art alwayes â—he slave of thy Passions and the drudge to thy senses In thy youth thou tookest pleasure to throw mony away but now thoâ— makest it a pleasure to get and hoard it up And what difference is there betwixt these two pleasures Are not they both pleasures of Sence and have they not both the same Source do not they produce the same effect and estrange thee from thy God hath a young brisk man in giving himself up to sensual pleasure any reason to think he deserve very highly because he does not now play at push-pin as he did in his child-hood Every age of life has its Passions and its Pleasures But all are enemies to Piety and Devotion Be not therefore in pain to knoâ— what makes thee sleep at Sermon 't is the Dâ—vil of voluptuousness that rocks thee asleep when thou ceasest to be attentive in thâ— prayers it is he who gets thy Ear and caâ—ries it elsewhere And thy insensibility 〈◊〉 to pleasure in the presence of thy God whâ— unites himself immediately to thee proceeâ— from thence that thou art buried in mattâ—â— and that being intirely turned towards coâ—poral things thou believest nothing Reaâ— but what strikes the sense and thou owne no true pleasure but what comes from seâ—sible things Reenter then o my Soul 〈◊〉 enter into thy self suffer not any longer bodily objects to blot out the very sight of thy Spirit Search after the presence of thy God Hear his eternal wisdom which speaks to thee within thy heart Resist the efforts the body makes to destroy thee Trust not the report of thy senses What they present thee take 'em not for true pleasures Regard not the things thou seest as worthy of thy application and esteem leave thy self to be filled with God and to be intirely taken up by him And if thou applyest thy self to him he will apply himself to thee and from this mutual application between thy Soul and thy God there will arise to thee such vast pleasures as thy Imagination can never be capable to conceive Prayer MY Lord and my God what shall I render unto thee for so many Benefits and how shall I do to atone for so many Ingratitudes Behold thou hast plac'd me in a Paradise where all sorts of good things abound and thou hast given me the use of all I see Thou hast made sensible Creatures that they may have accord and corespondence with my senses and that they may be an help unto me to lift me 〈◊〉 to things Intellectual But thorow my corruâ—tion they are become Snares and Sins unto 〈◊〉 I do not serve my self of these visible Creature to ascend to the invisible I use them to gâ— downwards within my self I wrap my self 〈◊〉 in matter there I stick and I bury my self 〈◊〉 corporeal things Thus I make my Mind thâ— slave of my Body Heaven Earth Air anâ— Sea are full of objects which should aid me 〈◊〉 know admire and â—raise thee but I use theâ— to offend thee All is full of such things 〈◊〉 flatter the flesh and raise sensual pleasures But o my God! thou dist make them with inteâ—â— I should not seek after sensible pleasures in them and overwhelm my self in carnal voluptuousness through thy profound wisdom and infinite power thou hast made Fishes in the Sea Fowls in the Air living Creatures on Earth Plants and diverse kind of Fruits the most delicious Liquours and all this for the taste Perfumes foâ— the smell Beauties for the sight harmonioâ— sounds for the Ears and diverse pleasuers for Touching I am sure O my God thou hast made this to save me and not to damn me If I had continued innocent and in the state wherein thou createst me I could not have abused so many goods in possessing them I should have â—ade such use of them as would not have abaâ—ed my mind to sensible things in seperateing â—ee from thee to whom I should become perfectly â—nited But now the Devil has spread his nets â—mong all thy Creatures he has fixt temptaâ—ons to all the objects of my Senses Thou berefore seest me o my God environed with â—empters on all sides I cannot open mine Eyes â—or Ears but some Image arrives that awakâ—â—s my besotted Imagination and foments my â—oncupiscence O my Saviovr be pleased to â—ard my Heart Make me vanquish all these â—mptations Give me the grace to reclame and â—fer thy Creatures to their proper use that â—may not abuse them in voluptuousness That â—e Knowledg of them may serve me to admire by Power and Praise thy Wisdom That from â—ese bodily Images I may draw spiritual Ideas 〈◊〉 that I may find in all things wherefore to gloâ—fie thee and my Spirit may return more and â—ore to thee O eternal infinite Spirit which â—t the Father of Spirits CHAP. II. That the Pleasures of the Senses neither iâ— their Vse nor in their Abuse do agree witâ— the spirit of Christianity and Devotion I Know very well that this Maxime must appeâ—â— strange to the greatest part of Mankind espeâ—ally to them who are forestalled by those Prinâ—â—ples which we have examined in the formâ— Chapter The Maximes of the Church are as oppâ—site to those of the World as Light to Darkness Tâ—â— World authorizes all the Pleasures of Sense the Chuâ—â— condemns almost all We do not here draw up a pâ—â—cess simply against those debaucht People whose naâ—â— is odious even in the Ears of the World We condeâ—â— those that repute themselves honest Persons who 〈◊〉 effect have some degree of moral honesty and whâ— life is shelter'd from the severity of laws but whoâ—â— sume and spend their life in the use of vain worldly pleâ—sures All those Pleasures that some believe Innocâ—â— are Enemies to Devotion and wholy disagree withâ— Spirit of Christianity as well in their use as in their abâ—â— Now if we cannot render this Truth victorious by pâ—rality of Suffrages at least wee will endeavour to renâ— it evident by strength of Reasons And first of all let us hear our Lord Jesus Christ speâ—ing from on high For where can we better find 〈◊〉 Spirit of Christianity than in Christ himself Let us hâ— him painting out the way to us that leads to life Wâ— is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to Destructâ—â— and many there be which go in thereat But strait is gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life If 〈◊〉 wouldest be perfect go sell all that thou hast and follow 〈◊〉 If any one would come unto me let him take up his Cross and follow me If thy right Eye or right Hand offend thee pluck them off and cast them from thee Blessed are the poor Blessed are they which hunger and thirst Blessed are they that mourn and are persecured The Disciples follow their Master and tell us likewise Mortifie your Members which are upon the Earth If any one love the World the love of the Father abideth not in him Be ye sober and watch Conform not
The Christians Guid to Devotion Printed for H. Rodes near Bride lane in Fleetst â—â—â—nford sc The Christians Guide TO DEVOTION WITH RULES and DIRECTIONS for the leading an Holy Life AS ALSO MEDITATIONS and PRAYERS Suitable to all Occasions By S. Smith The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Hen. Rodes next door to the Bear-Tavern in Fleet-street near Fleet-Bridge 1685. A Table of the Contents in this Tract PART I. Of the Nature and Effects of Devotion Chap. 1. WHerein Devotion generally consists Pag. 1. Chap. 2. Of its Effects Pag. 6. Chap. 3. The high necessity of Devotion Pag. 14. Chap. 4. Of its great Decay and Neglect Pag. 20. Chap. 5. That Indevotion is a greater Sin than it is commonly accounted Pag. 26. PART II. Of the Causes of Indevotion Chap. 1. First Impurity of Life Pag. 34. Chap. 2. Secondly Love of the World Pag. 39. Chap. 3. Thirdly The too great Passion we have for Earthly Pleasures Pag. 45. Chap. 4. Fourthly Worldly Cares and Troubles Pag. 52. Chap. 5. Fifthly Excessive Business Pag. 59. Chap. 6. Sixthly The custom of letting the Mind wander upon different Objects Pag. 66. Chap. 7. Lastly The Rareness and Interruption of holy Duties Pag. 73. PART III. Of the great Source of Indevotion the Spirit of the World and the love of Pleasure Chap. 1. That Voluptuousness is a mortal Enemy to Devotion What are the Sentiments and Maxims of the World concerning the Vse of Pleasure and Sensuality Pag. 81. Chap. 2. That Sensual Pleasures do not either in their Vse or in their Abuse agree with the Spirit of Christianity and of Devotion Pag. 94. Chap. 3. The same Truth more particularly and fully discuss'd Pag. 104. Chap. 4. What may be accounted innocent Pleasures That Devotion is no uneasie thing nor an Enemy to Pleasure Pag. 116. Chap. 5. That we are not to consult our own Heart and Senses upon the choice of Pleasures That Devotion leads us to true Pleasure Pag. 131. Chap. 6. That Young People have not any priviledge to use sensual Pleasures nor to dispence themselves from Devotion Pag. 147. PART IV. Of Directions and Helps conducive to Devotion Chap. 1. First General direction To will desire and ask it Pag. 159. Chap. 2. Secondly To lead an holy Life and practise all the Vertues Pag. 165. Chap. 3. Thirdly To be watchful over the Senses and not to let the Heart loose Pag. 172. Chap. 4. Fourthly To persevere in holy Duties and not to startle at any difficulties Pag. 177. Chap. 5. Fifthly To have God alwayes before our Eyes Pag. 183. Chap. 6. First particular direction To have our Hours of Devotion well chosen and ordered Pag. 189. Chap. 7. The second Help Solitude and Religious Assemblies Pag. 196. Chap. 8. The third Reading and Meditation Pag. 203. Chap. 9. The fourth Prayer Pag. 212. Chap. 10. The Fifth Fasting and mortification Pag. 218. Chap. 11. Touching the rash Judgment which is made of devout People Pag. 226. PART I. CHAP. I. What Devotion is and wherein it consists THIS is not a Subject to be defined according to Rules It has less of the School than the Closet and good ignorant Souls can instruct us better in it than those who have more Knowledge than Integrity Yet the Schools which busie themselves every where undertake to define Devotion as well as other things Some would define it by a tenderness of heart and 〈◊〉 mollified Spirit Others by an internal Comfort which the Devout are sensible of in their Practise of Piety A third sort say 't is a Quickness and Promptiâ—ude of Mind whereby holy People are carried to the Service of God Some there are who make it â—o consist in an unspeakable and a glorious Joy which â—lls the faithful and makes them say My Soul is satisfied â—s with Marrow and Fatness Others have defin'd it â—y the Affections In the first place to all this I say That it may be a piece of Rashness to go about to deâ—ne a thing we know not how well to express since 〈◊〉 is of the number of those which cannot well be conâ—â—ived but by them who feel it nor can well be deâ—â—ribed although one conceives it Nevertheless we cannot define it by one word alone nor by one motion of the Soul for it is composed of all the Species's of Passions it admits of contrary Sentiments 〈◊〉 has Desires and it has Fears Terrours and Hopes 〈◊〉 Love and Hatred Joy and Sadness Ardour and Zeaâ— Quickness and Alacrity It has Desires every Dâ—vout Soul vehemently desiring to be well with Goâ— and to be united to him As the Hart panteth after tâ—â— Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God 〈◊〉 Soul thirsteth for God for the living God When shall come and appear before God It admits of Fear for good Soul is ever afraid of its unworthiness to posseâ— the Graces which it so passionately desires I am 〈◊〉 worthy sayes it to our Lord Jesus that thou should'st coâ—â— under my Roof If it be in possession of its God it feâ—â— to lose him it watches even in sleep I sleep but 〈◊〉 Heart waketh fearing lest something should raviâ—â— away its Beloved Terrour also enters into the Compound of thâ— Vertue namely when the Soul is fall'n into soâ—â— great sin the presence of its God astonishes it and 〈◊〉 Majesty fills it with horrible Apprehensions Aâ—â— without this the devout Soul never presents it 〈◊〉 before God but it remembers that before him 〈◊〉 Angels tremble and it sayes Oh! how terrible is tâ— place this is the House of the living God Moreovâ—â— Love is to be found in it and we may say that Loâ—â— is as the Source and Basis of Devotion In considâ—ing both the Beauty and Goodness of God it is touch with a violent desire of Union It says with the Spoâ—â— Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth for his Lâ—â— is sweeter than Wine There is also Hatred for 〈◊〉 devout Soul cannot love God unless it renounce Sâ— love and hate the World the love of which is incâ—patible with that of God There is Joy too for â—â—ty has its Feasts and the Wise man says the heaâ— a just man is a continual Banquet Thou hast put sayes David more Joy in my heart than the wicked have of their abundance My heart is glad my Glory rejoyceth my Flesh also shall rest in hope Yet we must confess that this Light is not altogether pure Devotion has its Melancholy amidst its Joyes and frequently it sighs at the sense of its Infirmities The last ingredient of Devotion is Promptitude and Ardour which is as it were the Body of Devotion and appears more than the rest in a devout Soul It has an inconceivable chearfulness in the exercises of Piety it hears the Word it Prays it Reads it Meditates it communicates as others do the most Pleasant things in the World It runs it flies to these actions and undertaking 'em with a Gaiety of heart does 'em with great ease These
and which Death at least would have infallibly ravisht from thee Dost thou not know that the World and its Fortunes are all of Glass They shine but they are brittle The least blow shatters them and makes 'em to flye into a thousand pieces why then shouldest thou think it strange that Glass should break between thy Fingers Why art thou so sensible of Injuries and Offences And why dost thou make the malignity of another thy own misery why dost thou so bitterly lament the loss of some Persons that Death has taken up from thee they were not thine they were Gods who lent 'em thee and has retaken them In short Why art thou so prodigal of Tears whereof thou reapest no fruit that is to imploy ones Labour in that which profiteth not When thou bewailest O my Soul thy misfortunes thy tears do not make thy misfortunes to cease but mourn for thy Sins and thy Tears will destroy them They will whirl them away like a Torrent or a Deluge and they will be found no more Thy carnal anxieties trouble thy Devotion But the Grief which thou shalt have for thy Sins and Infirmities will augment it and God will comfort thee Prayer COme therefore thou Holy Ghost the Comforter who wert promised to us by the Son in behalf of the Father Come sweeten my bitter Anguishes by thy Delights and Mercies Come and recompence my losses by thy Riches Give me such joy as passes all understanding Give me Piety that I may have contentment of Mind and that the one and the other being joyned together may be great Gain to me and compose my soverign happiness Come and place my Soul in so firm a Seat and Posture that it may never be jogged or stagger'd even by the rudest blows Come and restore back to me what I have lost Goods Possessions Houses Husband Wife Children Kindred and my dearest Frinds Come my dear Saviour and let me possess thee perfectly instead of all things The World has taken away all it hath given me But it cannot ravish from me what thou shalt bestow upon me I make a Sacrifice to thee of all the Goods which I have lost If I have not lost 'em for thy Name yet at least I at present patiently suffer the loss of them for thy Name 's sake And therefore I hope thou wilt reward me as if I had lost them for thee In this Hope I banish my Cares and Troubles far from me to the end they may come no more to disturb and interrupt my Repose O my God make the Walls of my Closet impenetrable Ramparts such as cannot be pierced by the Darts of my persecuting Enemies So that I may be there in thy Presence as in a quiet and safe Haven against the Tempests wherein my Life is lost and that so the Commerce which my Soul would have with thee may not be interrupted by the remembrance of my Misfortunes but I may forget all my Griefs and Calamities in thy Presence CHAP. V. Of Excessive Business A fifth Source of Indevotion THIS is also another branch of the Love of the World and another let and hindrance to Devotion We love the World and give up our selves intirely to its Imployments One imploys himself in Traffique and thinks of nothing else Another he is oppressed with the Affairs of other men which he makes his own through interest He pleads as he saith for the defence of Justice but it is too often for iniquity and though he gains his Cause yet he loses his Conscience A physician Visits his Patients with a design to make 'em pay dear for his Services and Attendance The man of business is ever thumbing his Arithmetick The Mechanick exercising his Trade the Husband-man Agriculture And to these several ways goes the greatest and best part of their time And so much is the World corrupted as they think they deserve praises in that among the sundry ways of spending time this is the most innocent but it becomes criminal as soon as it robs us of our God and slackens our Piety The mind of man is so made as it cannot vigorously tend but to one Mark it cannot ardently will but one thing insomuch as if thou givest up the ardour and force of thy desires to thy Family and thy Occupations God will but partake of the Reliques of thy Soul and thy languishing motions I do not pretend here as if Persons of all conditions could give up themselves wholly to contemplation This contemplative Life is the Life of Angels and not of men and since that we are in part Body we must also live after a manner partly corporal A Bird let its wings be never so strong cannot always be flying A Soul has not strength enough to be evermore lifted up to Heaven I know moreover we ought to serve the necessities of Nature In a word I do not oppose the Order that man has received from God to eat his Bread by the sweat of his Brows and by his labour six days in the Week all I aim at is that the imployments of Martha may not hinder the work of Mary and that the Body being the worse Part of us may not carry away the better part of our time If there be any thing wherein we ought to laud and praise the great condescention of God to us it is in this all our time is his but he pleased to give us six parts in seven Six days shalt thou labour and on the seventh rest Seeing he has forgone so much we ought at least to be very exact to pay him this Tythe of our time one day in seven one hour in seven Six hours therefore should not slip by in a day without returning to God to give him the seventh Do more and imagine not you can do too much since you owe him all Why will you not have the same regard and consideration for the Soul as you have for the Body On it you bestow Refreshment and Rest and for this you intercept your most important Concerns that you may repair the decayed forces of Nature Take heed there be not made too great a dissipation of the Spirits of Grace call the Soul to its exercises of Devotion as to repasts which renders it vigorous and as to sleep during which it lyes in the Arms of its God labour often in this Divine Recollection and to withdraw the Soul from those wandring courses it makes in humane affairs Meals and repasts hastily taken are followed with a difficult digestion and very little nourishment and therefore we repose our selves while we eat let not any one tâ—en imagin he can serve God whilst he is doing something else These stirrings and turbulent Devotions are of ill consequence and instead of nourishing do load and clog the Conscience We must therefore in our ordinary imployments set aside some hour wherein our Souls may retire themselves as it were in an Haven to rejoyce over a Calm after a boysterous Tempest Whilst the Water
