come near the number of thy Offences The moments wherein God hath made me to enjoy most of his Blessings have been those wherein I have render'd my self the most sinful by the abuse of my Prosperity And the least sin I commited in one of those moments deserves pains of an infinite duration Prayer ALmighty God who makest all things with a profound Wisdom I find nothing to say against thy Works All that thou hast made is good But I mourn for my Iniquity and bewail my Corruption Good is in the neighbourhood of Evil and the things which are permitted me are so near to those that are forbidden me that if I forget innocent Pleasures but a little I straight pass into sinful ones At all passages the Devil lies in Ambush and my Concupiscence lays snares for me every where Narrow is the way and borders on precipices I know Lord that thy goodness is infinite and thou dost not exact from me that I should be evermore in Grief thou allowest some grains to the Fesh as rebellious as 't is against thee But how difficult and dargerous is it to mark out precisely the Bounds that distinguish permitted from forbidden Pleasures If I give ear to my Concupiscence it will stretch the limits far beyond all Reason it will endeavour to persuade me that whatsoever is agreeable cannot be bad whether I eat or drink am asleep or awake am idle or at work I am always in the Temptation and Danger of falling into Excess Thy Providence willeth that I pass through all these Dangers Thou alone art able to conduct me safely through this difficult Path Let thy Spirit lead me as in an even Plain Let me turn neither to the right nor to the left Here are two Extremities to fly thou hatest carnal Pleasures but it may be thou dost not love excessive Austerities Bodily Exercise profiteth little but Godliness has the promises of this Life and of that which is to come I know O my God that 't is much more dangerous to fall into one Excess than into the other All thou say'st of bodily Exercise is That it is profitable but to a few things but as to the other excess to wit of Pleasures it hurts and incommodes all things it makes havock of the Conscience it corrupts the Heart ruines the Body grieves the Holy Spirit and it separates the Soul from thee O Lord. 'T is incomparably more safe to renounce all Pleasures in general than to choose some and expose ones self to the danger of taking those that are unlawful O thou who holdest in thine hands the Heart of Men as the Rivers of Water turn mine into the safest way wherein I am certain not to offend thee and that is the privation of all sensual Pleasures Take from me that taste of all Voluptuousness wherewith I am inchanted Cast off from the Demon of Pleasure that Mask which covers him and that fading Beauty which charms me that I may see all his Vgliness and Deformity and detest and fly it Since the Body which thou obligest me to hale after me to nourish and conserve binds me to do Actions conjoyn'd with Pleasure give me the Grace to do those Actions to satisfie Necessity and not to serve Sensuality Discover to me the Snares that Lust lays for me under the Cloak of Necessity Let me not by an ill habit make that necessary which is superfluous according to the Laws of Nature and Reason that my Soul under thy guidance may keep its Body under as a Slave and not serve it as its Master CHAP. V. That we are not to consult our Heart and Senses in the choice of Pleasures That Devotion leads us to true Pleasure 'T IS observ'd that for the obtaining any thing we must ask much more than we have a mind to get and that to bring men to just Sentiments in withdrawing them from their Errours it is good to carry them a little into the other Extremity that in their return they may abide at least in a reasonable middle This perhaps has made so many Christian Authors and Preachers to imitate the style of the Stoicks upon the Nature of Pleasure and Pain These People say that Pain is no evil and Pleasure is not a Good We can say they be perfectly happy in the burning Bull of Phalar is and perfectly unhappy in tasting the greatest Pleasures This method is not it may be so good as we imagine We soyle and dishearten mens Minds by requiring too much of them and nothing is persuasive when Truth is invested with Paradoxes which awaketh curiosity but distemper the Mind After all we can never persuade men to the contrary to what they feel Cicero tells us of one of these Philosophers who had bin blinded by the pompous reasonings of his Sect But a great Rheum falling upon his Eyes which put him to horrible Tortures prevailed over the Illusions of his Philosophy and made him abandon it When we see one of these Sages cruelly tormented upon his Bed with the Gout or Stone and hear him say Thou mayst do as thou wilt O Pain but thou shalt never make me confess thou art an evil we cannot keep our selves from looking upon this as a Comedy and profound Hypocrisie Reason can do nought against Experience nor against a Sense so lively as that of pain The Martyrs I conceive might be happy amidst their punishments because they did not feel all their Pains For I hold that their Soul by the help of Grace was so strongly taken up with the Glory and Crown they were about to receive that hardly any Room remain'd to them for other Sentiments The Patience of the Faithful in their Calamities arises in my Opinion from no other cause than that their Souls being fixt wholly upon God and his Heaven the Object of their Hope do partly unite ' emselves from the Body and give less Heed or Attention to it's Annoyances Impatience on the other side is a motion of the Soul which turns it self wholly to the Body to be abandon'd to pain and to feel all its racks So that I conclude Pain is an Evil Which is to confess bodily Pleasure is a good 'T was my belief I owed this Confession to them whom we would prevail withall to renounce sensual and fleshly Pleasures that by this sincerity and plain dealing we may render them more attentive to our Reasons We do not entreat them to renounce bodily Pleasure as an evil in its self but as a petty and small good that brings along after it in its train an incredible Multitude of mischiefs and as a good which is unworthy of Man born for the most noble Pleasures and destin'd to the possession of the greatest Goods What ever we do we can never rivit out of the Mind of man this Opinion that Happiness consists in Pleasure I will not oppose this Maxime The chiefest beatitude consists without doubt in the Possession of the chiefest Good and in this Possession the Soul
