particuler endeauours and remedies He therefore that shall find himselfe subiect to this necessity must in the first place treate his body with seuerity by lessening both food sleep and by giuing it a hard bed hayr-clothes other conuenient helps of this kind whereby it may be afflicted For (l) HarkeÌ„ to this holy Father though he were no Protestant S Hierome saith By fasting the plague of this body of ours is cured and S. Hilarion spake thus to his flesh and bloud I will tame thee and take order that thou shalt not kiâ—ke but that through hunger and payne thou maist haue more mind of mâ—ate then lust And S. Hierome counselleth Eustochium the Virgin That although she had bin brought vp in daynty fare yet she should be very carefull to vse abstinence in diet and not to abstayne from giuing the body further troubles assuring her that without taking of this course she would not be able to make good the possession of chastity Yf by occasion of such pennance the body should grow to weakenesse and the health to preiudice the same S. Hierome maketh answeare in another place That it were better the stomacke should suffer then the soule and to commaund the body then to be subiect to it and that the legges were better to treÌ„ble for weakenesse then that chastity should reele for lacke of strength It is true indeed that in another place he withall requires That the fasting be not so excessiue as to weaken the stomacke yet againe in another place he reprehendeth some whome he had knowne to haue runne hazard of loosing their wittes through the excesse of fasting absteyning In this it is impossible to giue a general rule that may square with all For (m) It is therfore necessary to haue often recourse to his ghostly Father some find help by one meanes another not some one may be hurt by it in his health and not another And one thing it is when the warre is so great as to place a man in daunger of loosing his Chastity for in that case it is fit to put the body to any inconuenience that the soule may so be able to remaine with life and another thing it is for a man to struggle with a moderate tentation whereby he feareth not so much danger nor for the conquest thereof is in necessity of taking so much paynes Now for the vsing of the most conuenient help in such occasions it will much depend vpon the discreet conduct of him that guides the person tempted who are both to pray with al humility to our Lord that heerin he will impart some light And since thâ— vessel n 1. Cor. â— of Election S Paul did not trust his flesh and bloud o S. Paul was no ProtestaÌ„t both because he thought it necessary to chastize beat his body and for that he made not himselfe sure of his saluation as these others doe but that he punished and made it subiect least preaching vertue to others himself might become vicious by falling into sinne how shall we conceaue that we can be chaste without chastizing our body since we haue both lesse vertue and greater causes of feare then he Very p Note hardly is humility held fast in the middest of honours temperance in the middest of abundance chastity in the middest of delicacies And if he should be worthy of derision who procuring to quench the fyre wherein his house were burning would cast in a supply of more dry wood much more worthily shall he be derided who on the one side desyreth chastity and on the other stuffes his skin with curious and choice meates and giues himselfe moreouer to idlenesse For these things doe not only not quench the fire which already is kindled but would suffice to kindle it euen where it were already quenched And since the Prophet q Ezech. 1â— Ezechiel is a witnesse to vs that the cause why that vnfortunate Citty of Sodome grew vp to the highest of that abominable sin was the r AboundaÌ„ce and Idlenes are the mother and the nurse of lust fullnesse aboundance of bread and the idlenesse wherein they spent their tyme who will now presume to liue in idlenesse or in delicacyes yea or euen to see them though but a far off For as much as these things which in them were able to produce that greater sinne with facility will be able to induce vs to commit the lesser Let such an one therefore as is a friend to Chastity loue Temperance and the ill treating of his body For if he would haue the one without the other it will not proue with him but rather he will be depriued of both For those thinges which God did ioyne man should not desire to separate neyther shall he be able though he would CHAP. VI. Of two causes that there are of sensuall tentations what meanes we must vse against them when they rise from the Malice of the Diuell VVE are much to marke that the remedy of which I haue spoken in afflicting the body is wont to help when the tentation springeth from the body as it vseth to do in young men who haue good health and haue vsed to regale themselues Then a According to the seuerall root motiue of the tentation so is the remedy to be applyed I say it is fit to reforme the body when the roote of the infirmity riseth thence But sometymes the tentation groweth by meanes of the Diuell and it may partly be perceaued by this that it fighteth with vs more by thoughts foule imaginations of the mind then by impure motions of the body Or if you find these later also in your body it is not because the tentation began there but hauing begun by thoughts it groweth at last to result into the exteriour Which exteriour of the body being sometymes extremely weake and little better then dead euill thoughts are yet now and then most liuely in it as it happened to S. Hierome according to his owne relation It is also another signe that such tentations are of the Diuell when they come vpon a suddayne and when a man giueth least occasion or hath cause to expect them least Nor b There is no sin at all if no occasion nor coÌ„sent be giuen nor pleasure taken in the suggestioÌ„ of carnall thoughts can he as it may happen obserue due reuerence in the very tymes of his Prayer no nor at the Altar nor in other holy places where yet euen a very wicked man would coÌ„sider where he were abstayn from thinking of such things Sometymes c Note these thoughts are such in quality and so many in number as that a man neuer knew nor heard nor imagined any such things as do then present themselues And by the force wherewith they come and by the very things themselues which interiourly are told him a man findes that they spring not from himselfe but that
nothing of the matter which signifieth that he did not approue or like it And he that shall consider how God (t) Osâ—ae c. 8. abandoned King Saul the same God hauing placed him in the Kingdom wil find that he (v) A sad example but fit for ambitious men to looke much vpon hath much reason to vndeceiue himselfe since there will be no assurance giuen him by any that he is not to proue as frayle as Saul but only by his owne pride and ambition of command Of (x) Note this I am very sure that he shal neuer more honestly enter into it then Saul did S Augustine had reason when he sayd That authority and dignity is necessary for such as are to rule the people and that when a man is in it he must administer it according to reason but that it is vnlawfull for him that hath it not to desire it And of himselfe he sayd That he desired and procured to saue his soule in a low place that he might not put it to hazard in a higher This is especially to be done when the place whereof we speake doth concerne the charge of soules the well discharging whereof doth carry with it so much difficulty as that it is called the Art of Artes. These (y) Certaine excellent directions for practise dangers ought to be fled by vs as much as with a morall possibility we may in imitation of the example already touched which our Lord did shew in flying from the acceptance of a Kingdome he hath represented to vs many other holy wise persons who haue fled the like with al the harts they had And such as enter into these places had need do it either by reuelatioÌ„ of our Lord or by obedience to such as haue power to command them or by counsell of such others as do well vnderstand the obligation of such an office and the dangers thereof and they must be sure to keep the iudgment of God before their eyes and to cast all temporall respects behind their backes If these conditions may not be found it will at least be needfull that there be ground for good coniecture that God is pleased to lay such a burthen vpon them that such or such a man may giue credit to those coniectures before he imbarke himself into so great a danger And notwithstanding all this there will be matter inough of feare and continuall watch must be kept and our Lord must be prayed that since he kept the entrance free from ill he may also defend them in the issue of it for feare least otherwise it end in euerlasting condemnation For we haue seen many of them who liued with much contentment in such command dye full of wishes that they had neuer beene imployed therein and loaden with great feares of that whereof before they were in their opinion secure And (z) Platerv and false iudgment is then out of date in all likelyhood the truth of a mans iudgment concerning temporall thinges doth shine brighter vpon him when he is departing from them when he is more approaching to the iudgment of God wherein all Truth remaynes CHAP. V. How much we ought to fly from the pleasure of flesh and â—loud and what a most dangerous Enemy this is of what helpes we are to serue our selues for the subduing thereof FLESH and Bloud speakes of Delights and pleasures sometymes expresly sometymes vnder a colour of necessity The warre which is made vpon vs by this enemy besids that it brings vs much affliction is full of danger Because it fightes with pleasure in the hand which is (a) Note and take heed the strongest weapon of all others This doth euideÌ„tly appeare since many haue beene conquered by pleasure who were not so by riches honours or eueÌ„ by cruel torments Nor is it any meruayle For this ware is so secret and so in the way of ambush or treasoÌ„ that a man had need of much coÌ„sideration for his defence Who (b) We may well beleeue it vpon the infinit experieÌ„ce that hath byn takeÌ„ would belieue that death and death eternall should come towards vs vnder a maske of sweet and smooth delight death being the top of bitternesse delight the very thing that we most aspire to tast A cup of gold with a draught of poyson is this false pleasure whereby they are made drunke who haue no eyes but for the exteriour This is the treason of (c) 2. Reg. 20. Ioab who killed Amasus by imbracing him and of (d) Matt. 26. Marc. 14. Luc. 22. Iudas who by that treacherous kisse of peace deliuered ouer his blessed mayster into the hands of death So is it when by drinking the pleasure of a mortal sin Christ dyeth in the soule vpon whose death it also dies for company for the life it had came from him So sayth (c) Rom. 8. S. Paul If you liue according to the flesh you shal dy And in another place (f) Tim. 5. The widdow that remaynes in pleasure being yet aliue is dead aliue by the life of her body but dead by that of her soule By how much the more closely we are ioyned to this (g) It is a traytour lodging in our bosome flesh and bloud so much the more we are to feare it for our Lord hath sayd (h) Matt. 10â— That a mans enemies are they of his owne house And this flesh bloud is not only belonging to this house of ours but of the two walls whereof the same house is made this is one For this and other reasons S. Augustin sayd that the combate of our flesh bloud was continuall and the conquest full of difficulty and whosoeuer will proue victorious must go armed with many and strong (i) Of Armes pieces For the pretious iewell of chastity is not imparted to al but to such as by the much sweat of many earnest prayers and of other holy peÌ„nance do obteyne it of our Lord. He was pleased to be wrapt in a fayre sheete of linnen which must passe through many rude handlings before it wil come to be white Wherby we may vnderstaÌ„d that the man who desireth to obteyne to conserue the guift of chastity and so to lodge Christ in himself as if it were in another sepulâ—her must be content with a great deale of cost labour to gayne this purity (k) Chastity is such a iewell as that it can neuer be ouer-bought which is a thing so rich that whatsoeuer be spend vpon it he may account himself to buy it cheap And as many more painfull works of pâ—nnance satisfaction are to be required at his hands who hath much offended our Lord then at his who hath not so much offended so though all of vs who liue in flesh must be afrayd of it and watch ouer it bridle it and rule it with discreet-temperance yet they who particulerly are infested by it wil haue need to vse
shalt now vnderstand that if this prayer be deuout and long continued and such as wherin gust is taken according to that diuine sweetnesse which it imparted to some such prayer I say is not only a weapon wherewith to fight but euen outright to cut the throat of this bestiall vice For the soule wrastling hand to hand with God by the armes of her deuout affections and thoughtes doth obteyne of him in particuler manner as another Iacob that he blesse her with a multitude of graces and with a profound internall sweetnesse Heereupon she remaineth strucken in the thigh which signifieth sensuall appetite this growing to be mortified in such forte as that from thenceforth she goeth lame on that side and she remayneth liuely strong in her spirituall affections being signified by the other thigh which was vntouched For as the delightfull gust of flesh and bloud maketh vs loose all gust and strength of spirit so if once we come to haue gust in spirit the gust of all flesh and bloud grows highly vnsauoury Somtymes (b) See how God vseth his true seruants the delightfull sweetnesse which a soule being visited by God doth tast is so great that the body cannot beare it and the same body remayneth so weake and so defeated as it might be at the end of some corporal infirmity which had held it long Though at other tymes it hapâ—eth that by the strength which is receiued by the soule euen the very body also is assisted and recouers new forces Making some experience in this exile of hers of that which shee is to find in heauen when the soule being happy in God full of inexplicable delightes there shall result into the body both strength and ioy and other most pretious endowements which our Lord will then impart O soueraigne Lord and how (c) How inexcusable they are who leaue God for the loue of creatures mightily without excuse hast thou made the fault of them who for the seeking of delight in creatures are content to forsake yea to offend thee vvhilest yet euery one of the delightes that be in thee are so massiue as that all they which are in the creatures being summed vp into one are in comparison of thyne no better then pure and perfect gall And this is so vvith great reason For the delight or ioy vvhich is taken from any thing is but the fruite of that thing whatsoeuer it be and such as the tree is the fruit is also Therefore is the ioy which is deriued from creatures but short and vayne and filthy and compounded with sorrow because the tree from whence it is gathered is subiect to the same conditions But the ioy which is in thee O Lord what imperfection or decay can it be subiect to Since thou art eternall quiet most simple most beautifull immutable a Good which is infinitely complete The (d) The delights of this world are all but lyes tast which a partridge hath is of a partridge the gust which a man hath of any creature sauours of the creature and he that can say who thou art O Lord can say of what tast thou art Aboue all vnderstanding is thy being and so also is that sweet delight of thyne which is kept and hidden vp for them that feare thee and who to enioy thee do with their harts renounce the gust of creatures An infinite good thou art and so are thy delights also infinite And therfore although the Angels of heauen and the happy soules of men liuing there are euer to remayne enioying thee and (e) The ioyes of heauen are so greatâ— as that no soule would be able to subsist in them if it were not supernaturally enabled to it by Almighty God that with a proportion of strength which thou hast giuen them for that purpose which is not small and although incomparably many more were added also to them that in like maÌ„ner they might enioy thee and that with much greater strength then now they haue yet so boundlesse is that sea of thy diuine sweetnes as that they all wauing and swimming as being full euen inebriated with those delights there doth yet remayne so much more thereof to be enioyed as that if thou O Lord Omnipotent with the infinite powers which thou hast didst not possesse and enioy thy selfe those delights would carry with themselues a kind of complaint in that there would be want of such as might enioy all that which is there to be enioyned And thou O most wise Lord vnderstanding as being our Creatour that our inclinatioÌ„ carryeth vs to a loue of rest and ioy and that a soule is not able to continue long without a search of some consolation either good or bad thou (f) God is so deerely good that euen in this life he puts his faythfull seruants into a kind of paradise dost inuite vs by those celestial delights which are in thee that so we may not cast our selues away vpon the pursuite of sinneful pleasure in thy creatures Thy voice it is O Lord Come vnto (g) Matt. 11. me O all you that labour and are loaden and I will refresh you And thou didst commaund that this should be proclaymed in thy name O all you that are thirsty come to the waters And thou hast made vs know That (h) Isâ— â—s there are delightfull ioyes in thy right hand which continue to the end that of the same riuer of thy delight not by any limited taxe or measure thou giuest to thy seruants to driâ—ke in thy kingdome Yea sometymes thou vouchsafest a tast of some part therof to thy friends euen whylest they are yet on earth to whome thou sayest Come (i) Canâ— 5. eate and drinke and be inebriated O you my deerest friends Al this thou doest O Lord through a desire of drawing them to thee by meanes of ioy whome thou knowest to be so affected to it Let no man therefore lay the least imputation vpon thee O Lord as if there were any want of goodnes in thee to be loued or of true delight to be enioyed and let him neuer be hunting after any pleasing or delightfull conuersation out of thee since the reward which thou wilt giue to thy seruants is to bid them Enter into (k) Matt. 20. the ioy of their Lord. For of the same plate and out of the same cup whereof thou eatest and drinkest they shall eate and drinke and of the same which thou enioyest they shall enioy for thou hast already inuited them to eate at thy table in the (l) Luc. 21. kingdome of thy Father What canst thou haue heere to say (m) Hearken to this for he speaks home to thee if it be to thee O thou carnall man thou who art in so high a measure deceaued as that thou ariuest to prize these filthy pleasures of flesh and bloud which base and wicked persons and euen the very beastes of the field enioy more then that soueraigne