Dream which vanisheth away a Smoke which is consumed in its lifting up And as it speaks of it with contempt so it would also that we have little care of it Take no care of the Body saith St. Paul to obey the lusts thereof Take no thought for the morrow the morrow shall take thought for the things of its self be in litttle pain for what ye shall eat or wherewithal ye shall be clothed As for the Soul the holy Spirit would have us turn all our cares on that side He would have us vigilant and sober because the Devil watches about it as a roaring Lyon seeking to devour it He commands us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling and that we be in a perpetual solicitude about it He Orders us to nourish it with the milk of the Word sincere and without deceit and that we furnish it with strong meats He wishes us to entertain it continually in an holy joy He would have us search after those sovereign pleasures that are to be found in the possession of God which are only for the Soul The Gospel requires of us to imbellish it and that we labour to adorn it that it may be found a glorious Spouse not having spot or wrinkle worthy to be presented to its head the Lord Jesus Christ Examine the conduct of Voluptuous men it is quite contrary to this they act as if they were all Flesh and as if their Soul were only Salt to keep the Body from corrupting All the Ideas they have of Pleasure derive from the Senses and the Imagination and without a metaphor they are as they call themselves Men of Sense and they conceive no more what we call spiritual pleasures than blind men do colours As therefore they never tasted other delights than bodily ones they believe themselves oblig'd to the Body for all their Happiness And in effect so it is For at the time when they taste carnal Pleasures we cannot say they are unhappy since happiness consists in Pleasure and Joy and they have them at that moment So that because we intirely love what we consider as the source of our felicity we cannot think it strange that these worldly People love their body perfectly which they look upon as the only Source of their Pleasures We see also that these men have the same Sentiments for their Body as holy men have for God who is their sovereign good and in whom they find their sovereign pleasure They adore this Body of theirs they cherish they perfume it they offer Incense and Sacrifice to it If one should give a blow or a gird to this same Body Oh! how jealous they are on 't as of a Divinity More Indignation they have against him that should hurt this Flesh than against a Blasphemer or a Sacrilegious Person In a word their Body holds so much of a Divinity that they Sacrifice unto it even their very Conscience nay and God himself But nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity and Devotion than this Sentiment For the truly faithful ones are oblig'd to slight the Body to sacrifice it to God to see it torn in pieces for his name and to renounce all the pleasures of sense for his Glory The Spirit of the Gospel and of Devotion absolutely tends to the contempt of the World but the spirit of Voluptuousness and sensuality to the love of the World How must we love the World when it caresses us and is mighty kind and pleasurable to us if we love it when it persecutes us and steeps us in Gall The World is a mere Cheat and Gull and an undeniable Source of Delusions it masques it self and would be seen by us under the image of fleshly pleasure It imbraces us under the habit of Flowers but under these Flowers are a thousand Thorns We do not see these thorns we only smell the Flowers we are sensible of such pleasures and love that causes them But all the World knows nought is more contrary to Devotion than the love of the World and we have made it appear elsewhere so as by consequence nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity and Devotion than sensual Pleasure The Spirit of Christian Religion would inspire a contempt of the present and a desire after the other Life Now certain it is that nothing tyes men so much to Life as the pleasures of Sense the Saints say and ought to say I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better I know when this earthly house shall be dissolved we have an House eternal in the Heavens and therefore we desire to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven None of these things moving neither count I my Life dear unto my self As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God When shall I come and appear before God It 's impossible that men who live in a perpetual use of Voluptuousness should have these thoughts Every one wishes to be happy and when once he is or at least believes he is so he cannot renounce what he fancies the cause of his felicity these carnal-minded men think themselves happy at such time as they injoy their Pleasures they have no Idea of any other Beatitude but of that they injoy in this present life They can every day speak both about another life and another happiness But they have got an habit not to let themselves be touch'd but by sense and Imagination and so because this life and this happiness do not fall under their Senses nor can be imagined by them they cannot consider them but as imaginary Beings which have no relation to them because they have not any Idea of them in their minds Moreover their hearts meeting in this life with a fat Land that is much prosperity do take very deep rooting there Their affections being thoroughly ingaged in carnal pleasures bound themselves in the possession of Sensible Objects they wish for nothing more besides for that no body wishes for things which he does not know and whereof he has no clear and certain Ideas The Earth becomes their Country they naturalize themselves here every thing else is a strange and unknown Land Let people say what they please but questionless we have an ill preparation for Death in the continual use of those pleasures whose Innocence the World maintains O Death said a Wise Man how cruel is the remembrance of thee to him that lives quietly among his Possessions One lives indeed more commodiously in a Palace than in a Prison but one finds it more trouble to dye in that than in this How insupportable is the thought of Death his presence how affrightful to him who lives in the midst of Pleasures he looks upon Death as a Judge that comes to pronounce on him a dismal Sentence or an Executioner that seizes him to be lead to punishment But the faithful one who has ever held his Flesh
tasts it's chief Pleasure And if we please we may call this chief Pleasure the chief Happiness of man But men are terribly chows'd herein They are persuaded that the Soul is not capable of any true Pleasure without it be what comes from the Body Among men generally a spiritual pleasure and a chimerical pleasure are all one All those who make their felicity to consist in Contemplation and in Actions intirely removed from those which make up carnal pleasure pass in the World for visionary wights this Errour springs from the Heart and Senses And therefore I say that in the Judgment we ought to have of pleasures and in the choice we ought to make thereof we are not to consult either our Senses or our Heart This mistake I say is caused by the Heart and Senses because they believe nothing agreeable but what is agreeable to them We judge things good or evil only according to the relation they have to the Faculties whereunto they raise either pleasure or Pain And therefore the Heart and Senses which are corporeal cannot be touch'd by spiritual things They judge these cannot be agreeable because they are sensible of no Pleasure in them Just as a blind man if he would judge according to the report of his Senses undoubtedly he would judge that there are no colours or if there were they could not make any Impression upon his Senses This is then an Imposture which we must lay open and disperse First of all we ought to remember that Man is made up of two parts the Soul and Body Each of these parts hath it's separate and distinct Goods The Goods of the Mind are spiritual and those of the Body necessarily corporeal Of these two parts the Soul is infinitely the more excellent From this Man is properly denominated and the Body is but a Retainer to him so that consequently the Goods and Pleasures which belong to the Soul by its self are infinitely greater than those which come by the interposition of the Body Lastly 't is very easie to comprehend why the Senses and the Heart indge otherwise These being bodily Faculties we need not wonder they hold clearly for bodily things As for the Senses this is without dispute they are corporeal both in their Organs and in their Operations they perceive only the Superficies of Bodies This is no less true of the Heart it is corporeal too for I understand by the Heart the seat of the Passions and the Imagination 't is very evident that both these Faculties are bodily Faculties For the Imagination is the feat wherein are represented those Images that come from the Senses and offer themselves to our Mind in the absence of Objects The Passions also are corporeal because they are formed by Mechanical Movements This is manifest by those Characters they impress upon the Body as the motion of the Blood quick slow or precipitate Paleness or Ruddiness of Complexion the Fire and languishing which they impress upon the eyes The Senses and Heart which are corporeal being the Gates whereat Objects do enter and accost the mind bring nothing to it but bodily Images and raise in it only sensual Pleasures and the Soul hereby gets an habit of believing there are no other Pleasures besides these since it does not endeavour to disingage it self from the Body and to taste others But can it be possible we should be such enemies to our selves and so irrational as to believe our Senses touching a thing of so great Importance The Senses are unable to know the thousandth part of Bodies As soon as ever a Body ceases to have a considerable Extension we cease to see and feel it and would we make these very Senses to be judges of things absolutely Spiritual Certainly the Soul is very unhappy and very much a Slave if it cannot taste that Pleasure which is its sovereign Felicity but it must be beholden to the Body for it If Matter be the Spring of true Pleasure what do those Souls do I wonder that are separated from Matter what must be the Beatitude of Angels that have no Body Is it not true that their Pleasures ought to be as far above ours as Minds are above Matter Assuredly spiritual Pleasures spring from the knowledge of Truth from the practise of Virtue from our union with God by the tyes of Love and from that Action whereby God unites himself immediately to our Soul All this is intirely above the Senses they are not acquainted with Truth for their Office is to report the Appearances of Bodies They cannot judge of Virtue it is not under their Jurisdiction much less can they judge of that Union betwixt God and the Soul And yet although they make no report to us about any of these things we are not nevertheless to doubt of the real Impressions they make upon our Souls But from whence comes it say some that spiritual Pleasures are not so touching and make not such strong Impressions upon the Soul as bodily ones doe For you see not say they your devout People in those Transports of Joy and Pleasure as we see men have in the injoyment of Sensual Pleasures Is not this a proof that those intellectual pleasures are merely imaginary or at least that they are very weak and languishing This difficulty arises from that men know not how to distinguish the Soul from the body they believe it is concern'd in proportion to the greatness of the agitations of the Bodily Organs They are persuaded that it cannot receive an impression of Joy but by the interposal of these great corporeal motions But the thing is far otherwise 't is certain that in the great Pleasures which the Soul receives from the Body the great corporeal Agitations re'ncounter one another and it receives not those pleasures but by favour of these agitations and because the Bloud and Spirits are in a great heat and ferment But the Pleasures of holy Persons which are lock'd up in the Soul it self and which exert no external Characters do not fail to make very powerful Impression These Pleasures are so great and so touching that they carry the Soul out of the World And the Joy which springs from the possession of God from the Knowledge of his Truth and the imitation of his Vertues and Attributes must needs infinitely transcend all the pleasures of the Body Since that for these spiritual pleasures we not only renounce bodily ones but also expose our selves to all even the most sensible pains True it is the more the Soul is accustomed to let its self be moved by the Agitations which do cause corporeal Pleasures and Passions the more is it uncapable of tasting Internal joys and spiritual Pleasures And this is one of the greatest mischiefs that spring from the continual use of sensuality the Soul waxeth fat as the holy Ghost speaketh the heart of the Wicked is fat as grease he hath prophaned the Rock of his Salvation It covers its self as it were with
are methinks the movements that compose Devotion but we must observe that in all People they are not evermore in the same degree Always some one of them does Reign sometimes Joy bears sway another while Grief oftentimes Alacrity other times the Desires And hence it comes to pass that if we consult the Devout upon the nature of Devotion they will answer us very differently because every one will say that he feels within himself and that every one feels within himself things very different from those of other men It happens also that one and the same Soul feels a different Devotion at divers times the Motions whereof we have spoken ruling by Turns To day a faithful Person shall be fill'd with hope in the view of a blessing to come and to morrow with joy in the possession of the present good One time by reason of his Sins Sadness shall domineer another time the Desires shall reign and this alteration proceeds from the diversity of Estates wherein the Conscience finds it self and the variety of Prospects which Meditations presents it withall in considering God some times with respect had to his Love and Mercy other times to his Severity and Justice Frequently too he will eye his Conscience both in its strongest and in its weakest parts and this may change some things in the Agitations of his Devotion Chearfulness likewise which seems to be the very Essence and Soul of this Virtue is not inseparable from it and sometimes the most heav'nly Souls find themselves under a gloomy and sad weight But when this Briskness is absent its place is possest by a stinging Displeasure for its Absence Meditation ALas my Soul how ignorant art thou in things Divine The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him These are profound Abysses which thou canst not sound Thy light is nothing but darkness But yet astonishing it is not that thou knowest not heavenly things which God has reserv'd to himself and lockt up in his own Breast 'T is more strange thou knowest not what God does in this and art ignorant of those Divine things which are in thy Heart Vain and haughty as thou art with the advantages which Nature has given thee above the visible Creatures thou saiest thou art an incarnate Angel say rather that thou art an Angel imprisoned in a dark and dismal mansion who knowest but in part and see'st but in part obscurely and as in a Glass through the thick veil of Flesh and Blood Prayer O My God thou Father of Lights from whom cometh every good and perfect gift open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law I am a Stranger upon Earth and a Sojourner Oh! hide not from me thy Commandments I am inquiring into the Nature of Devotion I shall not be able to know it without thee In vain shall I search for it in the works of another unless I find it in mine own Heart I do not find what I seek for there where then shall I find it Even in thee my God who art the Source of what I look for Raise therefore in my Heart those flames of Zeal and Piety that being filled therewith my Soul may not need but to study it self to attain this knowledge and after the attainment may be able to love it and make others do so too Let it sparkle and shine in all my Words and Actions like a Torch that lights my Neighbours and let it kindle in them the holy flames of Devotion CHAP. II. Of the Effects of Devotion IN speaking of the nature of Devotion in the precedent Chapter we insinuated all its Effects but it will not be amiss nor unprofitable to unfold them a little more for these Effects well understood will lead us to the knowledge of the Cause and serve us for a Touch-stone whereby pious Souls may try both the purity and the progress of their Devotion The first of these effects is a vehement Passion to converse with God and pour forth our grief into his Bosom to hear his Word and to receive the Gages of his Love in his Sacraments You see this Disposition in David who sighs after the House of God and finds nothing in his Exile more insupportable than his Banishment from the Court of the Lord's House Jealous he is of the Condition of the Swallows that build their Nests there He would be a Door-keeper in this house and never stir from thence My Soul hath a desire to enter into thy Courts says he I have asked one thing of the Lord that I may dwell in his house all the days of my life He avows that the hopes of seeing God again in his house do sustain him and keep him from falling into Despair I had fainted unless I had believed to see the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living The faithful Soul has no less Passion for the Solitude of its Closet than David had for the Temple of his God It looks upon those hours as lost which 't is obliged to throw away upon the World and as soon as it can withdraw it self from the hurry and bustle of Affairs it runs to the Bosom of its God as the Hart to the Water-brooks as a covetous Person to the search of Riches as a Courtier watches for the Hour and Place to see his Prince and to be seen and receive from him considerable Favours A second Effect is a Joy which we may call inconceivable when the Devout in their Devotions feel their Heart display'd and the Holy Ghost appears with all the Riches of his Grace and all the Treasures of his Consolations If any one should inquire of such a Soul why it is so satisfied perhaps it would be an hard matter for it to tell him but the true cause of this Joy is That God does exert in it his comfortable and wholsom Rays which are ever accompanied with a plenary Happiness The Pleasure which an avaricious man takes in counting his Money which the ambitious taste in hoping for new Grandeurs which the Epicurean finds in his Feasts and Debauches all this I say is unsavoury and of a bad taste in comparison of that Joy which the pious Soul perceives in communicating with its God This is an Ocean which overwhelms and drowns all the Perplexities and Troubles of the Flesh The Persecuted find here their Sanctuary the Poor Riches the Sick-man Health the Contemptible Glory the Humble Grandeur and the Miserable a general Oblivion of all his Calamities This is that wherein a Soul tired with the World finds that heavenly Repose which makes it with Indignation and yet with Pity look upon the cruel Agitations of worldly men that are tied to the racking Wheels and Stones of Ixions and Sisyphus's that is to say to Labours that always return and never have an end Hence springs another effect of Devotion namely To forget this World When the Devout Person shuts the door