get rid of that we should gain all but if it continue the Master it 's in vain we strive to become devout And therefore I destin'd this third part to make such considerations therein as may if possible ruine that grand Enemy of Devotion Certain it is Man was born for Pleasure since he was created to be happy and happiness consists in the Possession of Good and the sense of that Possession makes Pleasure The sovereign good of man consists in the Sole possession and absolute fruition of God and in being united immediately and after a most intimate manner unto him And Pleasure ought to spring from this strict and close Union with the Divinity This Union is made by Knowledge and by Love and pleasure arises from thence that God applies himself to the Soul by infolding it in the Arms of his goodness and Beauty and that he fills it with the light and joy of his countenance Sin has so far infeebled this Union of our Soul with God that it hath no more sense of its pleasures Your Sins have put a seperation between you and your God and it is like a thick cloud that eclipses the Sun as to us Whose comfortable beams would raise so much joy within us The Soul has kept this sentiment that it was born for Joy and Pleasure insomuch as being disunited from its God it intirely turns its self to the Body and its Pleasures and the stricter it is united to these the farther off it is from them The ligament of this union o' th' Soul to the body is Corporal Pleasure and proportionably as this pleasure tyes the Soul to the Body so it disunites it from God so that sensual pleasures cause this Disunion and this Disunion is propperly Indevotion which we would destroy for most assuredly Devotion is that motion of the Soul whereby she returns to her Principle and to the fruition of those pleasures that spring from her union with God Let worldly people take the pains to consult their own heart and that will tell them what we are about to say They well perceive that the reason why they cannot dispose themselves to Prayer to the love and Service of God is because they are posses'd by their passions and inchanted by the delusions of Sense That is to say they are absolutely turned toward sensual pleasures and wholly taken up in them The Soul is pinch'd and contracted the mind is bounded when its full of the World and its vanities so that we need not wonder if God who will have the Soul intire find no room therein Indeed a very difficult work this is we undertake to persuade that those who would become Devout ought to renounce worldly pleasures Although the Corruption of them be extreme we do not place all pleasures in the same rank we distinguish them into two orders There are those which are call'd excesses enormities and crimes but these the World abandons and has not the face to defend There are others styled innocent Pleasures Dancing Play good Chear great Meals Feasts Play-houses Shows vain Conversations the commerce of Gallantry and Intrigues that are the guides to criminal Amours The Church distinguishes Pleasures as well as the World Both agree that there are Innocent ones But the Church puts the greatest part of those which the World upholds to be innocent into the number of criminal pleasures Voluptuosness is an Idol to which the World Sacrifices both young and old Men and Women Children and old Men great and small rich and poor all ages both Sexes all conditions have their Pleasures Insomuch much as if we go according to suffrages we should lose the Cause Especially Young men cannot indure one should takeaway the use of Pleasure they persuading themselves that youth is predestinately consecrated to it The Painters and Poets that contribute to marr and vitiate Mens minds represent Voluptuousness to us like a young Woman or Man laid upon a Bed of flowers environed with all the Objects which are bodily pleasures The Passions that are wholly carnal and have a strait Aliance and Correspondence with the Senses are in boiling youth The Flesh all brisk active and vigorous having received no manner of Mortification Hectors and Domineers with insolence Whereupon young men follow the furies of their Temper and Crasis The sentiments of Piety and the habits of Virtue are not to be found naturaly in them So that reason destitute of this Succour is easily vanquish'd by the Passions We may say also that Reason in this age conspires with the Passions and serves only to push on young people into the greatestexcess and extravagences After their own fashion they reason they are persuaded that wisdom and prudence doe not become them they say that these properly belong to old men and thus abuse the saying of the Wise-man To every thing under the Heaven there is a season If any one has more happy inclinations he is not so hardy as to follow them he is stricken with a criminal shame he would not have himself markt out for a singular Fop He cast himself into the crowd and lets himself be carrieds away with the stream And even those who are reputed Wise in the World if they dare not authorize these Irregularities at least they excuse them They are young say they they will come to it at length we must allow somwehat to Age we are not born wise we were such as they are they may be one day what we are But alas we do not stay there we do not renounce Pleasures as we leave our youthful years behind us the love of Voluptuousness is a malady we carry along with us thorough all Ages We go as slow as possibly or to speak better we go on not at all Old Age and Sickness pull men sometimes away by violence from Pleasure but we seldom view those that voluntarily divest themselves of worldly pleasures This is the most uncommon of all Sacrifices How many Women do we see that would hold out even against time and foreslow themselves from being carried off the Stage They forget nothing that may contribute to conserve the air of youthfulness They would deceive Men and I know not whether or no they hope to deceive Death it self They would evermore be the object of the Worlds care and have a part in all its Pleasures When old age is come and has lain its Characters open in their meen they draw a Skreen before it to render it invisible You see these Women Idolatresses of the World to bury their head under an heap of Powder that they may confound the whiteness of their gray hairs with this adulterated and strange whiteness They fill the dints and hollows of their countenances with cousening Ceruse they shadow the wrinkles of their forehead with false hair and paints and in which they are most prudent they imbalm their Bodies and cover them with Perfumes to corrupt the ill odours that arise from the Carkasses In this equipage
Prayers let thy meat be to do both night and day the will of thy Father which is in Heaven Abstain as he did from all the pleasures of the World take his Cross upon thee and mortifie thy Sin in thy flesh since thy Saviour has mortified it in his If any one loves me says he let him come after me and follow me Alas my Soul how far off art thou from him how imperfect thy imitation and how much dost thou sink below thy example But lose no courage labour walk on let the things alone that are behind and tend to those which are before The holy Ghost that was sent by thy Saviour will conduct thee in the most difficult path as in a smooth and even Country If thou can'st not attain the perfection of that great Example God has set before thine eyes at least approach as near to it as thou art able For in short if thou wouldst be happy with him thou must with him be righteous and holy Thou must enter in at the strait Gate and walk in the way of Mortification to arrive at that life whereof he is both the Author and the Source The Soul of thy Saviour did not only continue void of all sensual Pleasures but it was penetrated by the most piercing Dolours To imitate him renounce fleshly pleasures and submit thy self to the Anguishes of Repentance Prayer O My divine Redeemer my Jesus my Saviour and my God thou wouldst I should imitate thee Thou hast said unto me Learn of me and thy Apostles say Look up to Jesus the Author and finisher of your Faith be ye Imitators of us as we are of Christ It is fit O my Saviour I should