Nature many times effects that what is harsh to one is gustfull to another and will grace be less operative The longings of women make them couet ridiculous extravagancies coales clay mortar and to loth meats exquisitely seasond and that which happens so obviously to a womanish indisposition shal it be thought impossible to divine healthfulnes A corrupt and queasy stomack rules the appetite and shal a sound and masculine mind have less or no sway over the wil Be not then frighted o dejected creature with what thou hearest of a spiritual life for it is not at all troublesome or noysome although it necessarily imbrace al troublesome and noysome things Let not an empty name or conceyt terrify thee be but confident and accoast them and thou shalt frighten the very difficulties themselves Some relate of certain enchanted treasures which are in the custody of terrifying ghosts and sprits but if any one be so resolutely hardy as contemning those phantasmes to assaile them they are presently put to flight and vanish to nothing in such sort that they appear no more but permit the accoaster to enjoy those riches in all peace and security Nothing more is requisite to effect this but courage and resolution Be but valiant in purchasing these spiritual treasures and all those bugbeares of pretended difficulties wil suddainly disapear Set upon them undauntedly and thou shalt enjoy without any great plains-taking the hidden manna of a spiritual life Bees work hony shelterd under the homely roof of a rough-cast hive The IV Chapter How Truth is made manifest by faith and of the fruit and practise of this vertue HE walks in falshood and forgery not in truth nor spirit who takes not faith for his path and guide Truth dwels very remote from sense This heavenly flower growes not in our gardens it is not nourished with flesh and blood it is not to be found amidst the dung of our muddy and material substances We are at al turnes cheated in corporal goods even those which we behold with our eyes and fingar with our hands A whole oare in the water seems broken a square tower to one that stands at a great distance seems round the very light of the sun which is al the faith our eyes are endowd with cozens them oftentimes by representing colours that are not existent and how then shal we avoid being misled in the affaires of our soul which we see not and in spiritual and divine things which are so much above our reach and capacity All the race of mankind was grown quite blind through the night of errour like one shut up in a dark dungeon without either window or chink to let in the least glimmering of light The learneder sort of Philosophers were of opinion we knew no more then what we knew was false or rather that we knew only this one truth that we knew nothing at all and they were so swoln and puffd up with vanity that none but heaven could give an allaying remedy One among them did think that the master of truth was to be some Son of a God Behold now o thou Son of the highest o thou eternal Truth behold o thou wisdome of thy father thou didst descend from heaven o light of the world to illuminate it to teach us truth and why do not men make more account of so great a benefit why doe they contemne this blessing of faith What imports it to believe truth if we our selves practise falshood saving truth is good works and the true word the deed of the word The word of God became flesh that the work of man might become truth because the Truth of God is become operative All is mere falshood and vanity which is not according to the doctrine of IESVS why doe we neglect the practise of this great blessing contenting our selves with a dead kind of faith We should reap great advantage from our faith if we knew how to use it and work as we ought according to its prescript greater then if we beheld those things it affirmes with our eyes All by faith believe true things but they ought also to believe truly which all seem not to do If thou believe o malepert soul what Christ taught work accordingly If it be true that it behooud IESVS to suffer and so to enter into his glory if it be true that God ordaines all for the good of the just why art thou afflicted at some trivial crosses and calamities Why dost thou account them losses which when they are patiently taken faith teacheth us to be the soules greatest enrichment If thou believe this to be true as in very truth it is thou oughtest rather to rejoyce and comfort thy self If thou shouldst behold some one of the H. Prophets with thy corporal eyes as David or S. Iohn Baptist if thou shouldst see one raised from death or an Angel from heaven who were to tell thee from Almighty God that his will is that thou beare this cross patiently because it will be for thy greater good and no little gain would it not suffice to make thee refrain from all impatience nay would it not replenish thee with such joy as siezd the Apostles when they went away rejoycing because they were made worthy to suffer reproaches for the name of IESVS And why dost thou not now do the same Thou oughtest not to esteem that miraculous message as infallible as a matter of faith for in that case one might lawfully somtimes entertain a doubt since the evil spirit might delude him or he himself be deluded in his senses Therfore if this truth as matter of faith be more certain then if an Angel had teveald it from heaven why ought it to be less perswasive Our manner of working followes the certitude of our knowledg and the judgment we frame of a thing and proportionable to this knowledg must needs be the excellency of our operation Wherfore whosoever desires to walk in truth let him square the actions and paths of his life according to the model of his faith believing not onely true things but after a true manner least he become ridiculous to the Angels and joynt-sectary with the Divels who are all solifidians their beliefe being barren of works What availes it to know the way to heaven if we doe not walk it The wicked spirits know it better then we and nevertheles because they stand stil and advance not they are divels Tel me who is in a better condition thou that wilt not doe good or the divels that cannot It is all one in most things not to have a will and to be impotent yea it is more damnable and reproachful to thee who wilt not when thou mayst The divels believe and tremble I wish thou when thou believest wert possessd with a just fear Why dost thou not tremble at the judgments of God considering their certainty and the uncertainty of thy own condition either to eternal punishment or joy what is the reason
to aym at nothing more then mortification pennance fasting prayer carrying our cross this through the course of our whole life he wil soon discover him no sectarist who dares scarse so much as talk of these things much les teach or practise them but a Roman Catholique who alone owns them both in doctrin practise as the chief meanes to Christian perfection Nor wil any body think I be so inconsiderately over-byassd as to take any prejudice by these expressions o infirm spirit pusillanimous spirit which here and there he 'l meet with T is true by the abuse of this our age they sound not so wel with us through the default of those who have renderd both them and themselves ridiculous yet the words like wine are good enough nor any more then that for the sophistication or abuse of some to be mislikd consider also that the Authour is a forraigner with whom they carry no such note nor did I deem it necessary to change them His industry in the compilement of this work seems by his own confession to have been very extraordinary he not sticking to aver that it was the fruit of all his labours the hony-comb of al his studious endeavours while bee-like he suckd from each H. Father Master of Spirit as from so many delicious flowers what he found in them rare and exquisite with these truths maximes as with so many pretious stones he has paved the way to perfection digesting them into that triple path which according to its great masters leads therto to wit purgative illuminative unitive in the first after he has told us what it is to adore God in spirit truth without eyther fanaticisme or duplicity he gives us the lively resentments of a penitent hart while it rock-like struck with the rod of the cross dissolves into the waters of a profound compunction Amidst its sighs and teares he conducts us on towards the second by true fruits of pennance love of God contempt of the world through all the oppositions of self love worldly concerns contrary temptations By degrees he leads us out of the desert of sin into the land of promise and the darknes of Aegypt into the fair sun shine of divine grace and here that light offers himself for guid which illuminates every man coming into this world we know that who ever followes him walks not in darknes For what doth this path aym at but a perfect imitation of his life by a constant treading of those sacred footsteps of vertu which he left deeply imprinted by self-abnegation humility patience meeknes poverty persecution all those which compleat a totall fulfilling of Christian justice perfection That this may be the better accomplishd he spends no les then a whole book to wit the 3. in teaching us how to discharg our duty in order to the aforesaid imitation by a most perfect practical performance of our daily actions And not without good reason since the whole is but the result of all particulars which if perfect the other can scarse suffer any allay he that performes his daily actions perfectly treads a sure path to perfection whosoever aymes at it without this medium shoots at random like a blind archer All these are works of light this according to the Philosopher being productive of heat they dispose wonderfully to the 3. path which leads a soul thus affected to a strait union the true lovers knot with almighty God And whether should such a bird of Paradise so disdaigning earth so enamoured on heaven so wingd with charity fitted for the flight soare but up to the bosome of God himself where nestling as in its center it may say with H. Iob in nidulo meo moriar This is the last complement of a vertuous soul in this life the purchase of its labours and fruition of desires where its activity becomes passive and its task with little Samuel is only to say Loquere Domine quia audit servus tuus nor yet can it be said to be idle For he teaches not a lazy love but operative and masculin a love that loves to be in the sun and dust bearing the heat and weight of the day in carrying its cross and yet wel knowing even in these how still to enjoy its beloved And in this spiritual journey which certainly tends to a Vade in pace and arrives to that peace of God which passes all understanding directs the traveller not through any extraordinary paths or by new and uncouth lights but teaches him to take the roadway of the cross in the broad daylight therof following him who said I am the way and this by a profound contempt of himself as wel as all the things of this world by an entyre mortification of his passions subduement of his wil to the wil of God by a curbing of his appetites mastry over self love command over sense and much more over sensuality and by such steps the truest steps of love and to it assisted by a daily recognition of the divine benefits towards man so unparallelld and inestimable he leads him up the mount of perfection Which journey though it be not performd without great extente of time labour and contradiction yet having once surmounted the difficulty and its top raysd now above all wind and weather in what a peaceful calme doth he find himself few believe this besides those that experience it and therfore it is but lost labour to insist upon it yet I dare say its joyful contentivenes exceeds the gust of the most affecting pleasures the world affords But these are onely the entertainments of choyse soules the perfect I can say to the comfort of all that the work it self affords both effectual helps to perfection and a certaine redress for spiritual maladies in what kind soever they be For the peruser will discover in it a rich mine of heavenly treasures a new dispensatory of celestial recepts antidotes against all the poysons of sin and an Armory of defence to shield him from the assaulting enemy Which though it was writ for himself a Religious man and by its sublimity may seeme proper for that state yet it is of that latitude capacity that even seculars if they be but vertuously disposd to the service of God may plentifully reap benefit by it nor would I wish any body upon this score to harbour a prejudice against it Thus much being sayd of the matter weightynes of his discourse I must now in a word touch also the manner His way of arguing is solid and witty but he has no regard at all to evennes of stile or quaintnes of expression speaking as we say a la negligence as to both like one that study's more what to say then how and this it seems he doth on set purpose For in his Epistle Dedicatory which I omit as needles he gives account of it I write this memorial sayth he in a plain stile and without any