heart into a good condition to hope a good success of its worship Tho never so much prepared it cannot be too good for him to whom we ought to present it It will be an acceptable thing to be receiv'd in this Estate And what on the contrary can we expect in presenting to him an indevout Soul but a shameful and sad refusal God does not hear our prayers unless the Heart be disposed to make them Seek and ye shall find saith our Lord but seek with zeal otherwise ye shall not find God said once I was found of them that sought me not But this does not happen every day this is but one of those singular events whereby general Rules are not established But the Law in common bears Ask and it shall be given Lay hold on the Kingdom of Heaven and thou shalt obtain it To what is not Devotion useful It is of use in all Places all times and all things as well in the Closet as the Church thereby we hear the Word pronounced by men as if it were truly the word of God and receive it as the dry and chapped Earth does the rain Hereby the Consecration of the Divine benefits touches us the thought of God's love inflames us his promises comfort us his threatnings terrifie us and his Consolations have their Efficacy upon us Without this the word which ought to be a two-edged Sword recoyls and turns its edge on the hardness of our hearts and without this we joyn the Sin of Insensibility to that of Impenitence By this we look upon every thing in the Church with veneration the Preacher as the Embassador of the Gospel his Word as the voice of Heaven The Faithful as the Children of God and as it were a Troop of Angels that always rejoyce in his presence the Sacraments as precious vessels the appearance whereof is contemptible but which do contain the Treasures of his Grace and Mercy It 's Devotion that makes our Closets to become little Churches whether the Divinity descends and upon which it extends its Wings like the Cherubims over the Mercy-seat where God speaks to our heart as we speak to his ears where he makes us understand his Oracles and taste his Consolations where he says to us in a still small voice My Son or my Daughter Be of good chear arise thy Sins are forgiven thee Oh! how blessed is the faithful Soul that God honours with such sacred Entertainments Now he does never do this but when call'd upon if not forced by an ardent Devotion These desires of Devotion may be the Eyes of the Spouse whereof it is said Turn away thine Eyes from me for they have overcome me Far be from hence those prophane Wretches that know not the use of Devotion They say that Valour is the Rampart of Estates and the Tutelary Angel of the Publick and of Privates that Liberality sweetens the misfortunes of the miserable that Justice is the nurse of Peace and the ligament of Society that Temperance causes tranquillity of mind and health of Body But say they Devotion 't is alone that is good for nothing but to render the mind weak and effeminate and to depress the Spirits Do not call so universal a Vertue unprofitable without which all the rest are meer shadows for he that having not a habit of Devotion does not refer all his vertues to the Glory of God is a bad good man Do not call that an useless Virtue which appeases the wrath of God and turns away the Tempests flying over States a Virtue which had drawn Sodom out of the Fire had there been found there but ten devout Persons like Abraham who would have Devoutly with him interceded for it a Virtue which saves the Church so often from ship-wrack a Virtue which in the Conscience raises up and establishes a profound Peace and a Divine Light Do not fay that it softens the Mind seeing it confirms the Courage makes men run to death as to a Feast makes 'em to despise Perils and in its occasions mannages nothing wherein the Glory of God is not concerned Meditation SEE one of the causes of my luke-warmness and one of the reasons why my Soul is little devout The necessity of Devotion it comprehends not whereas it knows that Food is necessary for the conservation of its bodily Life It desires nourishment with a great ardour and searches after it with a marvellous diligence But negligent it is in all those things which serve to nourish Piety and the flames of Devotion since it does not beleive that 't is of any great use Thou see'st O my Soul some who save themselves with a languishing Piety and go to Heaven at a very slow pace Thou persuadest thy self that God will not be more rigorous to thee and that there will not be more exacted from thee than from others But alas what an errour and fallacy is there in this reasoning Such an one as thou believest to be in the way to Heaven is a marching towards Hell There is such a way that seems right to man the end of which nevertheless is Death These chill Devotions wherewith People believe God is well paid are oftentimes very fruitless They may think it fine one day to say we have prayed to thee we have invok'd thy Name we have served thee The Lord will not fail to answer I do not know who ye are go far from me ye that are neither cold nor hot I will cast you up out of my mouth Prayer MY God conduct my Soul in the surest path I know not how to sound thy Mercy nor do I know how far the severity of thy Juctice will carry it self and no further I know not whether thou wilt pardon so many People that serve thee with so little Zeal and so much indevotion That which I know is that they are unworthy of thy clemency anâ— that they cannot be saved unless they sincerâ—ly repent of having served thee with so much indifference Let the Candle of my Soul thâ— holy Spirit which has inlightened thy Church in all ages and the faithful at all times inspire me with such frankincense of Devotion as with which I know that one may be saved and without which I know not if one caâ— be saved Kindle my heart that it may be an Altar where an eternal Fire may burn in which all my sacrifices may be consumed and which may make all my prayers as thâ— Perfumes of incense to mount up in thy Presence CHAP. IV. That Devotion is extremely rare and neglected HERE is an Exception to the general Rule that things rare are esteemed nothing in the World more rare than Devotion and nothing more neglected Herein men do not sin through Ignorance they know very well what we have said in the precedent Chapter that without these devout dispositions or Prayers they cannot please God Nevertheless one cannot Express the horrible negligence with which they perform this pious Duty as well as all others
Heart of mine is made I think of Marble and Ice How is' t possible it should continue insensible amidst so many Objects which are capable to move it How can it be ungrateful when it is invironed with so many Favours from Heaven How is it possible it should not tremble before him whose Presence makes the Angels to tremble Why does not my Soul that is changed and destitute of all Good run with ardour to a Source so pure and so refreshing One Tear I cannot draw from my Eyes nor one Sigh from my Heart Every day I present my self before my God with dry Eyes with an humble Body but with a proud Soul and frequently with so great an Air of Negligence that the Tone of my Voice the Posture of my Members and generally all that is seen and heard in me speaks my Indevotion When have I insulted over my own Heart how often have I said to my self thou wicked Soul why dost thou not quake and shiver within me why dost thou not fear him whom none can fear enough and why dost thou not love him infinitely who has infinitely loved thee If thou lov'dst and fear'dst this God as thou oughtest this God soveraignly adorable whom the Angels love and fear thou cou'dst not be cold in his Service nor adore him in so languishing a manner Prayer ALas my God! thou seest how I groan under the burthen of my Corruption anâ— of my Indevotion Help me then to rid my self of 'em so that those motions of Piety and Zeaâ— which thou lovest so much may henceforth be as frequent in my Soul as they have been rareby till this preseâ—â— that the movements of my Devotion may not resemble those Sparks which flye up from a great company of Embers and then grow cold and are extinguished but be of those pure slames which burn perpetually even in the midst of Water and resist the Stormâ— and Tempests of Temptation Corruption and bad Examples And that being far from suffering my self to be carried away by the Torrent of Corruption and Indevotion which obtains even in the Sanctuary I may cause my Righteousness to shine like a Candle in the midst of Darkness CHAP. V. That Indevotion is a far greater crime than it is commonly thought TOuching the indevotion of the Profane I do no speak but of those that would be called thâ—t children of God I speak of all those neglects and coldnesses of all those distractions and vain and carnal thoughts which traverse the excercises of Piety The principal reason of the commonness of this crime is the opinion which people have that it is a very small fault There is nothing which they do not say and imagine to flatter themselves in this Vice One says 't is the nature of the Soul to be active and boyling we cannot fix it upon one only object it takes fire and evaporates even when we believe we can holdit It is say they a Malady of the Soul of which it self is not culpable Ah! certainly if it were an evil intirely unvoluntary it would very well deserve we should deplore the misery of the Soul 'T is a sign of a strange Irregularity and a proof that Sin is caused within by great disorders If you see a man in the midst of a discourse of good sense wander all on a sudden and speak a thousand impertinences and extravagant things will not you say he has a Desultory wit and an ill-biass'd Spirit Is it not a proof of a great Disorder in the heart to perceive ones self in the midst of ones devout thoughts to evaporate to go and take a leap from ones self and the Subject to fall into a thousand Chimerical imaginations But further I say there is as much of a crime as of misery in this Evil. It 's sufficient to know that Sin is the cause of this disorder to be assured there is sin in it The Product of a criminal cause cannot be Innocent and I fancy that the inferiour part of the Soul being corrupted by Sin is like to marrish and fenny places from whence Vapours are continually elevated to Heaven which oftentimes obscures the Sun Our passions 't is true do raise up the Clouds of vain and evil thoughts that rob our hearts of the Suns sight but what of this does it not follow that this is not a great evil do not all crimes come from this Source and are they therefore the less to be condemned We imagine that the mind of man cannot be fixt which is false and a thousand Experiments can shew us the contrary Were you to appear before a great Prince to defend your Life you would think so eagerly and earnestly upon the business that no other thing would be allowed admittance into the thoughts in speaking to him you wou'd not suffer the least Distraction The Niggard that counts his Treasures does not hear when any one comes to knock at the Door of his Cabinet A man that is upon an important Affair and gives up his mind to it never finds these wandrings of Imagination It 's true then that it is possible to hinder this Levity of mind whereof we complain as of an incurable evil Thus in the vice of Indevotion there 's a sort of Pride of being unwilling to humble our selves worthily before God in whose presence all Nature trembles I would fain know whether a King would take it well that in doing him Reverence one should turn his back upon him or that one should do him Homage with an air of disdain and this is what we do to God We give him not the very Moity of our heart To slight and despise him whom the Angels adore can it be call'd a Peccadillo The Lord reigneth let the Earth be moved are very rare words in our mouth And seeing that God does not immediately avenge himself on the great contemners of his Majesty without fear we take up an habit of defying him Unquestionably if there were nothing else in Indevotion besides the crime of Disobedience 't would be enough to render us worthy of all the most severe punishments We know mighty well that God commands us Ardour and Zeal and we cannot be ignorant how he calls us to take the Kingdom of Heaven by Violence We hear it said every day that he casts up the Luke-warm out of his mouth We read every where that the way of the Faithful ought to be in a swift Course and not a slow walk And in short we know very well that he would have us be eaten up with the Zeal of his House Maugre all these Commands and Orders still cold we are and languishing Who then shall be obey'd if God be not He who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire he who hath so many means to revenge himself upon Rebels and to reward the Obedient he lastly whose commands are ever just and ever holy Let no one tell me then that this is a light fault since 't is a
and we have need of a free mind They make real Joys and Griefs to spring up for imaginary Adventures Into the Mind they put Idea's and into the Heart vain Motions which ruine the holy Dispositions that we would establish in a devout Soul The same I say of a Play a Fury which agitates men like a kind of Demoniac Spirit A Man sees his Life and his Death that I may so speak his Fortune and his Misfortune a rouling with inconceivable Transports and Inquietudes His Soul is agitated at the same time with a thousand Passions with Fears Desires Hopes and his Heart is entirely put besides the Seat Is such a Man in a Condition to lift up his Soul to God Such fine Devotions as these are they which are made after having past half the Night in this exercise The Tempest has been over great a long time will the Waves be moving the Soul will be a good while levelling it self and yet after this the Sweetnesses Devotion will not be according to the Palate for thâ— they are not carnal Pleasures of which alone it sensible Whence it comes to pass that young Peâ—ple are very rarely fit for the Elevations of Devotion They are but lately come into the World and all 〈◊〉 it appears mighty fine These Pleasures they gâ—â— down by long Draughts and nothing appears pleasâ—â— unto 'em but what flatters Flesh and Blood whiâ—â— boils in their Veins Hence also it comes that thâ— Constitution where the Blood has the Ascendaâ—â—â— which is the Temperament of the World's Joy is 〈◊〉 proper for Devotion than that which has the Ingredâ—ents of Earth and Melancholy the former is like 〈◊〉 Matter extreamly combustible which takes fire 〈◊〉 the least Sparkle but the latter being more difficuâ— to be moved is less sensible of what charms other and that which pierces through them negligentâ—â— passes it by We ought therefore to draw Men out of this erroâ— They imagine they can divide themselves betwiâ—â— heavenly and earthly Joy but it is impossible In thâ— Rank of unclean Creatures the Law plac'd those Amphibious Birds which both swim and flye and live in 〈◊〉 double Element of Air and Water This is the Eâ—â—blem of worldly Men evermore they swim in fleshly Pleasure and sometimes by weak Soarings they try to get out thence and reach Heaven but it happenâ— to 'em just as it does to those Aquatic Fowls whose flight goes no further than to touch and curle the Superficies of the Water with their Wings and then they forthwith fall down again Delicate and rare says St. Bernard is the Divine Consolation 't is a chast Woman but jealous who deserving only to be beloved cannot give her self to him that runs after strange Women Wherefore Solomon pronounceth Vanity upon all the Pleasures of the Earth whereof he had made a very large Experience It 's for this also that David declares so of ten that he will not have any other Pleasure than that of his God To draw near to God is my Good to be united to him is my All. Forsake all says St. Austin and thou shalt find all for that Man will find all in God that despises all for God's sake Behold here one of the main Counsels which can be given to pious Minds which undertake to dispose themselves to Devotion Renounce renounce thou devout Soul all the Pleasures of the Earth and make choice of Spiritual ones let reading in holy Writings charm thee as worldly-minded People are charmed by their ill Books let religious Assemblies and preaching of the Word divert thee as much as they divert themselves by their criminal Shows let the Works of Mercy toward the Poor and Afflicted be used by thee as the men of the Age use their vain Courses their Sports and their Converse and if thou takest any Recreations and Refreshments let Honesty and severe Vertue be the Governess of all thy Pleasures Meditation HOW unhappy art thou O my Soul to be born in Aegypt and not to be ensible of the blessings of the true Canaan or this reason thou turnest thy eyes so ofâ—en upon the World and at the same â—our that thy Heart should be intite in â—eaven at the time of thy Devotion and â—ravers thou thinkest on Onions Garlick â—nd Flesh-pots which thou didst eat when thou wast the Slave of the Devil and thâ— World Thou hast not yet tasted thâ— delights of Pious and Devout Souls that say I am satisfied as with Marrow and Fatnesâ— Oh! how good the Lord is I have tasted him He brought me into his Banquetting-House His Love is sweeter than Wine and thâ— Honey Let him kiss me with the Kisses 〈◊〉 his Mouth Would to God I were honoured with these secret communication whereof my Saviour makes some Priviledged Souls to partake which fill them witâ— Joy even in the midst of Torments anâ— make them find musick in Prisons and 〈◊〉 the rattling of their Irons Learn O mâ— Soul learn to seek thy Pleasures and Dâ—lights in God he is the Source All Joâ— that comes not from him terminates aâ— length in grief saddness lamentations dâ—spair and gnashing of Teeth What doâ— my heart wish for what does it hunger anâ— thirst after dost thou love Beauty In Goâ— thou wilt find it and God will give it thâ— thy self for thou wilt become glorious anâ— full of light by the commerce thou shaâ— have with him Dost thou love Life anâ— Health He is the well of Life and in 〈◊〉 Light shall we see Light and he will communicate a Life to thee ever healthful and vigorous that is Eternal Life Dost thou love pleasures Lo he will make thee drink at the Stream of his Delights He will fill thee with the Wine prepared by the Divine Wisdom that saith I have mixt my Wine I have killed my fat Beasts He will cause thee to see such Objects as will ravish thee He will make thee hear a sweet and charming Musick in the consort of Angels and Saints who eternally sing the praises of our God After so many Blessings either already received or already possest in hope can I still be at all sensible of the vain Pleasures of the Earth Prayer O My God my divine Saviour come and fill my Soul with those sweetnesses that thou communicatest to thy faithful servants give me the bread which came down from Heaven the true Manna and bread of Angels that makes me taste of pleasures which stifle and choak the sense of worldly pleasures and the taste of sublunary divertisements Let thy Sabbaths be my Feast days Let thy word be sweeter to me than Honey and than the drops of Honey And let the meditation of those joys which thou preparest for me in Heaven ravish me in such a manner that I may be no more either the World's or my own but be intirely Thine Make Heaven to descend upon Earth in my favour Enlarge my heart Make there a little Paradise Shed down upon it so great an abundance of thy Light of