imitate thee Thou hast taken mine infirmities that I might glory in possessing thy Vertues But if this be glorious how difficult is that I can do all by thee who strengthenest me and I can do nothing by my self Give me therefore grace necessary to fulfil that which thou commandest me and after this command whatever thou wilt Thou hast made thy self like unto me in taking upon thee my flesh make me like unto thee by giving me thy Spirit I am thy Image O my God but a defac'd corrupted one over which the Devil has display'd his infamous Characters Cleanse me again and repass the Pencil of thy Grace over those effaced Lines of this Image and wash away all the impurities which the World has poured upon it If I cannot follow thee draw me that I may run after thee Give me the wings of thy love that I may flye to thee give me O my Saviour the desire of imitating thee for I would imitate thee I will it O my God but it does not come from a victorious but a slavish will I will it but I do it not and I see by this that I will it not Lord give me both to will and to do My flesh thinks the way thou hast walk'd in rough and uneasie it recoils and starts back at the sight of those Difficulties how wanton loose and wicked is this unhappy Flesh How would it have done hadst thou indispensibly commanded it to walk in the way of thy fore-runner John Baptist to dwell in the Wilderness to have for ones habitation a Grott at the foot of a Mountain or the Trunk or shadow of an old Oak to have a Rayment of hair to dine on Locusts and a little wild Honey for a great meal If thou didst not lead this sort of life thy self 't was to spare us and not make us imitate a life almost inimitable These are only the outfides of Piety which may sometimes be the mantle of Hypocrisie but thou hast given me to imitate the greatest Examples of real solid and internal Vertues If thou command'st me not to wear an hair Garment thou will that I should put on holiness and righteousness bowels of mercy and a patient mind If thou dost not send me into the Desart thou wouldst have me retire into the secret of the heart for to conversewith thee and comprehend the Truth which thou wouldst reveal unto me If thou oblige me not to eat only Locusts at least 't is thy good Pleasure I should oftentimes eat the Bread of Tears and mingle my Drink with weeping Thou wouldst that I make my repasts near the fountain of Haran upon Jacobs Well profound in mysteries full of living Water Consolation and Joy that I seek my delights in thee O my Saviour who art the fountain of Water bubling up to eternal life Thou wouldest that I feast my self with thy Love and that I find no Pleasure but in thee Do this therefore O blessed Jesus Take the taste away from me of all the Wordly pleasures make mine heart to be intirely imployed about these that in imbracing thee I may taste a Pleasure that may so fill the capacity of my Soul as it may cry out in the sense of that sweetness I am filled as it were with marrow and fatness CHAP. IV. What may be accounted innocent Pleasure That Devotion is no disquieting and uneasie thing nor an Enemy to Pleasure IN the foregoing Chapters I have proved that the Spirit of Devotion is an Enemy to sensual Pleasures and not only to those Pleasures which 't is confest on all hands are criminal but to those too that we call innocent ones In this rank I have placed the continual Divertisements whereunto the higher part of mankind give ' emselves up It is time now to explain and unfold a question which may be started here To know whether it be necessary to renousce all sort of Pleasure to be Christianly and truly pious Now in one word the answer cannot be return'd it being one of the most nice and delicate matters in Christian Morality I say therefore first of all That Devotion is no Enemy to Joy it suffers us to distinguish betwixt innocent and sinful Pleasures it is neither fierce nor brutish It ought to be courteous civil sweet and modest It flies softness nor does it invest it self with flowers yet it affects not to appear beset with Thorns nor habilimented with Prickles In short 't is not necessary That a faithful person to be sincerely devout should nourish in himself a pensive and lumpish melancholy On the contrary Piety is all gay and free The Heart of the righteous man is a continual Feast Our Lord Jesus would not have us affect a gloomy Visage or an abased Air he commands us even when we fast and are mortifying our selves to anoint our Heads when we must be seen by men that we may avoid Ostentation in our Piety To know what are innocent Pleasures we are to disâ—nguish with exactness and make a short but general Review over all sorts of Pleasures First all the Pleasures are either of the Mind or of the Senses Among the Senses some are more visible yed to matter others are more disengaged from them Of the first order are the Taste and Touch Of the latter he Sight
tasts it's chief Pleasure And if we please we may call this chief Pleasure the chief Happiness of man But men are terribly chows'd herein They are persuaded that the Soul is not capable of any true Pleasure without it be what comes from the Body Among men generally a spiritual pleasure and a chimerical pleasure are all one All those who make their felicity to consist in Contemplation and in Actions intirely removed from those which make up carnal pleasure pass in the World for visionary wights this Errour springs from the Heart and Senses And therefore I say that in the Judgment we ought to have of pleasures and in the choice we ought to make thereof we are not to consult either our Senses or our Heart This mistake I say is caused by the Heart and Senses because they believe nothing agreeable but what is agreeable to them We judge things good or evil only according to the relation they have to the Faculties whereunto they raise either pleasure or Pain And therefore the Heart and Senses which are corporeal cannot be touch'd by spiritual things They judge these cannot be agreeable because they are sensible of no Pleasure in them Just as a blind man if he would judge according to the report of his Senses undoubtedly he would judge that there are no colours or if there were they could not make any Impression upon his Senses This is then an Imposture which we must lay open and disperse First of all we ought to remember that Man is made up of two parts the Soul and Body Each of these parts hath it's separate and distinct Goods The Goods of the Mind are spiritual and those of the Body necessarily corporeal Of these two parts the Soul is infinitely the more excellent From this Man is properly denominated and the Body is but a Retainer to him so that consequently the Goods and Pleasures which belong to the Soul by its self are infinitely greater than those which come by the interposition of the Body Lastly 't is very easie to comprehend why the Senses and the Heart indge otherwise These being bodily Faculties we need not wonder they hold clearly for bodily things As for the Senses this is without dispute they are corporeal both in their Organs and in their Operations they perceive only the Superficies of Bodies This is no less true of the Heart it is corporeal too for I understand by the Heart the seat of the Passions and the Imagination 't is very evident that both these Faculties are bodily Faculties For the Imagination is the