what wilt thou haue me do And it is thy pleasure O Lord that we should expect the remedy of these our miseryes from thee by meanes of the medicine of thy word and (h) They be the Sacraments which conuey the bloud of our Lord Iesus to our souls and they are the true Priests of the true Catholike Church who may minister them of thy sacraments which the Priests of thy Church dispence And thou commandest vs to repaire to them for the same as S. Paul did to thy seruant Ananias Thus do we know full wel that our perdition came from our selues and our remedy from thee And we confesse that it was thy infinite goodnes which made thee call to thy selfe such as had turned their backes towards thee to remember them that had forgotten thee and to be shewing fauours to them that had deserued torments taking them to thy selfe for sonnes who had been so wicked slaues and lodging thyne owne royal person in them who formerly had beene so stinking and euen the very sinkes of vncleanesse These sinnes which then we committed were ours and if yet we be any thing lesse wicked it is by God and in God that we are so As the Apostle sayth You (i) Philip. once were darknesse but now you are light in our Lord. It is therefore necessary for vs to remember the miserable state in which by our fault we placed our selues if we will be secure in that happy state wherein now we are lodged by the mercy of God Assuring our selues as of a most certaine truth That yet we should do those very thinges which formerly we did if the powerfull and pittifull hand of God did retyre it selfe from vs. And if we considered the many dangers to which we are subiect through our frailty we would not presume to reioyce outright in the grace which we haue at the present through the feare of those sinnes which we may commit in the future And we should know how holesome a counsell that is of the holy Scripture Blessed (k) Psal 111. is the man who is euer fearefull And againe Worke onâ— your (l) Philip. 2. saluation with feare and trembling And yet againe Let (m) 1. Cor. 10. him that standes take heed that he do not fall A (n) Go on in this excellent contemplation with great attention sinne that is committed will cost sighes before it be pardoned and a sinne that may be committed must cost feare that we may be preserued from it as it is excellently figured by the feare which Iacob had of Esau when he came from Mesopotamia though God himselfe had bid him come A great ioy was that which the children of Israell conceaued and deuout songes they were which they sung then to God when he wrought so great a miracle with them as to make them passe through the sea without once being wetshod And it seemed to them since they had not perished in so great a danger that nothing could be able to pull them downe nor to impeach their ariual in that Land which God had promised But the experience fell out to be contrary For after they had receaued that great fauour from God certaine tentations and proofs did follow wherin they were found weake and impatient to endure the touch and triall who had formely beene so deuout and cheerefull vpon their passage through the sea And (o) Note because no soule shall weare the crown which is promised by God but such as are fouÌ„d to be faithfull in the probations which he is ploased to send those others who were not such could neuer reach to the Land of Canaan but insteed of the life which was promised they were punished in the desert with death Who (p) Note the great reason which thou hast to be humble whosoeuer thou be will therefore now be so farre from shooting at the marke as whether he behold his life past or that which yet remaines in spending to presume to tosse vp the head and to take pryde in himself since in that part which is past he did so miserably fal and in that which is to come he is subiect to so many feares of doing the like And (q) An excellent descriptioÌ„ of a man who is truly vertuous for he who is not thus is but a counters fait if he knew and did acknowledge this truth as he ought That all good thinges come from God he would see that to receiue guâ—ftes from God is no reason for making him who hath the same to take in the vayne snuffe of pryde but rather to abase himselfe as a person who is bound to the performance of more gratitude and greater seruice And when he considereth that togeather with the increase of fauours the account which he is to make for them doth also increase as the Ghospell sayth he finds that they are as a heauy burthen which maketh him fetch many a deepe sigh and to be fuller then he was before of humility and care And because our leuity is so greate and this secret pryde is so conueyed into the very bones of vs that no force of man is sufficient to cleanse vs wholy from this sinne we must begg the gift of God importunately beseeching him that he will not suffer vs to fall into so great a treason as that we should robbe him of the honour which for all thinges that are good is due to him The pestilencies of the body are cured by fasting and of the soule by prayer Therefore he who finds himselfe subiect to this plague of the soule must pray with all possible diligence and perseuerance and present himselfe in the high presence of God beseeching him that he will open his eyes and make him truely know what God is and what himselfe is that neither he may impute any thing that is euill to God nor ascribe any thing that is good to himselfe And so he shal be farre from hearkning to this false Language of the proud Diuell who by meanes of proper estimation would fayne beguile vs. But hearken thou to the truth of God which sayth The (r) Belieue this truth if thou haue a mind to be happy true honour and estimation of a creature doth not consist in it selfe but in receiuing fauour and in being esteemed and loued by the Creatour And because I shall afterward speake more at large of this matter when I discourse Of the knowledge of a mans selfe I will say no more of it for the present CHAP. XVIII Of another suare all contrary to the former which is Despaire whereby the Diuell procureth to conquer Man and how we shall carry our selues against him ANOTHER inuention wholy contrary to the former is vsed by the Diuell which is not by blowing vp the hart but by beating it downe and by dismaying it so farre as thereby to driue it vpon despaire He contriueth this by bringing to memory the sinnes which a man hath committed and by aggrauating them
enemies and triumphing ouer them we shal say O death where is thy victory O death where is thy sting which sting is sinne in them where death is still in force whereby it doth wound as the Bee is wont to do with her sting for by sinne death entred into the world Both the one and the other enemy which were wont to gouerne and to wound the world remayne drowned in the blessed bloud of Iesus Christ and slayne by his precious death And in (u) See heer how copious the Redemption is which our Lord hath purchased for vs. their place succeedeth that euerlasting iustice whereby heere the soule is iustifyed and afterwards shall succeed the vision of God face to face in heauen and a life which shal be eternally blessed both in body and soule What shall we say to this O Virgin but that which S. Paul hath taught vs Thankes be giuen to God who hath graunted vs victory through Iesus Christ Him thou art to adore and with a gratefull and enamoured harte say to him Let all the earth adore thee and prayse thee and singe a hymne to thy name And see thou say this often euery day and especially when at the Altar his most holy body is eleuated by the hands of the Priest CHAP. XXIII Of the great mischeise which despayre doth worke in the soule and how we must ouercome this ene my with spirituall alacrity and diligence and feruour in the seruice of God THis despayre and loosing of hart is such a dangerous instrument of our enemy that when I remember the great mischeifes which haue growen by it to the consciences of many I desyre to speake a little more concerning the remedy thereof if perhaps any good may come thereby It (a) This is a case too common happeneth so that sometymes there are persons who be loaden with a multitude of great sinnes and neither know what despayre nor so much as a little feare is nor doth it once passe through their thought But they goe on as being assured by a false hope offending God and yet not fearing punishment for the same And (b) We see by lamentable experience that such as are not Catholiks do passe from one extremity of presâ—â—â—tion to the other of de peration without resting in true hope if once the mercy of God shine vpon their soules and they beginne to see the grieuousnes of their sinnes though it be reason that since they aske pardon of God with purpose of amendement and that they receiue the benefit and comforte of the Sacramentes they should be strengthned thereby both against that which is past and that also which in the seruice of God might afterward present it selfe yet fall they vpon the other extreame of feare as before they were subiect to that of false security Not (c) Note considering that they who oftend God and do not repent haue reason indeed to feare tremble though all the world smile vpon them because the wrath of the omnipoteÌ„t is prouoked against them which wrath there is no power that can resist and that they who humble themselues to God and receiue his holy Sacramentes and who will procure to do his will ought to haue the hart of Lions for as much as they are commaunded to confide in God by that token that God is with them Whome as they hold for an enemy to the wicked and for that themselues haue byn such they are in feare so it is all reason that they should hold him for a friend of the good and that in regard of the holy purposes which he hath inspired them with they may confide that he is also their friend and that so he will be giuing increase to the good seed which himselfe did plante and perfecting that which he hath begunne This is certainely true that when once a man coÌ„meth to say in earnest that which Dauid sayd I haue held vp my hands towardes the performance of thy commanamentes which I haue loued God putteth his eyes and hart where that man putteth his hands that so he may help him and as one who is good by an infinite goodnesse he taketh him into protection with care and ranketh that man on his syde who will fight for his honour making warre vpon himselfe to giue contentment to God And (d) The difficulties which vse to occur to such as begin to serue God although it be true that when a man beginneth to serue God through some particuler calling which may incite him with the contempt of all thinges to seeke that pretious pearle of the Ghosâ—ell by the perfection of a spirituall life there may grow against such a man such traines and warres of the Diuells both immediately from themselues and also by the meanes of wicked men and they lock him vp in such straytes that when he rayseth the first foote from ground and placeth it on the lowest of those fifteene steppes whereby men rise to perfection he is forced to say When I was in tribulation I called vpon our Lord and he heard me O Lord deliuer my soule from wicked lipps and from the deceitefull tongue which wicked lippes are they which doe expressely hinder that which is good and a deceitfull tongue is that which procureth in a disguised manner to deceyue and sometymes so great impediments are presented or at least it seemeth so towards the making one depart from his course begunne that they are like those great Giantes wherof the children of Israel sayd Compared with them we are no more then a few little grashoppers and the walles of the Citty which we are to assault seeme to threaten heauen with their height and the earth in that place seemeth to open to swallow vp her inhabitantes notwithstanding I say all this thou art to consider and let vs all consider it with well opened eyes how much that faint-hartednes despaire displeased God which the Sonnes of Israel were subiect to by the meanes aforesayd For as much as the sinns which they committed in the wildernes howsoeuer they were great many and one of them was that they adored a Calfe for God which seemeth to be the very outside of wickednes yet God endured all this at their hands and did them fauour towards the prosecuting of their enterprize begun But (c) Note how predominaÌ„tly despaire is displeasing to Almighty God he would not endure their disconfidence and despaire of his mercy and power and he sware to them in his wrath as Dauid sayth that they should not enter in to his rest and as he sware it so he performed it Doth it not seeme to thee that we haue reason to curse this vice which is opposite to the honour of the diuine goodnes That being so much greater then our wickednes as God is greater then man And be thou assured that as the way of perfect vertue is a kind of stiffe battaile made against our enemies who are full of strength both within vs and without vs yet
most assured signes of a retyred and recollected hart is the mortification of the sight and of a dissolute hart if the sight be dissolute There is no pulse which so assuredly declares the disposition of the body as the eye expresseth the inclination of the soule either to good or euill And therefore the Spouse doth prayse the eyes of his fellow Spouse by saying That (f) 1. Cant. 5. her eyes were as of the Doue giuing vs to vnderstand that they were chast as they of the Doue are which vse to be blacke Let vs therfore see wel how we see vnlesse we haue a mind to pay that by lamenting which we haue sinned in by looking And if this care must be had in the exteriour eyes how much more must it be had in those of the mind wherein chiefly the seeing well or ill consisteth and whereby it is best iudged whether a man haue eyes or no. No man doubtes but that the Pharisees to whome Christ Iesus our Lord was speaking had eyes in their heades wherewith they saw but because their soule had no eyes he calleth them blind and guides of the blind For as S. Antony sayd to a blind man called Dydimus who was full of wise knowledge of holy Scripture Thou hast no reason to be troubled for the want of corporall eyes which cats and dogges and other inferiour liuing creatures haue since the eyes of thy soule are cleare wherewith God is seene Of this sight therefore art thou to vnderstand that whereof thou art admonished in the second word see If thou wilt performe it thou hast eyes which are thy vnderstanding and this was giuen vs for the sight of God Do (g) Consider and auoyd those obiects which are so hurtful to our sight not fill it with the dust of the earth and transitory honour do not stop it vp with the grosse humours of sensuall thoughts but shaking of such poore thinges as these which fill the sight preserue thy vnderstanding cleare that so it may be imployed vpon him that gaue it and who demaundes it of thee againe that so he may make thee happy by it Do (h) This may be good counsayle for all Christians according to our seuerall vocations though chiefly it be heere meant for such as are in state of virginity not thinke it to haue been in vayne that Christ hath freed thee from worldly busines was pleased that thou shouldest not enter into the troubles and incommodityes of a marryed life the cares whereof vse to trouble their sight who are subiect to them if our Lord do not impart a very speciall grace in the strength whereof they may comply with both obligations But thee our Lord hath freed to the end that thou mightest be wholy his and that thyne eyes might cast themselues vpon him alone as the chast Spouse should only looke vpon him whose Spouse she is CHAP. LVII That the first thing which a man must see is himselfe of the necessity which we haue of this knowledge and the inconueniences that grow vpon vs through want thereof THOV (a) Heere beginneth a most excellent and most profitable discourse of the knowledg of ones selfe It is made at large and deserueth to be well considered shalt therefore hold this order in looking that first thou looke vpon thy selfe and then vpon God and afterward vpon thy Neighbours Looke vpon thy selfe that so thou mayst know thy selfe and haue thy selfe in small account For there is not a worse kind of deceit then to be deceaued in one selfe and to esteeme himselfe for other then indeed he is A piece of durt thou art for as much as cōcerneth thy body and a sinner thou art for as much as concernes thy soule and if thou esteeme thy selfe to be more then this thou art blind And the spouse will say to thee If thou dost not know thy selfe O thou who art fayre amongst women go out and looke after the footsteps of thy heardes and feed thy kiddes by those cottages or tents of the sheepheardes This place I will declare to thee according to the Greeke letter and the vulgar edition which the Councell of Trent directeth vs to follow (b) The same place of holy Scripture may haue diuers meanings and all of them true as S. Augustin doth proue at large lib. 11. Confes in many places although the Hebrew letter do carry another sense They say therefore according to the opinion of S. Gregory S. Bernard and Origen after this manner There is nothing so much to be trembled at as to heare it sayd by the mouth of God Go out and see For if the saddest word that a Father can say to a sonne or a husband to a wife whome he kept in great honour and aboundance is to separate her from his estate and protection by saying Go thy wayes from me and from my house what kind of thing shall it be for the soule to depart from God but to be banished from all happynes and to fall into all miseryes Whither shall we go sayd S. Peter to Christ for thou hast the wordes of eternall life Whither shall we go for thou hast the fountayne of life and thou only hast it Whither shall we go O thou sweet and cheerfull light without which all is darknes Whither shall we go O thou bread of life without which all is deadly hunger Whither shall we go O thou most strong defence without whome euen security it selfe is but danger In fine whither shall that sheep go which is all enuironed with wolues if the sheepheard do forsake it and cast it off 〈◊〉 (c) It is so he that doth not thinke so doth not thinke of it as he ought sadd word it is Go out and see and like that which Christ hath to say to the wicked at the last day Go you cursed into the fire that is prepared for you I say yet once againe that there is not a thing which ought to mak a man tremble more or labour more for the auoyding of it if he be in the plentifull and cheerefull house of God and in the hand of his most strong protection then to heare these words Go out and see This going out is no trifle but the cause of all mischiefe For that man who is made destitute of diuine help and left to his own strength what will he do as sayth S. Austine but that which S. Peter did when he denyed Christ And that without knowing or repenting himselfe of the euill which he had done till the diuine countenance and fauour of Christ did shine vpon him who by falling into sinne had forgotten him giuing knowledge to S. Peter of the misery into which he had cast himselfe and giuing him griefe for the same letting him see that the cause of his fall was his hauing confided in himselfe So that the reason why our mercifull Lord groweth so rigorous in turning his children out of dores is because they do not know