is rouling or stirring it can neither receive nor reflect well the Image of the Sun so a Soul in continual action cannot receive the impressions of Grace the beams of the glorious Jesus nor the likeness of our great God Thou raging and rouling Sea hold thy self then still and hust stop thy Surges to be the Looking-glass of the Heavens to the intent all those matchless and illustrious lights may penetrate thee and paint themselves in thee How can the knowledge of God said St. Basil enter into a Soul taken up with a crowd of carnal thoughts It ought to be master of its time and its self to be presented to God Pharaoh knew this well since he told the Israelites What ye say come and let us sacrifice to our God proceeds from that ye are Idle Certain I am God does not love slothful People and how should he love idle Lives that will take account of every idle word But yet neither does he love People over busie Martha Martha says he Thou art cumbered and troubled about many things Thy Sister Mary has chosen the good Part. She did not labour about Evil things but too many things She did even good works in doing what she did she served our Lord she prepared him meat and drink If there could be excess in these holy Employments when they hinder us from approaching often enough to the Throne of Grace what must we believe touching the imployments of the World what people will be excluded from the sacred feast of our Saviour Why those men of Business one of whom forsooth bought a yoke of Oxen and will go to try them another has purchased an House and he must needs go see it a third is contracted to a Wife and he will wed her Such Persons will find the Gate shut and barr'd they come not time neither will they find any one to open unto theâ— It will be said to them as it was to others go ye wâ—kers of Nothing I know you not Let us not say the such a way I must go to day to morrow another must do such a thing and finish such an affair afterwaâ— I will think upon God! O my Soul Thy great concernâ—â— to set thee well with thy God 't is to consult him often about the Disposition wherein he is with thee 't is to sollicite his mercy and implore the succours of his Grace 't is to pay him thy just Homages and place all thy inteâ—est in him It is the one thing necessary choose then thâ— good part which shall not be taken away from thee Thiâ— one thing I do forgetting those things which are behinâ— and reaching forth unto those things which are before 〈◊〉 press toward the Mark. Let not therefore the Indevout Person come with his Objection from the multiplicity of his Affairs the most busie steal their moments for Pleasure and whâ— can't they then for a Duty Let no one oppose us with the goodness and innocence of particular Imployments nothing is innocent that renders us culpable before God in estranging us from him But what shall we say of those Persons who create to themselves affairs of vast and mighty importance in the due setting of a Tower or accurate scituation of a Spot who consult their Glass an hundred times to place every thing in its proper order who imploy the best part of their lives in-these Idle Businesses and amidst all this find scarce a minute to consecrate to Devotion I say that these Women are to render an account of all and of the time which they have so miserably squander'd away and of their Beauty whereof they have made so bad a use and of the unjust Division they have made betwixt God and their own Idol seeing they have given all their Hours to the Service of this and to God only some moments of unadvised and hasty Devotion Meditation Wretched Soul how miserable art thou to be obliged to serve perpetually a Body that renders thee nothing but evil for all the good that thou hast done it Thou travellest after many things Thou runnest from one end of the World to the other Thou venturest upon the Tempests of the Sea thou exposest thy self to their fury Thy Body is burnt by the heats of the Sun From Icy Climates thou passest into the Torrid Zone For whole years thou sail'st upon the mouth of Abysses to seek Riches Gold Silver precious Stones and all manner of Delicates If thou dost not do this thou dost somewhat else which is no better and thou sustain'st as great Labours and which are no less vain and all for a Body that is Dust and must return to Dust True it is that to take care of thy Body is a Yoak that God has laid upon thee but thou thy self makest this Yoak infinitely more weighty The Body would be content with a very little if thou would'st serve it as it should be served and by consequence it would rob thee of but a little time but thou givest it all What blindness and what fury is this Whaâ— will return to thee of all thy Labours Thâ— Body for which thou takest so much pains will carry nothing away with it of these Riches which thou amassest for it except a winding-sheet an herse-cloth and perchance will have and hold a short while five or six feet of Earth O my Soul it 's of thee thoâ— ought'st to think and for thee thou ought'st to provide Thou art a Queen and thou becomest a Slave Thou should'st be served and lo thou servest Thou neglectest to gather the true Riches together and therefore thou art poor blind and naked I counsel thee then to get Gold Rayments and Nourishment of him who saith Every one that thirsteth come ye to the Waters buy Wine and Milk without Mony and without price Prayer MAke me O my God to know that thou art the sovereign Good the only good worthy alone to be sought after and worthy alone to be loved that I may no longer run after the vain Shadows of Greatness and Glory Make me to know the true Goods so as I may bestow all my Love and Care upon them So as I may no more make the principal workings of my thoughts to respect worldly Employments So as I may keep my Body under as a Slave that hath an inclination to rebell but that I may serve thee as a Master whose inclinations are ever favourable unto me Let me with assurance first of all seek thy Kingdom and thy Righteousness and then all the rest shall be added unto me Suffer no Ingratitude nor Distrust in my Soul Nor let it doubt of the Goodness of him who has given so many marks of his Care and Tenderness over it How can it fear O my God that thou wilt let it want any thing thou who feedest the young Ravens that cry unto thee and the Lions Whelps that lay them down in their Dens It labours about this Life as if it were to be Eternal and it
Exercises The last Source of Indevotion THE foregoing Obstacles I confess are very strong and the love of the World its Pleasures its Troubles its Employments and the Ramblings of the Mind are such evils as are hard to be remedied But nevertheless I believe that we may come to an end in labouring about them with much care and affiduity For the most evident Cause of our Indevotion is the seldomness and Interruption of holy Exercises Certain it is that spiritual Pleasures are diametrically opposite to carnal ones The rareness only and the difficulty render these brisk and eager The tast of Pleasure we lose amidst Delights And assoon as the Pleasures of the World have lost the Grace of Novelty they have lost their Value Yesterday a Begger counted himself happy with a small sum To day he finds a greater And to morrow he will be no more sensible of his felicity If great Repasts be made at a pretty distance of time from one another the pleasure of the Debauch will be somthing to you return to 'em every day seeing that this will be called an Ordinary the pleasure of feasting will quite cease but on the other side return often to God reiterate your commerces with him and sure I am what appeared at the beginning unsavoury will become a pleasurable exercise But if you do this rarely you will immediately lose the taste The reason of this mystery is not difficult to be discovered It is because Piety and its exercises are by us esteemed Labours by reason of the criminal dispositions which Sin brings us Now labour evermore is diminishing according to the measure wherein we continue it The Traveler is weary at the end of his first days Journey on the morrow he will be much less before two days are over his Journey will be a mighty trouble to him but such an one as will have proportion to his strength and in few Weeks it will become to him a divertisement By violence at first we bring our Soul to God it follows with uneasiness It thinks the way uneven sharp and craggy but by little and little this Travel ceases to be a pain and blessedly changes it self into pleasure Is it not true that the less we do a thing we do it not so well The Vertues are habits and tho Heaven bestow 'em upon us by powring them within our Souls it notwithstanding gives us them much in the same manner as we acquire them by divers reiterateed actions Wherefore as no one is a Good Souldier for his having been in one Campaign nor a Painter for his having had two or three Lessons So the Devout do not become so by one or two actions of Piety but by long and frequent exercises This is a Warr wherein we have to fight against our thoughts against the hardness of our own thick Icy heart At the first and second rencounter we are beaten oftentimes so that at all bouts we must return to the charge Indevotion is a monster which we are oblig'd to mortifie by little and little for that we cannot kill it all at once To day we ought to get one foot of it and to morrow another but if we let it get breath never so little it will soon regain what it had lost When we shall have come to destroy it almost intirely let us not imagin that Assiduity will be the less necessary For if the rareness of devout exercises hinders their progress let Devotion be never so much advanc'd the interruption and relaxation will destroy it We may understand an art perfectly well but if we don't exercise it it is forgot Above all when we fight against our own inclinations for a little abandoning them to their Bent we shall find 'em again in the place from whence we removed them Our heart hath such a slopeness towards Sin as one can't imagin and especially towards Indevotion Let it be fortified with the best habits in the World and let it be thoroughly confirmed in them yet one inflaming thought coming across presently will set it all on fire and choak the flames of Devotion by those of concupiscence If the heart be so easy to be burnt by the fire of Sin it is on the contrary very heavy and cold as to Devotion insomuch as after having been lifted up to Heaven by Machines and great struglings the interruption of a few days will spoil all and bring it down again to its old Earth To prove this truth I desire nothing but the testimony of fincere Souls If some wordly Affairs and some hinderances to which you have given the name of unavoidable have estranged you for sometime from the place of religious worship and have made you lose your Closet-hours at first this you doe with some sort of pain but insensibly you accustom your selves to it and when you would return to the practise of Devotion and the exercise of Prayer you do not know your selves any longer and you feel an inconceivable heaviness in your selves The Conscience resembles the Stomach cease to give it meat and after much abstinence it will cease to ask it Do but stay a little longer and if you give it food it will not know what to do with it it cannot now digest it it has lost all its natural heat its forces are quite spent and doing no more of its wonted Offices it will leave the body for Food to Worms So the Conscience loses an habit of Devotion by ceasing from its works and the Soul dies in its crimes and Sins In short Devotion is a Virtue that puts all the faculties of our Souls into motion as one Spring makes all the rest in a Clock to move Wind up this Clock without discontinuance 't will all go easily but if you cease the Wheels will rust all will become heavy and mightily unfit for movement Let the exercises of Piety be constantly going on and the Soul will conserve a Disposition to devout motions if they be interrupted it will bring a nastiness into all the parts of the Soul which will deprive it of an easiness to move towards Heaven These are the Sources of our Indevotion and the Indispositions of Soul which we ought to heal to open unto us a way to this excellent Virtue Others too we may find of them but they will cast us into two general considerations As for example Who can doubt that the languishings of our Soul do not proceed from the weakness of our Faith Hope or Charity If we were strongly persuaded that there is a God in Heaven that knows our though's and considers all our ways that is called King of Men and Angels opening Hell and Paradice should we not present our selves before him with a Spirit of due dread and submission But alass we believe after such a manner as God hath need to help our unbelief To be devout we need only become Faithful and therefore the Fathers found no counsel more useful to guard us from Distractions than this
To remember him to whom we speak Can we doubt also that our slackness does not come from the little love we have for God One friend does not visit another nor a lover his mistress with such an air of negligence as we show in Gods Service If we were kindled with Love all our motions would receive impressions from that heavenly fire In a word if the hope of glory had touch'd our hearts we should not go so slowly to him of whom we think to receive coelestial happiness But I know not whether this can be counted among the Sources of Indevotion since that the want of Faith Hope and Charity is Indevotion it self To conclude we must confess that we often find our selves in some certain Indispositions of Heart whereof we can render no account nor reason to day we are all Fire to morrow all Ice An upright Soul instantly pursues and awakens its self thinks on every thing that may inflame it It examins its own Conscience to see whether it hath committed any thing to dissorder its heart and grieve the spirit of Grace it finds nothing whereof it can accuse its self and knows not from whence it hath this coldness Whence then proceed these inequalities Perhaps from the changable nature of man who is not always himself and peradventure from the Temperament too as well as the disposition of the Air. As the Soul imprisoned in the Body does not act but by its Organs and depends extreamly on the motion of its humours it 's very manifest that Devotion also depends on these dusty Springs and Wheels whose pace is frequently seduc'd and spoyl'd And it may be the Devil finds his time and amidst the good seed sows his Tares in our field In some perhaps God's holy Spirit the author of every good thought has hid himself for sometime This drought and barrenness of the Soul may proceed from that God hath lock'd up the Sources of those Waters springing up to eternal Life However it be this mischief does cause much trouble to devout Souls We need not for a cure imploy any other remedy but Prayers and Tears The Soul must say Come Lord Jesus come thou Son of my Soul disperse this darkness make the morning Starr to rise in mine heart Why dost thou hide thy self I have sought thee in the night and found thee not Open thy fountains and make thy Rivers of Water to flow on me that I may quench my thirst and be refreshed make haste O God of my Salvation Meditation WHAT Negligence is this I find in my self I take a great deal of pains to do all things well which respect the present Life but I take very little care of doing the only and main thing well for which I ought to Labour To make a progress in an Art I exercise it often I consult Masters I make reflection on my Faults that I may not fall into 'em again But alass my Soul thou dost not use thy self so in the Exercises of Devotion Very rarely it is thou dost them And frequently without Reflection and therefore thou dost them ill Thou dost them rarely because thou dost them without Pleasure And thou dost them without any good because thou dost them in a careless Fashion and not with thy whole Bent of Heart Return to 'em often and thou shalt find such Delights in them as the Heart of Man cannot conceive Prayer O my God my divine Saviour open the fountains of thy Grace and let Rivers flow upon me Make me sensible of the advantage of possessing thee and the pleasures of enjoying thee so that I may not draw my self both seldom and difficultly to the places where thou speakest to me and I to thee in thy Temple or in the retreat of my Closet Draw me that I may run after thee When I design to approach thee by the actions of my Devotion be not thou far from me I know I am unworthy thou should'st come under my Roof 'T is not long since mine heart was a den of Thieves and the haunt of unclean spirits but these filthy Guests have left some remainder of Impurities behind them which render this Tabernacle unworthy of thy Holiness Nevertheless thou Sun of my Soul whose rayes cannot be soil'd nor defil'd by the impurity of the places through which they pass pierce even to my Marrow put thy Fire within me which may purge me and kindle me with the flames of thy Love If I sleep in security awaken me if I tumble into neglect and happen to break off the holy exercises of Piety so necessary to conserve Devotion knock at the Door of my heart to make me vigilant and watchful and if the hammer of thy word be not sufficient spare not even that of Afflictions Rent me in-pieces rather than leave me in my own natural hardness for thy blows will not wound my head they will be to me sweeter than Balm Come to my help O my redeemer to accomplish the victory over my Infirmities I am heavy and material make me spiritual and heavenly The motions of Grace and of Devotion which lift me up on high are opposite to the motions of Nature that pull me down In this Duel tost I am grievously and turmoild betwixt two contraries Nature hath the Insolence to oppose Grace and this Combat makes the exercises of my Devotion to be so few But render them O holy Spirit easy and pleasant to me that I may return to them frequently PART III. CHAP. I. That Pleasure is the mortal enemy of Devotion what are the Sentiments and maximes of the world about Pleasure and Voluptuosness WE have examined the Sources of Indevotion and have indeavoured to stop and stem them But among all the rest one there is more lively more green and more abounding in Impurites and by consequence more an enemy to Piety and that is the Spirit of the World and after having well thought on 't we find that this Spirit of the World is the love of pleasure and sensual voluptuousness Experience lets us see that this Spirit is such an enemy to Devotion as 't is impossible to be animated with it and to be Devout This perpetual use of sensual Pleasures does fix the Soul so strongly to Matter as it becomes incapable of any Elevation The more we have of union with sensible things the more we are disunited from God We ought therefore to turn on this side our greatest industry and indeavours to strive to bring the Soul back to God and make that strong application cease it hath for Material things so as it may lean and adhere to God and imploy its self about him Upon which account although the overgreat sensibility we have of earthly pleasures has had its Chapter above among the other Sources of Indevotion we believe we have not sayd enough upon so great and so important a Subject This is a monster too redoutable to be beat and quell'd by the By and with so much negligence If we could
get rid of that we should gain all but if it continue the Master it 's in vain we strive to become devout And therefore I destin'd this third part to make such considerations therein as may if possible ruine that grand Enemy of Devotion Certain it is Man was born for Pleasure since he was created to be happy and happiness consists in the Possession of Good and the sense of that Possession makes Pleasure The sovereign good of man consists in the Sole possession and absolute fruition of God and in being united immediately and after a most intimate manner unto him And Pleasure ought to spring from this strict and close Union with the Divinity This Union is made by Knowledge and by Love and pleasure arises from thence that God applies himself to the Soul by infolding it in the Arms of his goodness and Beauty and that he fills it with the light and joy of his countenance Sin has so far infeebled this Union of our Soul with God that it hath no more sense of its pleasures Your Sins have put a seperation between you and your God and it is like a thick cloud that eclipses the Sun as to us Whose comfortable beams would raise so much joy within us The Soul has kept this sentiment that it was born for Joy and Pleasure insomuch as being disunited from its God it intirely turns its self to the Body and its Pleasures and the stricter it is united to these the farther off it is from them The ligament of this union o' th' Soul to the body is Corporal Pleasure and proportionably as this pleasure tyes the Soul to the Body so it disunites it from God so that sensual pleasures cause this Disunion and this Disunion is propperly Indevotion which we would destroy for most assuredly Devotion is that motion of the Soul whereby she returns to her Principle and to the fruition of those pleasures that spring from her union with God Let worldly people take the pains to consult their own heart and that will tell them what we are about to say They well perceive that the reason why they cannot dispose themselves to Prayer to the love and Service of God is because they are posses'd by their passions and inchanted by the delusions of Sense That is to say they are absolutely turned toward sensual pleasures and wholly taken up in them The Soul is pinch'd and contracted the mind is bounded when its full of the World and its vanities so that we need not wonder if God who will have the Soul intire find no room therein Indeed a very difficult work this is we undertake to persuade that those who would become Devout ought to renounce worldly pleasures Although the Corruption of them be extreme we do not place all pleasures in the same rank we distinguish them into two orders There are those which are call'd excesses enormities and crimes but these the World abandons and has not the face to defend There are others styled innocent Pleasures Dancing Play good Chear great Meals Feasts Play-houses Shows vain Conversations the commerce of Gallantry and Intrigues that are the guides to criminal Amours The Church distinguishes Pleasures as well as the World Both agree that there are Innocent ones But the Church puts the greatest part of