feat wherein are represented those Images that come from the Senses and offer themselves to our Mind in the absence of Objects The Passions also are corporeal because they are formed by Mechanical Movements This is manifest by those Characters they impress upon the Body as the motion of the Blood quick slow or precipitate Paleness or Ruddiness of Complexion the Fire and languishing which they impress upon the eyes The Senses and Heart which are corporeal being the Gates whereat Objects do enter and accost the mind bring nothing to it but bodily Images and raise in it only sensual Pleasures and the Soul hereby gets an habit of believing there are no other Pleasures besides these since it does not endeavour to disingage it self from the Body and to taste others But can it be possible we should be such enemies to our selves and so irrational as to believe our Senses touching a thing of so great Importance The Senses are unable to know the thousandth part of Bodies As soon as ever a Body ceases to have a considerable Extension we cease to see and feel it and would we make these very Senses to be judges of things absolutely Spiritual Certainly the Soul is very unhappy and very much a Slave if it cannot taste that Pleasure which is its sovereign Felicity but it must be beholden to the Body for it If Matter be the Spring of true Pleasure what do those Souls do I wonder that are separated from Matter what must be the Beatitude of Angels that have no Body Is it not true that their Pleasures ought to be as far above ours as Minds are above Matter Assuredly spiritual Pleasures spring from the knowledge of Truth from the practise of Virtue from our union with God by the tyes of Love and from that Action whereby God unites himself immediately to our Soul All this is intirely above the Senses they are not acquainted with Truth for their Office is to report the Appearances of Bodies They cannot judge of Virtue it is not under their Jurisdiction much less can they judge of that Union betwixt God and the Soul And yet although they make no report to us about any of these things we are not nevertheless to doubt of the real Impressions they make upon our Souls But from whence comes it say some that spiritual Pleasures are not so touching and make not such strong Impressions upon the Soul as bodily ones doe For you see not say they your devout People in those Transports of Joy and Pleasure as we see men have in the injoyment of Sensual Pleasures Is not this a proof that those intellectual pleasures are merely imaginary or at least that they are very weak and languishing This difficulty arises from that men know not how to distinguish the Soul from the body they believe it is concern'd in proportion to the greatness of the agitations of the Bodily Organs They are persuaded that it cannot receive an impression of Joy but by the interposal of these great corporeal motions But the thing is far otherwise 't is certain that in the great Pleasures which the Soul receives from the Body the great corporeal Agitations re'ncounter one another and it receives not those pleasures but by favour of these agitations and because the Bloud and Spirits are in a great heat and ferment But the Pleasures of holy Persons which are lock'd up in the Soul it self and which exert no external Characters do not fail to make very powerful Impression These Pleasures are so great and so touching that they carry the Soul out of the World And the Joy which springs from the possession of God from the Knowledge of his Truth and the imitation of his Vertues and Attributes must needs infinitely transcend all the pleasures of the Body Since that for these spiritual pleasures we not only renounce bodily ones but also expose our selves to all even the most sensible pains True it is the more the Soul is accustomed to let its self be moved by the Agitations which do cause corporeal Pleasures and Passions the more is it uncapable of tasting Internal joys and spiritual Pleasures And this is one of the greatest mischiefs that spring from the continual use of sensuality the Soul waxeth fat as the holy Ghost speaketh the heart of the Wicked is fat as grease he hath prophaned the Rock of his Salvation It covers its self as it were with
the love with which we love God and that by which we are beloved of him By this Love he is in us and we are in him because Love makes a transfusion of Hearts and the Soul is more in the Subject which it loves than in that which it animates As to the pleasures which spring from this union it is of the number of those things which cannot be conceiv'd without they be felt 'T is such that all the Pleasures of the World appear unsavoury to them that taste it 'T is so great as it hath often made the Saints to fall down who have been extraordinarily touch'd with its holy Extasies and Ravishments which seem'd to have entirely broke the Alliance betwixt the Body and the Soul Now without question it is that Devotion contributes and leads to this Pleasure It diminishes our union with sensual things disunites us from our Body lifts us up to God purifies our Souls in drawing nigh to him makes them partake of the Beams of that great Sun of righteousness and renders them as so many little Gods by communicating with the Glory of our great God Meditation NO wonder thou seekest Pleasure O my Soul thou seekest thy Good thou seekest what thou hast lost thou seekest what was given thee what thou once hadst and what thou shouldest have still hadst thou continued innocent Thy God created thee righteous and holy This holiness was the bond of his union with thee thou wert separated from him when thou becamest sinfull and thorough this separation thou hast continued void and deprived of Pleasure and Happiness Every where thou seekest the Good thou hast lost but blind as thou art thou catchest at Shadows for real Bodies Thou wanderest upon different Objects and if thou findest any one that flatters thee straightway thou embracest it with ardour as if thou hadst found that which thou hast lost and seekest for Thou disabusest thy self in a little time but it is to fall into an other Errour After having tasted bodily Pleasure thou perceivest that this is not the infinite Pleasure thou searchest after This Object being quitted thou dost cast thy self upon another thou Embracest this too and every day thou delightest to be fed with new and new Illusions Leave off O my heart leave off rambling and running after these Fantoms Be not decieved by thy Senses and Imagination Embrace thy God 't is to him alone thou owest this general Inclination which makes thee to love Felicity and Pleasure but thy blinded Eyes make thee love false Gods and fix themselves upon false Pleasures If thou wert not profoundly blind thou could'st not doubt that God is infinite that he is infinitely good and infinitely better than all the Creatures Thou could'st not also doubt but the pleasure which comes from Union with him and the Possession of him is infinitely greater than all the Pleasures of the World besides If the created Goods be so sweet how agreeable must the increated Good be The Good which is the Creator of all Goods the Good which comprehends the pleasure of all other Goods the Good which displays those Delights in our Hearts that are as far above all Pleasures as he himself is eminent above all Goods Herein thou art