The same royal colour of purple recreates men and exasperates buls this purple truth of God this lustre of sanctity delights those that understand it what makes matter if it offend those that have neithet wit nor braines to conceave it yea this makes more for its commendation Nothing shewes the inestimable worth and comelines of truth more then that it seems worthles and deformed to the wicked Consider but the causes of this their aversion and thou shalt see that they render it much more amiable Of all crosses and afflictions truth seemes the most harsh and burdensome because particular afflictions impugne either one onely pleasure or at least but some few but truth fights them all together and proclames warr at once against all other kind of vices Therfore they hold it the saddest adversary they have and for the same reason think they can revenge themselves no wayes more upon their enemys nor sting them more picquantly then by speaking truth to their disadvantage the reason is because what harme soever one most dreads to himself his passion makes him wish the same to his enemy and because he dreads no kind of evil more then truth therfore he tels all he knowes to his adversarys prejudice and seeks thus to wound him as with so many poysonous darts But these causes of offence are arguments which ought to heighten our love and esteem of truth is not that worthy of all love which hath all vice in such hatred and detestation If thou hadst one potion which would cure thee of all diseases thou wouldst not contemne it for being bitter and distastfull nay thou wouldst prize nothing more highly so truth upon that same score is to be loved and adored although it be even nayld to a cross though voyd of beauty and unhandsome But it is comely of sight and pleasant of tast not deformed but deâ—forme not unwise but the wisdome of God the voyce of truth is sweet and its countenance amiable It hath God for its seasoning it cannot be unsavoury or disgustfull or tainting That which makes God happy must not be noysome neither can it make thee miserable What shall I say God is truth and can he be either more distastfull to thee then gal or not more lovely then light Go to then take the courage to look it in the face to affect it to put thy self under its tuition and patronage This is the main maxime of a spiritual life that as carnal people hate nothing more then truth so those that walk the paths of spirit have nothing in higher esteem or desire What is more dear or useful to an archer then his eyes and what ought to be more desirable to a reasonable man then truth which is the eye of his soule Archers and other creatures also made for the behoof of man if they want their eyes become altogether unserviceable so our whole life without truth proves but a fruitles busines No one of the senses is more delectable then the sight and truth surpasseth all the other facultys of the mind neither is it more pleasing a midst the smiles of prosperity then the frownes of adversity Let us therfore begâ—n with an upright conceit of truth to exclude falshood deeming nothing more delightful nothing more excellent then sincere truth of spirit Most men because they believe not this are apt to grant themselves now and then a little indulgence to nature and self love and the propensions of the flesh though but in petty matters mixing with a most subtle dissimulation and self cozenage forraign comforts that so they may mittigate the austerity which they conceive or fear accompagnies the spirit and not trusting sufficiently to it and God they reserve as yet some reliques of their flesh and will of which they are loath to dispoyle themselves that they may make their retreat thither in time of need not daring by a total self denyal to give themselves entirely to God and the spirit as if some corrosives did attend his intimate familiarity These people deceive themselves for this is not the spirit of truth This spirit is a most simple and transparent thing and therfore that will not be true and genuine which is so confounded and intoxicated The flesh and the spirit are two things so different that they cannot be combind into one simple The spirit of truth ought to be so refind and sincere that it is not enough to dread and abhor all the faigned soothings of the flesh all the pernicious dictamens of worldlings and the forciblest insinuations of self love but one must moreover dispoil ones self of himself and his own soul and renounce totally his own will and all created contentments yea even intellectual and otherwise lawful to seek God alone and in him possess all things The spirit is somewhat more sublime and refind then is the soul the understanding or nature Hear thy Iesus saying God is a spirit and those that adore him must do it in spirit and truth Wherfore that thou mayst adore God as thou oughtest and serve him perfectly in truth of spirit thou must reare thy self above all creatures and created affections and breath after and be enamourd upon the divine truth alone and as one ready to depart out of this world bid adieu to thy self and all creatures adhering by pure charity to our Lord becoming one spirit as S. Paul speaks with God who is truth it self Force thy self from thy self that is from thy vicious stock that thou mayst be engrafted in him sever thy self from thy self that thou mayst be united to thy Creatour loosen thy self from thy self that thou mayst be fastned to the cross of Iesus root thy self out of thy wicked self that thou mayst be implanted in all goodnes fly from thy own nature and thou shalt find a sanctuary in God loose thy self unfaignedly and thou shalt find thy self really The III. Chapter Of Purity of Spirit DO not in any thing o coheyre of Christ become like unto the beasts thou who mayst be one spirit with God thou must resemble them in nothing at all Thou oughtest to tread underfoot all the delights of flesh and nature not reserving any one from a total renunciation One alone is able to marr the rellish of truth one alone wil tarnish the lustre of the spirit Great things are oftentimes over powrd by little ones a smal quantity of vinegar spoyles a whole vessel of the strongest wine a little drop of ink infects and discolours a violl of the fairest water Why wilt thou blemish the candour of truth and noblenes of the spirit with a petty delight so triviall and momentary Why dost thou debase thy self so much below thy sublime condition why wilt thou leave the bosome of God and his sweet embracements to solace thy self with the silly dregs of creatures since thou ought not to descend from the cross of Christ for all the kingdoms of the world O miserly and base-minded man since thou hast already employed
behold with my locks least my Lord be forced to fly from the horrour and nastines of my sins I behold them fetterd with sharp irons and that was my doing But if it were a grateful piece of service which Magdalen did to these feet the torment also which was occasiond by my sins could not be ungrateful I o Lord fastned them my malice was more prevalent towards this then the goodnes of all other creatures The Angels grieve and stand amazed creatures tremble and complain all law disavowes it all right cryes against it my sins alone exacted the death of thy onely begotten Son and compasd it I mâ—ke publique profession of this to the end â— mâ—y have some share in the prayer of IESVS He he it was that prayd for those who crucifyd him Behold me here present I was the chiefe Crucifyer the prime executioner I furnishd his hands putting a hammer in his right and a naile in his left I first of all others gave that hand the dint which transpiered those tender feet O how much more heynous was my offence then theirs who executed only Pilates sentence and the will of the Iewes They being commanded crucified him whom they held no more then a man and a malefactour and one so dis-figurd in his whole countenance by that hideous nights work I have again as much as in me lay crucified him being now glorious who for me was heretofore crucified Which of the Iewes beholding Christ as Saint Stephen beheld him at the right hand of God durst cry out aloud crucify him but I have bin so impudently bold as not only to say it but even more then do it I clear and quit the executioners of Christ they will be confounded in the latter day beholding him glorious whom they treated so ignomiously I seeing him that was crucified for my sake glorious am not confounded but have again crucified him What excuse then shal I be able to pretend O Father as often as I call this to mind considering thy infinite mercy by which thou didst patiently sustain my so great in gratitude I cannot but wish thy exemplary justice upon me I cannot detrect the paines of hell as due to my iniquity supposing the paine were voyd of guilt Shal divine love be les forcible then humane or charity more feeble then concupiscence the love of thee then the love of me If my self love could make me contemne God why cannot the love of God make me throughly dispise my self and debase my self even to hel Again again I imbracingly kiss thy justice punish and revenge upon me thy affronts and just indignation for I who prophaned and violated all thy attributes seeking to destroy them by sin as much as I could do now wish such a penance and remission as would make a ful restitution of all and leave them in their integrity They wil remaine so o Lord if out of thy mercy thou give me thy grace and out of thy justice my due punishment Thy servants Moyses and Paul desird to be anathemâ—tizd for their brethren and I wil become accursed and Anathema for my God and the justice of my God as Christ IESVS was for me That skinner of Alexandria wishd others the joys of paradise but allotted for himself the paines of helfire and surmounted in perfection the great S. Anthony S. Christina chose rather to undergo here unspeakable torments for the relief of the soules in Purgatory then to go immediately to heaven and I to render the justice of God which I have violated undamnifyd ought not to refuse the punishments of hel O if I could imitate my IESVS who when he was unseparable from his heavenly Father stoopt to our misery that he might be acure for us and I unseparable from thy charity would become also accursed and anathematizd to the very pit of hel and even there would â— embrace my IESVS I have two armes the one is humility which I would put under him and unite my self to his Humanity the other and that the right is love and by it I would embrace his Divinity O Father prostrate at the feet of IESVS I beg and beseech of thee for his sake that thou wilt cleanse me from the ordure of my sins I hope for his sake to obtain pardon for whose sake thou couldst not obtain of me to forbear sinning Thy goodnes is greater then my malice and thy crucifyd Christ is prevalently powerful to bend and incline thy goodnes though he prevaile not with me to avert and decline my malice The IX Chapter Of the ardent desire of those that desire God IT is not meet that thou o faintharted spirit have but a faint desire of that which is the chiefest good Grace and nature are sisters and they have the same Autour parent God If thou learnst not of thy IESVS how to frame thy desires who desird so earnestly to suffer for thee that thou mayst be ashamd not to desire most ardently to rejoyce with him learn at least of natural things how thou art to covet heavenly Nature affords no good to any creature unles a strong appetite therof did go before and if there be not such a precedent appetency arising from grace thou shalt never be guifted with any signal vertue Natural things ayme at more then they can attaine to fire when it mounts upward covets nothing more then to reach its element and yet it never can reach its home but yet that excess of desire was requisite to carry it to a higher region A stone when it fals covets to descend even to the hart or center of the earth and yet it remaines on the surface or superficies What a vehement affection is inbred to beasts towards their of spring A cow in the absence of her calf bellowes without end and hastens thither as fast as she can where she thinks to find it The same innate love armes other creatures which are of a more fearful and soft disposition and exasperates and renders them fierce and hardy and this strong desire was necessary to make them break through all difficulties in rearing their young ones Perfect vertue and union with God is a busines ful of opposition and how canst thou overcome this unles thou eagarly and earnestly intend it A natural appetite is a disposition to natural perfection and a great and supernatural appetite disposeth a soul to supernatural perfection and to receive the graces and guifts of God in greater plenty Christ compard those that traffique for the kingdome of heaven to marchants bankers and stiled them happy that hunger and thirst after justice combining in the self-same thing two most vehement appetites There is no stint in desiring to please God there is no other meane nor stint but that one alwayes without all meane and interruption wish and imbrace indefatigably the cross never be satiated with suffering So ought thou to serve God with the whole extent and intensenes of thy mind and all this is very