those which the World upholds to be innocent into the number of criminal pleasures Voluptuosness is an Idol to which the World Sacrifices both young and old Men and Women Children and old Men great and small rich and poor all ages both Sexes all conditions have their Pleasures Insomuch much as if we go according to suffrages we should lose the Cause Especially Young men cannot indure one should takeaway the use of Pleasure they persuading themselves that youth is predestinately consecrated to it The Painters and Poets that contribute to marr and vitiate Mens minds represent Voluptuousness to us like a young Woman or Man laid upon a Bed of flowers environed with all the Objects which are bodily pleasures The Passions that are wholly carnal and have a strait Aliance and Correspondence with the Senses are in boiling youth The Flesh all brisk active and vigorous having received no manner of Mortification Hectors and Domineers with insolence Whereupon young men follow the furies of their Temper and Crasis The sentiments of Piety and the habits of Virtue are not to be found naturaly in them So that reason destitute of this Succour is easily vanquish'd by the Passions We may say also that Reason in this age conspires with the Passions and serves only to push on young people into the greatestexcess and extravagences After their own fashion they reason they are persuaded that wisdom and prudence doe not become them they say that these properly belong to old men and thus abuse the saying of the Wise-man To every thing under the Heaven there is a season If any one has more happy inclinations he is not so hardy as to follow them he is stricken with a criminal shame he would not have himself markt out for a singular Fop He cast himself into the crowd and lets himself be carrieds away with the stream And even those who are reputed Wise in the World if they dare not authorize these Irregularities at least they excuse them They are young say they they will come to it at length we must allow somwehat to Age we are not born wise we were such as they are they may be one day what we are But alas we do not stay there we do not renounce Pleasures as we leave our youthful years behind us the love of Voluptuousness is a malady we carry along with us thorough all Ages We go as slow as possibly or to speak better we go on not at all Old Age and Sickness pull men sometimes away by violence from Pleasure but we seldom view those that voluntarily divest themselves of worldly pleasures This is the most uncommon of all Sacrifices How many Women do we see that would hold out even against time and foreslow themselves from being carried off the Stage They forget nothing that may contribute to conserve the air of youthfulness They would deceive Men and I know not whether or no they hope to deceive Death it self They would evermore be the object of the Worlds care and have a part in all its Pleasures When old age is come and has lain its Characters open in their meen they draw a Skreen before it to render it invisible You see these Women Idolatresses of the World to bury their head under an heap of Powder that they may confound the whiteness of their gray hairs with this adulterated and strange whiteness They fill the dints and hollows of their countenances with cousening Ceruse they shadow the wrinkles of their forehead with false hair and paints and in which they are most prudent they imbalm their Bodies and cover them with Perfumes to corrupt the ill odours that arise from the Carkasses In this equipage
come near the number of thy Offences The moments wherein God hath made me to enjoy most of his Blessings have been those wherein I have render'd my self the most sinful by the abuse of my Prosperity And the least sin I commited in one of those moments deserves pains of an infinite duration Prayer ALmighty God who makest all things with a profound Wisdom I find nothing to say against thy Works All that thou hast made is good But I mourn for my Iniquity and bewail my Corruption Good is in the neighbourhood of Evil and the things which are permitted me are so near to those that are forbidden me that if I forget innocent Pleasures but a little I straight pass into sinful ones At all passages the Devil lies in Ambush and my Concupiscence lays snares for me every where Narrow is the way and borders on precipices I know Lord that thy goodness is infinite and thou dost not exact from me that I should be evermore in Grief thou allowest some grains to the Fesh as rebellious as 't is against thee But how difficult and dargerous is it to mark out precisely the Bounds that distinguish permitted from forbidden Pleasures If I give ear to my Concupiscence it will stretch the limits far beyond all Reason it will endeavour to persuade me that whatsoever is agreeable cannot be bad whether I eat or drink am asleep or awake am idle or at work I am always in the Temptation and Danger of falling into Excess Thy Providence willeth that I pass through all these Dangers Thou alone art able to conduct me safely through this difficult Path Let thy Spirit lead me as in an even Plain Let me turn neither to the right nor to the left Here are two Extremities to fly thou hatest carnal Pleasures but it may be thou dost not love excessive Austerities Bodily Exercise profiteth little but Godliness has the promises of this Life and of that which is to come I know O my God that 't is much more dangerous to fall into one Excess than into the other All thou say'st of bodily Exercise is That it is profitable but to a few things but as to the other excess to wit of Pleasures it hurts and incommodes all things it makes havock of the Conscience it corrupts the Heart ruines the Body grieves the Holy Spirit and it separates the Soul from thee O Lord. 'T is incomparably more safe to renounce all Pleasures in general than to choose some and expose ones self to the danger of taking those that are unlawful O thou who holdest in thine hands the Heart of Men as the Rivers of Water turn mine into the safest way wherein I am certain not to offend thee and that is the privation of all sensual Pleasures Take from me that taste of all Voluptuousness wherewith I am inchanted Cast off from the Demon of Pleasure that Mask which covers him and that fading Beauty which charms me that I may see all his Vgliness and Deformity and detest and fly it Since the Body which thou obligest me to hale after me to nourish and conserve binds me to do Actions conjoyn'd with Pleasure give me the Grace to do those Actions to satisfie Necessity and not to serve Sensuality Discover to me the Snares that Lust lays for me under the Cloak of Necessity Let me not by an ill habit make that necessary which is superfluous according to the Laws of Nature and Reason that my Soul under thy guidance may keep its Body under as a Slave and not serve it as its Master CHAP. V. That we are not to consult our Heart and Senses in the choice of Pleasures That Devotion leads us to true Pleasure 'T IS observ'd that for the obtaining any thing we must ask much more than we have a mind to get and that to bring men to just Sentiments in withdrawing them from their Errours it is good to carry them a little into the other Extremity that in their return they may abide at least in a reasonable middle This perhaps has made so many Christian Authors and Preachers to imitate the style of the Stoicks upon the Nature of Pleasure and Pain These People say that Pain is no evil and Pleasure is not a Good We can say they be perfectly happy in the burning Bull of Phalar is and perfectly unhappy in tasting the greatest Pleasures This method is not it may be so good as we imagine We soyle and dishearten mens Minds by requiring too much of them and nothing is persuasive when Truth is invested with Paradoxes which awaketh curiosity but distemper the Mind After all we can never persuade men to the contrary to what they feel Cicero tells us of one of these Philosophers who had bin blinded by the pompous reasonings of his Sect But a great Rheum falling upon his Eyes which put him to horrible Tortures prevailed over the Illusions of his Philosophy and made him abandon it When we see one of these Sages cruelly tormented upon his Bed with the Gout or Stone and hear him say Thou mayst do as thou wilt O Pain but thou shalt never make me confess thou art an evil we cannot keep our selves from looking upon this as a Comedy and profound Hypocrisie Reason can do nought against Experience nor against a Sense so lively as that of pain The Martyrs I conceive might be happy amidst their punishments because they did not feel all their Pains For I hold that their Soul by the help of Grace was so strongly taken up with the Glory and Crown they were about to receive that hardly any Room remain'd to them for other Sentiments The Patience of the Faithful in their Calamities arises in my Opinion from no other cause than that their Souls being fixt wholly upon God and his Heaven the Object of their Hope do partly unite ' emselves from the Body and give less Heed or Attention to it's Annoyances Impatience on the other side is a motion of the Soul which turns it self wholly to the Body to be abandon'd to pain and to feel all its racks So that I conclude Pain is an Evil Which is to confess bodily Pleasure is a good 'T was my belief I owed this Confession to them whom we would prevail withall to renounce sensual and fleshly Pleasures that by this sincerity and plain dealing we may render them more attentive to our Reasons We do not entreat them to renounce bodily Pleasure as an evil in its self but as a petty and small good that brings along after it in its train an incredible Multitude of mischiefs and as a good which is unworthy of Man born for the most noble Pleasures and destin'd to the possession of the greatest Goods What ever we do we can never rivit out of the Mind of man this Opinion that Happiness consists in Pleasure I will not oppose this Maxime The chiefest beatitude consists without doubt in the Possession of the chiefest Good and in this Possession the Soul
flesh and bloud and tastes nothing but what flatters this Flesh and Bloud And therefore among sensual Pleasures there are permitted our Devout Person only those which are moderate The Senses love to receive strong impressions of Objects provided there be no wound in the case the imagination loves also to be powerfully moved But all these emotions make such mighty impressions upon the Soul as it hardly can come to it self again And therefore they ought carefully to be avoided But if we would have more sensible proofs that the heart the passions and the senses are not to be consulted about the choice of Pleasures let us hear experience and cast an eye upon the disorders of the world Such are the consequences of this blindness in men who follow their own heart and senses in the choice of Goods and Pleasures Why did the first Woman lay hold on the forbidden fruit because it was good and pleasant to the eye she hearkened to her Heart and Senses How did corruption arise to that high pitch in the World that it forced God's Justice to bring upon it a terrible Deiuge Because the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair they stopt their Ears to the voice of God which call'd upon them they heark'ned to the sollicitations of their own sensual heart they took them Wives of all which they chose and corrupted themselves with them Did not David commit Adultery and Murder in a little time because he gave ear to his senses and heart and let his passions seduce him did not Solomon become an Idolater because his sinful love for Women having blinded his eyes separated him from God and stopt the Ears of his Soul so as his mind heard only the voice of his Passions and his Senses Lastly did not St. Peter deny his Lord and Master for that his heart his senses his imagination made him see present Death in an affrightful posture and he consulted neither God nor his own reason We seem here to blend and confound Innocence with Sin in speaking of our Heart and our Senses as common Sources of our errours Since that the Senses may seem rather to be unhappy and unfortunate than Criminal and Sinful True the Senses are subject to two unhappinesses The first is to be forced to receive Objects which are sinful and capable of transferring Images of corruption to the Heart such are evil Examples scandalous Actions and Words The other misfortune of the Senses is that they take in innocent Objects and sometimes in an innocent manner and these Images do spoyl and corrupt themselves in the Heart Nevertheless I think we ought not to separate the Senses from the Heart they make but one and the same thing This is a Match at the end of which lies a great heap of Gun-powder The Hear and the Imagination are the inward extremity of this Match they are the Magazine of Powder The Senses are the other end to which the Objects set fire This Fire slides or rather it flies along the Match It enkindles the Imagination and puts the Heart into a flame And therefore the holy Spirit puts for the same thing To walk in the ways of ones heart and in the sight of ones Eyes In short if we would be perfectly assured that our Heart and Senses are evil Counsellors in this affair hear what the holy Scripture saith it considers our Heart as the root of all our Evils Every imagination of the thoughts of Man's heart is only evil continually The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Witness Blasphemies These are the things which defile a Man The holy Ghost represents the Heart to us as blind wrapt up in a thick Cloud and profound darkness it speaks of it as of a kind of Death it is of the Earth it is carnal How then canan Heart thus composed and fram'd judge of the true Goods and Pleasures How can there come any thing good from a poysoned Spring And thus we see that the Wife man puts this Maxime among the members of those we are to detest and abominate Walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes I should end here were it unnecessary to take off one Scandal that may be taken at what we have said that sensual Pleasure is a Good and even a Good for the Soul For in a word if the Soul be that not only which perceives and which tastes Pleasure and if Pleasure be a Good 't is a Good of the Soul If it be a good then some will say we are to seek and love it It 's not sufficient to answer that this is a Good of the Body only that is not absolutly true 't is in some sort the good of the Soul because the Soul tastes it Further if this Good were only for the Body yet it does not follow it should therefore be of necessity unlawful since we are not always forbidden to seek the Good of the Body But we ought not only to consider a thing in its self to know whether it be good or bad we must consider it in its causes and its effects in what precedes it what may be the consequence of it I mean that the Pleasure which comes to the Soul by the Body is a sort of Good considered in it self Look upon its Source and see to what it produces The Source is Sin is Impurity is Rebellion against the law of our Creator What it produces is a disunion between God and our Soul 't is a pawning our selves to Death 't is the pain of everlasting burnings How can we under the Idea of a Good conceive a thing which is incompast about by so many moral Impurities and such real Mischiefs If therefore bodily Pleasure can be called a Good with respect to the present sentiment of the Soul it 's an Evil in all other regards it 's an Evil to speak Absolutely and therefore the wifest men of all Ages have plac'd it among the false Goods for a true Good ought to be good on every side we view it The Soul then has no true Pleasure but what arises from its union with God And this union is fortified according to the measure that we loosen our selves from sensible things and are united to God by the knowledge of his Truth Not of those Verities which Philosophy seeks after and never finds with any certainty but of those Divine truths which Faith discovers to us of those wholsome Verities which are the Candle of the Soul Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet and a light to my Paths It enlightens the Eyes and makes wise the simple The second Bond whereby we are united to God is Virtue the Practice of which renders us like to our Creator renews his Image in us and makes us to be the Copies of that Beauty whereof he 's the original the third cord is
the love with which we love God and that by which we are beloved of him By this Love he is in us and we are in him because Love makes a transfusion of Hearts and the Soul is more in the Subject which it loves than in that which it animates As to the pleasures which spring from this union it is of the number of those things which cannot be conceiv'd without they be felt 'T is such that all the Pleasures of the World appear unsavoury to them that taste it 'T is so great as it hath often made the Saints to fall down who have been extraordinarily touch'd with its holy Extasies and Ravishments which seem'd to have entirely broke the Alliance betwixt the Body and the Soul Now without question it is that Devotion contributes and leads to this Pleasure It diminishes our union with sensual things disunites us from our Body lifts us up to God purifies our Souls in drawing nigh to him makes them partake of the Beams of that great Sun of righteousness and renders them as so many little Gods by communicating with the Glory of our great God Meditation NO wonder thou seekest Pleasure O my Soul thou seekest thy Good thou seekest what thou hast lost thou seekest what was given thee what thou once hadst and what thou shouldest have still hadst thou continued innocent Thy God created thee righteous and holy This holiness was the bond of his union with thee thou wert separated from him when thou becamest sinfull and thorough this separation thou hast continued void and deprived of Pleasure and Happiness Every where thou seekest the Good thou hast lost but blind as thou art thou catchest at Shadows for real Bodies Thou wanderest upon different Objects and if thou findest any one that flatters thee straightway thou embracest it with ardour as if thou hadst found that which thou hast lost and seekest for Thou disabusest thy self in a little time but it is to fall into an other Errour After having tasted bodily Pleasure thou perceivest that this is not the infinite Pleasure thou searchest after This Object being quitted thou dost cast thy self upon another thou Embracest this too and every day thou delightest to be fed with new and new Illusions Leave off O my heart leave off rambling and running after these Fantoms Be not decieved by thy Senses and Imagination Embrace thy God 't is to him alone thou owest this general Inclination which makes thee to love Felicity and Pleasure but thy blinded Eyes make thee love false Gods and fix themselves upon false Pleasures If thou wert not profoundly blind thou could'st not doubt that God is infinite that he is infinitely good and infinitely better than all the Creatures Thou could'st not also doubt but the pleasure which comes from Union with him and the Possession of him is infinitely greater than all the Pleasures of the World besides If the created Goods be so sweet how agreeable must the increated Good be The Good which is the Creator of all Goods the Good which comprehends the pleasure of all other Goods the Good which displays those Delights in our Hearts that are as far above all Pleasures as he himself is eminent above all Goods Herein thou art incredulous O my Soul because thou hast not relish'd the sweetness which springs from being united with God thou canst not believe them thou say'st with Thomas Except I should see except I touch and feel those Delights I will not believe Ah! how happy and blest is he who has believ'd before he hath seen who has overcome all the temptations of the Flesh and has desired to taste those divine Pleasures before he tasted them But that Person is incomparably more happy that hath believed and hath seen that hath tasted those Delights and felt those Pleasures which surpass all understanding which spring from the intimate presence of God If thou hast not yet been able O my Soul to feel such spiritual Pleasures the reason is thy God could not yet apply himself immediately to thee because of the Impurity wherewith thou art cover'd and defiled â—or his Eyes are pure they cannot behold Iniquity he is Purity and Light it self and thou art enwrapt in a dark Cloud of Ignorance and Unrighteousness How then could God joyn himself immediately to thee Therefore take away thy Veil this Wall of Separation cure thy own ignorances seek after the Knowledge of thy God and his Mysteries purifie thy self â—et rid of those ill Habits of Vice which â—â—rround thee like a Garment and thy God will invest thee with a Robe of Light and â—hen shalt thou perceive that the applying â—ensible Objects to thy faculties is not capable of raising in thee that Sense of Pleasure which thou mayst receive from God Then â—ilt thou have a perfect disgust to those vain Pleasures thou wilt wish to see thy God 〈◊〉 know him to embrace him that thou â—ayst be united to him Prayer O Father of Lights inexhaustible spring of Pleasure and Joy insinuate thy self into all the Faculties of my Soul fill up the emptiness of my desires and that vast extension of my Heart and make me to feel that Joy which thou communicatest to thy Saints and Favorites Vnto thee I discover my wants I confess my Nothing I languish after thee my True Good Without thee O Lord I should be the most miserable of all Creatures I should be plunged into an Abyss of Grief and Despair I should feel nothing but horror and anguish Thou comfortest me in this Valley of Tears thou feedest me with the bread of angels and makest me drink of thy Pleasures as out of a River The World is not acquainted with these delights the meats of thy Table to it are insipid it tastes nothing but the Flesh-pots of Egypt and knows not what iâ— the Honey of the Land of Promise I know it O my God but I do not know so as I would and ought to know I have learn'd of thy Saints that when thou speakest to thy children in their hearts this Sentiment is sweeter than Honey and the Honey-comb and that more pleasure is to be found in possessing thee than the covetous find in having the greatest abundance of Gold and Silver But alas my Soul hath not yet felt those divine Transports I begin to perceive that earthly Pleasures are uncapable of satisfying that hunger and thirst after pleasure and happiness whereof I labour but I have not as yet perfectly learn'd that thou alone art capable of quenching that thirst Taste and see how gracious the Lord is I taste thee as I see thee I see thee but imperfectly and as in a Glass I taste thee as covered from me Over thee indeed are no involving incumbrances for thou art all pure and single and whosoever is pure may taste thee purely But the veil is in my Flesh or rather it is my Flesh it self it is my corruption that separates me from thee Come therefore Lord Jesus come thou