holy places good works for so it is fittest for young folks Do not plunge thy selfe into transitory cares when thou hast done working som what with thy hands which being moderately vsed will do thee good both in soule and body hauing complyed with thy obligations either of necessity or Charity according to that rule of life which hath been prescribed to thee take as much tyme as thou canst to be shut vp in thyne Oratory And although at the first it may chance to go against thy stomake thou wilt come to find that they are the affaires of heauen which are treated there and that thou takest not so much gust in the expence of any tyme as that which thou spendest there in peace CHAP. LIX Wherein he prosecuteth the exercise which conduceth to the knowledge of ones selfe and how we are to profit in the vse of reading and of Prayer HAVING then found out this priuate place retire thy selfe into it twice euery day at the least Once in the morning to thinke vpon the sacred passion of Iesus Christ our Lord as I will shew thee afterward and once againe in the euening at the shutting vp of the day to attend to the exercise of knowing thy selfe and let thy way to that be this Take first some booke of good instruction wherein as in a glasse thou mayest see thy faultes and that thy soule may therewithall receiue such food (a) A most excellent aduise how spirituall books are to be read with great profit of the soule as to be encouraged in the way of God This reading must not be vsed with any trouble nor by turning ouer many leaues but with raising vp the hart to our Lord to beseech him that he will speake to it with his liuing and powerfull voyce by meanes of those words which there thou readest And that he wil giue thee the true vnderstanding thereof and with this attention and reuerence obserue and hearken to God by those wordes which thou readest as if thou heardest himselfe preach when he spake heere in the world In such sort that although thyne eyes be cast vpon the booke do not thou fasten thy selfe to it with so great an anxiety of mind as to make thee not so well to thinke of God but conserue a moderate and peacefull attention which may not enthrall thee nor hinder the free and superiour kind of attention which thou art to yeald vnto our Lord and reading thus thou wilt not grow weary By this meanes our Lord will giue thee the liuing sense of the wordes which in thy soule may worke sometimes repentance of thy sinns at other times a confidence in him and his pardon of them and he will open thy vnderstanding towards the knowledge of many other thinges although thou read not many lines Sometymes it wil be fit to interrupt thy reading to thinke of somewhat which resulteth from thence and then to returne againe to read and so at once thou shalt profit both in reading and prayer And with a hart thus deuout and recollected thou mayest beginne to enter vpon the exercise Of the knowing of thy selfe then vpon thy knees thou shalt thinke to what an excellent and soueraigne maiesty thou art going to speak Which yet (b) How we are to thinke vpon God when we go to pray thou must not conceaue to be farre from thee but that he filleth heauen and earth that there is nothing wherein he is not and that he is more within thee then thou thy selfe And considering thyne owne poorenes make thou a profound internall reuerence humbling thy hart as if it were a kind of Ant in the presence of an infinite Essence and desire that thou mayst haue leaue to speake Begin first to speake ill of thy selfe and make thy confession in generall and particulerly also if it occure to thee demand pardon of that wherein thou mayst haue offended him that day Resort then to some of those (c) Some few vocal prayers wherein moderation is to be vsed deuotions to which thou art accustomed but let thē not be so many as that they may breake thy braynes dry vp thy deuotion nor yet do thou leaue them altogeather because they serue to stir vp the soule to piety and for the offering also of that seruice of our tongue to God in token that he gaue it to vs. For this reason S. Paul teacheth vs That we must pray and sing with the spirit both of the voyce and of the soule And these prayers must serue to obtaine fauours of our Lord not only for thy self but for them to whom thou hast particuler obligation and for the whole Church of Christ the care whereof thou art to haue deeply fixed in thy hart For if thou loue Christ it is reason that thou be neerely touched by that for which he shed his bloud Pray as well for them that liue as for the soules that are in Purgatory and for all that infidelity which is depriued of the knowledge of God beseeching him to bring al vnbeleeuers to his holy Fayth since he desireth that they should all be saued And these prayers or the most of them are to be addressed two wayes By the one to our (d) Our B. Lady must be deuoutly prayed to by vs as a great intercessour with her Sonne our Lord for the pardon of our sins but especially Christ Iesus our Lord who is the only hope of our saluation Blessed Lady towardes whome thou must be sure to carry a very cordiall loue and to haue entiere confidence that she will be a true mother to thee in all thy necessityes and the other to Christ Iesus our Lord which also must be a most familiar refuge in thy troubles and the only hope of thy saluation CHAP. LX. How much the Meditation of death doth profit towardes the knowledge of a mans selfe and of the manner how it is to be meditated for as much as concerneth the death of the body AFTER (a) If this Chapter and the two next do not mooue thee I know not what will this giue ouer to pray vocally and conuaye thy selfe into the most inward part of thy hart and make account that thou art appearing in the presence of Christ Iesus and that there are no more in the world but thou he Consider that before thou camest into the world thou wert nothing and how that Omnipotent goodnes of our Lord God drew thee out of that profound bottome of not being and made thee his creature and that not after an ordinary manner but he made thee a reasonable creature Consider how he gaue thee a body and a soule to the end that with them both thou mightest labour in doing seruice to him Make account that thou art then in the very passage out of life into death and hauing the most true feeling of it that may be say to thy selfe This houre of my end is once to arriue and I know not whether
it shall be to night or to morrow and since it must certainly come it is reason that I take it into my thought Consider how thou shalt fall into thy bed and how thou must sweate that sweat of death Thy breast shall beate and rise vpward the very stringes of thyne eyes shal breake the colour of thy face shal vanish and through the excesse of payne that so friendly society of thy body and soule shall be cut off They shall prepare thy body for buriall lay it vpon a Beare and they shall carry thee to the earth some weeping and others singing they shall cast thee into a strait graue and load thee with dust and when they haue troaden well vpon thee thou shalt remaine alone and be soon forgotten Consider all this by which thou must passe and thinke what kind of thing thy body will be vnder ground and how soon it will come to such a passe as that whosoeuer he be that loues thee most will not endure to see thee or smell thee or come neere thee Behould then with attention to what end this flesh and the glory of it doth arriue and thou wilt see what fooles they are who being to go out of the world so poore do now walke on with so much anxiety of being rich and being so soone to be so defeated and forgotten haue such thirst to ranke theÌ„selues in higher places then others how deeply they are deceaued who regale their body and walke in conformity of their desires since therby they haue done nothing but make themselues cookes for wormes being curious to dresse the meate which they are to eate and the whyle they haue made by those short delights a purchase of certaine tormeÌ„ts which shall neuer end Consider and behold with great attention and leasure thy body stretched a long in thy graue and making account that already thou art there procure to mortify thy desires of flesh bloud as often as they shall come to thy mind and so also mortify thy desires of pleasing or fearing to displease the world and of making any reckoning of whatsoeuer thing is most flourishing since thou art to leaue both it and thy selfe so suddenly and so miserably And considering how thy body when first it shall haue beene fed vpon by wormes will be conuerted into filth dust do not thinke of it heereafter but as of a dunghill couered with snow the very remembrance whereof may turne thy stomacke And possessing thy body in this manner thou wilt not be deceaued in the estimation thereof but thou shalt obtayne the true knowledge of it and shalt vnderstand how thou art to gouerne it looking forward vpon the full point to which it must arriue as he that placeth himselfe in the poope of the ship that so he may direct it the better CHAP. LXI Of that which is to be considered in the meditation of Death about that which shall happen to the soule that so we may profit the more in the knowledge of our selues TO this (a) A most singular discourse which thou hast heard is thy body to arriue it remaines that thou heare what shall happen to thy soule which in that houre of thy death wil be full of anguish by the remembrance of those offences which in thy life thou hast committed against our Lord. And those thinges seeming grieuous at that tyme which before thou thoughtst to be of little moment it wil be depriued of the vse of thy senses nor will thy tongue serue thee for the asking succour of our Lord. Thy vnderstanding will grow so darke as that thou wilt scarce be able to thinke of God and in a word by little and little the end of that houre draweth on wherein by the commaundement of God thy soule is to spring out of thy body and when that resolution concerning it must be taken which shall fasten it either vpon eternall damnation or eternall saluation It must heare from the mouth of God eyther Depart from me to eternall torment or remaine with me in state of saluation either inpurgatory or in Paradise Thou art to be wholy depending vpon the hand of God and of him only thou mayst hope for remedy and therfore thou oughtest in thy life tyme to fly farre from offending him of whome then thou art to haue so much need The Diuells will not be wanting to accuse thee and demaund iustice of God against thy soule laying particulerly to thy charge euery sinne which thou hast committed and if then the mercy of God forget thee what wilt thou be able to do thou poore weake sheepe being enuironed by those rauenous wolues who are so full of desyre to swallow thee vp Consider then in this tyme of thy recollection how in that straite passage thou art to be presented before the iudgement of God all naked and (b) There is no company in death but the good or euill which we shall haue done depriued of all thinges sauing only that thou shalt be accompanied by the good which thou hast wrought or by the euill which thou hast committed and say to our Lord that now thou doest willingly present thy self to him to the end that thou maâ—est obteyne mercy in that other houre when perforce thou art to part out of the world Make (c) Help thy selfe to be confounded with sham sorrow for thy sinnes by these coÌ„parisons account that thou art some theefe who is taken in the manner whilest he is stealing whom they present with his handes bound before the Iudge Or else that thou art some woman whose husband found her dishonouring his bed and who through the excesse of confusion knoweth not how so much as to lift vp her eyes and much lesse how to deny the fact And do thou belieue that God hath much more cleerely seene all that wherein thou hast euer offended him then any eyes of man can see that which is done before him And be thou full of shame for hauing bin so wicked in the presence of so great a goodnesse Couer thy selfe with that very shame which before thou didest loose and procure to find in thy selfe confusion for thy sinnes as one that standes in the presence of her soueraigne Lord and Iudge Accuse thy selfe then as thou shalt afterward be accused and especially draw to thy memory the most greiuous of those synnes which thou hast committed though if they should be sinnes of the flesh it is safer for thee not to detaine thy selfe very particulerly vpon them but only do it all in grosse as of a thing that stinckes and the beholding whereof doth greately amaze thee Iudge thy selfe and sentence thy selfe for wicked and cast downe thyne eyes vpon those fyres of hell belieuing that thou hast well deserued them Lay (d) If thou haue a generous noble hart this thought will pierce it on the one syde the blessings which God hath bestowed vpon thee from the time of thy Creation walking with thy
loaden vvith sinne by vvay of conuersation and compassion it is the lesse wonder if his words vvere like so many burning coales which might serue to seare those soules which are full of festred soares and to set such others as are sound on fire vvith the loue of Almighty God And in the same spirit he hath also written a large Booke of Sermons vpon the B. Sacrament and vpon some festiuityes of our B. Lady as also a Booke of Epistles to seuerall persons vpon seuerall occasions vvhich I would to God some Reader who hath knowledg of that language would take the paines or rather pleasure to translate For I am much deceaued if there be any vertue to be obtayned or any vice to be auoyded or any necessity to be remoued or any affliction to be asswaged wherein a man may not find some excellent addresse for his purpose in the reading of those works aforesaid which he was inspired to write by the loue for the loue of God This loue of God being in him so hoat did make him profoundly loue that which God loued so much the ardent desire which he had to (i) How hethirsted after the saluation of soules gaine such which were the soules of men for whom Christ dyed to God made him employ the credit which he found with some great Prelates and other great persons as the vvriter of his life relates in procuring them to found (k) Life of D. Aiâ—laâ—-part cap. 2. some Colledges for such as might instruct youth in learning and vertue and others vvhich might be as Seminaryes for the education intertaynment of vvorthy exemplar Priests And speaking often of this subiect he vvas vvont to say I (l) Out of the feare which then he had that it would not be satisfied before his death perceaue I shal dye with this desire But after when the Institute of the Fathers of the Soc ty of Iesus came to his knowledg he did greatly reioyce in his very soule perceauing how for that which he was not able to compasse but only for some short tyme with no small difficulty our Lord had prouided a (m) The high veneration wherein 〈◊〉 had B. F. Igâ—atius whom he compared to a mighty strong man and himself to a child who was not able to moue that great Stone which the other was able to take vp and weild at his pleasure and to lay it in the proper place By this Stone he uÌ„derstaÌ„ds the worke of wining soules Vide hist Soc. Iesu l. 14. fol. 464. man who should go through with it in a perfect manner and with a perpetuity of continuance and strength and these are the very vvordes of (n) Supra part 3. c. 2. the Life This Booke is framed and the considerations which the Authour hath fallen vpon are drawne from his contemplation of that (o) The ground or Argument of the Booke verse of the psalme which is prefixed by way of argument before the first chapter The (p) An addresse to the particuler discourses that he makes in this work particulers wherof he treates are many and the heades of them shall go in a page apart between this Preface the Book But the maine drift of the Authour is to make vs know (q) The chiefe drift of the Authour both God and our selues and that not by the lying glasse of fancy but by the cleare and sweete beame of Truth Our selues that we may see our misery and fly at full speed from the cause thereof which is our pride and other sins And God that we may tremble vnder that infinite Maiesty belieue that infallible Verity and hope for a part of that inexhausted Mercy and euen as it were furiously loue that incomprehensible Abysse of Charity and Beauty This charity of God the Authour doth gladly make appeare vpon all occasions and by great variety of most iust motiues but especially doth his soule euen regorge againe when he enters into speach of the (r) He excelleth himselfe whensoeuer he growes to speake of the Incarnation Life and Passion of Christ Iesus our Lord. Incarnation Life Passion of our Lord Iesus Which he pondereth so coÌ„templatiuely and yet so sensibly so profoundly and yet so plainly so strictly and yet so tenderly as is able to make euen brasse to blush and iron to burne and lead to melt for the greife and shame of the much that we haue sinned and for loue of him in respect of the infinite that he hath suffered for vs. That so in fine we may heerafter make the consideration of the sacred Passion of our Lord a great part of our busine in this life since it is by it that we must be happy in the next vnles we haue a mind to remayne in torment for all eternity And that we may at length both with our hart and tongue make this prayer to the diuine Maiesty to which our Author exhorts (s) A holy prayer which he makes in this Treatise following vs in his discourse vpon the Passion That the mercy of God may not permit vs to be so miserable as not to be content so much as to thinke or meditate vpon those vast affronts tormeÌ„ts which the Son of God being the King of glory and God himselfe was content not only to consider but to suffer Yea and so to suffer as that the infinite desire of loue wherewith he suffered them may euen put the things theÌ„selues as it were to silence how lowd soeuer they otherwise deserue to be crying out in the eares of our hart And this he did without all interest of his owne and only for our eternall good as the Author doth excelleÌ„tly declare that so insteed of enemyes and rebels most wicked slaues which naturally by our descent from Adam we were in the fight of God we might be translated into the condition of being made his seruants his friends his adopted sonnes vpon the price of his owne pretious life This is the nayle that he beats most vpon and I beseech our Lord that our harts may be euen riuetted to his diuine hart thereby In the meane tyme you the Reader must not spend your hope vpon the meeting heer with (t) Concerning the stile any curious or elaborate stile For though euen in this kind the Author be far inough froÌ„ fault yet composition was the thing which he might well disdaine to affect as knowing that the inualuable stone which he was exposing did deserue to be most highly esteemed though it were not artificially either cut or set Nor (u) Concerning the quality of the Authors conceptions yet are you heer so much as to think of encountring certain flourishing fading coÌ„ceits though I am much deceaued if the most fastidious mind wil not heere find matter whereupon to feed with great delight But the Authours ayme was at a fairer marke It is not the clapping of handes which he begs he (x) He shootes