Men glory in those things of which they ought to be ashamd it lies against all experience in telling them that their riches wil be permanent since they pass through so many hands to come to them who now possess them It holds those things forth for good each one wherof is no less then a triple torment the number of evils and vexations are in such an excess that it affords more then two real afflictions for one seeming happines Ther 's no one thing of all we possess but rackd us with toile and sollicitude how we might compass it and having compasd it we are no les tormented with fear and iealousy of it and when it is lost with grief for its absence and privation O heavenly truth what great God a mercy if I do not covet this meer chaos of deceitfulnes and vexation if I contemn for thy sake a thing so contemptible which were to be contemnd if not for it self at least for my self many heathen Philosophers quitted the world for their own quiet and why shal not a Christian do it for his and thy glory They left it because despicable in it self and why shal not we do it because thou art inestimable and the glory which we hope for invaluable Although the world were good yet it were folly to prefer it before that which containes all good The XI Chapter How Peace is to be obtained THou canst not live wel unles thou dye forthwith and overcome thy nature Thou canst not enjoy peace unles thou make war upon thy self this is the way to purchase true liberty Be readier alwayes to comply with anothers will then thy own thou shalt not know what it is to be at jars love rather to have little then much and thou shalt have no occasion of complaint chuse alwayes the meanest place and to be every ones underling and thou shalt scarse ever be sad have a desire to suffer and undergo somthing for thy IESVS sake and thou shalt think no body burdensome seek God in all things that his will may be fulfilld in thee and thou shalt never be disquieted If thou ought to accommodate thy self rather to anothers wil then thy own why not to the divine wil and rejoyce that it is fulfilld by thee keep these things in thy hart that thou mayst enjoy an uninterrupted peace True tranquillity of mind cannot be obtaind but by a contempt of the world and conquest over our selves This may be done two manner of wayes either by forcing thy self contrary to what seems good and delectable in the world and nature or by knowing them to be nought and weighing all things in the ballance of truth this latter way is the sweeter and more permanent although it must alwayes be accompanyd with a fervorous contradiction of our appetite He nevertheles who in faith and spirit is convined of the verity and vanity that is in things shal with much facility overcome himself and dispise the world Nothing conduceth more to a happy progress then to frame an unbyazd judgment of things and to relish them according to the doctrine of IESVS What hearst thou pronouncd by that most holy mouth of truth it self blessed are the poor of spirit blessed are they that mourn blessed are they that suffer persecution Why wilt thou esteem those things harsh and burdensome which the truth of God held and deliverd for beatitudes how canst thou avoid being deceivd if thou account those things evil which faith teaches us to be good and to render us happy we believe the mystery of the most B. Trinity because Christ reveald it to us the same IESVS also reveald that those things which the world so much abhors poverty sorrow injuries are not bad but good neither is he to be ratherd is believd in this point by him that knowes he taught so then when be teacheth the unity and Trinity of almighty God Let us then make a true estimate of truth and frame our dictamens point blank opposite to worldly maxims O eternal truth grant me grace that according to thy doctrin I may judg all temporal things meer lyes and those far from containing great good which bring so much hurt Grant me that I may not live in an errour by prizing those things highly which I ought to have in hatred If it be a matter of faith that poverty humiliation affliction are not only good but beatifying why do not I rather chuse to have litle then much to be dispisd then praysd to be afflicted then swim in delights He that walks in faith and truth accounting those things truly good which CHRIST judgeth such ought to be so far from being contristated for any want or vexation that he should covet them with his utmost desires and rejoyce in them and abhor wholy and not in part only all things which the world loveth and embraceth and admit and desire with his whole hart with his whole soul with all his strength with all his mind what soever IESVS loved and embracd Like as worldlings who follow love and seek with great earnestnes those things which belong to the world to wit honours fame and the opinion of a great name upon earth as the world teacheth and deceives them so those that make a progress in spirit and truth doe seriously follow love and ardently desire whatsoever is altogether opposite to these that is to be clad with the same livery and ensignes of contempt which the Lord of glory wore Insomuch that if it could be done without any offence of the divine Majesty and sin of their neighbour they would suffer contumelies false witnes affronts and be thought and accounted fooles they giving nevertheles no occasion of it because they desire to resemble and imitate in some manner the Son of God For this purpose let thy chief aym and study be to seek thy own greater abnegation and continual mortification as much as thou canst in all things Why wilt thou live in guile and deceit making no reckning of those things which God prizd and honored so highly that he thought them worthy of his best beloved and only begotten Son Verily although they were not raâ—kd amoÌ„g good things yet for this sole reason that IESVS chose them for himself they are honored sufficiently and worthy to be sought by us with the whole extent of our hart and for this sole cause that he dispisd all worldly goods though men have them in so great esteem they are to be held base and infamous and deservedly to be abhord more then death it self IESVS overcome with love of us made choice of these things the world hateth and why shal not we for his sake at least accept them What do I say for love of IESVS we ought to do it for love of our selves He that loves his soul and his life let him love to dye even while he yet liveth If thou lovest life why wilt thou not rather love an eternal and happy one then this wretched and momentary
be damnd are not turnd into roses so to mitigate the miseries they are to suffer But on the contrary it is more to be wonderd that under the feet of those who are to be saved they are not changd into thornes and leaping from thence upon their heads do not punish them for their offences such unspeakable fruit shal they reap of their so short labour What is the reason since Christs redemption is most copious that it took away sin and would not also take away those annoinances which in this life arise from sin but because afflictions are beneficially salâ—tiferous How should we ever aspire to eternal life if this momentary were pleasant and caseful since we now love it though ful of miseries and conceive but remiss desires of the others beatitude That blessed and elevated man F. Baltazar Alvarez said very well that tribulations are so many wingd horses to carry us a main pace towards heaven How much the more we debar our senses of their delights by suffering sorrowing or sicknes so much the more are we forced to fly to God and seek true goods in heaven The tops of trees if the under branches be cut away reare themselves much higher and our mind by depressing and keeping sense under flourisheth and taketh better growth After the lapse of Adam God found out the rare invention of suffering a heavenly devise against sin An invention worthy of God was labour and affliction that we might be in our body as if we were bodiles and by that meanes our rellish might be the purer our mind being disaffected to sense and the pleasures of the flesh that by suffering it might be preservd from all contagion by its passions and desires It is a heavenly devise to supply the commodity and prerogative of death that we may not be taken with these fading sensible things Patience was extolld by the Philosophers because they esteemd suffering which it mitigates an evil but because suffering is extreme good therfore I say that patience is good it making us not shun but persist in what is good God is neither ignorant nor unwise far be such a blasphemy from us but the refinedst wisdome nevertheles he chose afflictions for his best-beloved Son he chose them for his Mother for the Apostles companions of his Son and others his friends That zealous and devout Father Christopher Rodriguez was wont to say that he would have no body to compassionate him in his sorrowes and sufferings but rather congratulate and jointly with him give thanks to God for as one friend shakes hands with another and pressingly wrings them in token of friendship til they ake again so God with his hand presseth his friends and wrings them which is an argument of signal love Punishments many times are greater tokens of benevolence then guifts and benefits because in that case the punishments themselves are the greatest favours and most beneficial Reprehension and chastizement is a more pregnant signe of charity then indulgence and cockering One benevolous to foraigners and aliens wil be found more easily then a reprover and rebuker but chastizement is only usd towards friends and domestiques Indulgence and liberality extend themselves even to enemies correction only to children and familiars wherfore the punishments of this life are surer pledges of love then the favours of fortune Tribulations are not alwaies the penalty of delinquency although no fault precede they are good and do thou beare them patiently whether they be inflicted immediately by God or by men and take them so much more joyfully by how much less thou seemst to have deservd them Even as we ought to rejoyce much more if God afflict us and not for our sins so ought we also to be more patient and joyful when we are persecuted slanderd and revild by men if we be conscious of our own innocency and that we suffer without desert What cross wouldst thou rather chuse and with whome to dye with the theives on theirs or with Christ on his The thieves crosses had their merits they were punnishd for their sins but the cross of Christ was a cross of