coufounded in that mighty abysse of what is past But the Moments thou givest to thy God are put in reserve thou wilt find them they will come before thee At the great Judgment they will be put to thy account and for some moments of Devotion thou shalt receive eternal Glory Do not therefore hang in suspence any longer O my Soul delay no more to renounce all the pleasures and all the hopes of the Age for to follow thy God only In him is the Well of Life in his Light thou shalt see Light thou shalt be fatted with the fat of his House and quench thy thirst in the Floud of his Pleasures In thy old age thou shalt not regret the loss of thy Youth Thy days shall not rise up in Judgment against thee to condemn thee when thou shalt be old and on the brink of Death The thought of thy God shall not put thee into an affright Thou wilt not look upon him as a Judge who comes to demand an account of so many years consumed in vain Pleasures but a Deliverer who will come to break thy Irons and as a Rewarder bringing days of Refreshment instead of painful and dolorous years which the World would make thee pass thorough Prayer O Most gracious and merciful Lord thou Guide of my Youth thou Light to the blind thou Instructer of the ignorant who enlightenest the simple bringest back those that have wandered into the way of Truth and perfectest praise out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings teach me thy ways and draw me out of the paths of the World make haste that I may do so too leave me not any longer in the World and in Sin By the effusion of thy Grace into my Soul make my Heart to desire thee that in desiring thee it may seek thee and in seeking thee it may find thee in finding thee it may love thee and in loving thee it may find in that love a sovereign Joy It is now too long a time I have consumed my self in my vain desires I would go to thee but I find not strength to vanquish those Habits wherein I am engaged by Custom Come therefore and tear me O my God out of the arms of Voluptuousness suffer not these delays of mine and if I should say yet a little while stay a little longer draw me by thy Powerfull Word and say unto me Awaken thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light If words be not efficacious enough to raise me up touch the biere strike the Body wherein the Soul is as it were buried It sleepeth in its Tomb or rather it is dead bodily Pleasures have overwhelm'd or slain it Smite therefore the Body that the Soul may awake for it is better that I enter into Life having but one eye than having two eyes to be cast into Hell-fire It is better that my Flesh here below suffer some pains and that my Soul one day taste those infinite Pleasures which thou preparest for it on high I abide in Sodom and I love my abode thou sendest thy Angels to draw me thence thy Word and thy Mnisters to make me depart before the terrible day comes in which thou wilt tumble down torrents of fire and brimstone upon this wicked World but I ever find pretexts to delay Lay hold then of my hand and draw me out by the force of thy Grace that I perish not among the wicked Shew me the way of thy holy hill that I may save my self and thence without danger behold the deluges of Corruption which overspread the Country and the Torrents of thy Wrath and Vengeance which suddenly and amazingly overwhelm the World Alas If it would please thee O my God to make me taste the speritual Delights of thy Love I should not be so sensible of Earthly Pleasures and I should not linger so long to seek thee for I most ardently wish after happiness If therefore I knew that my Beatitude lyes in thee I should flye to find in thee that happiness which I seek O Lord since Pleasure is the only Load-stone capable of drawing my Soul make me taste a little of that Joy which I ought to find in thee make me to feel thy infinite Goodness that without delay I may run after thee and consecrate my self to thy service walking in Holiness and Righteousness all the dayes of my Life and setting my Affections on things above that when Christ who is my Life and Pleasure shall appear I may also appear with him in Glory PART IV. Of helps towards Devotion CHAP. I. The first General Advice is to will desire and ask Devâ—tion WE have seen from how many Sources Indevotion springs let us now try to vanquish those Difficulties by some Advices that may lead us to Devotion Those Advices I would give here are either general or particular But before I pass further we are to presuppose that he whom we would make devout must have a Mind himself to become so he that has not this Disposition will very unprofitably pass farther How many indevout persons have we in the World that do not desire Devotion for themselves and contemn it in others Of this sort we find some that are so hardy as to perswade themselves they have a Religion I am it may be says one as religious as another though I laugh at Devotion and devout Persons If they believe what they say most assuredly they cheat their own Heart and we must confess that these People are really profane Others there are that esteem Devotion in another and yet like it not for themselves it doth not fit right with the Spirit of the World which they make their Idol They approve the better side they admire it but they fancy as to their own particular they may be saved with less Trouble I know not whether these be better than the former yet they are a little nearer to the Disposition we seek after but still alas in how bad a Condition is their Conscience They are in this worse than the former that they sin against their own Sentiment they know their Masters Will and do it not They are afraid of doing too much provided they be sav'd it 's of no great Importance how What a thought is this Is not Paradise worth the purchasing at the Expence of some Tears some Prayers some hours of Humiliation And how can we imagine we can obtain Heaven by the less since we shall find a hard Task to arrive thither by the greater If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Vngodly and the Sinner appear Do ye believe ye backward and lukewarm Souls that a truly devout Person has too much Righteousness to open to himself the gate of Heaven Do not you know that all the World praises that Saying of St. Austin Woe to the most praise-worthy Life if it be examined without Mercy and what the Psalmist says If thou should'st mark Iniquities O Lord who shall stand I
speak of the Iniquities of the Righteous If those truly devout Persons have not over-much Righteousness you will strangely want it then who come so much behind them but ye say God will supply what is lacking for this did Christ Jesus dye that we might obtain his Grace and Favour in the midst of our Infirmities But how do ye know that the Blessed Jesus would this does not he do what-liketh him best with his own You ought therefore to take the surer side What assurance have ye that God gives his Grace thus to those that slight it Although you could do it the mercy of the Lord will have employ enough and your righteousness though pusht on to the extremity of your strength will still have need of Supplements to attain to Glory There are other Indevout People which are still a little farther off than the former They would have a good deal of Devotion but they are not yet come to desire it that is to say the motions of their Will towards it are very imperfect I would willingly become so says one but I cannot the World bears me away my Affairs wholly take me up the temper and frame of my Body and Soul have not the necessary Turn for the practise of this Virtue I do what I would not and what I would that do I not for the law of my members continues Mistress of the Law of my mind they are not much afflicted at the not having that which they wish and it is a certain proof that they wish it very feebly In this Estate how far from Perfection must the Conscience needs be This is not to love God with all the Soul this is to seek him with the least part of the heart and to desire him with a most imperfect Will To will Devotion at that rate is to take the way never to obtain it for the Soul does not surmount the difficulties but by heartning it self against them and by acting with all its might and vigour Judge then if an Heart in this looseness can attain one of the most difficult things in the World We have seen how many strong Passions ruine and destroy Devotion the Love of the World its Pleasures and its Vexations If to these passions so violent and head-strong you oppose I know not what imperfect desires it is but the Fight of Dwarfs against Gyants So that the first general Counsel I give to attain Deâ—otion is to desire it ardently Some will say that they who desire it have it already but that is no necessary conclusion Some motions there are whereof we are not the Masters and oftentimes we passionately desire a thing we are not able to effect although it depend upon our Will Most terrible is the tyranny of Habits and the cord of Sin are difficult to break St. Austin most divinely paints out to us the motion of such a Soul as would elevate it self to God but cannot I panted after the liberty of thinking only on thee O my God but I sighed being still tyed up not by foreign Chains but by those of my own will which were harder than Iron The Devil held it in his Power he had bound it fast I had a Will to serve thee with the purest Love and to enjoy thee O my God in whom alone is to be found a solid and true Joy but this new Will which was but still-born was not capable of conquering that other which had fortified it self by a long habit in Sin Behold the Picture of a Christian Soul that wishes to be truly devout would only think on God and love him but cannot Nevertheless how happy is such a Soul and near to Devotion When we seek God we are on the Eve of finding him This is that Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness to which the Lord promises a Refreshment These Desires are the effects of Grace but if Nature doth nothing in vain with much stronger Reason does Grace These Desires therefore cannot be fruitless they will obtain their end they will be filled one day There 's hardly any thing but wherein the vigour of the Soul and the force of the Desires hit their mark and hereby rather than by the strength of his Armies did the Great Alexander vanquish the World gain so many Battels take so many Cities and trample on the Necks of conquered Nations when things necessary to the Accomplishment of his Designs fail'd him the vigour of his Courage that is the force of his Desires served instead of them If the Desires can perform so much in things without us and independent on our Will what cannot they do in that which depends thereon and is vertually our Will it self To make these pious desires succeed we are to call God to our aid these are younglings that he has caused to be born and 't is his Interest to nourish them these be the Aurora of that Sun who doth not fail to come and fully enlighten us provided he be invok'd with fervour Here is therefore another Adviso which is but a Corollary and a Deduction from the former We must ask of God the grace of Devotion and in his presence groan after what we have not If there be any favour of our Vows and Tears if there is any Gift that comes immediately from Heaven 't is this Virtue for nothing is more pure and more elevated among â—he Christian Virtues If any of you lack Wisdom says St. James let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberalâ— and upbraideth not I know not whether there be â—y part of Christian Wisdom more desirable than this Of God we ask our daily Bread our Food and Rayâ—ent health of Body and cure of our Diseases but â—e Soul is sick poor and dying when depriv'd of Deâ—tion which is its Fire Soul Life In a word there is noâ—ing to which we may more assuredly apply the proâ—ise of St. James that God refuseth no body but gives â—o all liberally since it is the Prayer of the World â—hich is most agreeable to him because it tends wholâ— to his Glory and our own Salvation We ask of God â—hat he would please to enter into us and that we â—ay enter into him to be perfectly united to him by a â—tual tye And how cannot this be well-pleasing to God seeing our Lord Christ himself the model of our â—oughts and actions hath asked the same thing for us That I may be in them and they in me that they may be â—ade perfect in one Here therefore we ought to begin â—r Instructions and the Faithful are to begin their Work for if nothing can be done without God of what â—â—th not regard him how can we do that without him which depends immediately upon him and is terminated in him Meditation 〈◊〉 consult my own Heart to know whether I can truly 〈◊〉 say My Soul fainteth for the Courts of the Lord. As the â—art-panteth after the Water Brooks so my Soul thirsteth 〈◊〉 the living God My Soul is
as a barren and dry Land â—ere no Water is when shall I come and appear before God But alas I find not in me these thoughts and motions I find there a great barrenness and as it were a general privation of Heavenly Graces I meet only with some languishing desires that perish in the moment of their birth My Faith is wavering my Charity cold my Hope weak my Zeal almost extinct and my Devotion luke-warm A waken thy self immediately O my Soul if thou wouldst be united to thy God if thou would'st love him and be beloved by him 〈◊〉 thou wouldst have him kindle the pure Flames of Devotion in thy Soul thou must will it desire it ask it This Good this great Good deserves that thou shouldst make the first steps and get before it Do not say unto me that thou art shackled up in unhappy Chains and the Flesh calls and perswades thee to the contrary that thou wouldst but thou canst not be Pious that thou wouldst this moment but thou canst not will it any time long Alas if thou willest it O my Soul it may be done these Chains of thy will are voluntary Chains these bonds are evil Habits and ingagements in Corruption which are so far from lessening thy Sin that they render thee the more culpable In this sort of thingâ— we do all that we will and when we do not that which we will 't is because we will it with a most imperfect will Prayer O Most merciful Saviour I am very sensible I am not truâ—â— Devout because I have not the will to be so but alaâ—â— though the Cords that tye up my will to work evil be voluntary yet they are not the less strong nor the less easie to be dissolved My corruption is in my Will and therefore 〈◊〉 cannot conquer it by my will alone Thy Grace is sufficienâ— for me but without it I can do nothing Come then coâ—my Deliverer and break these Chains under which I groan I will not let thee go till thou hast blessed me Create in me a pure Heart and renew a right Spirit within me Let thy free Spirit sustain me It would be in vain to seek counseâ— â—nd aid to promote and succour my Devotion Without thee â—esigns fail of their success and councils are unprofitable We can scarce guard Cities or build Houses unless thou â—â—tchest unless thou put to thine hand all our cares and â—â—our becomes vain Hear my Prayers O God and let not 〈◊〉 Meditations be fruitless Quicken the Divine word of thy â—ly Spirit that it may enkindle my heart as a Fire and â—â—at I may be forthwith delivered from those coldnesses â—â—ich rack and torture me so as I may be filled with Dâ—â—â—tion as much as I can wish to be so CHAP. II. The second general Advice To lead an holy Life and practice all the Vertues WE have already said somewhat of the necessity of living well to become truly devout but the Subject is too important to make a halt or stop there â—nd therefore let us now consider that there is no â—â—ion more streight than that of a faithful Soul with â—s God in the acts of Devotion 't is a secret comâ—erce 't is to see God face to face and speak with â—im as one intimate Friend speaks with another All â—â—at is conceiv'd of the Union betwixt the Husband and â—â—e Wife between the Father and the Son betwixt the â—ody and a Member is not strong enough to represent 〈◊〉 us the Union of a Soul that flies to Heaven upon â—he Wings of Hope and Faith and to which God disâ—â—vers the inestimable treasures of his Love God â—nters into it and it into God and so they beâ—â—me one But who doth not see that to smooth â—he way to himself towards so strict an union he must be â—ure even as he is Pure the heavenly Lamp suffers no â—ening nor mixture of Day or Night God who is â—ight cannot be united to a Soul that is in Darkness If there be any Vertue for which we are owing to the Holy Ghoft's presence in us it is Devotion Now we know well enough by what we may obtain this presence of the H. Spirit 'T is not by the magnificence of the house but its neatness when the evil Spiriâ— goeth out of the house and at his return findeth iâ— swept and garnished he returns asham'd and cannot enter thereinto without the help of six other Spirits more wicked than himself That which drives the evil Spirit away attracts the holy one and he does not make our heart to be his Temple unless we banisâ— thence all Impurity Moses carves and polishes two Tables of Stone God engraves his Law thereon A Painter cleanses his linnen-cloth before he draws oâ— it the Picture of a Prince We have two carnal tables of the Heart the Understanding and Will but we are not to hope that God will write his Laws or the H. Ghost paint his Image thereon unless they be neaâ— and polished Thou devout and pious Soul which wishest to see God abiding in thee and his love in thy heart cleanse the table of thy Understanding from those many Errours Prejudices fond Imaginations and evâ—â— thoughts cleanse the table of thy Will from those sinful Inclinations and vicious Habits When both these tables shall become blank and white undoubtedly God will come to paint and engrave his Image thereon Devotion is an entrance into Gods Cabinet 〈◊〉 brought me says the Spouse to the Banquetting-house but no one enters there unless he have the Weddingâ— Garment on and be gracefully deck'd with Faith Hope and Charity unless he put on the Lord Jesâ—â— Christ and the Bowels of Mercy of a meek Mind 〈◊〉 Righteousness and Holiness Devotion is an Elevationâ— of the Soul and Sin a Clog to it If we burthen the Soul with these Weights how shall it lift it self up We are therefore to discharge our Heart of one Sin to day to morrow of another to subdue Covetousness one day to attack Pride another Ambition and the more thy Heart is thus engag'd the more free will thy Devotion be Above all we ought to remember that our Heart is the most delicate and tender part of â—s there 's no need of putting it into Disorder We â—overthrow it with Age but to re-establish it is the â—â—nost Difficulty It is the eye of the Soul any chip â—ny grain of Dust is able to destroy it It is Milk which is corrupted by the Air 's Motion only and by Thunder 't is a Lute that is put out of Tune by unseaâ—â—â—able Distempers of the Air and certainly true Sanctification has more parts than a Lute hath strings so that this holiness of the Heart is ruined by the disorder of one of those parts as one bad Sound destroys â—ll the Harmony of a Consort and therefore with a â—onderful Care we ought to guard our Heart and every part thereof The Soul resembles a Sea and it's Passions the Winds If you do
