of purgatory That is not a little displeasing to God which hinders him from giving out of hand what he hath such a mind to give and we so willingly would receive That is not little which stops the current of Gods great favours and even in this life obstructs the outlets of his profuse liberality Let us tremble at such an evil and to the very utmost of our power use all possible diligence to avoid it not enduring to brook the shame and disgrace which the name of a fault imports How can that soul take complacence in the name of a servant or a child or a spouse which is not carefull to please God and comply in all things with his sacred will how naughty a servant would he be thought that would do nothing as he ought unles his master threatning death stood over him with a drawn sword and can upon no other tearms neither by faire meanes nor foul be brought to his duty how untoward a child who is allwaies crossing his parent and seeks to please him no further then meerly to keep himself from being disinherited for the rest is wholly wrechles in accomplishing his wil and desire and is lead in all with a spirit of contradiction how disloial a spouse who should only so far forth shew her self faithfull and loving to her fellow spouse as not to provoke him to take her life in other things perpetually crossing and vexing him and were she never so often corrected shewd no signes at all of amendment what argument of love would it be in a child or spouse to say I really love my parent or fellow spouse
glorify God O Lord let all be as dung to me upon condition I may gain thee let me esteem this one thing in all if I know them base in comparison of thee if I seek thee alone in them in my self All things are nothing in thy sight why then shal I prefix any other end to my actions besides thee who art all shal I not 〈◊〉 good as nothing and all I do will be to â—mall purpose o light of truth grant that 〈◊〉 of my mind may be sincere beholding theâ— simply singly in all that my whole body may be lightsome and all my works â—cceptable to thee Deceive not thy self o ignorant spirit he that errs in his intention â—â—rs small and he that performes a laudable work if the intention of Gods honour be wâ—â—â—ing he will reap but smal fruit for he that mistakes his way the further he goes the more he mistakes He that after a long journey â—â— navigation hath â—issed of his desired port and knowes that he is out of his way by finding himself in a contrary coast how sensibly and deeply is he afflicted o how often after the course of this life do many find themselves in an error frustrated of all their conceived hopes and dispoiled of all their good works because a zeale of the divine glory was wanting If thou wilt not be deceived seek Gods glory and not thy own To the king alone of ages immortall and invisible be honour and glory it is honour enough for me that thou wilt o Lord be honoured by me Let me esteem it a great honour to see thee honoured Honour exhibited to a parent redounds to his child respect done to the head of an unjuersity or rector of a college hath influence into all their members and subjects Thou art the head and source of all things thou art the rector of this universe thou art my parent all thy honor is also mine A creature cannot truly be said to receive honour otherwise then by participating of the honour of his Creator Let me see thee o Lord honoured and I shall be honoured let me seek thy glory and I shal be glorious Not only my profit o Lord but also my honour is linkd with thine grant that as thou didst seek in all thy works only my honour and my profit so I and all creatures may only seek thy honour and from thence alone will redound to us both honour and profit Whatsoever I shall do say or think I sacrifice it all to thy glory If I chance through negligence or inadvertence to do otherwise even from this moment I retract it and blush at it The Angels apply themselves with all their affection to sing thy praises they highten their voices and rest notwithstanding still confounded how then shal not I be ashamd of my tepidity and great negligence O man consider the dignity to which thou art raisd from the deepest pit of non-entities from an abiss of nothing from thy native dirt and clay to the glory of a God of infinite excellence and purity Raise thy intention purify it deceive not thy self thou wilt perswade thy self sometimes that thou seekest the pure glory of God and thou tacitly desirest thy own gust and commodity What makes thee so anxious and out of patience when things fall not out as thou didst intend but because thou soughtest thy self the glory of God is peaceable it is joyfull it is never frustrated of its effect in those that seek it Although things happen not as the just man expected yet they will happen as he desired to wit as the will of God disposed them and that sufficeth If I loved God with the whole extent of my affection in all and through all I should desire only his goodnes seek his praise be replenished with zeale and breath his glory He that is past breathing is dead and he is no better then a dead man who does his actions for any other end but God All time is lost which is not spent in seeking eternity How can we chuse but loose the future eternity which is not ours if we loose the present time which is ours by not working