innocency it was not erected for delinquency that were horrid blasphemy therfore thou must glory in no cross but that of our Lord Iesus Christ Our nature fel in its fal it lost its rectitude and uprightnes it must be repaird renewd and rectifyd by hard and heavy duties The hammer is hard and heavy but it moulds and fashions pieces of plate which it makes beautiful to the eye and rectifies what was crooked and amiss Tribulation carries a kind of divine autority a long with it in so much that the H. Ghost breaths more effectually many-times by it then by the Prophets and H. Scriptures We are sometimes refractory to the word of God and the good admonitions of H. Fathers and Doctours but tribulations I know not how make God when he speaks be so applauded that without any more ado we yeald obey He that desires to be heard speaking by knocking with his fist or making a noise with his hand â—bids silence and gaines his auditory so God striking with his makes us attentive to what he sayes Pharao resisted him speaking by his servant Moyses he became plyable and obedient when he afflicted him by any contemptible creature The people would not hearken to Ieremy til captivity at length made them relent No body is deaf nor obstinate to tribulation it is Gods eloquence and the chaire of the H. Ghost it is a sacred thing and as it were the Altar and throne of God although harsh and repugnant to flesh and blood O how awfull and terrible is that place but in very deed it is no other then the house of God and gate of heaven the sanctuary of vertues whether we fly from vice as into a sacred place of refuge Go to then o soul dear to Christ fly not affliction as if it were venimous it cannot hurt thee thy IESVS hath already tasted it it is neither evil nor untoothsome when God is there to season it how can the bitternes of a drop of gal be perceivd in an Ocean of hony whatsoever God sends or howsoever he dispose of me I shall never want this comfort that it is pleasing to him Let this be a solid comfort to thee and yet if thou suffer without comfort do not shun it Let it confound us that we love God les then dogs do their masters Although a dog be chid away although beaten although ston'd yet he cannot be kept of but comes more and more he followes him he fawnes upon him so must we serve and approach to God by how much the more we are beaten and afflicted for if these should cease our chief occasion of meriting would cease nor could we give a sufficient proof that we truly love him and not serve him as mere hirelings OF ADORATION IN SPIRIT AND TRVTH THE II. BOOK THE FIRST CHAPTER Of diligence in Prayer I Am
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
sweat from his body as the press doth wine frō the bunch of grapes If any one should have sufferd all the torments of Martyrs all the diseases and anguish of all men even from the first day of Adams transgression til such time as Christ comes to judgment all this would not be equivalent to his paine which also upon this score that it was spiritual was bitterer in its kind then any corporal affliction whatsoever The fulnes of the Divinity resided in Christ and the clear vision of God did illustrate him which nevertheles obstructed not some effects but it was miraculously so orderd least by it a tyde of joy should over flow his whole body and the inferiour portion of his soul that place might be left for sorrow as it fel out in his sacred Passion But in the hart of IESVS grieving for our offences it did not only give way to extreme sadnes but did extremely augment it by reason of his perfect knowledg of God offended for how much more perfect this knowledg was it causd a sorrow so much greater and CHRIST alone had a more perfect intuitive knowledg of God then all the Cherubins Seraphins then all the other Angels and Saints in heaven Christs love also towards God offended was corresponding to the vision of the divine Majesty wherfore his sorrow exceeds the comprehension either of word or thought for he let no opportunity slip of suffering as much as he could and was beseeming him to suffer yea prodigious miracles were wrought in his most holy soul that sorrow might have its ful effect Why then are we so sollicitous to compass joyes and rack ourwits so much in the search of new pleasures if IESVS sufferd all this in his hart which none ought to think upon without teares and each good Christian ought to make it the theam of his thought How darest thou o my hart slacken the raines to joy consider the cause why thy IESVS sufferd it was for thy offences that he might work thy salvation Because I trespassd therfore he loves me so tenderly and confers blessings upon me Why doth not this lover of me and benefactour to his enemies heap coales of fire upon my head make me blush at my own proceedings why doth he not heap coales of fire upon my hart that I may burn with love of him and a desire of his imitation I wil place the sad hart of IESVS upon my obdurate hart that he may find me at length according to his hart a frend and desirous of suffering Compassionate o my hart with the suffering IESVS and comfort him in his sufferings How wilt thou obtain mercy by the sufferings of Christ if thou hast not compassion over Christ suffering be not unmindful of such a courtesy from thy suerty S. Iames Guisay not to be unmindful of it besides his daily meditation and other devotions to it carried it alwaies about him written in a little Book in token that it was engraven in his hart and faild no day to read it over This memory of his Saviours cross was so acceptable to Almighty God that he vouchsafed him after his entrance into the Society a true conformity with it that is to be crucified for his sake and by his sufferings to adumbrate the death of his B. Son and Christ was not backward in recompensing the devotion of the Saint for upon the place where he and many other Saints were crucified miraculous lights were seen every friday in the ayre approving and attesting the comformablenes of their suffering with that of Christ The memory of his Passion is grateful to him and that we might have a perpetual memorial of it before our eyes he instituted the admirable Sacrament of his most holy Body But if thou be midful of Christ suffering why art thou not unsufferable to thy self and hartily angry at thy own proceedings The king of Moab sorely straitned by the siege of the Israelites being quite out of hope of all relief took his eldest Son who was to succeed him in his throne and offerd him in holocaust upon the wals and it causd such a commotion indignation in the Israelits camp that forth with they raisd their siege and departed Behold the holocaust of the first and only begotten Son of God upon the altar of the cross why art thou not replenishd with disdain against thy self quitting all self will and pleasure we use to compassionate even externs yea even brute beasts why do we not so to our God to our Father to our brother o our shameles obstinacy who insteed of commiserating him crucify IESVS again by new offences remember that God is thy Father not thy foe that he suffers for thee his foe not for the beasts of the field or their salvation for thee not for himself the bitterst of all punishments wounded in all his members not only afflicted with some smal ach of his head or stomack because he did thee and the world a good turne not because he put cities into combustion publickly on a day of solemnity and in a mountain betwixt two thieves as their captain and ringleader not in a by-corner and secretly the object of all mens hatred disgrace and scorne in so much that the mercy of men was wanting to him alone who is mercy it self Nevertheles he suffers willingly and lovingly not forcedly not frettingly not complainingly because it was for thee of his own people not of barbarians and Scythians for the space of 33. yeares not for an hour or two Compassionate then with IESVS and make not all he has done fruitles forbear to offend him begin to imitate him and that his Passion may truly benefit thee make it the model of thy imitation The VI. Chapter How far we are to follow Christ GOD doth not tempt us though he hath made our salvation ful of difficulty Nothing is more acceptable to him he having done and sufferd so much then that we imitate him The words of a man placed in autority are held for lawes and must be fulfild why are the deeds of God less observable he that sets the humble and most sorrowful hart of Christ as a signet upon his own let him set it also upon his arme that he may imitate what he commiserates Love is not soft and effeminate but strong and masculin and the cross of Christ will crucify Gods zealot by compassion and emulation The imitation of Christ is harsh and unsavory some have it in as much hatred as hell it self but for all that we cannot emulate better graces Fear no cosenage when he perswades thee to take the cross for thy delights disgrace for thy honour poverty for riches he is the prime and undoubted truth The eternal wisdome and divine intellect hath so orderd hath judgd it expedient Be not diffident he is the supreme goodnes and highest power by these nevertheles he redeemd thee and by the same thou must complete thy salvation that work is begun accomplished
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
the more they were that sought to be rich and happy the fewer would attain their desire What then shal I now say to thee if thou wilt not imbrace the poverty humility and cross of IESVS or see'st not the incomparable good that is acquird by his imitation but that this is it which he himself saith he that followes me walks not in darknes thou see'st it not because thou walkst in darknes whilst thou followest another guide then IESVS The VII Chapter That necessities and afflictions sent by God are to be born patiently IF thou wilt not follow Christ at least do not shun him if thou darest not imitate him how darest thou withstand sleight his similitude It is an unsufferable impudence and a miserable blindnes since the superabundant charity of God is so singularly beneficial to some that it makes them even whether they wil or no conforme to his Son not expecting that they labour in the busines â—east perchance they faint in the combat and yeald to the difficulties of a voluntary assimilation to the life of Christ but God daines to do all by himself putting them in a condition of poverty of humbling themselves of undergoing labours and afflictions nevertheles they reject this opportunity and are so far from covetting to resemble the only begotten Son of God that they are ashamd of all those things in which the Lord of glory did glory so much and seek by all meanes to shun IESVS whom they are bound in duty to follow They owe many thanks to God for that without any paines or danger to themselves for in that case one is secure from presumption or vain glory they carry the similitude of his only Son in which he takes so much complacence and out of an affectionate indulgence towards them when he only cals others to his imitation he places them already in it But they ungrateful as they are thwart his good intentions that they may resemble the proud Lucifer nay they become more haughty then he for Lucifer never thought himself better then God but they as if they were better and greater when they behold IESVS guiltlesly punished with all their guiltines must remain untouchd and desire that themselves be better thought of deemd less worthy of punishment then the most innocent IESVS the least worthy of all Why do we so fret and chafe when any cross or adversity befals us for if it come through our own default it is a high insolency for one to except against afflictions who his nocent he seing Christ undergo them who is innocent If no default occasiond them let him yet rejoyce more because he more resembles Christ who was crucifyd faultlesly Do not through impatience incur that blame in the sufferance which thou avoidedst in the cause being obligd to be thankful to God on a double score both because thou art afflicted and without desert innocently afflicted When one is punishd for his default he must at least have patience when without default joy also then reaps he a richer harvest of grace there is a stricter similitude with the innocent IESVS hopes of a better advance since this cross is