to giue eare to God and of the admirable Language which our first Parents spake in the state of Innocency Which being lost by Sinne many ill ones did succeed in place therof Heâ—â—â—en O Daughter and behold Psal 4 4. and incline thine eare and forget thy people and the house of thy Father and the King shall with delight desire thy beauty THESE words O thou deuout Spouse (a) This Booke was writteÌ„ chiesly for the Lady DonÌ„a Sancha daughter to the Lord of Guadalcaçar who liued not in a Monastery but in her Fathers house though she consecrated her self to God by a vow of virginity of Iesus Christ doth the Prophet Dauid speake or rather God by him to the Christian Church aduising her of that which she ought to do that so the great King may be drawne to loue her by meanes whereof she may be endewed with all happines And because thy soule is by the great mercy of God a member of this Church I haue thought fit to declare these words to thee Imploring first the ayde of the Holy Ghost to the end that it may direct my pen and prepare thy hart that so neither I may speake vnfitly nor thou heare vnfruitfully but that both the one and the other may redound to the eternall honour of God the performing of his holy will The first thing that we are wished to in these wordes is that we hearken not without cause Because as the first beginning of our spiritual life is fayth this as (b) Rom. 10. S. Paul affirmes doth enter into the soule by meanes of hearing it is but reason that first we be admonished of that which we are first to put in practise For it will profit vs very litle that the voyce of diuine truth do sound exteriourly in our hearing (c) We must hear first practise after if withall we haue not eares which may hearken to the saâ—â— within It will not serue our turne that when we were baptized the Priest did (d) According to the ancient custome of the holy Catholike Church put his finger into our eares requiring them to be open if afterwardes we shall shut them vp against the word of God fullfilling so in our selues that which the Prophet Dauid sayth of the Idols (e) Psal 11â— Eyes they haue and they see not eares they haue and they d ee not heare But because some speake so ill that to heare them is no better then to heare the Syrens who kill their auditours it wil be fit for vs to see both whom we are and whom we are not to heare For this purpose it is to be noted that Adaw and Eue when they were created spake one only Language and that continued in the world till the (f) The confusion of tongues grew in punishment of the pride of man pryde of men who had a mind to build vp the Tower of confusion was punished Wherevpon insteed of one Language whereby all men vnderstood one another there grew to be a multitude of Languages which they could not mutually vnderstand By this we also come to know that our first Parents before they rebelled from their creatour transgressinge his Commaundement with presumptuous pride did speake also in their soules but one spiritual Language making a (g) A sweete happy Language perfect kind of concord which one mainteyned with another and each one with himselfe and so also with God liuinge in the quiet estate of Innocency the sensitiue part obeying the rationall and the rationall obeying God and so they were in peace with him in peace within themselues and in peace with one another But now when they rebelled with so bold disobedience against the Lord of heauen both they were punished and we in them In (h) The case is altered such sort that insteed of one good Language by meanes whereof they vnderstood one another so wel there haue succeeded innumerable other ill ones all full of such confusion and darkenes that neyther do men agree with others nor the same man with himselfe and least of all with God And although these Languages do keep no order in themselues since indeed they are but moore disorder yet to the end that we may speake of them we will reduce them to a kind of method and to the number of three which are the Language of the World of the Flesh and of the Diuell whose office as S. Bernard sayth is Of the first to speake vayne thinges Of the second delightfull things And of the third afflictiue bitter things CHAP. II. That we must not hearken to the Language of the World and Vayne-glory And how absolute dominion it exerciseth ouer the hartes of such as follow it and of the punishment that they shall incurre VVE must not hearkeÌ„ to the language of the VVorld for it is al but lyes and they most preiudiciall to such as credit them For they make vs forsake that truth which is indeed and to imbrace a lye which hath no being but only in appearance and custome Heereby man being deceaued presumes to cast Almighty God and his holy will behind his backe and he disposeth of his life according to that blind guide of pleasing the world and so he groweth to haue a hart all desirous of honour and to be esteemed amongst men He proues like those ancient proud Romans of whome S. Augustine sayth That (a) A strange and yet true state of mind for the loue of worldly honour they desired to liue and yet for loue of is they did not feare to dye So much do they prize it as not by any meanes to endure the least word that may be in preiudice thereof nor any thing which may tast or eueÌ„ sauour of neglect though neuer so far of Nay heerin there are such nyceties and puntillios that it is hard for a man to scape stumbling vpon some of them so the offending of this sensitiue worldly man yea (b) A miserable seruitude which pryd hath put vs in and often you shall fal out to offend him much against your wil. These men who are so facile to find theÌ„selues despised are no lesse vntoward and vntractable in passing ouer and pardoning the same And if one should yet of himselfe be disposed to do so what troupes of (c) Indeed they are truly sayd to be false freinds who perswade a man to the perdition of his soule false friendes and kinred will rise vp against him and alleadge such lawes and customes graunted by priuiledge of the world as whereby this proposition may be concluded That it is better to loose a mans fortune his health his house his wife and his children yea all this seemeth little to them since they do as good as say that he must euen loose the life both of body and soule and all the care that he hath both of earth and heauen yea that euen God himselfe and his law are to be contemned and troden
sweetnes which is in God and which is enioyed by the Saints and by the Angells and by God himselfe the Creatour of them all It is a businesse belonging to beasts which thou dost so prize and loue and thy passions are no better then very beastes And so often doest thou cast the most high God vnder the feet of thy most vile beasts as thou doest offend him for carnall pleasures Fly therefore O thou Virgin from a thing so infamous as this and ascend thou vp to the mount of prayer and beseech our Lord that he will giue thee some tast of himselfe that thy soule being strengthned by the sweetnes that distills from him thou mayst despise those durty pleasures which inhabit flesh and bloud Then wilt thou haue a cordiall and deep compassion of them who go casting themselues away through the bâ—senes of the durty vallies of a bestiall life And (n) Thou hast a hart of stone if this do not moue thee being all amaz'd thou wilt cry out O you men and what is it that you loose And for what The most sweet God for most stinking flesh bloud And what payne do they deserue for so (o) False weights are an aâ—hâ—min â—ioÌ„ to God and how false are these which make vayne empty creatures to outweigh the God of eternall glory false weights and measures but eternall torment and of that they shall infallibly be sure CHAP. X. Of many other meanes which we are to vse when this cruell Enemy doth assault vs with his first blowes THE aduises which thou hast already heard by way of remedy of this infirmity are thinges which ordinarily thou must vse though it be not in the tyme of tentation Hearken now to that which thou art to do when it sets vpon thee by giuing thee the first blow Then blesse thy (a) Diuers profitable and practicall remedyes against temptations of sense forehead or thy hart with the signe of the Crosse calling with deuotion vpon the holy name of Iesus Christ and say Not I I sell not God so good cheape O Lord thou art more worth and I loue thee more then so If (b) Note the tentation do not then giue ouer descend with thy thoughts into hell and behold how terribly that liuing fire doth burne and maketh those miserable creaturs which were heere inflamed with the fire of lust cry out and howle and blaspheme why lest in the meane tyme the sentence of God is executed vpon them which sayth Let (c) Apoc. 18. somuch torment and desolation be laid vpon them as they glorifyed themselues in their delights Be thou astonished at the grieuousnes of the punishment though yet withall it be most iust that the pleasure of one moment should be chastized with eternall torments And say within thyselfe as S. Gregory doth Momentary is that which delighteth but eternall is that which tormenteth If this contemplation help thee not send vp thy hart to heauen and represent to it the purity of that Chastity which remayneth in that happy Citty where no beast can haue any entrance I meane no person that is bestiall And there continue thou for some time till thou mayst find strength of spirit and so that heere thou mayst abhorre that which there is so abhorred through the loue of God It doth also help to suppose that thy body were in the graue and to behold at leasure how miserable and stincking the bodies of men and woman are there to be So also is it good to go instantly to Christ Iesus nayled vpon the Crosse and especially as he is tyed to the pillar and whipped and bathed in bloud from head to foote and then to say with a deepe internall groane Thy virgineall and diuine body O Lord so tormented and so loaden with grieuous paynes and that I should put myne into pleasure this were worthy of all rigorous punishment Since thou with scourges so full oâ— cruelty doest pay for the delightes which men take in offence of thy law I will not O Lord delight my selfe so much to thy cost In like manner will it auayle to represent thy selfe instantly in presence of the most pure Virgin Mary considering the purity and integrity both of her body mind and instantly to abhorre the dishonest thought which came to thee as darknesse is driuen away by the approach of light But (d) Pray to God to giue thee grace to practise this aboue all if thou canst shut the dore of thy vnderstanding and shut it well as we vse to do in the most internall recollection of our prayer as hereafter we will declare thou shalt find help at hand with more facility then by al those other remedies For it happens many tyms that by opening the dore to a secoÌ„d good thoght an ill one doth vse to enter in but keeping out both the one the other it is a turning from the enemy not opening the dore till he be gone and so he is put to a scorne So doth it also help to spread the armes into the forme of a crosse to beÌ„d the knees and to beate the breast But that which most importes or at least as much as all the rest togeather is to (e) The deuout receauing of the B. SacrameÌ„t is the most soueraigne remedy against tentations of sense receiue with due preparation the holy body of Christ Iesus our Lord which was formed by the holy Ghost is very far estranged from all impurity This is an admirable remedy against those mischeifes which would grow vpon vs by occasion of our flesh conceyued in sinne And if we could well ponder the blessing that we receyue by the comming of Christ Iesus into vs we should esteeme our selues to be as so many pretious Reliquaries and we would fly from all kind of filthynesse for the honour of him whome we had receiued What (f) Read this with great feeling hart can any one haue to prophane his body when it hath byn honoured so far as to close with the most holy body of God humaned what greater obligation could haue byn cast vpon me what more forcible motiue cold haue byn offered to make me liue inpurity then to behold with myne eyes to touch with my hands to receyue with my mouth to ledge in my breast the most pure body of Iesus Christ He vouchsafing me that vnspeakeable honour to the end that I might not descend to basenesse and knitting me to himselfe and consecrating me as a place into which he vouchsafes to enter How then with what body shall I endure to offend our Lord. since he being the authour of purity hath entred into the same body I haue fedd vpon him and fedd with him at the same table and shall I now be a traytour to him No I will neuer be so for the whole world Thus is it fit that we esteeme this fauour to the end that we may haue a crown put vpon this weake and frayle condition of ours
But (g) Tremble and take heed if we receiue him ill or do not serue our selues wel of this benefit iust the contrary effect doth follow and such an one shall find himselfe more enthralled by dishonesty then he was before he communicated If with all these considerations and remedies this bestiall flesh grow not quiet thou art to vse it like a beast laying good sound loads vpon it since it will not hearken to so iust reason Some find helpe by pinching themselues very hard in memory of the excessiue paine which those nayles did cause to Christ Iesus our Lord Others by whipping themselues seuerely calling so to mind how our Lord was scourged others with spreading their armes into the forme of a Crosse others with fixing their eyes on heauen others with beating their face and such other thinges as these which put the flesh to paine for at that tyme she vnderstands no other language This (h) The example of Saints is the manner which by reading we find that the Saintes did hold wherof one did strip himselfe starck naked and did all tumble in thorny bushes and so by meanes of his bloudy and afflicted body the warre which was made against his soule did end Another did cast himselfe in the depth of winter into a poole of water which was extreamly cold wherein he stayed till the body came forth halfe dead but the soule was freed from all danger Another thrust his fingers into the fyre and with burning them that other fyre which tormented his soule was quenched And a martyr there was who being bound hand and foote then tempted to vnlawful pleasure by cutting of his owne tongue with his owne teeth became victorious in that combate And although some of these things are not to be imitated because they were inspired by particuler instinct of the holy Ghost and not by the ordinary law vnder which we liue yet hereby we may learne That in the tyme of spirituall warre when there is question or hazard of the soule we are not to be lazy or to expect till our enemyes do giue vs thrustes but we must leape backe from sinne as from the face of a serpent as sayth the Scripture and euery one must apply that remedy to himselfe wherein he findes most profit according to the addresse which shall be giuen him by his prudent Ghostly Father CHAP. XI Of other meanes besides the former whereby some grow to loose their Chastity that we may fly from them if we aâ—so will not loose ours and by what meanes we may strengthen our selues NO care or labour though neuer so great which is employed towards the proseruatioÌ„ of Chastity will be esteemed too much by any if he know how to put the true price vpon the merit and reward thereof Now since our Lord hath made thee vnderstand the valew of this treasure hath giuen thee grace both to choose it and to make (a) This Ladv had vowed Chastity promise therof againe to him I shall not be put into so much necessity to declare the excellency thereof as to giue thee good directions how thou mayst be sure not to loose it and to tell thee of some errours besides the former through which it is lost by others that so thou knowing them mayst auoyde them least thou also come to loose it and thy selfe with it Some (b) Of the diuers wayes whereby chastity groweth to be lost loose it in respect that hauing fierce violent inclinations against it and they on the other side being not earnest in making such a continuall and sharp warre against themselues do with a miserable resolution deliuer themselues ouer bound hand and foot to the will of their enemyes Not considering that the purpose of a (c) A noble word for a Christian to write in his hart â—ither to couqâ—er sinne or to dye in the battaiâ—s Christian is to be either to dye or els to ouercome by meanes of his grace who helpeth such as fight for his honour Others there are who although they be not greatly tempted haue yet naturally a certaine basenes straitnes of hart which is inclined to vile poore things And for as much as this pleasur is one of the most vile poore most at hand they quickly find meanes to meet with it to bestow themselues vpon it as a thing that is proportionable to the basenes poornesse of their owne hart which doth not rayse it selfe so high as to imbrace a life of such men as are ruled euen by naturall reason Which alone taught one so good a lesson as to make him say That in carnall pleasures there was nothing worthy of a magnanimous hart And another sayd That the life which consists in carnall pleasure is a life of beasts For not only doth the light of heauen but euen that of naturall reason condemne such as employ themselues vpon this basenes as people who liue not in the circle of men whose life must be agreable to reason but of beasts whose very life is sensuall appetite And if iustice might be done there would be a great deale of cause to take away the name of men from these fellowes in regard that although they haue the shape of men they yet lead a life of beasts are the true dishonour and reproach of men Nor would (d) How strang this is and yet after a sort it is dayly seene it be a thing moderatly strange or giue small wonder to them that saw it if a beast should lead a man bridled vp and downe and carry him whither it would directing him who ought to gouerne it And yet there are so many ruled by the bridle of bestiall appetite both of high and low condition that I know not whether it is through the multitude thereof that it cannot be so easily discerned Or els I rather belieue that it is because there are few who haue light to see how miserable a soule in a body is when it is killed by carnall pleasures and the more if that body be fresh and fayre O how many soules of these and others are burning in this infernal fire nor is there any to cast tears of compassion vpon them or to say with their hart To (e) Iod. 1. thee O Lord will I cry out because the fire hath denoured the beautifull thinges of the desert For (f) Note certainly if we had amongst vs of those (g) Luc 7. widdowes of Naim who would bitterly bewayle their dead children Christ would vse mercy for the reuiuing them in soule as he did the body of that widdowes sonne who is mentioned in the Ghospell It is not his part to sleep who hath the office in the Church to pray and intercede for the people with the tendernes of a Mother Least God do chastize both him them saying (h) Ezech. 22. I sought among them for a man who might place himself as a wall (i) See the infinit