with a pure intention THE III. BOOK The I. Chapter How carefull we must be to do our actions wel THY whole dayes task must be a doing of good sufferance of evill make it thy whole employment to suffer evil and do good Neither is it enough that thou be chearfull prompt to this but thy alacrity must extend it self even to evil and harsh things that thou be not affrighted with their greatnes and noysomenes as also to patience in good and laudable things that thou be not cloyd with their multitude continual exercise The necessity of patience is more transcâ—ndental then any function or casualty of our whole life Vpon all occasions there is a necessity of suffering but it ought to be pleasant and according to thy pallat to suffer in order to the doing of good in this there is a twofold merit both of patience and the good work Thou canst never shun the undergoing of some labour and indeed without labours nothing exquisite will be aâ—chieved We often faulter in our vertuous purposes out of a hope of non-suffering which leaves us in the lurch while it makes us forbear to imbrace the labour and difficulty which accompanies our good purpose as if perchance at another season the way of vertue would be less thorny Thou deceivest thy self if thou be not persuaded that it is more necessary to suffer then to live or that there can be any part or parcell of our life void of sufferance One affliction is heyre to another if thou eschewest this another will not be wanting to succeed be throughly possessed of this and a false hope will not make thee remiss in thy pious endeavours by presuming upon some fitter opportunity wherin thou thinkst to accomplish thy vertuous exercises with less pain and toile It is impossible to live with out some labour do â—oâ— refuse any that is fruitful of vertue if thou declinest this thou wilt be forced to imbrace another more harsh and untoothsome We can only exchange labour not avoid it Thou maist notwithstanding eschew many defects and faults if thou seekest not curiously to avoid what is unavoidable labour is certain either it must be embraced with patience or repentance or pain and punishment Love and repentance is not sufficiently perfect and such as beseems thee and the infinite goodnes and mercy of God exacts at thy hands unles thou be content to suffer for many yeares space and as much as in thee lies the very paines of hell for the least venial transgressionâ— yea to render one venial trespass uncommitted thou oughtest willingly to undergoe all the torments of the damned If therfore it be behoofful to embrace such a hell to render undone what is done what must thou do by way of prevention eer it be done that it be not done at
reflex eye back upon their life and therfore frequently they find it very bad for the most part they never deliberate about their actions if now and then at the most it is what they are to do seldome what they have done and yet they can scarse know how it is to be wel done unles they reflect what hath been amiss Future gaines arise from the consideration of losses by past Merchants summ up their dayes traffique and if they find themselves loosers they purpose to make it up another day by other advantages Masters exact an account of their servants even to a minute busynes and why is the soul of man more pretious then heaven and earth sleighted as a thing of no reckning in the expense of a three penny matter they are precisely scrupulous but can easily disgest the loss of an eternal gain The commonwelth without magistrates wil become the mere sink of villany a field untild a nursery of brambles The sin of Adam corrupted our heart more then it did the earth If thou dost not cultivate thy conscience it wil branch forth into innumerable vices Thou must o remiss spirit be unmerciful in exacting an account of thy self that thou mayst deserve mercy at the hands of God Many have run evident danger of miscarrying by reason of their hidden sins The world is involved in darknes thou wilt scarse be able to know thy self when thou searchest into thy self how wil the case stand if thou search not at all but if thou knowst not thy self why art thou sollicitous eyther to know or have any thing els for although thou possess the whole world and be expert in all sciences thou wilt both be a fool and poor and despicable because thou dost not possess thy self who art better then all things and by whome thou shalt have all and not possessing thy self thou wilt possess nothing and thy knowledg wil serve to no other purpose but make thee err and abuse creatures The sole wise man is rich happy is he who is master of himself acknowledging his own vilenes and makes that his search and comes as it were to finger it One loves to know the horse he is to ride on one wil have the number of his cattle and sheep and is content to be only ignorant of himself and sin without number Why wil man be such a great enemy to himself as not to regard himself but if thou wilt hate thy self to thy advantage do it I pray by abhorring thy self not by forgetting By looking into thy self thou wilt abhor thy self by abhorring thy self thou wilt correct thy self and by correcting be acceptable to God Although we wil not examine our selves God wil leave nothing unrevengd But if we would judge our selves we should not at all be judged But while