not so much for amendment of what is past as for increase of future merits and to be an antidote against ensuing infections He must acknowledg the great indulgence of God towards him which he used towards his own B. Mother to wit this preserving preservative Christ sufferd himself to be nayld to the cross for thee by the naughtyest of men and why canst not thou brook with patience to be touchd by God a better and more benevolent hand molests thee A child when he is corrected by his parent if he cry too eagerly is wont to be corrected again now he is beaten not so much for the first fault as for the secoÌ„d of his impatient crying so when thou repinest at a cross or scourge which God is pleased to inflict upon thee it happens many times that it is aggravated because thou murmurest because thou complainest because thou art quite out of patience It s â— fault great enough to deserve punishment that thou contemnest the similitude of his B. Son that thou wilt not acknowledg thy own faults that thou art so void of patience O king of glory on whom the Angels delight to gaze thou didst not turn thy face from those that smote thee spit upon thee thy cheeks thou permittedst to them that pinchd them thou exposedst thy body to those that beat it thou expectedst nothing but revilement misery for my sake and why am I so wretchedly averse and a fugitive from thee my God and my Father my chastizer and my benefactour Rejoyce o my soul in conforming thy self to the example of the Son of God in necessary poverty tribulation humility and disgrace The Apostles went rejoycing from the sight of the councel because they were thought worthy to suffer a contumely for the name of IESVS S. Paul Michi a Iaponian of our Society went rejoycing in the sight of the people his eares being cut of for his greater ignominy and he sent from citty to citty to be a subject of derision and infamy to all spectatours he not withstanding laughd first at them and put on such a cheerful countenance so confident so pleasant so little dismayed as if he had triumphed for this sole resemblance with the Son of God and he deserved to have that perfected even to the cross which he embraced with great alacrity If thou wilt not comfort Christ by taking up his cross do not contristate the H. Ghost by rejecting it if thou canst not of thy own accord seek it at least when it is found and profered thee do not in vain refuse it If IESVS when in his journy to Mount Calvary he fel under his burden had willd thee to bear it for him wouldst thou have denied him that courtesy what if he had layd it on thy shoulders with his own hands wouldst thou have withstood him cast it of or rather have kissd that horrid piece of wood and adord those sacred hands that loaded thee certainly thou wouldst not only have been content to bear the cross but have earnestly sought and coveted to be crucified in his place Behold God hath imposed upon thee the cross of this grief of this humiliation of this needines why dost thou reject it it is lighter then the cross of Christ If thou wilt not comfort IESVS by compassionating him comfort thy self in the compassionate IESVS O comforter of soules what can befal me whereof I shal not abundantly find redress in thy necessities If I be ill at ease in thee there was not a whole bit to be found from the sole of the foot to the crown of thy head a man of sorrows and knowing infirmity thou didst truly bear our languours and carry our griefs Am I hungry thou expended thy fast even to 40. dayes together felt such pinching gripes of hunger that the divel
and thou shalt be secure be contemptible to thy self and thou shalt be honored be laborious and thou shalt enjoy repose sustain all evil and so thou shalt possess all the good which is containd in the cross O truth o most loving IESVS if I love thee how can I hate that cross which thou lovedst so ardently how can I shun that cross which none but divels shun who hate thee it is the divels task to fly from the cross it is Christs to die upon it let a Christian consider whether of these two he ought to imitate let him be sure to imbrace self-victory and self denyal and not divide himself for a trifling pleasure or the disturbance of a petty incommodity from Christ depriving himself of so much merit and satisfaction Do not go about to excuse thy self from that which is altogether inexcusable although thou be one of the elect thou must suffer either in this life or in purgatory where patience is extremely barren If one must needs suffer judge whether it wil be more commodious to do it in this life where with light afflictions thou redeemest excessive torments and sins and moreover gainest glory by increasing thy merits or in purgatory where by vast sufferings thou makest but slender satisfaction meritest nothing at all besides in purgatory there is no merit small satisfaction huge punishment but in this life the punishment is extreme easy the satisfaction great and merit most ample What marchant would buy wares at such a time when they are both worst and dearest and not rather when he may have them in a manner for nothing But above all love to suffer for love of Christ Is there any one that having once imbraced him would relinquish him for that cup of water which David powred upon the ground tell me o thou lover and zealer of Iesus if thou wert naild on the other side of Christs cross back to back with thy beloved crucified together with him for the glory of God on mount Calvary and if some should make promise of belief in him to acknowledg him for the Son of God if he would descend he for all that would not desert thee nor descend again some other should offer thee as one would do a child a morsel of meat or an apple as Eve did Adam upon condition thou wouldst desert the company of thy beloved IESVS wouldst thou really desert and abandon him o our arrand shame and confusion how often do we for a toyish pleasure or the fulfilling of our perverse will relinquish the cross and leave Christ to suffer all alone without the comfort of our company Go to o my soul redeemd by Christ upon the cross take up thy cross and follow thy IESVS and deny thy self learn self deny al by what it is to deny another he that is alienated from another whether he be kinsman or friend if he see him beaten or in want or imprisond he comes not at him he succours him not nor condoles with his distressed condition and so must thou proceed with thy own body and stand affected towards it as if an alien or enemy groand under such a calamity It s not enough to take up thy cross but tâ—ou must also deny thy self by dying upon the cross on which thou must be crucified by dying with thy IESVS In no desire of thy hart nor propension of sense must thou seek thy own content even as he that is nayld to a cross hath not power to move any member as he listeth nor do what his list suggesteth One that were crucified would have small regard to things present nor be sollicitous for the future he would not labour to hoard up riches nor bespeak pastimes but would fix his eie only upon the other life and though as yet living reckon himself among the dead in such a condition must he be that is crucified with Christ he must also number himself among the dead not only defunct to the pleasures and vices of this life but even to life it self The X. Chapter Of the sufficiency and good of Poverty HE that hath God what needs he seek any thing else or how can he but be ashamd to have or covet any thing beâ—â—des one that had costly furniture or a rich cupboard of plate would be far from keeping an earthen dish among it chusing rather to break it in a thousand pieces then it should be a blemish to the rest and an eie sore to them that behold these rarities and make them laugh at the owners rusticity O infinite majesty and unparalleld beauty how dare I be so bold as to hang any terrene thing at thy girdle and possess it together with thee all the harts of men who ever have been are or shal be all the wils of the Seraphins or other celestial Spirits suffice not to employ or exhaust his immensity and why then do I a silly imp employ my hart which is but one a narrow one upon other things and not rather disengage it from all to give it entirely to him if I have any thing besides him I neither possess it fully nor him if I have nothing but him I do not only possess him but all things also together with him Who can be found so little a friend to his own advantage that if he could gain a thousand crownes for a hundred would not willingly employ his mony can any one think God les valuable then a thousand crownes why then are not men content to exchange for him I wil not say a hundred crownes but even toyes and trifles which cleaving to our hart extinguish devotion and sometimes either expel him thence or like a brazen wall obstruct his entrance O the inestimable value of poverty which breaks down these barriers of our hart that God may enter into man and unlocks the gates of heaven that man may enter into it and God If one should make this profer to a Gentil void of faith who stood ravishd with the visible beauty of the stars and magnitude of the heavens what wouldst thou give to contemplate these faire creatures for a dayes space nigh at hand and even touch with thy fingars the matter they are made of would he not give all he were worth at least out of curiosity to be among them for a little time or at leastwise that a piece of a star might be shewd him upon earth and how much more ought we to give and do that we may be carried up to heaven not to behold them for one day but possess them for all eternity and raign there like so many princes And how much more estimable is it that thou hast God descending to thee upon the earth residing in thee then if one should once shew thee a fragment of the sun if this be so what reason can we yeald of so great madnes in contemning spiritual things and doating upon temporal but because our faith is so faint and languid which if
endeavouring conformity in all his proceedings O what a comfort it is to one that loves thee o IESVS to operate not only to please thee but because it is pleasing to thee this is the prerogative of obedience that so the obedient may not be frustrated of any part of the reward which he expects not only from the work but which he finds in it he obtaining his end in the beginning which is to please God and this depends not on any future thing it being anticipated by obeying O most welcome task of obedience why do any complain or seek to be excused from it for this reason that if they obey with humility and promptitude more is enjoind them for superiours are wont to be more forward in commanding them that are most prompt in complying with their commands It is a very fond complaint when we complain of what we ought to wish for A king is thought to do one a favour if he commit any businesses to his trust and the more and weightier they are the greater is the favour esteemd if God proceed after this manner with us why do we complain masters for the most part employ those servants about their commands who are most deare and intimate with them and of whose fidelity they have good proof why do we resent that God treats us as such o God of my hart if thou heldst this favorable manner of proceeding with thy own Son in this world who was obedient even unto the death of the cross shal I dare presume that any favour wil be shewed me of a higher strain o IESVS thou who becamest obedient in all grant that I may never refuse any compliance with obedience Thou atchievedst all by being obedient from thy nativity to thy very death thou wert no les subject to Caesar and Pilate then to it There was also a time when thou wouldst subject thy self to the powers of darknes giving way to the divels and permitting thy self with great obedience to the fury of hel in the executioners and malice of the Iewes and because thou couldst not become Incarnate by it thy Humanity being not as yet existent thy Mother supplied for this she conceiving thee by that rare act of obedience and submission of mind O most welcome task of obedience since it is most certain that nothing is better or more grateful to God Adam with drawing himself from it knew good and evil obedience is most innocent it not only knowes not good and evil but is also ignorant of good and better