goodnes of God who is angry if by praying for one another we seeke not to appease his wrath might oppose himselfe against me and so I might not destroy the earth but I fouâ—d no such man and I powred out my wrath vpon them in the fire of my (k) Ezech. 22. anger I consumed them Take heed therefore that thou loue not a narrow and poore hart of thyne owne to which these base pleasures vse to be agreable and delightfull Remember that which S. Bernard sayd That if thou well consider the body and that which proceeds from thence it is a kind of more loathsome dunghill then otherwise thou hast seene Despise it from thy hart withall the ornaments and â—ace and delight it hath and make account that euen already it is in the sepulcher conuerted into a handfull of dust When thou seest any man or woman looke not much vpon their face or person and if thou doe let it be to loath it but addresse thy internall eyes to the soule which is shut vp and hidden in the body amongst which soules there is no difference of man or woman And admire thou that soule as a thing created by God since (l) The inestimable dignity excellency of a soule the valew of that alone is greater then that of all corporeall things eyther made or to be made And thus dismissing thy selfe from the basenesse of bodies bestow thy selfe vpon the search of greater treasures and vndertake thou noble enterprizes and no lesse then to lodge euen God himselfe both in thy soule and in thy body with a profound purity of hart Behould (m) The height and dignity of the vocation of a ChristiaÌ„ thy selfe with such eyes as these since S. Paul sayth (n) Câ— or 3. Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God remayneth in you And in another place do you not know that your members are the temples of the holy Ghost who remaynes within you and whom God hath giuen to you And you are not your owne And since you are bought with a great price let God be honoured in your bodyes Consider allso that when thou diddest receyue holy Baptisme thou wert made the Temple of God and thy soule was consecrated to him by his grace and so was thy body also by the â—uch of that holy water And the holy Ghost doth â—erue it selfe both of the soule and body as being the Lord of the whole house enclining both the one and the other to good workes and for this it is sayd That euen the partes of our body are the Temples of the holy Ghost God (o) Be thou amazed at this infinite vouchsafing of almighty God doth vouchsafe vs great honour by being pleased to dwell in vs and to honour vs indeed with the name of Temples and great is the obligation which thereby is put vpon vs to cleanse our selues it being so fit that the house of God be cleane And if thou wilt consider that thou wert purchased as S. Paul sayth at a great price that is by the life of God humaned which for thee was giuen thou mayst see how great reason it is for thee to honour God and to beare him in thy body doing him seruice and not therein to commit any thing which may be to his dishonour and thine owne extreame disaduantage For iust and true is that sentence That (p) 1. Cor. 3. whosoeuer shall defile the Temple of God him will God destroy For in his Temple there must be nothing but that which tends to his honour and prayse Remember that which S. Augustine sayd When I had once vnderstood that God had redeemed and purchased me with his pretious bloud I resolued that neuer more I would sell my selfe To which I would haue thee add And how much lesse will I doe it for the base pleasure of flesh and bloud Thou hast begunne a (q) A vow of perpetual Chastity worke worthy of a noble courage because thou meanest to be incorrupt in that corruptible flesh of thyne and to possesse that by way of vertue which the Angells possesse by way of nature and to pretend to a particuler crowne in heauen in being companion to those blessed Virgins Who sing that new song and follow the Lambe wheresoeuer he goeth Consider the name which now thou holdest of being the spouse of Christ and the ioye which thou mayst expect in heauen when there that spouse of thyne shall lodge thee in thy bed for thus thou wilt come to so much loue of the purity of virginity that for it thou wilt gladly loose thy life as many holy Virgins haue done who rather then they would not be Virgins were content to be Martyrs with great magnaminity Procure thou also to (r) This is true Nobility the contrary is meer basenesse haue a noble hart which is very necessary for the keeping of thee in that high estate where God hath placed thee CHAP. XII That God vseth to punish such as are proud by permitting them to loose the treasure of Chastity thereby to humble them and how necessary it is to be humble for the ouercomming of the enemy to this vertue THERE haue byn others who lost the treasure of their chastity by reason that God did punish them in his iust iudgement through a giuing them ouer as S. Paul sayth to the dishonest affections of their owne hart as into the hands of cruell executioners Chastizing thus some of their sinnes by other sinnes of theirs he not inciting them to sin (s) See detest the doctrine of Caluin which he vttereth in his Institutions for the maketh the treason of Iudas to be as properly and as truly the work of God as the coÌ„uersion of S. Paul for a very strange thing it were for him who is soueraigne goodnesse to because of sinne in any soule but by retiring his succour from a man for other sinns of the same man which is the worke of a iust iudge who in that he is iust is also good Thus sayth the scripture A wicked woman is a deepe well and a loose woman is a straite well and he shall fall into it who hath offended God Let (i) Be not high-minded but feare no man therefore presume vpon his not sinning against God in the point of chastity if yet he sin in other thinges Since God is wont to let men fall into that which they would not into which they were not wont to fall in punishment of their falling into other sinnes from which they ought to haue kept themselues And though this be generally true in the case of all sinnes and God is offended with them all and doth punish all yet more particularly doth he as S. Augustin sayth punish secret (u) Aboue all thinges take heed of Pride Pryde by open lust So is it related of Nabuchodonosor That for the punishment of his pryde he lost his Kingdome was cast out of
ignorant That (a) Eccl. 7. in the day of prosperity which we haue we must be calling those (b) A safe and most profitable aduice miseryes to mind which we may haue and that we must take in those diuine consolations by the weight of Humility accompanying it with the holy feare of God least otherwise he experience that which Dauid himselfe deliuered Thou turnedst thy face from me and I was troubled Another cause of his fall is giuen vs to be vnderstood in holy Scripture by saying that at such tymes as the Kings of Israel were wont to passe into the warres against the infidells King (c) 2 Reg. 1. Dauid stayed at home And walking vp and down vpon a tarrasse of his pallace he saw that which was the occasion of his adultery and of the murther also not only of one but many All this had byn auoyded if he had gone to fight the battailes of God according to the custome of other Kings and himselfe had done so other yeares If (d) A good lesson to vs Catholike to be sympathizing alwayes with the Holy Church our Mother both in sorrow and in spirituall ioy according to the diuersity of tymes occasions thou wilt be wandring vp and downe when the seruants of God are recollected if thou wilt be idle when they labour in good workes if thou wilt be dissolutely sending thyne eyes abroad whilest theirs are weeping bitterly both for themselues and others and if when they are rising vp by night to pray thou art sleeping and snorting and leauing of by occasion of euery fancy the good exercises which thou wert wont to vse and by the force and heate whereof thou wert kept on foote how doest thou thinke to preserue chastity being carelesse vnprouided of defensiue weapons and hauing so many enemies who are so stout laborious and compleatly armed in fighting against it Do (e) Note not deceiue thy selfe for if thy desire to be chast be not accompanied by deeds which are fit for the defence of that vertue thy desire will prooue vayne and that will happen to thee which did to Dauid Since thou art not more priuiledged more stout nor more a Saint then he And to conclude this matter of the occasions through which this pretious treasure of chastity is wont to be lost thou art to vnderstand that the cause why God permitted that the flesh shold rebell against reason in our first parents from whome we haue it by inheritance was for that they rebelled against God by disobeying his commandement He chastized them in conformity of their sinne and thus it was That (f) Note Lex Taliotus since they would not obey their superiour their inferiour should not obey them and so the vnbridled nesse of this flesh being a subiect and a slaue rebelling against her superiour which is reason is a punishment â—ayd vpon reason for the disobedience with she committed against her superiour which is God Be therfore very carefull that thou be not disobedient to thy superiours least God permit that thy inferiour which is thy flesh do rebell against thee as he suffered Adad to rebell against King Salomon (g) 3. Regâ— 12. his Lord and least he scourge persecute thee and by thy weakenesse draw thee downe into mortall sinne And if with the inward eyes of thy hart thou haue vnderstood that which heere with the eyes of thy body thou hast read thou wilt see how great reason there is that thou shouldest looke to thy selfe and consider what there is within thy selfe And (h) No man can see himselfe exactly but by light from heauen because thou art not exactly able to know thyne owne soule thou art to begg light of our Lord and so to sift the most secret corners of thy hart that there may be no ill thing there which eyther thou knowest or knowest not off by meanes whereof thou mightest through some secret iudgement of God runne hazard to loose the treasure of chastity which yet it doth so much import thee to keep safe by meanes of his diuine assistance CHAP. XIV How much we ought to fly from the vaine confidence of obteyning victory against this enemy by our owne only industry and labour and that we must vnderstand it to be the guist of God of whom it is to be humbly asked by the intercession of the Saintes and in particuler of the Virgin our Blessed Lady ALL that which hath byn sayd and more which might be sayd are meanes for the obtayning and keeping of this pretious purity But it happeneth oftentymes that as although we bringe both stone and wood and all other necessary materialls for the making of a house yet we do not fall vpon the buylding of it so also doth it come to passe that vsing all these remedies we yet obtayne not the chastity which we so much desire Nay there are many who after hauing had liuely desires thereof and taken much paynes for the obtayning of it do yet see themselues miserably fallen or violently at least tormented in their flesh with much sorrow they say We haue laboured all night and yet we haue taken nothing And it seemeth to them that in themselues that is fulfilled which the Wiseman sayd The (a) Eccl. 7. more I sought it the further off it fled away This (b) Take heed of trusting to thy selfe vseth oftentymes to happen by reason of a secret confidence which these proud labourers haue in themselues imagininge that chastity was a fruite which grew from their only endeauour and not that it was a guift imparted by the hand of God And for not knowing of whom it was to be asked they iustly were depriued of it For (c) God sheweth mercy sometyme euen in suffring vs to sal into â—â—nne it had byn of more preiudice to them to haue kept it since withall they would be proud and vngratefull to God then to be without it yet withall to be full of sorrow and humility and so to be forgiuen by pennance It is no small part of wisedome to know by whom chastity is giuen and he is gone a good piece of the way towardes the obteyning of it who indeed belieueth that it comes not from the strength of man but that it is the guift of our Lord. This doth he teach vs in his holy Ghospell saying All are not capable of this word but they to whome it is giuen by God And although the remedies already pointed out for the obtayning of this happinesse be full of profit and (d) We must both worke pray for neither of them both alone will serue the turne that we must employ our selues thereupon yet must that be with this condition that we place not our confidence in them but let vs deuoutly pray to God which Dauid did both practise and aduise by saying I did cast vp myne eyes to the mountayns from whence my succour shall descend my succour is of our Lord who made heauen
his passion and which doth worke in his most pretious (l) The benefit of the Passion of our Lord Iesus is conueyed to our soules by the Sacraments of the Holy Church sacraments is that we may thereby be able to pay all our debts to liue heere in the life of grace and afterwards in that of Glory But it is necessary that like the other Widdow we doe walke on maintayning good dispositions in our selues according to which euery one shall be sure to receaue the effect of his sacred passion which in it selfe is most sufficient yea and superaboundant CHAP. XIX Of the much which God the Father gaue vs in giuing vs Iesus Christ our Lord and how thankefull we ought to be and to help our selues by this fauour and to strengthen our selues thereby for the excluding of all desperation wherwith the Dinell is wont to assault vs. MVCH reason hath God to complaine and his Preachers to reproue men for being so forgetfull of this benefit which is so excellent as that for it we should giue thankes to God day and night For as S. Iohn sayth So God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten Sonne to the end that euery one who belieueth in him loueth him may not perish but haue eternall life All other blessings are locked vp in this as the lesse in the greater and as the effect in the cause It is a plaine case that he who gaue the sacrifice against sin did giue pardon to those sinnes for as much as concerned him and to whome our Lord gaue that he also gaue command ouer them And in (a) The great reason of our comfort fine he that gaue vs his Sonne and such a Sonne and so giuen and borne for vs will deny vs nothing that is necessary And he that hath not what is fit let him blame himselfe for to complaine of God he hath no reason For the vnderstanding heerof S. Paul sayth thus He that gaue vs his sonne will he not giue vs all things togeather with him Nay he sayd more He hath already giuen vs all thinges with him for in as much as concerneth the part of God all is already giuen pardon grace and heauen O (b) Lay vp these considerations at thy hart you men why do you loose such happinesse and why are you vngratefull to such a louer and for such a benefit And why are you slothfull in the preparation of your selues to receiue it Worthy it were of all reprehension that a man should goe naked vp and downe halfe dead with hungar and full of miseries and if when another had giuen him great legacies by his will whereby he might pay his debtes and depart from his wantes liue at ease he should yet remaine without enioying all this happines rather then trauell two or three leagues for the prouinge of that will Our redemption was made so copiously that although Gods forgiuing the offences which men coÌ„mit against him be a blessing which exceedes all humane conceite yet the payment which is made by the passion and death of Christ our Lord doth exceed the debt of man in valew much more then the highest part of heauen doth the lowest part of the earth as S. Augustine sayth It (c) This coÌ„parison in full of coÌ„sort to vs sinners was due to sinfull man that he should be fettered torne and killed and can you find in your hartes to thinke that these debtes are not well payd by the scourges tormentes and death of a man who was not only a iust man but man and God An inexplicable fauour it is that God doth adopt for his sonnes the sonnes of men who are but as so many little wormes of earth But to the end that we might not doubt of this fauour it is seconded according to (d) Ioâ—n 1. S. Iohn with another and a greater For he sayth The word of God is made flesh As if he had thus expressed himselfe you may not fayle to belieue that by spirituall adoption men are borne of God for in proofe of this wonder hearken here to a greater which is That the sonne of God 〈◊〉 made man the sonne of a woman So (c) Note also is it a wonderfull thing that a miserable little thing called man made of earth should arriue to heauen enâ—oying God and accompanying the Angells therein with vnspeakeable glory But yet a farre greater matter was it that God should be placed in the torment and ignominy of a Crosse and that he should dye betweene a couple of murthering theeues Whereby the diuine iustice was so entirely satisfied both by reason of the much that our Lord did suffer and chiefely because he that suffered it was God as that he both pardoned that which was past and doth further powre his benedictions vpon vs for the future But yet so as that our barrennesse must bring forth the fruite of good life worthy of heauen which is figured by the Sonne who was graunted to (f) Gen. 18. Sara when she was old and barren For the calfe which was sodden in the house of Abraham this being Christ Iesus crucified by the people who (g) The â—ace of the lewes descended from Abraham was of so much gust to God that of wrathfull he grew calme thereby and curses were exchanged into blessinges Because he receyued a certayne thing which contented him more theâ—â— all the sinnes of the whole world could displease him Why then O man dost thou despayre hauing for remedy of thy miseries for payment of thy debtes God himselfe humaned who is of infinite merit and who by dying put our sinnes to death much better then the (h) Iud. 16. Philistines were made to dye by the death of Sampson And (i) How infinitely good is God although thou hast committed as many sinnes as the very Diuell himselfe who thus would draw thee into despayre thou must take hart in Christ who is That lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world Of whom it was prophesied That be would cast and as it were shoote all our sinnes into the lowest bottome of the sea and that he was to be anointed the holy of holies And that sinne should haue an end and then that Iustice should raigne for euer Yf then our sinnes be remooued be drowned and be dead vvhat cause can there be that such vveake and defeated enemies should ouercome and cast thee vpon despayre CHAP. XX. Of some meanes which the Diuell vseth against the remedy that is spoken of whereby to fright vs and how for this we must not fainte but animate our selues the more considering the infinite mercy of our Lord. BVT I already heare O Man that which thy weakenesse answeareth to what is sayd What (a) A shrewd obiection but mark the answear for it satisfyeth doth it profit thee sayest thou that Christ dyed for thy sinnes if the pardon therof be not applied to thee And though Christ dyed for