we are judged we are chastizd by our Lord that we may not be condemnd together with this world O meekest truth who appointest us judges of our selves in a case of delinquency against thee what more merciful o unspeakable clemency that the divine justice rests satisfyed with our humane verdict if any one that is assoild for some heynous fact expected a judge to be designd by his Prince to determine the cause and give sentence how desirefully sollicitous would he be that some one of his kindred or country or acquaintance should be deputed how would he rejoyce if one allyed by blood or intimately familiar with him were appointed behold thy happy lot and the divine benignity who wil have thee to be judge of thy self if two courts of judicature were proposd to a criminal in one wherof presided an uncouth rigid man who proceeded with the strictest severity in the other his kinsman of a milder temper who used a more favorable interpretation of the law if he would chuse to be arraignd at that most rigorous tribunal what would such a choise differ from madnes and dispair o how madly desperate would that man shew himself who should refuse to be brought to a bar where I wil not say his friend and allye but even the criminal himself shal be judge but would stand to the verdict of that other most impartially just where God shal be the severe inquisitor and offended judge If thou wert to have thy wish in chusing an umpyre of thy misdemeanours eyther thy partner in the same fault or thy accuser and the party offended wouldst thou refer thy self to this latters arbitration not thy companion but thou thy self or God offended must be thy judge and he who is undoubtedly to punish thee It is impossible for thee to avoyd some punishment and condemnation eyther judg thy self or our Lord wil severely adjudge thee to torment Do not then shun thy own judgment for so thou shalt shun the divine and not be condemned at that tribunal Be sure not to make greater account of any temporal thing then of exacting an account of thy self neyther is there any thing more reasonable then this If we be desirous to reforme others why wil we leave our selves deformed and irregular summon thy self at least twice a day to the bar and judge thy self most impartially as if that were the dreadful day of the last doom If at that hour when all mankind standing appalld with horrour perplexity before the judgment seat of Christ to receive their definitive sentence the judge should deal so favorably with thee alone as to separate thee from that huge mass content thou shouldst on this condition be thy own examiner that if thou judgd and punishd thy self in good earnest he would stand to thy judgment but if superficially thou wert to be added to the main heap to be adjudgd without all mercy together with them to torment what immense thanks wouldst thou deem this favour of Christ worthy off with what sollicitude wouldst thou search prye and sift into thy self not sparing thy self in the very least such a favour is now granted thee negotiate in thy daily examens and Confessions Gods cause seeking seriously his greater glory and thy own confusion Next consider Christ judging with all severity the rest of mankind and pronouncing the concluding sentence of damnation beholding him on the other side crucifyed for thy sake and thy self alone busy in discussing thy self at his feet on Mount Calvary together with the Mother of IESVS Iohn and Magdalen melting into teares even the beloved IESVS himself weeping and crying father forgive him for he knowes not what he doth Employd in the self-same thoughts come to thy Confessors feet in full hope of pardon if thou be not too indulgent in pardoning thy self considering thy IESVS little regarding thy sins and their punishment and only sollicitous to sign thy pardon laying aside all thought of their number and greatnes as being only desirous to shew favour and indulgence because he had committed to thy care and trust a diligent enquiry into them and a due revenge by way of satisfaction Be faithful to Christ and let
by meanes of it unles they wilfully seale up their eyes All the effects which God produceth are so many benefits and by them each one may help and profit himself unles he wil be foolish and perverse Thy ardent love doth alwayes o Lord accompany thy guifts as heat doth light this is an immense priviledge concomitant to them that they are so many pawns and pledges of thy love although this be not patent to the eye yet it discovers it self in the benefical effect For though we see only the light which the sun communicates not the heat yet this doth still attend the other O Father of lights what thanks am I endebted to thee for the university of thy benefits conferd upon all those credentials of thy love which love I chiefly embrace and adore in thy works who wil not stand amazd at the inventivenes of thy goodnes making the benefit of all the benefit of each one and the benefit of each one the benefit of all private ones publick publick private all the works of nature all the wonders of grace all the predestinate all the blessed are my benefits all the prosperity all the calamityes that befall man are so many favours which thou lovingly bestowest upon me O ungrateful man wouldst thou not love God with the whole impetuosity of thy hart if he should exempt