incredulous O my Soul because thou hast not relish'd the sweetness which springs from being united with God thou canst not believe them thou say'st with Thomas Except I should see except I touch and feel those Delights I will not believe Ah! how happy and blest is he who has believ'd before he hath seen who has overcome all the temptations of the Flesh and has desired to taste those divine Pleasures before he tasted them But that Person is incomparably more happy that hath believed and hath seen that hath tasted those Delights and felt those Pleasures which surpass all understanding which spring from the intimate presence of God If thou hast not yet been able O my Soul to feel such spiritual Pleasures the reason is thy God could not yet apply himself immediately to thee because of the Impurity wherewith thou art cover'd and defiled â—or his Eyes are pure they cannot behold Iniquity he is Purity and Light it self and thou art enwrapt in a dark Cloud of Ignorance and Unrighteousness How then could God joyn himself immediately to thee Therefore take away thy Veil this Wall of Separation cure thy own ignorances seek after the Knowledge of thy God and his Mysteries purifie thy self â—et rid of those ill Habits of Vice which â—â—rround thee like a Garment and thy God will invest thee with a Robe of Light and â—hen shalt thou perceive that the applying â—ensible Objects to thy faculties is not capable of raising in thee that Sense of Pleasure which thou mayst receive from God Then â—ilt thou have a perfect disgust to those vain Pleasures thou wilt wish to see thy God 〈◊〉 know him to embrace him that thou â—ayst be united to him Prayer O Father of Lights inexhaustible spring of Pleasure and Joy insinuate thy self into all the Faculties of my Soul fill up the emptiness of my desires and that vast extension of my Heart and make me to feel that Joy which thou communicatest to thy Saints and Favorites Vnto thee I discover my wants I confess my Nothing I languish after thee my True Good Without thee O Lord I should be the most miserable of all Creatures I should be plunged into an Abyss of Grief and Despair I should feel nothing but horror and anguish Thou comfortest me in this Valley of Tears thou feedest me with the bread of angels and makest me drink of thy Pleasures as out of a River The World is not acquainted with these delights the meats of thy Table to it are insipid it tastes nothing but the Flesh-pots of Egypt and knows not what iâ— the Honey of the Land of Promise I know it O my God but I do not know so as I would and ought to know I have learn'd of thy Saints that when thou speakest to thy children in their hearts this Sentiment is sweeter than Honey and the Honey-comb and that more pleasure is to be found in possessing thee than the covetous find in having the greatest abundance of Gold and Silver But alas my Soul hath not yet felt those divine Transports I begin to perceive that earthly Pleasures are uncapable of satisfying that hunger and thirst after pleasure and happiness whereof I labour but I have not as yet perfectly learn'd that thou alone art capable of quenching that thirst Taste and see how gracious the Lord is I taste thee as I see thee I see thee but imperfectly and as in a Glass I taste thee as covered from me Over thee indeed are no involving incumbrances for thou art all pure and single and whosoever is pure may taste thee purely But the veil is in my Flesh or rather it is my Flesh it self it is my corruption that separates me from thee Come therefore Lord Jesus come thou
creating Spirit and Creator of Spirits create in me a new Heart and renew a right Spirit within me that my Soul may be filled with thy Delights and I may taste all the sweetness of thy Love Thirsty I am after Pleasure open thy Fountain of eternal Pleasures and let thy Rivers fâ—â—w into my Soul Kiss me with the kisses of thy Mouth for thy Love is better than Wine Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at noon For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the â—â—â—ks of thy companions Why should my Soul â—ander amidst the vain Pleasures of the World and why should it bring to thee so many false Goods for companions Let me retire under thy shadow embrace adore love thee only and taste no Pleasure but what is in thee Draw me therefore that I may run after thee draw near to me that I may be able to draw near to thee Prevent me by thy Grace by thy Mercy and by the bowels of thy Compassion stirred up for a prodigaland rambling Son who seeks but cannot find thee Awake O North-wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Let my beloved come into his Garden and eat his pleasant Fruits O Holy Spirit thou South-wind the Father of Heat Author of Generation Source of Love and Charity blow upon the Powers of my Soul which are as a Desart make them an Eden a Garden of the Almighty make odoriferous Plants to grow there produce there Habits and Works of a sweet odour so as my heavenly Saviour the beloved of my Soul may come and taste the sweetness of those Fruits that he may delight in me and I in him and that we may eternally taste all those Pleasures the products of a mutual Love CHAP. VI. That young People have no Priviledge to use sensual Pleasures nor to dispence themselves from Devotion ONE Reflection is still behind which we are obliged to make before we leave this Important Subject we having done nothing yet in regard to young People They persuade ' emselves it may be that whatever hath bin say'd does not concern them it is almost impossible to deliver them from this Errour That Pleasure is peculiarly their share and that without Tyranny we cannot deny it them To them Indevotion is natural and they reckon it a particular Honour We should make fine work of it say they to 〈◊〉 Bigots at these years they fancy that Modesty Wisdom Sobriety and Temperance are not proper for them 't is the business of old Men say they we must not make our selves ridiculous by turning Cato's and Seneca's And indeed if any one of them has more happy Inclinations he is asham'd he dissembles 'em he follows the Crowd They tell him to every thing under the Heaven there is a time In considering old and young men we can never believe say they that Persons so different are destin'd to the same Actions The wrinkled forehead of old Age the paleness of it's Complexion hollow Eyes chap-fallen Mouth and Limbs all trembling have a correspondence with the Duties of Repentance and it 's fit that they pour forth Tears and give themselves up to Mortification But the good disposition and plumpness of Youth that flourish of Blood that displays it's self upon the Complexion lively and sparkling Eyes Seâ—ses eager and capable to be toucht by their Objects very manifestly shew that this age is born for pleasures and all manner of Joy Thus it is they flatter and hug themselves in their security Not only young People talk at this rate but most part of mankind agree with them in it I cannot deny but that the extravagancies and disorders of conduct in the life of an old man impress much greater marks of infamy than the debauches of the younger sort I must confess also that the disorders of old age discover a greater depth of Corruption It cannot cast it's faults upon the first boylings of the Blood which hath much filth and scum It cannot take the default of Experience for excuse and in