for all the works of obedience are in the superlative degree that is best in comparison of which the acts of other moral vertues carry no comparison in this that none of them is to be preferred before commands for though one practise all the rest but yet do against obedience they all avail nothing yea he does evil But if he omit them for it he shal have the merit of them all The obedient man knowes no such comparative discourses as it is better to do this then that but that it is best to do what is commanded He that hath obedience hath all other vertues in a compendious abridgment he that is obedient wil be both chast and a lover of poverty Adam after he became refractory felt presently the stings of the flesh and sought a garment to conceal them while he was obedient he was most chast and remained a Virgin being content with his own nakednes he stood in an exact poverty O most welcome obedience to him that is emulous of vertue and makes God the sole object of his love Comfort thy self o my soul who covetest longest so much to see his face which the Angels love to contemplate comfort thy self in the interim and reverence thy superiour whosoever he be as an apparent Christ and visible God God is not worshipped in himself only but in every superiour also Perswade thy self that the divine goodnes in its eternal love and providence hath ordained and decreed thee this Prelate that by him and no other he might communicate his grace and enrol thee one of the predestinate Gods autority resides in him enquire not why he commands this or that Gods wil stands for a reason and so it must be in him who is here his vice-gerent Why demandst thou a reason for putting thy self into the hands of God Tell me what was the reason he created not another man who perchance would have been better when he created thee and gave thee to thy self if thou canst not assigne any why demandest thou one for resigning thy self to God with all the latitude of thy will it is an unspeakable glory and content to the heavenly spirits to be alwaies praysing God but it is far more considerable that it is a property inherent to him inbred then if it proceeded only from their mouth The XIII Chapter How great harme proceeds from daily and light defects VVHy dost thou contemne in thy own soul what men affect so much in their bodies they providing not only for lifes maintenance but also for health and comelines It would be held an unsufferable misery to be alwaies sick and a horrid deformity to have ones body composed of man and beast Thou must not only stand in horrour of great sins but also dread the very desires and thoughts that are culpable yea any imperfection How unseemly an object would it be if a serpents mouth stood upon thy face and yet every smal word whether but lightly detractive or offensive or idle is far more deformed O truth o immense goodnes I beg of thee by the merits of Christ that thou wilt remove this veile from before my eys that I may throughly know how stupendious an evil is involved in the malice of the least default o man how monstrous a creature wouldst thou seeme to the eyes of men if thou shouldst at any time appeare with the head of an oxe or horse in thy humane body and yet it is far worse if before God and his Angels thou conceive in thy soul deified by divine grace disproportioned and idle thoughts of terrene things a brutish longing after thy own commodity nay there is more proportion betwixt a mans body and that of a beast which are in the same degree or order of things then there is betwixt grace and any sin even the smallest Wherfore the deformity of the least venial defect exceeds all monstruosity and corporal mishapednes whatsoever not only what is now extant but also imaginable or possible I beseech thee o zealot of Christ by his most sacred blood pause here a while and ponder what I say with an unbiazd judgment and thou who wouldst not have the least blemish in thy body permit not to thy utmost these monsters in thy soul the spouse of IESVS Employ all the faculties of thy mind set all the inventivenes of thy imagination on work and frame a deformity as ugly as thou canst such a mishapdnes as
attempt things both unknown and uncertain why can we for love of vertue and the honour of God sustain nothing with constancy he that hopes for a continual and eternal good unjustly shuns labours in its pursuance he that is to be alwayes happy must be alwayes good for Each day condemns mans irreligious facts All seasons open are to vertues acts as saith S. Prosper The greatest grace of all other is to preserve the grace which is given thee and thy chief work not to surcease from doing works As a creature would be very deformed without head and life such a monster is a good life without a corresponding end We have received grace without any paines but we must conserve it both by grace and paines The beginning of a thing is accounted half its accomplishment but unles it end wel all comes to nothing In the matter of perseverance the end is all in all for nothing is done so long as any thing remaines undone It imports little to have laboured hard all ones life long if he faulter in the end The sole last moment of perseverance is more available then all the years by past for all their fruit proves rotten if it did not borrow thence a preserving soundnes Thou wilt think it a hard task to persever but it is much harder to begin again and much more then that to begin often Wherfore it is both more easy and more conducible to persever once then to begin often Horses force themselves les in a continued course of drawing a chariot then after having stood stil when they are to move it again Water which hath been once heated being taken of the fire becomes more cold then at first If fervour be wanting in thy proceedings thou also perchance wilt be more tepid then in the beginning Many grow faint-harted in the course of perseverance because they find difficulty in doing good but they do not therfore evade that difficulty for it is only perseverance that makes all easy If thou hadst the courage to begin a hard task thou mayst wel continue it that being much more easy Thou hast found so long by experience that it is neyther disproportioned to thy strength nor grace why then contrary to so long proof art thou now diffident thinking thy self unable to bear it what is eyther past or to come is not burdensome for the present do not grasp the difficulty all at once for it comes not so but by piece meale cōmensurate to the parts of time As thou wast able before to support it so art thou now and wil be henceforth It wil not be more noysome then it was but the heat of the difficulty wil remit by length of time and custome Accustome thy self to do wel and thou wilt forget to do ill Custome overcomes difficulty because it overcomes nature and what then wil grace do if custome overcome nature much more wil a wel-orderd charity in thee overcome the deordinations of nature It is better many times to fulfil a good purpose or consummate a work already begun then to begin another though otherwise more perfect because by inuring thy self yealding to a ficklenes of mind neither wilt thou performe that other Seldome can any work occur which is better then constancy in fulfilling a good purpose Good purposes are to be kept although they be not of any great regard because albeit in themselves it imports but little whether they be kept or no yet it is extremely important to be constant no wayes changeable Who is more constant in making good purposes then he who least intends to keep them If thou learnst a firm perseverance in one good against another thou wilt learn it more firmly against evil wilt not vary like time in this time of serving God O eternal truth grant me grace to serve thee eternally help o Christ my weaknes thou who with such indefatigable love tookest upon thee all our infirmities thou who never art weary with tolerating my impudent negligences grant that I may never be negligent any more nor desist impudently from thy service but may learn to brook swallow all morsels of difficulty Let me learn o Lord perseverance by thy love who when thou lovedst thine thou didst love them even to the end thou who didst persever hanging upon the cross and wouldst not desert it though the Iewes promised upon that condidition to believe in thee the Son of God who being ful of irksomnes anguish and a bloody sweat didst persist nevertheles and seeke redress by red oubling thy prayers Go too o remiss spirit tel me what must thou covet to do for thy IESVS who persevered for thee amidst the sorrowes of death and the cross who when he loved thee loved thee even to death what I say must thou covet but to do good and suffer evil These are the chief ambition of a soul that loves IESVS that which makes most for perseverance A good work presents it self what hinders thee from doing it but the trouble which accompanies it but mark wel that here concurs a second commodity of suffering evil and attend now that the good is doubled ther is superadded to this work both to suffer evil and do good Thou canst pretend no excuse for thy non-perseverance because that only hinders thee which ought to be the sum of thy desire to suffer for thy beloved If the love of IESVS were enkindled in thee all backwardnes tribulation and extrinsecal impediments would no more oppress thee then fire is with wood which forthwith more inflames it But if thou be so coldly chil that the love of God finds no fewel to feed on let thy own advantage and hope of future joy incite thee Dispair of coming off with life is wont to add valour to souldiers make them way through the thickest dangers divine hope of eternal life is yet more forcible and wil make thee more valiant and daring With this hope attempt thy enterprizes and persever cheerfully A cheerfull acceptance feels neyther labours nor trouble though otherwise the thing be laborious enough He that exerciseth himself in military games or at ball is wont to take more paines then one that hires himself forth to day-task and yet he feels it not because he takes it by way of pleasure and content If thou wilt conclude happily in the last hour be sure to begin each hour if thou intend to persever begin alwayes a new Excuse not thy negligence by indisposition of body self love for the most part deceives thee and makes thee do thy actions remisly Thy body is able to do more then thou thinkst if thy fervour of mind were but vigorous its force infusing strength even into weak and feeble limbs A lunatique person though exhausted with sicknes can do more then 4. that are sound the vigour of our mind sometimes communicates it self to the body If the infirmity of a malady can make one strong how much more the strength of grace and