quell and take our Heart lower till we have brought it to its Duty we are to read meditate pray let it be never so much against the Grain Although the Devil comes to fill your Mind with evil thoughts says St. Basil you ought not therefore to abandon the use of Prayer you are to make new and greater Endeavours You must pray to God he would be pleas'd to break this thick Wall of vain thoughts which separates you from him you must beseech him that your Soul may be able soon to get to him without being retarded by meeting vain and evil Objects And if the Enemy should come even with a plentiful supply of Distractions yet you are not to give back nor lose any Courage nor renounce Victory in the midst of the Combate You must persevere till God perceiving your Constancy come to fill you with the light of his Spirit put the Enemy to flight purifie your Understanding and furnish your Reason with a divine Light whereby your Soul being put into the Possession of a Tranquillity exempt from Troubles may serve God with a perfect Joy This holy Person insinuates a Reason to us which we ought to remember in the design of Perseverance which is That the Devil never leaves off tempting us therefore we are not to leave off resisting him our resistance doth not make him give back so that we must not be foiled by his Temptations God who is the Spectator of our Warfare and the Rewarder of our Labours will with Pleasure see the faithful Soul in conflict with it's Infirmities and Distractions and when it is well nigh being subdued will come at length and lend it his helping hand Perseverance is a vertue of such great use that we owe to it the best works of Nature of Art and of Grace If God had left the World imperfect instead of a Miracle he had made a Prodigy There are particularly certain works to which the last-hand is so essential that if we do not conclude them what had been begun doth intirely perish If you leave a Picture after its first rough-drawing and design these beginnings will not cease subsisting upon the cloath but if you carry a wheel half way upon an hill and then leave it to it self for a moment why presently it will get to the Valley's bottom again and your labour will not only be imperfect but will come just to nothing Devotion is of this last sort of things if you leave it half done what you had done will soon perish 'T is Penelope's web what is done by day is undone by night If thy life be not a perpetual day and if thou dost not incessantly toil to advance thy Piety by Practice one night only form'd by the darkness of Indevotion and the absence of Gods Grace will ruine the work of many years and one minute of laziness will destroy that which Courage upheld a long time had produced Thy Devotion O Christian Soul is no more than a spark Nourish this sacred fire preciously blow it without remission gather combustible matter to it from all sides make thee a treasure of good things turn oft towards Jesus Christ thy Sun and thy Star and this small sparkle will become a great fire and this fire will cause a kindling and that kindling will cast up flames and those flames will lift thee to Heaven But if thou neglect this spark it will go quite out Sampson delivers himself up into the arms of Dalilah he sleeps in her breast his hair is shav'd which is the seat of his strength and when the awakes he goes according to custom to take away the gates of Gath and break the cords of the Philistines but he doth not find himself the same Sampson So the Christian that is weakned by a non-assiduity to Devotion sleeps in the arms of Pleasure his Soul is enervated he thinks to return to his old wont of having commere with God but the Devil attacks and overthrows him by a load of evil thoughts under which his Devotion lyes bound as by so many Chains If the Heavens should stop only for a day perhaps there would follow a general slaughter and subversion of Nature and much more without doubt the inferior things would receive a considerable damage When the superior part of our Soul stops its divine motions we cannot question but that a great disorder arises in the lower part for the passions which would ever be the masters do manage wisely these moments of Relaxation to prepare a Revolt So that our Piety and Devotion must have the constancy swiftness and order of the heavenly motions so as this little World may be always in a good Estate Nothing should hinder or interrupt the course of Devotion You see Daniel all the terrours of Death could not stop him in his divine race He must be cast into the den of Lions if he invokes God yet this hinders him not from falling down at his set hours towards Jerusalem the holy City Above all let us be far from the way of the World that runs to its own affairs as if they were the most pressing Let us give to God preserably what belongs to him and let us be at no farther trouble for the rest 'T is said of the Serpent that he secures his head when he is pursued and exposes his body if he can't save it The hours consecrated to Devotion are the head of our life and 't is an holy prudence not to expose them but to draw them out of Danger least the Devil and the World devour them In short persevering is far better than violent Devotion 't is much better to go a little pace but to be going always that to run impetuous yet interrupted races Some are devout only by fits for a day nothing more ardent more humble more mov'd but on the morrow so well dryed up in the torrent of their Tears that you can't see so much as the tracks of ' em The ardency of this fever is so extremely well quench'd as the least heat is not to be found A constant mediocrity is preferable before these Excesses of a small Duration Not that I think it not very necessary that Devotion have its Festivals and labour extraordinarily to rewaken it self on certain dayes and times These are the Extraordinaries of Piety to which we are to return as frequently as we can and mainly never to want it at times destin'd to pious Uses and Works as the participation of the blessed Sacrament of our Lord's Body and Blood But beside these Extraordinaries I would have the Soul have it's ordinary course well regulated and if that cannot be done always with those great motions as it were to be wisht yet that it never fall in the least in the Respites and Intermissions Meditation HAve not I great reason to faint and despair of success in all my designs if I do but consider the greatness of the Undertakings the difficulties to be met withal therein and the
meanness of my own Strength or to speak better my Weakness and my Nothing I aim at great things for I aim at becoming one with my God I would become like him I would renew his Image in me I would cleanse my Heart so corrupt with Sin I would rebuild this great House which Sin and the Devil have brought to ruin I would ascend the Throne I wou'd become King and Priest to God my Father Alas my Soul where in thy self wilt thou find strength to do such great things thou who art only Darkness Weakness and Pollution If thou had'st no other Enemy to engage with but the Devil how wilt thou vanquish that red Dragon which hath seven Heads and ten Horns That wicked Serpent at the beginning poysoned our first Parents with the breath of his Mouth And now he infects all the Sources where we drink he lays his Snares in all our Paths and more especially he never makes greater Endeavours to destroy us than when we make ours to unite us to God by Prayer and Devotion then he stirs up all the Fantomes of our Imagination to carry us out from God's Presence He raises the Waves of our Passions and Concupiscence to keep us from that safe Harbour And truly 't is his Interest to do thus for thou never fightest him O my Soul with more Success than by Prayer when fervent and devout so that he mingles Heaven and Earth together to distract thee and instill into thee Sentiments of Coldness Do notflatter thy self if thou dost not see the Enemy with thy fleshly Eyes yet he shoots his fiery Darts at thee he speaks with thee he attacks thee he tempts thee by the mouth of thy Lust which never fails him and has made a League with him But still O my Soul lose no Courage if thou canst do nothing of thy self thou canst do all things through thy Saviour who strengthens thee Watch be sober persevere lay this evil Spirit and drive him far from thee Resist the Devil and he will flee from you He presses upon none but those that give back Prayer AND thou O Lord Jesus my Redeemer the great Spirit of Light oppose thy self for me to this Spirit of Darkness Let the Lion of the Tribe of Juda break the Jaw-bones of that roaring Lion that turns upon me to devour me Let the holy Seed of the Woman break this Serpent's head give me Antidotes against his Poyson Let thy Grace heal the Wounds which his Bitings and Stings have made in my Soul Vphold me in all the Difficulties which that dangerous Enemy makes me meet with in my Spiritual Exercises When I enter into my Closet or thy Temple be like a brazen Wall about me to defend me from the Access of Evil Spirits So as under the Wings of thy Protection and Love I may live during these Moments in a clear and calm Air in a profound Peace by favour whereof I may consecrate to thee all my Thoughts my Will my Heart my Vnderstanding and my Imagination and nothing may withdraw me from thee CHAP. V. The fifth general Direction to help Devotion To have God always before our Eyes THis is a Remedy for most Mischiefs but 't is particularly so against Indevotion I shall say by and by that the Faithful ought to have their hours of Devotion wherein to retrace expresly the Idea's of the Divinity in their Mind and awaken it to remember his Benefits and Graces But this is not what I mean at present I speak of that continual and as it were habitual Thought of God which is never to be abandoned 'T is a delicate and most spiritual Meditation which comes a cross to rob our worldly Affairs of those Moments which it consecrates to Heaven 'T is a sublime Operation of an Understanding illuminated by the light of Grace that finds God all in all that mixeth him in all our Actions and spieth him out in all Objects 'T is an act of the Soul whereby amid humane Affairs it turns without Violence to God-ward thorough an Habit it has acquir'd It makes all things to be as so many Ladders to scale Heaven and all Objects to put one in mind of God An Artificer while he is working a Traveller in his Journey a Scholar in his Study will find means to sanctifie what each does in causing God to intervene by pious Reflections Let the Lamb follow thee O faithful Soul whithersoever thou goest that thou may'st be able one day to follow him whither he shall go If thou art lying down in thy Bed think on the Tomb of thy Saviour who for thy Salvation was pleased to enter into the Chambers of Death Art thou near falling on sleep think on Christ whose eyes were shut by the sleep of Death An Infant just born will recall to thee the thought of thy Lord's Abasement and Humility in his Birth An unhappy Person that suffers for his fins will bring thee to think on Jesus who suffered for thine One that asks an Alms will ask it for Christ his sake or will tell thee that he became poor that thou might'st be rich In a word out of all things 't is easie for thee to extract an Occasion to think on thy God What shall I say of the Objects of Nature that put thee in mind of him almost against thy Will If thou risest betimes thou canst not see the Sun rising without thinking on him that has made this work and without being reminded of the Sun of thy Soul who pours forth the gleams of his Grace into thy Heart to disperse thence all Darkness The Woods the Rivers the Mountains the Feilds cover'd with harvest Corn the Trees Fruits Flowers all in short will entertain and complement thee with thy God For the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy Work The Flyes and Worms themselves speak this since we see the Divinity showing in them For as St Austin says well this worker in such a manner appears great in great things that he does not appear lesss great in the least of his works We are therefore to form an Habit to our selves of thinking on God even while we do every thing and this will be the true way of doing well what we do and engaging God to do it with us Now there are some Employments which take not the Soul intirely up A workman at his work or a woman in such concerns as are ordinary to that Sex will roul about in their Imagination a thousand Chimerical designs wander up and down every where and think of an hundred things successively But what is it restrains 'em from giving up to God that part of their Soul and Attention which they deduct from their other work why will they not think of their Redeemer of the Obligarions they have to him and the Acknowledgement and Recollection which they rather owe to him than to a vain chat and conversation they have had some where or other or some adventure
the recital of which had diverted them We are carefully to guard out heart says a father of the Church and never to let the thought of God to abandon it for fear the memory of God's wonderfull doings should be stifled under the croud of vain thoughts We ought to do it in such sort that by a continual remembrance the thought of the Deity be fixt in us like the indelible impression of a Seal and Wax This is not so impossible as some at first sight may imagine it for a Soul truly devout thinks on God not only without any trouble but frequently without perceiving what lead it to think on him Thy praise says holy David shall be continually in my Mouth-Upon which the same Author whom we have occasion for almost every where makes this Question How can this be done Can a man in the midst of humane Affairs and Conversations have the praises of the Lord in his Mouth When he sleeps when he drinks when he eats and even when he holds his Peace can he sing the Praises of God I answer says he there is within man an intellectual Mouth whereby he receives the Word of Life which is his heavenly Bread nought hinders him from having always the praises of God in his Mouth and I say that the thought of God being ingrav'd and as it were sealed one the upper part of the Soul may be call'd a praise that never leaves the Heart In short we cannot conceive how mighty an help to Devotion this is When we are to seek God a far off the Soul wanders in the way but if it holds God always near it it cannot be to seek for him Oâ— how easie is it to put the Heart into the steps of Devotion and the ways of its Saviour when it never loses the sight of him If you let a Furnace grow wholly cold it cannot be heated again without great trouble and cost but if you take care to keep up the fire with a little refreshing you will conserve that degree of heat that is necessary to it If our Soul in like manner relents it self and makes an interruption from thinking on God we must take much pains to kindle the Flames of Devotion afresh and therefore we are ever to keep it in Exercise This continual thinking on God is a most acceptable Sacrifice unto him like to the morning and evening Sacrifice which was call'd also the continual Sacrifice like to that holy Fire which evermore burnt â—on the Altar 't is like lastly to an eternal Invocasion for so it is says St. Basil that thou mayst pray incessantly not in bringing forth Words of Invocation but in doing Works of Imitation If thy Conduct aims only at making thee like and united to God thy Life will be a perpetual and a constant Prayer But let us not doubt that these continual crifices this Incense always smoaking and these â—plicit and indirect Prayers which come from our art in all places and at all times are the most effitious means to render God accessible to us insoâ—â—ch as every time we would unite our selves still are straitly to him by more express Devotions and â—ayers he will forthwith be found near us and fillâ—g us with his Light will lead us along with him â—d honour us with his holy-Communications Meditation MAn is very strangely compos'd he puts himself to much trouble not to do his Duty and he neglects easie things because God comâ—inds them There 's nothing so easie as to think upâ— God and nevertheless nothing is seldomer done seems as if 't were impossible not to think on him â—â—ce all Objects that fall under our Senses speak to us the Divinity Dost not thou see O my Soul his â—nes his Characters his Traces every where But est thou not him in thy own Conscience and is he â—t in the Breast of every one of us 'T is easie then â— think on God yet still it is more sweet than easie 〈◊〉 my Soul If thou wert as spiritual and as much â—tied from Matter as thou should'st be thou wouldst â—â—ch thy Delights and sovereign Pleasure from this â—editation This great God this good God is the â—â—ef Beauty as well as the only Good My eyes adâ—â—re the Light of the Sun the Regularity of his Moâ—ons the Virtue of his Heat the just and equal Revolutions of the heavenly Bodies We admire thâ— Beauty and Wit in Men whose Force and Elevatioâ— appear Angelical unto us but thou art to know 〈◊〉 my Soul that these Beauties do derive from God and are only feeble Images of him that the Sun 's Light iâ— mere Darkness in comparison to him and that the best and most elevated Souls are earthly and groveling if vied with his Understanding If thou sawesâ— him in his Glory thou wouldst be ravish'd into an Extasie thou would'st say It is good for me to be here 〈◊〉 will build here a Tabernaele But alas thou canst noâ— see him He is nothing of all thou seest or hast thâ— sense of he is not corporeal Light nor colour for thâ— Eyes he is not a Sound nor Voice for thy Ears hâ— is no savour for thy Palate nor an Odour for thâ— Smelling in short he is not a Solid Body to bâ— touch'd thou seest no part of him yet thou may'sâ— find him whole think on him and thy Meditatioâ— will make thee hold and possess him With thy spiriâ— tual Eyes shalt thou see an intellectual Light which puts down all the Beauty of visible Light Thou shalâ— hear a divine Harmony that surpasses all the charms oâ— Musick Thou shalt taste such Food as the Delicacâ— and Excellency of it is far above all Imagination anâ— thou wilt say Come and taste how good the Lord is Thâ— Heart is never so much pleas'd as when near its Treaâ— sure Know O my Soul that God is thy true Richeâ— and Treasure and therefore run after him continually seek him ever and when thou shalt have hold oâ— him never leave him nor forsake him Ought a Woâ—man to have a more sweet and comfortable Thoughâ— than that of her Husband when he is absent Thy Maâ—ker is thy Husband thy God hath espoused thee in hiâ— great Compassions Art not thou therefore to aspirâ— to possess and to seek his chaste and divine Embraces Now thou canst not obtain this Favour but by fixing thy Spirit upon his divine Essence and infinite Perfeâ—ctions by a perpetual Meditation Get you far away 〈◊〉 vain Objects that rob me of the Object of my Love â—d the sinfull Employments that hinder me from â—â—nking on my God Prayer 〈◊〉 Seek thee O my God be pleased also to seek me that I may immediately meet with thee Draw near to 〈◊〉 me lay thine hand upon my head for I am in a trance Love Thou puttest a veil over thy Face thou hidest â—e most part from me of the beams of thy Glory because â—eyes are still impure and cannot look upon thee they â—e weak they cannot sustain the