short it breaks the barriers of a shame much greater than that which follows the crimes of Youth But nevertheless God will not judge men according to humane Rules and the Sentiments of the World there is no Age that has receiv'd a dispensation from obeying God All the violaters of his Law shall be punisht since his Commandments are given to all and if so be the difference of Age put a diversity in sins in respect of Punishment this would only in the upshot go upon the More and the Less But what will that result to seeing in a word even the less unhappy must have their share in Eternal fires and the Worm that never dyeth Why should young people be less obliged to Devotion Has God given them less On the contrary they as well as old men have received of God their Being and Reason but farther they have vigour of Body force of Wit Health Youth and the flower of Age. Assuredly these are particular Obligations to devote themselves to God All these advantages they have not receiv'd to consecrate them to the Devil of Lust and Voluptuousness Is any thing too good for God They design for him a tatter'd body ' putrified Lungs gloomy Eyes and dry Members In truth God will be mightily oblig'd to them they would give him the bottom Lees of their years and consecrate to him that Age which is the sink of Life and the Center of all Miseries that is to say they would give him what the World has cast off they act like covetous men who are only liberal when they are dying they give what they can retain no more Believe me all the very best we have is not goo good for our God Heretofore he would not have Victimes that had any fault that were ill or in no good case or that had lost any part of the Body Do we believe he will be pleas'd to accept the Sacrifices of a spent and wasted heart and a man who is only the shadow of what he was once â—exhort you that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice But young People that take up the resolution of being devout when they can be no longer sinners promise God their dead and as it were corrupted Bodies for in old age Bodies are like Phantoms and come near to the nature of Carkasses God has thought nothing too good for us he has given himself for us he who is the sovereign good has given us his Son he devoted him to death for us in the flower of his age and it is just that we be devoted to his service in all our Ages God is not satisfied with these promises of futurity I will give thee He would have us speak in the present tense I do give thee as he does himself in speaking to us I give you my Peace He is called He who is was and is to come So that
flesh and bloud and tastes nothing but what flatters this Flesh and Bloud And therefore among sensual Pleasures there are permitted our Devout Person only those which are moderate The Senses love to receive strong impressions of Objects provided there be no wound in the case the imagination loves also to be powerfully moved But all these emotions make such mighty impressions upon the Soul as it hardly can come to it self again And therefore they ought carefully to be avoided But if we would have more sensible proofs that the heart the passions and the senses are not to be consulted about the choice of Pleasures let us hear experience and cast an eye upon the disorders of the world Such are the consequences of this blindness in men who follow their own heart and senses in the choice of Goods and Pleasures Why did the first Woman lay hold on the forbidden fruit because it was good and pleasant to the eye she hearkened to her Heart and Senses How did corruption arise to that high pitch in the World that it forced God's Justice to bring upon it a terrible Deiuge Because the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair they stopt their Ears to the voice of God which call'd upon them they heark'ned to the sollicitations of their own sensual heart they took them Wives of all which they chose and corrupted themselves with them Did not David commit Adultery and Murder in a little time because he gave ear to his senses and heart and let his passions seduce him did not Solomon become an Idolater because his sinful love for Women having blinded his eyes separated him from God and stopt the Ears of his Soul so as his mind heard only the voice of his Passions and his Senses Lastly did not St. Peter deny his Lord and Master for that his heart his senses his imagination made him see present Death in an affrightful posture and he consulted neither God nor his own reason We seem here to blend and confound Innocence with Sin in speaking of our Heart and our Senses as common Sources of our errours Since that the Senses may seem rather to be unhappy and unfortunate than Criminal and Sinful True the Senses are subject to two unhappinesses The first is to be forced to receive Objects which are sinful and capable of transferring Images of corruption to the Heart such are evil Examples scandalous Actions and Words The other misfortune of the Senses is that they take in innocent Objects and sometimes in an innocent manner and these Images do spoyl and corrupt themselves in the Heart Nevertheless I think we ought not to separate the Senses from the Heart they make but one and the same thing This is a Match at the end of which lies a great heap of Gun-powder The Hear and the Imagination are the inward extremity of this Match they are the Magazine of Powder The Senses are the other end to which the Objects set fire This Fire slides or rather it flies along the Match It enkindles the Imagination and puts the Heart into a flame And therefore the holy Spirit puts for the same thing To walk in the ways of ones heart and in the sight of ones Eyes In short if we would be perfectly assured that our Heart and Senses are evil Counsellors in this affair hear what the holy Scripture saith it considers our Heart as the root of all our Evils Every imagination of the thoughts of Man's heart is only evil continually The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Witness Blasphemies These are the things which defile a Man The holy Ghost represents the Heart to us as blind wrapt up in a thick Cloud and profound darkness it speaks of it as of a kind of Death it is of the Earth it is carnal How then canan Heart thus composed and fram'd judge of the true Goods and Pleasures How can there come any thing good from a poysoned Spring And thus we see that the Wife man puts this Maxime among the members of those we are to detest and abominate Walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes I should end here were it unnecessary to take off one Scandal that may be taken at what we have said that sensual Pleasure is a Good and even a Good for the Soul For in a word if the Soul be that not only which perceives and which tastes Pleasure and if Pleasure be a Good 't is a Good of the Soul If it be a good then some will say we are to seek and love it It 's not sufficient to answer that this is a Good of the Body only that is not absolutly true 't is in some sort the good of the Soul because the Soul tastes it Further if this Good were only for the Body yet it does not follow it should therefore be of necessity unlawful since we are not always forbidden to seek the Good of the Body But we ought not only to consider a thing in its self to know whether it be good or bad we must consider it in