all thinges of the earth yea and of heauen it selfe are but very poore and vnworthy of being desyred or enioyed if from them we seuer the will of our Lord. And that there is no one thing how little soeuer or how bitter soeuer it be otherwise which if it be ioyned to the will of our Lord is not of extreame valew Better it is without comparison to be in affliction if our Lord require it then abstracting from his will to be in heauen And if once we did banish from our selues this secret couetousnes with resolution there would fall of withall many euill fruites which grow from thence and we should gather others in place thereof of more worth namely ioy and peace which vse to be deriued from the vnion of a soule with the will of God And so firme they would be withall that tribulation it selfe would not be able to take them from vs. For as much as although such persons do find themselues afflicted and forsaken yet are they not in despayre no nor greately troubled as knowing that to be the way of the Crosse to which they haue offered themselues and by which Christ did walke as it appeared when being vpon the Crosse he sayd to his Father O (o) Matt. 17. my God Why hast thou forsaken me But shortly after he sayd Into thy hands O Father I commend my spirit Our Lord had also sayd already Againe (p) Ioan. 10. Will I see you and your hart shall reioyce and no man shall take this ioy from you For if a man enioy this condition there is no tribulation which there in the most inward part of his soule doth much disquiet him because there within he is close vnited to the will of him that sendeth it If thus we would carry our selues we should deceaue the deceauer which is the diuell For as much as by not being dismayed nor retyring from our good course begun notwithstanding the euill language he speaketh but on the other syde taking that which our Lord doth send with obedience and giuing of thankes we depart without any hurt out of this skirmish although it should last as long as we liue Yea we come to greater profit then we had before since it gaue vs occasion to gaine more crownes in heauen in reward of that conformity which we had to the will of our Lord without respecting our owne euen in that which was very painefull to vs. CHAP. XXVII That the conquest of these temptations doth consist more in hauing patience to beare them and in the hope of the fauour of our Lord then inprocuring forcibly that they may not come THE conquest whereof we haue spoken proceedeth more from the stratageme of hauing patience at that which commeth vpon vs then in the force which we can vse in procuring that it may not come And for this did the spouse say in the Canticles Catch me those little foxes which spoyle our vineyards for our vine hath sâ—orished The vineyard of Christ is our soule which was planted by his hand and watered by his bloud It doth flourish when the tyme of sterility being past it beginneth to lead a new life and yealdeth fruite to him that planted it But because in such beginnings both these and other temptations of the crafty Diuell do lye in waite for vs therefore doth the noble spouse admonish vs that since our soule which is his vineyard is in flower we should procure to hunt those foxes out By which word it is giuen vs to vnderstaÌ„d that it must be done in the (a) Because the flowers come before the fruits morning as hath bin sayd By saying that they were foxes we are as good as told that they come disguised to deceaue vs seeming to byte on the onesyde they wound on the other and in saying that they are little he telleth vs that they are not so much to be feared by him that knoweth them for the knowing theÌ„ is to weaken theÌ„ if not to ouercome them out right In saying that they destroy the vines he signifyeth that they doe men much mischiefe who know them not For being frighted and not confiding to goe through with their businesse in the sight of God they leaue their way and following a lamentable perswasion they giue themselues openly to sinne conceauing that they enioy more peace in the broad way of perditioÌ„ then by the strayte one of vertue which leadeth to life The end of such persons if they returne not first to the right way many tymes is such as that it carrieth most certayne tokens of eternall perdition as the Scripture sayth He (b) Eccl. 〈◊〉 that passeth from iustice to sinne God hath prepared him for the instrument of iustice that is for hell They (c) Note should consider that as the Gabaonites were besieged and persecuted by their enemies for hauing made peace with (d) Iosue 10. Iosue and that Iosue being called vpon by them to giue them succour did relieue and free them making their case his owne because they were persecuted by their enemies in regard of the peace they made with him so they who beginning to serue God do enroll themselues in his band grow instantly to be persecuted by the Diuells which they were not before and this doth euidently appeaâ—e to be so because by forsaking the party of Christ the persecution which is made against them would cease and if they continue to suffer they suffer for holding vp the party of Christ Now this is a most particuler fauour which God doth as S. Paul (e) Phil. 1. affirmeth To you it is giuen by Christ not only to belieue in him but also to suffer for him And if the Angels of heauen were capable of enuying earthly creatures (f) The great nobility of suffering for the loue of God and for his will it would be for this that they suffer for God And although by the word of God a Crowne is promised to that man who suffereth (g) lac 1. temptations is prooued by them which reward it shal be fit for vs to consider and desyre thereby to get more spirit that we be neither tepide in working nor weake in suffering as it is sayd both of Moyses and of Dauid also that they had an eye to the reward yet the true and perfect louer of our Crucifyed Lord doth so much esteeme a being in conformity with him that he receiueth euen the very suffering it selfe as a great fauour and reward for as Saint Augustine saith A happy iniury is that wherof God is the cause And since there is not a man who will not succour another that suffereth by comming to his seruice much more may this be expected from that diuine goodnesse And that he will make that mans cause his owne as Dauid thus desyred that he would Rise vp o Lord and iudge thy cause remember the iniurious words with the foole hath vttered against thee all the day longe That businesse
doth know but he that feeleth it For as much as Isaias (d) Isa 4â— sayth That the peace of such persons is as a riuer as the very gulfes of the sea And S. Paul (e) Philip. 4. sayth That this peace of God doth exceed all vnderstanding And S. Peter saith That this ioy cannot be recounted A hidden manna it is which is giuen to him that manfully ouercometh himselfe and they only know it who receiue it And from whom now doth this so perfect vertue proceed and this rest of mind which is the earnest-penny and introduction to eternall felicity Certainely it is not by meanes of the Diuell For (f) Note although sometymes the Diuell as we haue sayd haue counselled some to doe some particuler good that by meanes of those counsells he might gaine credit to himself wherby the better to deceiue them afterward yet to make a man perfectly good and a fulfiller of the law of nature which cannot be denied to be good since God is the authour of nature it selfe is a worke which neither the Diuell doth not can effect who cannot giue that goodnes which himselfe hath not Nor yet is it the worke of man alone for as much as to haue vertue and much more to haue perfect vertue wherby God may perfectly be serued is the guift of the Father of lights from whome euery perfect guift descendes And (g) See therefore how vniustly the Catholike doctrine is charged by the Caluinists to be a doctrine of presumptioÌ„ the same man doth find by experience more then once that he is deliuered from sinne out of which he was not able to depart and that he is fauoured with certaine graces which it was not in his power to compasse Since therefore this perfect vertue commeth neither from the Diuell nor from the spirit of man it remayneth that we conclude it to be infused by God when (h) The perfection is only to be found in the holy Catholique Church he is inuoked serued as the Catholike Church doth teach And man findeth by experience that this vertue commeth to him by the meanes of Fayth in confirmation of the truth thereof for out of a lye such profit of light or knowledg could not come for the procuring of perfect Vertue and for the inuoking of God to fauour him in the pursuite thereof S. Paul vseth this proofe when he speaketh thus to the Galathians I desire only that you will tell me The holy Ghost which you receaued was it by meanes of the workes of the Law or els by means of fayth As if he should haue sayd Since I preaching Fayth to you and not the old law and you belieuing it and disposing of your selues thereunto by your will did receaue the holy Ghost why do you now returne to the old Law since you find by experience that without it and by meanes of Fayth and of pennance vpon the receauing of Baptisme you haue receaued the holy Ghost with the graces benefits therof And so to proue the thing which we haue in hand That perfect verene which is obteyned by the right vse of Fayth and by those other meanes which it teacheth vs doth giue testimony that it is true because towardes the obtaining of so good a thing it was a meanes and it taught vs also other meanes And so these persons who are so rich through the graces which come to them by Christ Iesus are so adherent to him so enriched by him that they haue no thought of looking for the Messias whom the Iewes expect nor of enioying that paradise which Mahomet doth entice men by For as they despise those bestiall delights of the flesh which Mahomet in his paradise doth promise and those other transitory benefits of the earth which the Iewes by their Messias do expect so they willingly take their leaue both of the one and the other howsoeuer they be intreated to the contrary And they remember how it was prophesied that in the tyme of the Messias They (i) Ezech. 14. 16. Ierem. 31. should know that our Lord was God by his breaking the chaynes of the yâ—â—kes of men and that God would giue men new hartes and that he would write his Law in the very howells of them that would receaue it Now because they make very great coniectures that they haue a part in these blessings it is a testimony to them that Christ is come By these and other effects which cannot be related and which they haue within themselues they are so full of ioy and peace and confidence in Iesus Christ as that if men should tell them of another Christ that were (k) Matt. 14. in the desert or in the secret closets of the house or that he were farre off or neere hand they would neuer bestow the seeking of him For since the true Christ is but one and that they find the conditions of being true in him in whom they do belieue with the same fayth wherby they accept the one they reiect the rest But (l) Note yet I say not this to the end thou shouldest thinke that Christians belieue by the only experimeÌ„tal motiues which they find within themselues for they only belieue through faith which is infused by God as heer after I will shew But this I haue only sayd that thou mayst know the many motiues that we haue to belieue since we are treating of this subiect And one of them is The experiments which perfect men do find in their soule which since they are thinges that passe vp and downe in their hart thou art not to looke for them in bookes or in the liues of others but in thy owne priuate conscience by striuing to attayne perfect vertue That so as I was saying in the beginning thou mayst haue witnesses both neere thee and well knowne by theo as remayning vvithin thee and that thou mayst fullfill what the Scripture sayth Drinke the water of thyne owne Cisterne and thou shalt see such meruailes vvrought within thy selfe as shall take from thee all appetite of seeking any vvithout thy selfe CHAP. XXXVIII That if the power and greatnes of the worke of Belieuing be well pondered we shall find great testimony to proue that it is much reason that the vnderstanding of man do serue God by imbracing of Fayth HE (a) A worthy a wise discourse that had light to know and a steedy hand to weigh the very worke of belieuing vvould be in no necessity of other witnesses towards the receauing thereof but euen therein vvould find beauty to make him loue it reason to imbrace it For who is he that will not conceaue it to be wholy fit that a creature should serue his Creatour with all his power vvithal his meanes And so also do all men know that although we owe him this seruice withall that we haue yet specially since God is a spirit the prime seruice that we are to do him is with our spirit
thou wilt not loose the way to heauen Incline thyne eare that is thy reason for feare least otherwise thou be deceaued thereby Incline it with a most profound reuerence to that which is sayd by the word of God throughout the whole Scripture And if thou vnderstand it not thou art not for that to thinke that the Holy Ghost which spake did erre but submit thy vnderstanding and belieue as S. Augustine sayth that he did that which by reason of the height of that word thou art not able to vnderstand And although thou art to incline thyne eare by giuing equall credit of Fayth to all the Scripture of God because all of it is the word of the same supreme Truth yet art thou to carry particuler respect care to receaue profit by those blessed wordes which (a) A pious and very profitable aduice the true God incarnate spake heere on earth Open thou with deuout attention both the eares of thy body and of thy soule to euery word of this Lord who was giuen to vs for an especiall maister by the voyce of the eternall Father who sayd This is my well beloued Sonne in whome I am pleased heare him Be studious in reading and hearing these wordes and then thou wilt not fayle to find in them a singular remedy and powerfull efficacy for those thinges which concerne thy soule which thou hast not found in euery other of those wordes which God hath spoken from the beginning of the world And this is so with great reason since that which he sayd in other places was spoken by the mouth of his seruants but that which he sayd in the humanity which he tooke he spake in person opening his owne sacred mouth to speake he who formerly had opened and afterwardes did open the mouth of others who spake both in the old and new Testament And take heed that thou be not vnthankefull for so great a blessing as it is That God should be our Maister giuing vs the milke of his word to sustayne vs he who had giuen vs first a being that we might haue somewhat to be sustayned So great a fauour is this that if we had scales wherewith to weigh it and if it were told vs that at the furthest corner of the world some wordes of God were left for the instruction of our soule we were to make light of all labour and danger to heare some few of those wordes deliuered by that supreme wisedom for the making of vs his disciples Serue thy selfe therefore well of this fauour since God hath giuen it thee so neare at hand and desire of him who taketh care to conduct thy soule in the way of spirit that in holy Scripture and in the doctrine of the Church and amongst the writings of the Saints he will seeke out such wordes as may carry proportion to the necessityes of thy soule whether it be to defend thee against tentations as our Lord did fast in the desert for our example or whether it be to spurre thee vp in the search of those vertues which thou wantest or whether in fine it be to know how to carry thy self as thou oughtest with God with thy selfe and with thy Neighbours whether they be thy betters thy inferiours or thy equalls and how thou art to conduct thy soule in prosperity and how in tribulation And finally how thou art to behaue thy selfe in all that whereof thou mayst haue need in the way of God In such sort as that thou mayst say In (b) Psal 118. my hart I haue hidden thy wordes that I may not sinne against thee Thy word is a torch to my feet and a light to my pathwayes And be sure thou fall not into curiosity of desiring to know more then thou hast need of either for thy selfe or for such as are vnder thy charge For whatsoeuer is more then this thou must leaue to them whose office it is to teach the people of God as S. Paul (c) Rom. 11. admonisheth That our knowledge may be with sobriety CHAP. XLVI That the holy Scripture must not be declared by what sense one will but by that of the Church of Rome and where that declareth not we must follow the vniforme exposition of the Saints And of the great submission and subiection which we must performs to this holy Church THOV art to know that the exposition of holy Scripture must not be made according to the wittes or fancies of particuler men for so although it be most certainely true in it selfe as being the word of God yet for as much as concerneth vs it would be very vncertaine since commonly there are as many opinions as there be heades of men Now for as much as it doth greatly import vs to haue suprem certitude of the Word which we are to belieue and follow since we are to lay downe for the confession obedience thereof whatsoeuer we haue euen our very life our businesse were not well prouided for if notwithstanding the seueral opiniōs which men of themselues are subiect to the certainty of this Word might not be lodged in the hart of a Christian To (a) The only Catholike Church of Christ in the vndoubtedly true Intérpretour of Gods holy Scripture the only Catholike Church this priuiledge is giuen that it may vnderstand and interprete the Diuine Scripture because the same holy Ghost which deliuered the Scripture doth dwell in her And where the Church doth not determine we must haue recourse to the vniforme interpretation of the Saints if we will be free from errour For otherwise how shall that which was spoken by a diuine spirit be vnderstood by a spirit witt which is humane since euery scripture is to be read and declared by the same spirit that wrate it Thou art also to know that the declaratiō of what Scripture is the Word of God that so it may be belieued by all men doth not belong to any other but only to that same Christian Church which by diuine ordination hath the Bishop of Rome for her head And esteeme thou for certayne as S Hicrome (b) Let Protestāts note this tremble sayth That whosoeuer shall eat the lambe of God out of this Church house of God is a prophane person and no Christian And whosoeuer shal be found out of the same will infallibly perish as they who entred not into the Arcke of Noë were drowned in the floud This is that Church which the Ghospell commaundeth vs to hearken to and whosoeuer shall not hearken to her is to be held for a wicked person and for an vnbeleeuer And this is that Church of which S. Paul sayth that shee is the pillar and strength of truth And to belieue that this is so that very Fayth infused by God wherof we spake before doth incline and illuminate vs as to one of the other articles and with a like certainty to that which belōgeth to others and as hitherto it hath byn so belieued