a double degree of beatitude Purity is so beseemingly requisite in order to this Sacrament that the divine providence hath ordaind that even as it precedes the sacrifice of Christ it be propitiatory for our sins it having vertu to remit the very pain due to their fault Christ himself whom we receive is pleasd first of all to cleanse us as he did the feet of his Disciples cer he would give himself to us or deliver himself for us He shewd by that washing that not any kind of purity was sufficient but that a special one was necessary for he would not only have the hands of his Disciples clean which sufficeth for ordinary banquets but their feet also which signifyes a very extraordinary diligence God declard hereby that we are to come to the Eucharist not only with clean hands that is works devoyd of all fault but also with clean feet that is to say without so much as any print or sign of fault viz the paine due to tepid actions or sins remitted being quite abolished and in this sort grace proper to this sacrifice is powerful to cancel the penalty due to sin How shal I come worthily o Lord to receive thee what a treasure of sanctity was bestowd upon S. Iohn Baptist that his mouth might figuratively entertain not thee but thy name saying behold the lamb of God and he express the shadow of one of thy Sacraments but what purity ought to invest me who am to approach that venerable Sacrament and receive thee truly and really into my mouth o I wish I could entertain thee with as much reverence as the most B. Virgin Mother did in her sacred womb in that stupendious hour of thy Incarnation or as she embraced thy most H. Body in her bosome when it was taken down from the cross and thy heavenly Father received thy spirit at thy expiring when it was recommended into his hands What thou dividedst o Lord in thy death betwixt thy Father and Mother all that do I here adore in this Sacrament after thy resurrection for thy soul remaynes not separate from thy Body Thou affordest me that body which thou bequeathedst to thy Mother together with thy spirit which thou recommendedst to thy Father O that any one could have applyed his mouth to that of the expiring IESVS and gatherd thence his sacred breath worthy to be gatherd by the hands of God that it might animate and steer my body o that any one could with the effusion of his own blood wash the disfigured Corps of IESVS and make himself the viol of Christs blood shed for my sake to cleanse my soul so ill-favourd and ugly o that any one would hold his mouth to receive and tast the water blood which flowed from the side of Christ that not so much as one drop of it might fall to wast but thou o Lord desirous and desirable complyest with my wishes in this dreadful mystery How great joy did the Angels conceive in thy Ascension when thou entredst triumphant into heaven what longing desires preceded thy return thither o the desired of all the Hierarchyes of heavenly spirits with what jubily of hart ought I to exulâ— when thou entrest into my breast I alone upon many scores owe thee all the reverence which all the Angels exhibited when they entertaind thee returning from this world and passible life for thou frequently enterst into me that thou mayst delight me alone thou who once only enterd into heaven to cause joy to all the Angels Thou frequently dost for me alone what thou didst but once for all the quyres of blessed spirits If this favour were imparted to one alone of all the multitudes of men that once only through all eternity Christ should enter after this most amiable manner into his sole breast what a stupendious benefit would it be deemd whosoever should hear of it ravishd into extasy with this excess of bounty would scarse believe it he that received him absorpt in admiration would stand like one besides himself without voyce without motion yea without life through amazement fear joy and love unles he were miraculously sustaind by reason of such unheard-off benevolence why then do not I worthily reverence and admire a greater benefit conferd not once but often not on me alone but all wherein I acknowledg the favour done me much hightned O that I or any one could entertain thee o amiable IESVS becoming my guest as thy Father entertaind thee entring into heaven after a world of torments and death for the sanctity of all the Angels their devotion their joy pomp and celebrity fell far short I wil not say of thy majesty but even of that humility wherwith thou daignest to shut thy self up in the narrow cottage of my hart grant me grace by so rare an example to humble my self below nothing I that cannot humble my self sufficiently in respect of thy humility how can I do it in respect of thy majesty and glory o how happy is that soul that shal humble it self before this Sacrament what honour will accrew to it how wil the Angels reverence and honour such a one that it may receive its Lord with honour S. Teresa oftner then once beheld the Brothers of our Society when they went to communicate in our Church accompanyd with Angels and these holding a most rich and beautiful canopy over their heads that like royal and consecrated soules they might more honorably entertain their soveraign but when others approachd that heavenly Table she beheld no such obsequiousnes in these B Spirits and the reason was want of humility in their devotions Let us then procure with all humility devotion fervour and charity to receive that supersubstantial daily bread Let us so receive it daily as if we were never more to receive it though we come very frequently let us come so as if it were to be but once in our whole life Let our daily communion be so performd as it ought to be the first day of our life and last at our death The XII Chapter That in time of refection we must not be more indulgent to our body then necessity requires THE Angels expect thee at their supper glut not thy self like a beast with corruptible food He that is invited as a guest to anothers table eats nothing at home thou art invited a guest to heaven do not at least glut thy self upon earth If one that is cloyd with earthly food cannot be a competent guest at an earthly banquet how can he be at a heavenly one fulnes hinders the relish of material meats how much more then of divine the fasting Lazarus who could not so much as feed upon crums is now a constant guest at the heavenly supper but that glutton who cramd himself with exquisit daintyes is shut forth Men at a banquet abstain from several dishes reserving their appetite for some choyse one intending to make their repast upon that o Lord if I shal be satiated at the
appearance of thy glory I reserve my self for it and wil refrain from these grosser meats of the earth Vpon hopes to feed more savourly at a wel furnishd table the guest is content to protract his fast it is but meet that upon hopes of the divine supper we at least keep abstinence Remember that Christ hath made thee equal with the Angels and wil it not then be a shame to do like a beast he that cannot wholly wipe off an infamy lessens and dissembles it as much as he can let it confound us to renew daily the brand we received by gluttony in our first fall from a state of happines and that with so much gust and savour If we had heaven eyther in esteem or hunger we should loath earth and earthly things where when we are to eat for as much as concerns gust we must carry our selves as if there were none at all God himself invites thee a guest to the supper of eternal glory in the interim sitting down to table let Christ be thy fellow-guest and thou wilt be abstemious if thou suppose thou art to divide with him What soever thou subtractest from thy necessary sustenance offer it to IESVS The Pharisees and Publicans invited IESVS thou being a Christian must not think much to do the same He that invites another labours not so much to please his own palat as his guests for whom he carves the best piece so when thou sittest down at table strive not to content thy own rellish but study how to pleasure Christ and the only way to please his gust is to take no gust at all Consider him where he refreshed those 3. dayes when his Mother lost him in the Temple prepare a banquet for him together with Saint Mathew Contemplate Christ his disciples when through want of necessaries they pulled cares of corne call him making him share of thy provisions prepare him a feast together with Zaccheus Behold him fasting 40. dayes for thy sake and if thou wilt not minister to him with the Angels invite him with Simon and he will be as much refreshed with thy abstinence as if a table were furnished for him by the Angels He begd a draught of water of the Samaritan do thou give him of thy cup. I thirst cryed he from the cross let him tast of thy Chalice O that any one would give me gall vinegar I would exchange cups with Christ relieving his thirst with my drink how could I chuse but relieve thee o Lord in such extreme necessity now I am able to do it and undoubtedly thou wilt rellish my good will and desire of abstinence more savourly then if I offerd thee a most delicious draught How unnatural were he that would not relieve thee now I may do it if I drink not more then is necessary Why shal I not refresh thy thirst behold o soul thy IESVS desirous to eat his Pasch with us accompany the Apostles that thou maist partake of so desired a table Carry thy self there with modesty and humility seek the lowest place but chuse not for all that the place of Iudas Thou art not worthy to sit at such a table place thy self at the feet of thy companion the betraier the most humble IESVS will even there also find thee out Contemplate how he fed so many yeares with his most H Mother and S. Ioseph she perchance sometimes eat very sparingly and defrauded her own mouth of many bits purposely to give them to her most loving Son their poverty not sufficing for both deprive thy self of some parcel give it as an almest to the Virgin wherewith to feed her dearest child Remember how this Mother of love gave suck to her Infant IESVS how the Son of God even then would fast for thy sake abstain sometimes from these sweet breasts do thou also for his sake refrain at least from some particle and offer it to Christ with a most ardent charity with such to wit as she nursed him imitate to thy utmost her love In this manner thou shalt stifle with pious meditations and forestail thy appetite by an affection to things divine One desire wil drive out another and one rellish drown another Perchance gluttony wil be no les extirpated and thy mind by ruminating what is read at table and such pious employments more purged then by fasting it self If the motive of doing a thing acceptable to Christ do not urge thee the dignity of abstinence the profit which redounds from it ought in all reason to prevail Nothing is more contrary to the spirit then an unmortified appetite Eat to refresh thy body not to overcharge it Many when they eat do rather oppress then nourish their bodies making that which ought to be the refection of life its oppression Is it not very absurd to load and stuff ones belly as one would do an asses pack since our flesh is elevated above the Cherubins if the kingdome of God and tabernacle of the H. Ghost be within us why are we so base-minded as to make our stomacks the charnel-house or Sepulcher of dead beasts he that ought to be the Temple of the living God cald to a divine life why doth he debase himself to the meanest of all lives to wit ' a dead life and the very dregs of all life Plants having only a nutritive life are void of all sense We loose so much of our mind as we bestow of it upon meat what more unworthy then the loss of an Angelical life mind if thou feedst too greedily sensually thou hast reason to fear least thou degenerate not so much into a beast as into a tree or a stock Adam being overcome with gluttony clad himself with leaves like a tree as if he meant to become one carrying its shape in his flight from God Gluttony and nutrition is not only a life proper to unreasonable creatures but to the very insensible plants nutrition being only peculiar to them Therfore a full belly obstructs all sense it evacuates the mind it disposeth one to insensibility by hindring the use of reason which after dinner is dull and sluggish it induceth sleep in which a man differs nothing at all from an elme or plain tree save only that this at set times affords the benefit of a shade but the life of gourmandizers is the life of sleepers and the life of sleepers the life of a gourd which is allwaies in a lying posture Hence it followes that he who is les abstemious is les obsequious to reason as being more insensible the sole life of trees is uncapable of command Nutrition it self is not in the power of a creature When we check our desires or curbe savage beasts they become tame and pliable to their keepers but plants which regard nothing as I may say but their belly that is to feed themselves they harken to no body nor regard reason This kind of life is the scum and refuse of all