its causes and its effects in what precedes it what may be the consequence of it I mean that the Pleasure which comes to the Soul by the Body is a sort of Good considered in it self Look upon its Source and see to what it produces The Source is Sin is Impurity is Rebellion against the law of our Creator What it produces is a disunion between God and our Soul 't is a pawning our selves to Death 't is the pain of everlasting burnings How can we under the Idea of a Good conceive a thing which is incompast about by so many moral Impurities and such real Mischiefs If therefore bodily Pleasure can be called a Good with respect to the present sentiment of the Soul it 's an Evil in all other regards it 's an Evil to speak Absolutely and therefore the wifest men of all Ages have plac'd it among the false Goods for a true Good ought to be good on every side we view it The Soul then has no true Pleasure but what arises from its union with God And this union is fortified according to the measure that we loosen our selves from sensible things and are united to God by the knowledge of his Truth Not of those Verities which Philosophy seeks after and never finds with any certainty but of those Divine truths which Faith discovers to us of those wholsome Verities which are the Candle of the Soul Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet and a light to my Paths It enlightens the Eyes and makes wise the simple The second Bond whereby we are united to God is Virtue the Practice of which renders us like to our Creator renews his Image in us and makes us to be the Copies of that Beauty whereof he 's the original the third cord is
quell and take our Heart lower till we have brought it to its Duty we are to read meditate pray let it be never so much against the Grain Although the Devil comes to fill your Mind with evil thoughts says St. Basil you ought not therefore to abandon the use of Prayer you are to make new and greater Endeavours You must pray to God he would be pleas'd to break this thick Wall of vain thoughts which separates you from him you must beseech him that your Soul may be able soon to get to him without being retarded by meeting vain and evil Objects And if the Enemy should come even with a plentiful supply of Distractions yet you are not to give back nor lose any Courage nor renounce Victory in the midst of the Combate You must persevere till God perceiving your Constancy come to fill you with the light of his Spirit put the Enemy to flight purifie your Understanding and furnish your Reason with a divine Light whereby your Soul being put into the Possession of a Tranquillity exempt from Troubles may serve God with a perfect Joy This holy Person insinuates a Reason to us which we ought to remember in the design of Perseverance which is That the Devil never leaves off tempting us therefore we are not to leave off resisting him our resistance doth not make him give back so that we must not be foiled by his Temptations God who is the Spectator of our Warfare and the Rewarder of our Labours will with Pleasure see the faithful Soul in conflict with it's Infirmities and Distractions and when it is well nigh being subdued will come at length and lend it his helping hand Perseverance is a vertue of such great use that we owe to it the best works of Nature of Art and of Grace If God had left the World imperfect instead of a Miracle he had made a Prodigy There are particularly certain works to which the last-hand is so essential that if we do not conclude them what had been begun doth intirely perish If you leave a Picture after its first rough-drawing and design these beginnings will not cease subsisting upon the cloath but if you carry a wheel half way upon an hill and then leave it to it self for a moment why presently it will get to the Valley's bottom again and your labour will not only be imperfect but will come just to nothing Devotion is of this last sort of things if you leave it half done what you had done will soon perish 'T is Penelope's web what is done by day is undone by night If thy life be not a perpetual day and if thou dost not incessantly toil to advance thy Piety by Practice one night only form'd by the darkness of Indevotion and the absence of Gods Grace will ruine the work of many years and one minute of laziness will destroy that which Courage upheld a long time had produced Thy Devotion O Christian Soul is no more than a spark Nourish this sacred fire preciously blow it without remission gather combustible matter to it from all sides make thee a treasure of good things turn oft towards Jesus Christ thy Sun and thy Star and this small sparkle will become a great fire and this fire will cause a kindling and that kindling will cast up flames and those flames will lift thee to Heaven But if thou neglect this spark it will go quite out Sampson delivers himself up into the arms of Dalilah he sleeps in her breast his hair is shav'd which is the seat of his strength and when the awakes he goes according to custom to take away the gates of Gath and break the cords of the Philistines but he doth not find himself the same Sampson So the Christian that is weakned by a non-assiduity to Devotion sleeps in the arms of Pleasure his Soul is enervated he thinks to return to his old wont of having commere with God but the Devil attacks and overthrows him by a load of evil thoughts under which his Devotion lyes bound as by so many Chains If the Heavens should stop only for a day perhaps there would follow a general slaughter and subversion of Nature and much more without doubt the inferior things would receive a considerable damage When the superior part of our Soul stops its divine motions we cannot question but that a great disorder arises in the lower part for the passions which would ever be the masters do manage wisely these moments of Relaxation to prepare a Revolt So that our Piety and Devotion must have the constancy swiftness and order of the heavenly motions so as this little World may be always in a good Estate Nothing should hinder or interrupt the course of Devotion You see Daniel all the terrours of Death could not stop him in his divine race He must be cast into the den of Lions if he invokes God yet this hinders him not from falling down at his set hours towards Jerusalem the holy City Above all let us be far from the way of the World that runs to its own affairs as if they were the most pressing Let us give to God preserably what belongs to him and let us be at no farther trouble for the rest 'T is said of the Serpent that he secures his head when he is pursued and exposes his body if he can't save it The hours consecrated to Devotion are the head of our life and 't is an holy prudence not to expose them but to draw them out of Danger least the Devil and the World devour them In short persevering is far better than violent Devotion 't is much better to go a little pace but to be going always that to run impetuous yet interrupted races Some are devout only by fits for a day nothing more ardent more humble more mov'd but on the morrow so well dryed up in the torrent of their Tears that you can't see so much as the tracks of ' em The ardency of this fever is so extremely well quench'd as the least heat is not to be found A constant mediocrity is preferable before these Excesses of a small Duration Not that I think it not very necessary that Devotion have its Festivals and labour extraordinarily to rewaken it self on certain dayes and times These are the Extraordinaries of Piety to which we are to return as frequently as we can and mainly never to want it at times destin'd to pious Uses and Works as the participation of the blessed Sacrament of our Lord's Body and Blood But beside these Extraordinaries I would have the Soul have it's ordinary course well regulated and if that cannot be done always with those great motions as it were to be wisht yet that it never fall in the least in the Respites and Intermissions Meditation HAve not I great reason to faint and despair of success in all my designs if I do but consider the greatness of the Undertakings the difficulties to be met withal therein and the