necessary for the search and true science of the Scriptures And he sayth afterwards that without purity of mind and a life which followeth in the steps of sanctity it is not possible to vnderstand the speach of Saints For as if a man would behould the light of the Sunne he maketh cleare his eyes and by so doing his sight groweth cleare and by that meanes to be of some resemblance with the very Sunne which he desireth to behold that so his eye being made light he may the better looke vpon the Sunnes light and as also if a man desire to see any Citty or Countrey he must come within a certayne distance for that purpose so he that would procure the vnderstanding of holy books must first endeauour to cleanse purify his soule by a resemblaÌ„ce of life manners to draw neare to the Saints who wrote theÌ„ that so approaching to them by his intentions actions he may vnderstand those things which God reuealed to them being made as it were one of them he may escape from the danger that sinners are subiect to from the fire which against the day of iudgement will be prouided for them It is necessary to ponder this greatly which S. Athanasius deliuered that so we may receaue profit by the diuine Scripture For though without this purity of life a man may easily know by Scripture what God in generall requireth of him yet in particuler to know the counsaile will of God cannot be learned as the Wiseman sayth by humane study but he affirmeth thus in the manner of a question Who O Lord shall know thy meaning vnles thou giue him wisedome vnles thouâ—end thy holy spirit from on high This Wisedome (r) True celestiall wisedom is that which teacheth the vvay how to please God in particuler manner this resideth not in wicked men But when this industry continueth with experience of holy labours humble prayers and the fruit of good workes it maketh a man truely wise that so by reading of Scripture and long experience he may teach others after the manner of an eye vvitnesse and may light vpon the veyne of another mans hart instructing it by that which passeth in his owne And without this though he may chance to hit right for once he will mistake many tymes and will fall out to be one of them of whome S. Paul sayth That (s) 1. Tim. 1. taking vpon them to teach the law they vnderstood not that wherof they speake A man who putteth himselfe vpon the studdy of holy Scripture must help himselfe also by the interpretation and exposition of the Saints as also of the Schoole-Deuines For as for the profit which may be drawne from the study of holy Scripture without accompanying it by these endeauours Germany hath taken experience of it to her cost CHAP. XLIX That we must not grow in pride for not hauing lost our Fayth as others haue done but rather we must be humble with feare and the reasons which we haue for being so DO not thou by hearing of the fal of others grow to such pride of hart as to say I am not like one of them who so wickedly haue lost their fayth Call thou to mind those men who related to our Lord how Pilate had caused certaine Galileans to be kil'd as they were in the middest of offering their sacrifices And they that related this carryed in their hart a kind of vayne contentment wherewith they held themselues for better then those others who had deserued that Pilate should cause them to be murthered But now when this soueraigne Iudge did know their pryde without the manifestation of it on their partes and being desirous to vndeccaue them he sayd after this manner Thinke you that those Galileans were the greatest sinners of all the men in that Prouince because that punishment came vpon them Or doe you thinke that those eighteene men vpon whome the tower of Siloe did fall and slew them were the greatest sinners of all them that dwelt in Hierusalem I tell you No. But if you do not pennance you shall also perish The same did S. Paul intend when he sayd For their incredulity were the Iewes cut off which had byn the branches of the Oliue tree of belieuers and thou who by fayth art on foote do not thou grow proud but feare for else thou shalt also be cut off The (a) The punishment which God inflicteth vpoÌ„ others must mak vs humble and not insolent punishments which God hath inflicted vpon others ought to make vs chast and humble and not proud For whither soeuer we cast our eyes in these vnhapy tymes of ours they will find reason to weep and to say with Ieremy If (b) Ierem. 14. I go out into the field I see that men are slayne by the sword if I enter into the citty I find them defeated and dead of hunger The former are they who went out of the Citty which is the Church A kind of people this is without a head for the sword of incredulity hath taken off from them the head which God gaue to Christians which is the (c) The Bishop of Rome as successour to S. Peter is the visible head which God hath giuen to the Church vnder Christour Lord. Bishop of Rome And the later are those many who in this citty of the Church haue their Fayth vntouched but they are miserably dead of hunger because they tooke not the food of obedience to the coÌ„mandmeÌ„ts of God of his church These things deserue that we should feele them much if we haue any feeling of Christ and that we should bewayle them in his high presence and say to him How long O Lord wilt thou forbeare to haue mercy on them for whom thou didst shed thy bloud and loose thy life vpon the Crosse in the middest of so many torments And since the busines is thyne let the remedy also come from thy hand being impossible that it should come from any other Be thou carefull O daughter to feele and to pray for this for (d) Note if thou loue Christ thou art to lodge in thy hart a tender and profound compassion of the soules for which Christ Iesus dyed And so art thou also carefully to consider how thou liuest and how thou doest profit by the Fayth which thou hast least otherwise God doe also punish thee by suffering thee to fall into some errour and so to loose it since thyne eares haue heard the newes of so many that haue lost it by the heresies of that peruerse Luther And others there are who haue denied Christ amongst the Moores to follow the bestiall law of Mahomet whereby thou shalt see accomplished that which Saint Paul sayth That some had lost their Fayth for hauing cast away a good conscience in their life And whether it be as we sayd before when we spake of the motiues which induce a man to belieue because euen their euill
rest be So great are the mischiefes which grow from pride that it troubleth al them with whom it hath to do for if men will defend their owne opinion in obstinate manner and be inseparable from it who shall be able to liue in peace And to the end that thou mayst fly cutse this vice know that it arriueth so farce as to make of them that were good Christians peruerse Heretikes Nor haue they beene nor are they such for any other reason now but because by giuing more beliefe to their owne iudgment then to that of the Church and of their Prelates they conceaue themselues to hit the birde in the eye and that whatsoeuer passeth in their hart is the worke of God that to belieue the opinion of others rather thē that which they find in their own hart were to forsake God for man But experience truth demonstrates to vs that the thing which they thought to be the spirit of Truth was the spirit of Errour which not being able to ouercome them otherwise did assault them after hauing transformed it selfe into an Angell of light vnder the appearance of Good so depriued them of the life of their soules for not being content to submit themselues to the aduice of others CHAP. LV. That we must fly fast from our owne opinion chuse some person to whome for the loue of God we must be subiect and be ruled by him and what kind of man he must be and how we must carry our selues with him BEING therefore afrayd and taking a warning by occasion of these fellowes I admonish thee that as thou art to be an enemy to thyn owne will so thou art much more to be so of thyne owne opinion and of resoluing to carry thinges by thyne owne iudgment since thou seest the euill conclusion which is made by selfe conceite Be an enemy thereof both within doores and without and follow it not euen in trifles For (a) Note this well thou shalt hardly find a thing which so much will disquiet the peacefull rest that Christ desireth to find in thy soule that so he may cōmunicate himselfe thereunto as to be obstinate resolute to carry the matter after thyne owne mind And better for thee it were not to haue that which thou desirest then to loose that wherof thou hast so much need for the enioying of God with intiere peace This I say is to be practised by thee if the ordering of the house do not belōg to thy care for in case it do thou must not forbeare to do that which seemeth best to thee though yet withall thou art to informe thy selfe well both by making prayer and taking counsaile according to the quality of the thing in question Thou (b) Whosoeuer will maister his will in great matters must be contēt to begin in small ones knowest well inough that they who are in dāger of receauing some great affront do beginne to make trial vpon enduring certaine toyes that so they may be exercised towardes the bearing of such as indeed are great ones And know thou assuredly that whosoeuer is accustomed to belieue himselfe and doth esteeme himselfe to haue a wise vnderstanding resoluing to beare himselfe out in small matters will find it very strang and hard to depart in greater from his owne opinion And on the contrary side a man who hath vsed to call his vnderstanding foole and to giue it little credit in trifles will find himselfe facilitated towards a subiection of himselfe to the pleasure of God and of his Superiours and not easily to iudge ill of his Neighbours And as I haue sayd that in thinges of smal importance thou shalt do well to forsake thyne owne and to follow another mans opinion without much examination of who it is that sayth or sayth it not so I tell thee that in the things which concerne thy conscience thou art much more to follow aduice neither trusting thy selfe therewith nor yet some such other man as thou mayst find at randome It will therefore be fit for thee to take for thy guide and Ghostly Father some person who is both (c) Both learning experience are wholy necessary to such as are to be the Ghostly Fathers of spirituall persons learned and of experience in thinges that belong to God For without both these qualityes speaking ordinarily he will not be for the purpose For learning alone is not sufficient to prouide for the particuler necessityes and prosperityes and temptations which happen to the soules of such as walke in a spirituall life and in these cases as Gerson sayth recourse must be had to men of experience And it will fal out many tymes to them who haue no more thē learning as it fell out to the Apostles who being one night in a tempest at sea thought that Christ comming towardes them was but some other idle apparition holding that for a deceit which yet indeed was a reall fauour the truth of our Lord. Some man will strike thee into excessiue feares condemning euery thing for euill And as their owne harts are very farre from the experience of any spirituall gustes and illuminations of God so do they speake therof as of a thing neuer heard of and can with difficulty be induced to belieue that nobler and higher thinges do passe in the harts of others then they find in their owne With others also thou shalt meet who are practised in matters of deuotion and who are easily carryed towardes any gust of spirit who make much account thereof And if any such thing be told them they hearken to it with great admiration esteeming him for more holy who hath more of them and he is light in giuing credit to them as if in them all were safe But because indeed it is not so many of these persons fall into errour and they suffer also them to fall whom they haue in charge for want of giuing them sufficient aduice against the craft of the Diuell and in this respect they are as vnfit to gouerne soules as the former But (d) Note this and learne thereby wherein true sanctity doth consist know thou that there are some of so good iudgement as to vnderstand that true sanctity consisteth not in such things as these but in the accomplishing of the will of our Lord and they haue experience in spirituall things and they also can tell how to doubt and to aske of others who may informe them Thou (e) Great experiēce with great humility goeth far in making a manable to guyde another in matters of spirit though there be not so great learning maiest trust these last although they haue no eminency in learning because that which they haue is inough since they haue no other employment but to looke to themselues And since it doth so much import thee to light vpon a good guide thou must with great instance beseech our Lord that he will direct thee by his prouidence to
〈◊〉 we want grace we must haue feare because we are ready to take a thousand falls When we haue it we must haue care because we are to worke in conformity of the talent which God bestoweth on vs therby most care of all when we loose it because that fauour went from vs by our negligence The Scripture doth therefore say Blessed is the man who doth alwayes feare CHAP. LVIII That we must be diligent to find out the knowledge of our selues and by what meanes this may be done and that it is fit for vs to haue some priuate place into which we may dayly retire our selues for a tyme. BY that which heere is sayd and by much more which hath beene sayd by the Saints in prayse of the knowledge of ones selfe thou wilt find how necessary this Iewell is for the comming afterward to know God And since thou hast a mind to build a house in thy soule for so high a Lord know thou that (a) God will neuer inhabite a proud hart not the high but the humble of hart are his houses Therefore let thy first care be to digg deep in the earth of thy littlenes till hauing freed all that which thou hast from being esteemed by thy selfe thou come at last to the firme stone which is God vpon which not vpon thyne owne false earth or sand thou art to build thy house For this did the blessed S. Gregory say Thou who thinkest to rayse vp a building of vertues take into the first part of thy care the foundation which is humility for he that pretendeth to haue vertue without it is like a man that would carry ashes in his hand against the wind This he sayth not only because vertues do not profit men without humility though rather indeed without it they be no vertues but for that they are an occasion of great perdition as a great building vpon a sleight and weake foundation would be sure of a great fall According therefore to the height of other vertues the foundation of humility is to be layd low to the end that the soule may be firme and not puffed first vp then down by the wind of Pride And if thou say where shall I find this pretious iewell of the knowledge of my selfe I tell thee that although it be of great valew yet (b) Wher humility is to be found art thou to find it in the stable and in the middest of the dung of thyne owne pouertyes and infirmityes remouing thyne eyes from looking on the liues of others Do not busy thy selfe to know curious thinges but turne in thy sight vpon thy soule and continue in examining of thy selfe And although at the first thou canst not lay hold vpon this knowledge like one that goeth out of a bright Sunne-shine into a darke chamber yet (c) Obserue and practise this for thou wile find it most certainely true by continuing in a quiet manner thou shalt see by little little with the grace of God whatsoeuer is in thy hart thogh it lye in the most secret corners therof And that thou mayst know the meanes which thou art to vse in a thing that doth so highly import thee giue eare to S. Hierome who speaketh thus to a marryed woman In such sort art thou to haue care of thy house that thou also mayst find some resting place for thy soule Seeke out some fit corner and retyred from the noyse of thy family to which I would haue thee go as one doth into a hauen flying frō the stiffe tēpest of thy cares And there be thou in reading of spirituall books and continuall prayer and in the thoughts of another life and they so firme as that all the employments of the rest of the day may be made light to thee by this tyme of thy retraite Nor do I yet say this to withdraw thee from the gouernement of thy house but rather that so thou mayst learne thereby and consider how thou art to carry thy selfe therein If this Blessed Saint do recommend to a marryed woman that she free her self from the busines of her house for some tyme and retyre her self into some quiet place to read and thinke of heauenly thinges with how much more reason is it that a Virgin of Christ who is free from worldly cares and who should thinke that she liueth not for any thing els so particulerly as to frequent prayer to practise both interiour and exteriour recollection should seeke out some priuate and hidden place of her house wherein she may haue her deuout books and deuout pictures and that the same place may be only deputed to the vse of seeing and tasting how sweet our Lord is The state of Virginity which thou hast taken is not meant for this that thou shouldst be wrapped vp in the cares of this world which passe perish But as it carryeth resemblance to the (d) The noblenes of the state of virginity state of celestiall spirits for as much as concernes the entiernes incorruption of the flesh so thou art to thinke to the very out side of thy power that no thought of earth must haue entrance into thy hart but thou art to be a liuing Temple wherein the sacrifice of continuall prayers may be offered and prayses of him that made thee sounded forth without intermission Let this only thought possesse thy hart how thou mayst please our Lord as (e) Coloss 3. S. Paul sayth Giue thy selfe for dead to the world since thou hast espoused thy soule to a celestiall King And (f) Recollection is necessary for soule that pretend to serue God remember what he sayth to the Spouse A (g) Cant. 4. gardē shut vp O my sister and my spouse a garden shut vp For not only art thou to be kept cleane in thy body but thou art also to be very retyred recollected in thy soule And because Virginity is imbraced among Christians not only for what it is in it selfe but because it helpeth to giue the soule to God with more freedome of spirit that Virgin who is content with the only Virginity of her body and is not carefull of progresse in vertue and prayer and taking gust in God what other thing doth she then dwell vpon the way and not procure to arriue to the iourneys end And it were as if thou hadst all thinges ready to sew and worke and shouldst neuer set thy selfe about it A shameful thing it is for any Christian not to exercise himselfe in reading of spirituall bookes and not to carry holy thoughtes in his soule but for a Religious man not to do it or for a Priest or for a Virgin who haue giuen themselues away to Christ is not only a thing shamefull but vnsufferable And therefore if thou wilt reape the fruites of that holy Virginity which thou hast promised to Christ be an enemy both of seeing and being seene Go abroad the least thou canst though it be euen to