love or hatred or zeal take severe punishment of thy self as being the ring-leader of all that crew Consider now out of this whether the sin of Iudas and those of Anti-christ deserve love yea or no if God had committed to thy charge the doing justice upon him who gave IESVS that injurious blow or him that spit first in that face on which the Angels love to gaze or on the accursed Arrius and Nestorius or the malignest of men Antichrist or the Father of lyes Lucifer to punish condignly their sins as justice and equity should dictate to thee how wouldst thou carry thy self towards them wouldst thou perchance sooth and flatter and seek to humour them to thy ability or rather strive to shew in the sight of all creatures how much the glory of God and his honour so often violated were prevalent to a just revenge thou oughtst to exercise no les severity against thy self for thou must needs hold thy self worse then any of them if thou makest not a counterfeyt estimate of thy own basenes and I suppose thou intendest not to cozen eyther God or thy self It behooves thee to be moved with a more severe and fruitful indignation against thy self then against the perversest of divels The divel committed one sole sin that in thought only for which he incurd eternal damnation thou hast committed innumerable and those of fact also He sind against God to whom his obligations were not so binding for an Angel did not become God nor did God suffer torments for them he did not at any time pardon them as he became man for thee shedding his most pretious blood for thy sake sealing thy pardon and ready to seal it for the future not seven times only but seventy seven more Consider now whether it would be accounted laudable to contract familiarity with that great Prince of divels seek his honour content in all why holdst thou too strict a friendship with thy self desiring thy honour procuring thy ease and seeking thy wil and pleasure in all I demand of thee once more if God should deliver into thy hands that malign spirit who hath so often deceived thee tempted thee and induced thee to sin misleading thee from the way of salvation then another who were les hurtful commanding thee to punish both according to the qualities of the losses wherewith they damnifyd thee against which wouldst thou be more cruel against him that were les noxious or the other who proved thy heavier enemy But how canst thou be so indulgent to thy self thou being more insolent towards thy self and more pernicious I do not say then the worst of these divels but then both since neyther of them could endammage thee in the least unles thou cooperatedst gavest consent thou hast often playd the seducer and enemy to thy self thou hast often tempted and proved a stumbling block of scandal to thy self I know not then with what eyes thou canst look upon thy self thou being more prejudicial and a greater undoing to thy self then Caiphas Arrius Antichrist or Lucifer O soul I conjure thee by the love of IESVS to consider these things whether they be not true if it be true that thou art a greater cross and loss to thy self then the accursed Lucifer could have been love not thy self disordinately if thou be touchd with any sense of promoting the honour of God or amplifying his glory for by how much thou swelst with the tyde of self esteem and self affection by so much in order to the effects of grace and vertues doth God flow in thee at a lower ebb and by how much thou drainest thy self of thy self by an humble self hatred so much the more wil God replenish thee with his waters of grace even to a great profundity Who then is a greater enemy to thy self then thou thy self who wilt not let God be exalted in thee But if thou wilt not hate thy self o unworthy man more then the rest of thy enemyes at least look upon thy self as upon an enemy and bear thy self as little good wil nor take too much complacence in that fit of self-prosperity and corporal delight When any adversity befals him whom thou owest a spite thou art not a little contented therewith and so must thou proceed with thy self when thy enemy is sleighted or derided it causeth joy and complacence in thee and so must it do when thou thy self art so treated One wil not make much of an enemy nor feast him at a table of delights neyther must thou do so with thy self One would alwayes be vexing and molesting an enemy sitting close upon his skirts and taking all occasions of revenge so must thou also do if thou wilt act that part for this is properly to be spiteful If thou dost not hold this tenour thou art pittifully seduced as thinking thy self not sick of self love Where Gods divine pleasure interposeth not it self thou must with a masculin courage for his greater glory kil all self affection in thee Yet out of the same motive in the practise of exteriour austerities one must permit himself to be guided by some discreet person zealous of the divine honour that so he may also offer in sacrifice an oblation both of his wil and judgment Yet thou must not frame such a conceit as if the life of self denying people and those that loath persecute themselves were harsh and insupportable yea of all others it partakes most of joy The love of God is much more light-harted then is self love If self hatred brought no other advantage besides loving God that were sufficient It is much more available that God love thee ardently then that thou love thy self God can be much more advantageous to thee and he takes content in communicating joyes to give us a fore-tast of his inebriating and beatifying sweetnes comforting us amidst the troubles of this life and recreating us by exhibiting an experiment of his deliciousnes The Apostles went rejoycing from before the face of the councel because they were made worthy to suffer a contumely for the name of IESVS Call to mind that admirable but true saying deem it all joy when ye fall into several remptations God could draw relief for the children of the Babilonian furnace from their very flames and turn their scorching heat into a refreshing dew he is also able to make adversities no wayes burdensome Further more if we rejoyce in their evils whom we hate thou wilt do no les in the miseries which befall thee and since thy crosses are much more numerous then thy crownes there must necessarily be more frequent occasions of joy then self love could ever minister Incommodities are allwayes ready and at hand commodities rare and long to be sought for wherfore he must needs have frequent occasions of rejoycing who rejoyceth in his adversities since he shal never want matter of suffering in this life Evil things are not so obnoxious to casualtyâ—s as good The
done which God wil have done according to his order or permission The XIII Chapter That we must give no eare to our own wil. HIs triumph over himself wil not be complete who leads pleasure captive unles he can master his own wil it is not enough to be rigidly severe against our senses but we must carry our selves also after the same fashion towards our soul and its free wil neyther must we debar our selves only of unlawful pleasures but also of lawful desires nor mortify only our flesh but loose also our soul that so we may gain it totally at long running Both our flesh our spirit have been found delinquents to almighty God It were a piece of injustice to punish one co-partner and quit the other to fine the servant and let the master go scot free We must do justice both upon flesh and soul not as many who contenting themselves with outward austerities are not sollicitous to reduce the interiour But since the soul is the prime criminal she in the first place must smart for it and there is no other way of sequestring her but in her wil by denying or cutting short whatsoever she likes or takes gust in The soul which hath been contemptuous towards God is worthy of death therefore it must die to its own wil in all things suffer in that wherein it hath been delinquent In nothing at all neyther little nor great must it procure or regard its interest otherwise if it be thus open-eyd it is not to be numberd among the dead Be mindful in nothing of thy own wil. Do the wil of God do the wil of thy brother do the wil of thy enemy him that injures thee rather then thy own if it may be accomplished without sin Thou wilt not arrive to a sufficient degree of mortification unles thou resign and transmit thy wil not only to God but also to man yea even to thy very enemies Be not too credulous in those things to which thy wil is carried with an impetuosity without having regard to the rule of reason but hold them all suspected although they hold forth never so faire a shew of good they are for the most part but a mere officiousnes or branchings of the sensual part which the divel makes use of to cloak his craft Let thy wil seek the glory of God and not grieve at the contempt of men let it attend and be sensible of the divine pleasure not thy own affliction let it be wholly emploid upon God and it wil find enough to do let it learn to wave all self content and proper gust though spiritual Although God relinquish thee to thy self in thy hardest pressures in thy spiritual desolations amidst the very powers of darknes assaild on all sides with tribulations and temptations thou must still persist faithful seeking no redress of comfort being ready to sustain that shock and any other inculpable calamity of thy soul so long as God shal be pleased to continue it though even to the day of judgment or for all eternity He that covets to serve God in truth must serve him gratis rather wishing and begging to be debard of all comfort deeming this abundantly sufficient if he can but conserve that place of his soul where God hath fixt his residence pure and unblemmished not permitting any thing else to enter and appear there as in the holy of holyes Thither must the high Priest IESVS only find entrance Some servants of God who were deluged with a sea of comforts obtaind by prayer the shutting up of these heavenly sluces and to be deprived of all sweetnes neyther would they afterwards admit of any such infusions though from heaven for some have not been wanting who refused Angels for their comforters For what great matter dost thou in rejecting acorporal gust which wil rather prove an affliction that bodily solace which hinders divine joy and sweetnes of spirit is too afflicting God deserves more at our hands then this For him thou must contemn all jubily of spirit and whatsoever is pleasing to nature and self wil. The service of a hireling is neyther constant nor faithful If thou serve God out of hope of comfort or relief though it be spiritual thou lovest not God himself and this comfort failing thee thou wilt often become slouthfully tepid Hence it is that we are subject to so many mutations that we are remiss that we make smal progress for as mariners hope for the wind so do we for the spirit of devotion and consolation without which we are becalmd and any adversity like a contrary blast beats us back yea we are much worse then mariners who know how to make way with a side or adverse wind Let us learn to advance forward even amidst oppositions aridities and tribulations It imports not whether thou serve God for the sensibility of interiour comfort or for some corporal commodity but only that thy service comes of les freely because requiring this gust of spirit thou sellest it at a dearer rate God is more valuable then thy gust it is better to have God then joy and yet where canst thou be o most delicious and sweet-rellishing God and the spirit shal not exult if thou discoverest thy self to it where shal thy benignity display it self the soul shal not be replenished with excess of joy but grant me that I may never wish my own joy but that thou maist be it never seek the gust of my own wil but the good pleasure accomplishment of thine O afflicted spirit if thou wouldst never seek thy own content comfort how much content wouldst thou find he that leaves house or land for God shal receive a hundred fold reward there is no equity that he who relinquisheth more should receive les He that relinquisheth his own wil and its content shal receive a hundred fold more in the same species for denying it then if he had given way to it for he doth the wil of God and shal deservedly receive a more ample recompense The more thou divorcest thy self from all gust of self wil and interest the more deliciously wilt thou rellish the divine wil a heavenly kind of tast and joy wil be infused into thy hart If God had made any one man so happy as to be in a perpetual fruition of his own wil no sooner said but done and so powerful as to be able to compass all his designes and that lawfully yea and were securely certain of the continuance of this power and good hap I am perswaded such a one would enjoy les content then another who followd his own fancy in nothing but renounced it in all for the love of God A certain contentive rellish of the wil doth accompany its fulfilling and there is no content nor complacence greater then that which God hath in the performance of his wil. If God should communicate to thee one drop of that delight of his wil which he imparts to those