my bed Come and honour me with thy presenceduring the absence of all other Objects that I may possess thee only and nothing may rob my Soul of thee Cause the sweetness of this rejoycing to display an heavenly fire in my Eyes and an holy gayety over my Countenance which may accompany me all ways and defend me from those many troubles and vexations whereunto I am exposed Let me lye down aâ— night as in thy bosom and let me cast my self betwixt thâ— arms that I may be afraid of nothing which is ghastâ—â— or terrible in Darkness CHAP. VII The second particular Help Solitude and Religious Aâ—semblies WE cannot but own with a great earnestned of mind that Devotion requires Solitudy We have our Master's word and decisiâ—â— in the case When thou goest to pray sayes he enter in thy closet Very strange Prayers were those of the Phyrisees that prayed in the corners of Streets or in tâ—â— Market-places Our Lord Christ had good ground 〈◊〉 indict them of Hypocrisie Solitude is necessary 〈◊〉 only to avoid that Pomp and Parade which God 〈◊〉 much detests in all things and especially in Devotioâ— but also to make our Prayer more pure and perfeâ— How should the Soul I wonder be recollected into it self if a thousand Objects lay hold on the Senses and draw it abroad We must therefore be in such a place where we need not defend it against the Assaults which sensual Objects make upon it Let us retire never so far from the World we shall be sure to carry enough of the World along with us and the Images of its Objects will persecute us sufficiently without being voluntarily exposed to the persecution of the Objects themselves Yes the Commerces of the faithful Soul with its God require a secret retiral Our Lord is its Beloved who casts not his Favours upon the Crowd and exposes them not to the sight of men as St. Bernard sayes He loves Shadow and Retreat And therefore the Spouse will not let him go whom her Soul loveth until she has brought him into her Mothers house and into her closet If we have a design to do any thing wherein is need of Application we seek a Retreat that we may not be distracted We are therefore to seek it for Devotion since nothing in the World asks a more fix'd Consideration Far from all Witnesses must the truly Devout Person be to be intirely Free in all respects Devotion has its Actions and its Words it impresses its transports and motions upon the Soul â—nd the Body frequently may have its too so that it should not be expos'd to the view of men who make so ill Judgments thereof If these Reasons have need of being upheld by Examples we have that of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom the Mountains did not seem secret or solitary enough since he added to them the darkness of the Night That of Daniel who shut the door of his Chamber to pray That of St. Peter who went upon the House-top to perform his Devotions But this Subject is so little disputed and indeed so little disputable as we need not dwell upon it longer The necessity of Solitariness for Devotion may give â—â—s more extensive Prospects There have been many great men and I would believe many great Saints who have thought Devotion and Solitude were so inseparable as that not only the truly devout were to set aside some hours of Retreat but their whole Life ought to be consecrated to it And 't was this Sentiment which sometime peopled the Desarts of Thebes and of Syria with so many Anchorites They fled the World to lift up their Souls more easily to God and to acquire an habit of more pure and ardent Devotion And hence perhaps might come the very name of Devotion which is deriv'd from vowing ones self to a thing because those Christians by a Vow in a particular manner consecrated themselves to God 'T is a matter extremely difficult to pronounce upon this sort of Life I would not condemn all those that follow it I do not doubt but many were led by the Spirit into the Wilderness as our Saviour was but I dare boldly say that this Estate is subject to as great Temptations as a worldly life is In my opinion it 's very much to presume on one's own Strength to go and lye exposed to the strokes of an Enemy so potent as the Devil In Society if one falls another helps him up again but in the Wilderness he must sustain himself he must stand upon his own bottom he must be his own Pastor Guide and Director of Conscience and he that believes he has Light enough to furnish for all these Duties hath too high an opinion of himself I would speak here nothing more forcible against this way of living than what St. Basil himself a great Lover and Admirer of the Monastic Life hath writ thereon He believes that that sort of Life is no more charitable than it is prudent They have either need of succour themselves or they are in a condition to give it to others If they stand in need themselves 't is an imprndence to be confined in a place where they can receive none If they can afford it to others this is to want Charity and to rob Society of what might be useful to it And with good reason he sayes that this is to deprive ones self of the Hope to hear one day those words from our Lord's Mouth Thou gavest meat to him that was an hungred drink to him that was thirsty thou clothedst him that was naked and visitedst him that was in Prison In short I fear the Remark of this Father in the same place is not over true that this Life so far out of the path of Humility is not a Stair-case to Pride for these men comparing themselves to themselves as St. Paul speaks and seeing nothing more accomplisht than themselves persuade themselves they are Perfect Every one sees himself too near to know himself well and does not know himself thoroughly enough to correct himself and therefore an Anchoret who uses not the eyes of another to examin himself le ts many sins without doubt escape him to which Judges more severe than we are to our selves would not have done that favour To be brief I have said that so far is this kind of living from any great use to Devotion as I believe 't is an impediment to it because it is depriv'd of exercising the Works of Mercy which are so necessary A man in the Desart hath his distractions and if he have not a Soul of an extraordinary temper 't is to be fear'd they are more dangerous than those met withall in the World A mind abandon'd without any Guide makes oftentimes strange slips The wide World and a narrow Lowliness are most assuredly two very dangerous Extremities There is need of extraordinary Grace to thrive well in either Conditions so that those who have receiv'd indifferent Gifts from Heaven