thee from damnation thou carrying the guilt of hell fire by dying in some damnable sin but should create another much better then thee deputing him in thy place to suffer for thee that hell of torments God did much more then this I omit that he fatherd our faults upon himself daigning to dye for our sake this now amazeth me although it be incomparably less that he would shut the gates of mercy against many sentence them to damnation to save thee for if thou didst see but few condemned thy fear would be much less thou perchance thy self make one in that heap if two onely or three thy fear would yet be more lessend and thou mightest presume with more certainty one of them would be thy self if none at all thy fear would be none and mayst wel think that thou alone wouldst incur that misery or which is worse be much more frequent in sinning and less observant towards God Therfore the torment and damnation of so many soules is to me a great benefit O light of my hart with how bright beames doth thy love shine towards thy elect thou madest other creatureâ— for man and him thou damnest for other men whom thou hast elected to salvation Angels become servants to men yea thou thy self being made man what if thou wouldst have one man serve another If for some respects of temporal life thou permittest man to serve man and a slave his master for the attainment of eternal life and increase of glory a reprobate must serve an elect Behold o ungrateful spirit if an evil so prejudicial as that of punishment is proves thy advantage the advantages also of others wil turn to thy benefit With such skill doth God mannage his works that each one redounds to the good of all the very paines of the damned are so beneficial to all that they are beneficial even to them themselves for in that height of misery their cup is not temperd merely with malice but hath some mixture of divine justice which is very savory God is so bountifully good such a skilful Alchymist that he turnes dross into gold that is our very miseries into mercies and which is yet more out of the worst minerals of sinfulnes they alone being only bad he extracts pretious mettals and sometimes even the most pretious Thou o Lord conferrest thy benefits with such a strong and open hand that even from sin where thou hast neyther power nor activity thou being both impotent to act in it or concur to anothers acting thou both drawest and art able to draw great good Thy skil knowes how to extract immense blessings and vertues out of sin Light reverberating upon a condense and obscure body uncapable of its operations is so far from being eclipsed that it doubles it self by reflection neyther is thy beneficence ever defeated or renderd ineffectual Out of sin where nothing is but preposterously bad thou rectifyest all to my good decreeing thence thy beloved sons Incarnation As well from my own sins as those of others thou knowest how to take an occasion of being beneficial on my behalf when I hear of a crime committed by another I am sorry for the misfortune of my brother but take an occasion thence of thanking thee because I hope for mercy at thy hands eyther for him or me I yeald thee thanks because thou wilt derive thence no smal good to me unles I wil become quite blind and shut my eyes against the light Sing prayse once more o my soul to the Father of lights and be not forgetful of all his retributions for they all are his guifts even those that seem to flow from men and thou receivest immediately from them for if thou must perswade thy self that all the cross aggrievances which befall thee from men come from God why wilt thou not also be of the same mind concerning good his nature being goodnes it self and he so prone to communicate it all the light which beautifies the heavens though some little star or the moon by night do dart it forth proceeds from the sun though he the Author be not seen in like manner each blessing benefit though receivd from man flowes from God and is but a ray of his goodnes This is the main comfort which sustaines mans life amidst such a world of miseries as attend it that nothing can happen but by Gods permission and whatsoever he permits can be no other then a benefit according to the nature of his goodnes and what benefit soever befalls us proceeds from him and whatsoever proceeds from him is my benefit and orderd to me and my good Corporal afflictions and the miseries of this life whether I or any other tolerate them general dearths diseases pestilences all these are my benefits o Lord thou afflicting others for my good O God how deeply am I endebted to thee who to the end I poor miscreant may receive thence some good inspiration stickst not to strike the very kings and Monarchs of the world dead being little or nothing moved with the teares and calamities of so many kingdomes that I may draw thence some good document A congruous thought of some poor peasant becoming contrite is more prevalent with thee then the diadems of some kings and sometimes whole nations of people Grant o Lord that I may be thankful for these and both in my own behalf and others love thee in all thy works as thou lovedst me in all thy benefits The III. Chapter That Gods love in our Redemption appeares infinite O Immense love how dost thou exhaust thy self in deserving wel at my hands since thou hast left