ought to be the first thing in our Hearts so he must be the last too for he saith I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End Let him open the door of our thoughts in the morning and shut it up in the Evening This will be a Seal which the Devils will respect tho we be disarmed all while asleep they will tremble at our sight and will not dare to come near us The destroying Angel in passing by will reverence this Impression and this fruit of the Blood of the Lamb. These Evening-Devotions will be an holy Seed cast on good Land which will not fail to spring up in the morning since the heart will find it no trouble to begin the present Journey where it had ended the preceding one And in as much as 't is true that the Soul abandon'd to its self in sleep is naturally carried to the last Objects of its waking we need not doubt but the dreams will be happy and the Images which arise from those last impressions which Piety had made upon the Heart will be very sweet ones The night it self is perfectly a friend to Devotion 'T is there that recollectings are very easie the Soul being not dissipated by present Objects Nothing is sweeter than to fill the heart with God when void of other things God is well pleas'd if a faithful Soul makes an Altar of its bed and makes him its vows in a retreat where are no witnesses Let thy body be laid provided thy Soul be elevated and thou fall upon the knees of thy Heart as Clemens Romanus phrases it These nightly Communications with God seem more near and strict since laying our selves down in our beds we bid fare-well to the World and banish its cares and troubles from us to give repose to the body The Soul finds it self in a blest estate and at its waking being disengaged from the World it hath all manner of Liberty to mount up to God Thus we see that a great â—â—rt of David's Psalms were compos'd in the night I will bless the Lord says he in the sixteenth Psalm who â—ath given me Counsel my reins also instruct me in the night â—eason He assures us in the sixth Psalm that he waters is bed with his Tears and the spouse saith by night I â—ught him whom my Soul loveth In a word we learn â—â—om History that Antony the Patriarch of the Hermits â—omplain'd very frequently of the Sun's return very â—ear in these Terms Why comest thou O Sun to trouble the rest of my Soul why risest thou so soon to tear me away from the service of my God why comest thou to rob me of the sight of my true Sun Meditation THE measure of God's love is to have neither measures nor bounds it is to contain all the degrees of Love The true rule for the hours of Devotion is to consecrate all our hours to him This is what thou oughtest to do O my Soul but thou canst not For thou draggest after thee a bodily prison which is an hindrance to thee Thy Affections cannot be tam'd so far thou art subject even to worldly necessities which will not suffer it How happy wilt thou be then when thou art in such a place where thou mayst give up all thy hours to thy Creator and Redeemer There being deliver'd from the bonds of Flesh thou wilt serve the father of Spirits in perfect Liberty But now thou dividest thy time betwixt thy Employments thy Divertisements thy Repasts and thy Devotions But then these four things shall not be distinct they shall all be blended together Thy continual occupation shall be to sing the praises of thy God and to contemplate his Glory Thy meat and drink shall be to do the will of thy Father which is in Heaven Thy Pleasure and Divertisement will be in a most intimate injoyment to possess him who is the Source of all Joy Thou shalt have no more hours of Devotion for this fourth thing will be mixt in the three others Thou shalt be ever all Flame and all Fire for the service of thy God in this will consisithy chief happiness wouldst thou then here belowâ— approach near the Glories of Paradice multiply and continue as far as thou canst thy Commerces and Communications with God If thou wert always with God God would be always with thee Now where God is there is Paradice When thou enterest into thy Close with most devout Dispositions God enters there with thee and after him a whole troop of Angels Cherubims and Seraphims for he incamps his Angels about them that fear him and especially at such times as they fear and serve him No Object is more charming to the Angels who seek the good and well-sare of Men than to see a person truly devout falling on his Face to the Earth bathing his Couch and Bosom in Tears breathing the most ardent sighs towards Heaven carrying his Eyes thither where his heart is and stretching forth pure hands to God that he may embrace him There is Joy in Heaven for one devout Soul as well â—s for one penitent sinner Wherefore it is Heaven seems to descend and come down as it were to this Spectacle Labour then O my Soul to be ever prastising Devotion as well as Repentance that Heaven may be glad and thy God come often to thee By these frequent Communications thou wilt become right like the Face of Moses The rays of that divine Sun will peirce and illuminate thee they will baâ—ish the Darkness out of thee and melt the Ice and Coldness that makes thee so heavy and neglectful And â—y beholding him often thou wilt become his Glass â—nd wilt be changed into the same Image from Glory 〈◊〉 Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. Prayer O Sun of my Soul I seek thee with all my Strength hide not thy self from me and suffer no Eclipse disperse those Clouds which cover and separate thee â—â—rn me and rob me of the view of thy Light My sins â—confess continually raise thick filthy and malign vapours which may grow into Clouds and these Clouds afterwards â—â—duce the Storms and Thunders of thy severe Justice 〈◊〉 thou wouldst punish me as I deserve But from hence â—â—â—th O Lord hinder these Vapours from arising and dry 〈◊〉 their Source Let not my Heart be any more as a â—â—arsh full of unmoving and putrified Waters but let it be a living and pure Fountain Let it be no more an accursed Field abounding in Poysons but a fertile one in Flowers and Fruits of good-living and let none fly up to thee but sweet and kind Exhalations Prayers and giving of thanks that may cause a sweet-smelling Savour of atonement Let those sweet vapours be chang'd into sweet dews and let thy Grace falling upon my Soul like rain upon a thirsty Land make it to rejoyce and flourish and bring forth fruits of Righteousness Thou art my Light lighten me in the Darkness of the Night when I call upon thee in
are to choose a Life that holds the middle betwixt these two Extreams But at least 't is without Controversie that Solitude is absolutely necessary at hours destin'd to Devotion Which is not to be taken in such a manner as to do any prejudice to holy Assemblies or Publick Devotions They have their Use for Devotion and under Pretext of praying in our Closet we are never to deprive our selves of so necessary an Aid to Piety True it is every where else our Senses are enemies to Self-recollection but there both the Senses and Imagination favour the motions of the devout Soul The looking upon Churches which are God's houses the presence of Angels who assist in those places the society of a multitude of Souls that joyn their Vows as well as their Voices together the Word of God resounding in our Ears the Prayers that are united and being conceived by many hearts make up but one Vow All these things extremely help the Soul to make its elevations and serve very much to banish worldly Ideas to make holy ones succeed in their stead Nay 't is not impossible too but that among such a crowd we may conserve Solitude it self A Soul truly devout in such places is so collected into its self that all the Objects which might do it an injury cannot find it the faithful Person is in the Closet of his own heart he leaves no door open but for God's Word and for things able to instill Piety but the doors are shut against the vain Objects that are too often to be seen in such places There is a Spiritual Solitude as well as a Corporeal sayes St. Bernard and that is only in the midst of a throng which is exempt from vain and frivolous thoughts But 't is an horrible Profaneness to have indevour Dispositions in the Church to have there an heart open to all Vainities to go thither to see and to be seen to hear to get matter to play upon and to catch at Syllables and Words How great an account will these People have to make 'T is enough sure to have offended man and God himself all the dayes in the Week there needs no coming on the Sunday to declare War against him in his face I shall not inlarge here to speak of the manner after which we should act in Religious Assemblies because I design here only to give Rules for Closet-Devotion Meditation WHere shall I find an happy Solitude that may be to me an assured Sanctuary against the Persecution of the enemies of my Soul If I go from the World I carry it along with me if I enter into my Closet I am followed by a crowd of fleshly thoughts that perfectute me cruelly When I would save my self in Desarts and dwell in the Rocks with the Owl and Cormorant Vulturs are there those griping Cares that would tear and prey upon my Entrails I should be assail'd there by Flocks of Birds and a multitude of vain and light Thoughts which would lift me up from my self to throw me into the World What must I do to remedy this great Evil Thou knowest the Remedy O Lord I do not know it do thou teach me Here below there is no Heaven that can shelter and shrowd me from these Tempests no charms that can lay these Devils and conjure down these Fantoms of my Imagination I must make me a new heart for this is not so much the World's fault as my own 'T is not because it pursues me but for that I have placed it within me and which way soever I go I carry it with me If my heart were pure and clean in the midst of Cities and the greatest Assemblies I should find Solitude My Soul being drawn up into it self would be environed on all sides with a contempt of the World as with a Rampart The love of God and Godliness would keep the Avenues They would be a good Guard and would drive all Objects away which might come to interrupt me so as I should be alwayes in a place of safety Prayer O Blessed Lord create in me a clean Heart purifie it from the vain Images of the World which Sin and Satan have engrav'd in my Soul that under the Wings of thy good Spirit and Love I may find that Sanctuary against my self which I seek every where but find no where But why O my God should not thy Grace while we are in the flesh be sufficient to deaden all its motions why should I have always these Amalekites and Moabites round about me while I march and advance towards the heavenly Canaan and the Jerusalem which is above why have we not here below those Rivers of Grace and why cannot I have a Floud and Sea to wash my Entrails and cleanse them from these miserable Impurities It is thy will O God that my Temptations be always near me and the Philistines be always upon me that I may watch and not sleep on the lap of Dalila It is thy will that I have evermore a Thorn in my Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me least I should be exalted above Measure O my Saviour command that the least Temptation as not seize upon me which is not common to man give me an happy success in all my Temptations and strength to be able to bear them It is true thy Grace is sufficient for me let it not fail me then let it work its work in the midst of my Infirmities let it disperse my different thoughts let it calm the Agitations of my Soul let it make me to find a Sanctuary where being far from Noise Passions and Affections I may consecrate to thee my Watchings my Words and my Thoughts where I may be able to sing thy Praises Eternally and celebrate thy divine Majesty CHAP. VIII The third particular Direction to help Devotion Meditation and Prayer THE Soul comes into the World at least as ill instructed in the affairs of Grace as in those of Nature It is in all respects a plain unscrolled Table and an Ignorant which has need to be informed in every thing Very easily it acquires the Knowledges which are necessary to the Conduct of Life because those Directions pass to it thorough the Senses and these Objects are of its own size but it hath need of the greatest endeavour to attain those Notices which regard the Spiritual Life since those Objects are disproportionate to its Strength and yet those Enowledges are of absolute necessity to the practising the Virtues and particularly that of Devotion This last Virtue is made up of Love and Zeal but we have not them but according to the degree of our Knowledge and therefore I know not of what nature those ignorant Devotions can be which are destitute of all Light and are not guided but by the Senses these are it may be rather weaknesses of Constitution than effects of Grace The Devotions of ignorant People are almost ever gross and superstitious they are ordinarily fix'd to sensible Objects
duties of Piety we cannot be in the Kitchin and the Closet at the same time and while the Soul is employ'd in its Rooms about seething and digesting its Victuals and distributing its Nourishment it is not in a state to be transported in places destin'd to Contemplation and Meditation It lyes groveling beneath thick Clouds and foggy Vapours which render the heart unfit to lift it self up The abundance of delicious meats says a Father send smoky Exhalations like Clouds that interrupt the Illumination which is made in the understanding by the Holy Ghost Wherefore Moses that he might see God without a Cloud stayed forty days upon the Mount without eating or drinking with design that the superiour part of his Soul might remain disengag'd from Trouble and the Obscurities of the lower part Ease and Abundance of Bread cause the sins of Sodom and Uncleanness of of Life is the consequence of the mouth 's Excess After the use of many delicate meats and drinks the blood is all over inflam'd which gives a Disposition to all carnal Actions and an Inclination to worldly Joy which is ever immoderate The People sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play We must therefore of absolute necessity observe the Rules of Sobriety and nourish the Body only for Life's sake We must give it what is necessary and deny it superfluities that it be never able to rebell against us And frequently we must retrench even the necessary things that we may master it the more for the Flesh when kept under contributes much to make the heart contrite and the less tye the Soul has to the Body the more easily it lifts it self up to God When we fast our Devotions are not interrupted by sleep they are not corrupted by involuntary Motions they are not viciated by dishonest Thoughts In the mean while touching the practice and use of Fasting divers advices may be given First we are not to hold it for a part of Devotion and as a worship wherewith we serve God For the Kingdom of Heaven is neither meat nor drink it is only an help to Devotion This first consideration furnishes us with an other which is that we use not fasting as Devotion it self for to fast whilst we are travelling or about our Employments is no work of great merit or great use The first consideration has a third still that springs from it and that is that Fasting is not to be employ'd no farther in Devotion than as it may be an aid to it and by consequence we cannot give any certain rules either for the Practice or the Duration of it Some tempers there are so weak that fasting is so far from being an help to Devotion as it may be a great lett to it because it immediately casts the body into a certain negligence which hinders the Soul from soaring up Again there are those can't be tamed but by long mortifications and these ought not to spare themselves Others master ' emselves more easily and these must know themselves but nevertheless they are to take care that the weakness of their body do not serve for a pretext to dispence themselves from necessary mortifications Yet we cannot approve those cruelties which some use towards the body in treating it like a declared Enemy without sparing either Fire or Sword We put not on here the Spirit of Controversie we leave every one to his own Conscience We say only that altho those excesses be not new they are never the better for all that Eccesiastical History supplies us with examples enow I confess of these extravagant Mortifications But I had rather stand to the dicision of St. Basil who is not to be suspected in this cause since he was a great Associate in Fastings and Mortifications However he repeats many times the precept of Mediocrity and insists very long upon it He denyes his Virgins and his Hermits the use of excessive Mortifications even to his saving in the Book of Virginity that the burthen of heavy and excessively pamper'd Flesh does not bring more incumbrance to the elevation of the Soul than the weakness of a sick Body thinn'd by a long and excessive Mortification And therefore he expresly orders That necessity be the rule of Fasting and Abstinence And now follows another necessary Direction upon this Subject That bodily Mortification and Fasting does not reach to the very bottom of the Soul nor mortifie all sort of Vice An Ancient said That the Devil being not able to lay hold or take Possession of a Body master'd by great Mortifications seizes upon the Soul all naked and by it and in it begins and consummates the carnal Desires If the Soul without the Body be capable of acting and committing bodily Sins though Mortification be in the way how shall it heal it self by this means of those Diseases which are intirely in it as Envy Pride and Self-love So we see these Passions reign very often and very imperiously in those Men of Scourges and Sackcloth This so bloody War which is wag'd against the Body and in appearance renounces all Self-love can be no more in the most part than a Self-love very delicate which leads to Glory by extraordinary Paths that it may arrive there the more surely From all this I conclude that the Mortification which St. Paul requires of us when he says Mortifie your Members which are upon the Earth and that which we have judged necessary for Devotion goes much farther than bodily Mortification To stifle that Self-love that Pride those Jealousies Harreds Envyings and even Ambition and Covetousness there is need of another sort of Fasting that is an Abstinence from all Actions which may nourish those Vices So I conclude this Chapter with those incomparable Words of the Father Beware of defining the excellence of Fasting by a sole Abstinence from Meats and Drinks for true Fasting consists in abstaining from Evil. Thou dost not eat Flesh but thou tearest thy Brother in pieces thou abstainest from Wine but thou abstainest not from doing Outrage thou waitest till the Evening to eat but thou spendest the day in a Law Suit Woe to those that are drunk though not with Wine Anger inebriates the Soul and as well as Wine casts it out of the limits of Reason Meditation THIS of wine I confess is a most dangerous Drunkenness and Gluttony is a most filthy sin These sins are great Enemies to Devotion and therefore Fasting Abstinence and Sobriety are very necessary to succour and nourish Piety But O my Soul take care of thy self these vices regard the body chiefly There is another sort of Drunkenness and Gluttony which immediately concerns the Soul and is it may be still more dangerous this Drunkenness is Pride and this Gluttony is Avarice and Ambition How many Souls do I see in the World made drunk with Vanity and an high Opinion of themselves They are fly-blown with Pride that all the Earth cannot contain them they stretch themselves so far