discourse both ouer thy body and thy soule and thinke how thou wert obliged to reuere him and to be gratefull to him and to loue him with thy whole hart seruing him with entiere obedience and obseruing the commaundements both of him and of his Church with all the power thou hast Consider how he hath conserued thee by a thousand other benefits that he hath bestowed vpon thee as many miseries from which he hath deliuered thee and aboue all things remember how to inuite thee to be good by his example and loue the same Lord of the world came into it by making himselfe a man and for the reliefe of thy miseryes and the remouing of the blindnes wherein thou wert would needs endure many afflictions and first did shee l many teares and afterwards his very bloud and he did cast away his precious life for thee All (e) Our Lord giue vs all grace to make great vse of this certaine truth which ponderation in the day of thy death and of the iudgement which must passe vpon thee shal be placed in one ballance laying it to thy charge as that which thou hast receaued and an account shal be demanded at thy handâ— how thou hast serued thy selfe of so great fauours and how thou hast carryed thy selfe in the seruice of God and with what care thou hast kept correspondence with that so great goodnes wherewith God hath desired and procured to saue thee Consider well and thou shalt see how much reason thou hast to feare since not only thou hast not answered by doing seruices according to thy debtes and obligations but thou hast payed him with euill for good and hast despised him who hath valewed thee at so high a rate turning thy backe and flying from him who did so fast follow thee for thy good What thanks doth it seeme to thee that thou art to giue him who by his infinite mercy hath deliuered vs from hell we hauing so iustly deserued it What shal we offer him for a present who hath so often stretched forth his hand towardes vs that the Diuells might not strangle and carry vs instaÌ„tly away to hel And to vs who haue been cruell offendours of his Maiesty he hath been a piteous Father and deare defendour Consider that (f) Yea without Perhaps perhaps there are soules in hell who haue committed fewer sinnes then thou And in such sort weigh thy selfe and serue God as if for thy sinnes thou hadst already entred into hell and that he hath fetched thee out from thence For it comes to the same account for him to haue hindred thee from going thither as thou didst deserue or to draw thee out from thence through his great (g) Nay the former is the greater mercy mercy after thou shouldst haue beene entred in And if by comparing the blessings which God hath affoarded thee and the sinnes which thou hast committed against him thou do not yet find in thy selfe that shame or sorrow which thou desirest be not yet afflicted therewith but continue in this discourse and lay before the eyes of God thy hart which is so wounded and so indebted to him and beseech him that he will tell thee who thou art and what account thou art to make of thy self For the effect of this exercise is not only to vnderstand that thou art wicked but to feele it and to tast it with thy will and to take fast hold of thy sinnefulnes and vnworthynes as a man would clap the stincking carren of a dead dogg to his nose Therefore are not these considerations to be certaine fleeting thinges not the work of one day alone but they are to be of good length and to be vsed with much quietnes that by little and little the will may go drinking vp that contempt and vnworthynes which by thy vnderstanding thou dost iudge due vnto thy self this thought of thyne thou art to present before God beseeching him that he will lodge it in the most internall part of thy hart And from thenceforth esteeme thy selfe with great simplicity and verity for a most wicked creature deseruing all contempt and torment though it were euen that of hell And (h) The true vse which is to be made of these considerations be thou ready for the patient suffering of any labour or neglect which shall occur considering that since thou hast offended God it is but reason that all the creatures should rise against thee to reuenge the iniuryes that are done to their Creatour By (i) Note this this patience of thyne thou shalt vnderstand if in very deed thou thinke thy selfe a sinner and worthy of hell saying within thy selfe All the mischiefe that they can do me is very little since I haue deserued hell Who is he that will complaine of the byting of flyes when he hath merited eternall torments And thus go thou wondering at the infinite goodnes of God how he can perswade himselfe not to cast off such a stincking worme but to maintaine it and to regale it and to powre blessings downe vpon it both in body and soule but al this must be for his glory and not that we haue any thing to glory in CHAP. LXII That the dayly examination of our faults helpeth much towardes the knowledge of our selues and of other great benefits which this practise of Examen doth bring and of the profit which commeth to vs both by the reprehension of others and those also which our Lord doth interiourly send vs. TO end the Exercise of thy knowing thy selfe two things there remaine for thee to heare The first that a Christian ought not to content himselfe with entring into Iudgment before God for the accusing himselfe of those sinnes which in former tymes he had committed but of them also which he committeth dayly because thou wilt hardly find a thing so profitable for the reformation of thy life as to take account how thou spendest it and of the defects which thou dost fall into For that soule which is not carefull to examine her thoughtes and wordes and deeds is like to some lazy husbandman who hath a vineyard and who as Salomon sayth passed by it and saw the hedge fallen downe the vineyard it self full of thornes Make account that they haue recommended the daughter of some King to thee of whome thou art to haue continuall care that she be well taught and that at night thou take account of her reprouing her for her faults and exhorting her to practise vertue Consider thy self (a) The great obligation which we haue to looke to our souls as a thing recoÌ„mended to thy self by God and teach thy selfe to know that thou art not to liue without a law or rule but in a holy kind of subiection and vnder the discipline of vertue that thou shalt (b) Marke this well neuer do any one thing that is iâ—â— but thou shalt be sure to pay for it Enter (c) An earnest an
purpose by some (a) Certaine bookes which instruct meÌ„ how they may examine their consciences for confessioÌ„ which are euery where to be sold in Catholike couÌ„treys Confessionary And after that he hath lamented them well he must declare them to some spirituall Phisitian who hath the power and knowledge to prescribe fit remedyes for that infirmity and who may lay his conscience as flat and euen as yf the man were that day to dye to be presented before the iudgement seat of God In this businesse he may spend some moneth or two dissoluing with bitter sighes the sinnes which he committed by wicked pleasures And for this purpose he may serue himselfe of the reading of some good booke such as I spake of (b) In the discourse of tâ—e knowledge of ones selfe longe before which may helpe him to thinke of his death and Iudgement and with his thought to descend aliue into that bottomles pitte of eternall fire to the end that he may not descend after he is dead to find the misery which there is felt It will also conduce to this purpose that beholding some Image of the Crucisixe or else remembring it he consider how himselfe by his sinnes was the cause why our Lord did suffer so great tormentes And (c) Woe will be to vs if we do it not let him behold him with attention from head to foot and ponder euery particuler payne of his by it selfe lament euery particuler sinne since the afflictions of our Lord do correspond to our crimes he suffering dishonour for the payment of our pride and of scourges and paynes in payment of our sensuall pleasures and so also in the rest And let him thinke that if a sonne should see his father cruelly scourged and tormented for a fault which not the Father but that sonne had committed and if he should heare this Proclamation made He that committeth such a sinne shall pay for it with such a punishment This Sonne would haue great compassion of his Father and great sorrow for hauing done any such thing as was to cost that Father so dear And if he were a true Sonne it would more afflict him to see his Father so punished then if they should haue punished himself And a straÌ„g thing it would be if he cryed not out through excesse of griefe confessing that himselfe was the guilty person that him they should punish and not the Father who had made no fault From hence let vs take example to conceans therby more griefe for hauing sinned For it is God who was offended and it is God who was punished for euery mischiefe which might haue growne to vs by euery sinne It is (d) Let euery one make this case his owne I O Lord that sinned but it is thou that payest the payne thereof My wickednes O Lord did put thee in prison and it made thee be proclaimed with infamy through those streets and at last it layd thee vpon a Crosse Let this be thy lamentation with desire to suffer all that for God which he shal be pleased to ordayne And when thou shalt haue made this Examen of thy conscience with sorrow satisfaction according to the aduice of thy Ghostly Father thou mayst after thy hauing receaued sacramental absolution haue confident hope of pardoÌ„ receaue comfort into thy soule CHAP. LXXII How the second pace towardes the bringing vs to God is the giuing of thankes which we owe him for his hauing so deliuered vs and of the manner how this is to be done by meanes of diuers Misteryes of the Passion which are to be meditated in diuers dayes VVHEN the soule is thus purged from the humours of sinne which gaue it death it must imploy it selfe vpon giuing of thankes for so great and so vndeserued a fauour Not (a) A greater blessing it is to be made the adopted Sonne of God then to be freed from the paines of hell only in respect that God hath forgiuen him the paynes of hell but because he hath receaued him for his Sonne and hath bestowed his grace vpon him and certaine interiour guifs by the merits of the true God Iesus Christ our Lord who dyed for our sinnes and rose againe for our iustification killing our sinnes and our old life by his dying and raysing vs vp to a new life by his resurrection And if Iob sayd That the body of a poore man whome he had cloathed would heap benedictions vpon the man who imparted that benefit with much more reason ought we to blesse Christ Iesus crucifyed when our soule doth find it selfe free froÌ„ misery conforted with fauours belieuing that all our good commeth from him for it is strangely against all reason to be vngrateful to such loue and for such benefits And although euery tyme that thou findest thy selfe well thou art instantly to prayse Christ Iesus with particuler gratitude yet to the end that this may be don the better and with more fruit it will be fit That as to thinke of thy sinnes I aduised thee to seeke some priuate or retyred place there to looke vpon thy selfe so now thou do with much more reason imploy another part of the day in thinking of the Passion of our Lord in giuing him thankes for the benefits which are come to thee by it crying out from thy hart I will neuer forget thy iustifications because in them thou didst giue one life The course then which thou shalt hold if no other better doe occurre may be this On (b) A distribution of the dayes in the Meditation of the PassioÌ„ of our Lord. Munday to thinke on the prayer of our Lord and the taking of him in the Garden and that which passed in the house of Annas and Caiphas On Tewesday the accusations which were presented against him and the processions that he made from Iudge to Iudge and of the cruell scourging which he endured when he was tyed to the piliar On Wednesday how he was crowned with thornes and what scorne they put him to by drawing him out in a red coate and with a Reede in his hand that all the people might see him and how they sayd Ecce Home On Thursday we cannot displace that most excellent mistery how the sonne of God with profound humility washed the feet of his disciples and gaue to them afterwardes his body and bloud for food of life Commanding both them and all (c) It was his Apostles and in their person to all lawfull Priests their successours whomour Lord coÌ„maunded to do the like and not to lay persons as the ProtestaÌ„ts imagine preistes who were to follow that they should doe the same in memory of him Doe thou make thy selfe present at that admirable Lauatory and in that most excellent banquet and then trust in God that thou shalt not depart from thence eyther defyled or dead of hunger Thou shalt thinke on Friday how our Lord was presented before the Iudge and sentenced to death
they grow indeed to hate themselues through the loue they haue of being wicked this enamoured Lord doth so highly prize them so much loue them that to redeeme them out of such a miserable captiuity he gaue himselfe as a price for them In testimony that he loueth them more then they are beloued by any other or then they know how to loue themselues CHAP. LXXIX Of the burning Loue wherewith Christ Iesus loued God and men for God from which loue as from a fountatine that did spring which he suffered in the exteriour and that also which he suffered in the interiour which was much more then the other IF the hart of man be so wicked as Ieremy (a) Ierem. 17. sayd as that God only can tell how to sift it that the more deep a man diggs in that rotten wall the more abhominable filthines is discouered as was shewed in figure to (b) Ezech. 8. Ezechiel with how much more reason may we say that since the hart of Iesus Christ our Lord is more good then any other can be wicked there is none who can wholy diue into it but only the same Lord whose it is It is worthy of admiratiō and which in reason ought to robbe vs euen of our very soules and to bind vs as slaues to God to consider the excessiue loue of his hart which did expresse it selfe in suffering the whole course of that Passion and death for vs as we haue shewed But if thou digge yet deeper with the light of heauen in thy hand and do looke neere into this (c) The hart of our Lord Iesus is the Reliquary the loue is the Relique Reliquary of God which is so full of vnspeakable secrets thou wilt discerne such effects of loue as will cast thee into more wonder then any outward thing belonging to the passion For this purpose thou art to remember how in the towne of Bethsaida our Lord being in the cure of a deafe man the Ghospell sayth That he cast vp his sacred eyes to heauen and he sighed deeply and that then he cured the patient That groaning sigh which carryed an exteriour sound was but one and it might passe in a short tyme but it was a witnes of another sigh yea and of many profound internall sighes and which lasted not only for a short tyme but for months yeares For thou art to vnderstand how that most holy soule in being created and infused into the body in that virgineall wombe of our Blessed Lady did then behold the diuine essence which for the height therof is called heauen with great reason as clearly as now it doth And in seeing it it did iudge that it was worthy of all honour and seruice and so it desired all honour to it with that vnspeakeable force of loue wherwith it was endued And although the ordinary law for such as see God clearly be this that they must be blessed both in body and soule and be subiect to no kind of payne yet to the end that we might be redeemed by the pretious afflictions of our Lord it (d) See the inuentiōs of the loue the God was ordeined that felicity and ioy should remaine in the superiour part of his soule should not redound into the inferiour part or into his body renouncing all that sense of happines which so iustly was due vnto it for the accepting and suffering of that paine to which we were liable Now if that most holy soule who cast the eyes of the vnderstanding vp to the heauen of the diuinity had not had any other thing but that to looke vpon it could not haue been capable of payne since God is such a Good that nothing can grow from the sight of him but loue and ioy But for as much as he saw all the sinnes which then had bin committed by men from the beginning of the world and (e) So that then he saw all and euery of my sins and al thy sinnes those also which would be committed euen to the end of it his griefe was fully as internall and as profound to see that heauen of the Diuine Maiesty offended as his desyre was that it should be serued And (f) The infinite desire which our Lord Iesus had that God should be serued as infinite griefe that he is offēded as no man is able to reach to the greatnesse of that defire so neither can any man arriue to the greatnes of that griefe For the holy Ghost which is figured in (g) Note this griefe loue fyre which was giuen him beyond all measure did inflame him to loue God with an incomprehensible (h) Ioan. 11. loue and the same Holy Ghost which is also figured in a (l) Luc. 19. Doue did make him bitterly lament to see him offended whome he loued after such an ineffable manner But to the end that thou maist see how this knife of griefe which passed through the hart of our Lord did not only wound him on the one syde but that it was doubly and most sharply edged remember that the same Lord who looking vp to heauen did deeply sigh did also weepe both ouer Lazarus and ouer Hierusalem And then as S. Ambrose saith it is not to be wondred at that he greiued for all since he wept for one So that to see God offended and to see men destroyed by sinne was a (k) Our Lord graunt vs one touch of this knife vpō our harts by the merits of his knife with a double edge which did most lamentably pierce his hart through the inestimable loue which he bare to God as God and to men for his sake desiring to make satisfaction to the honour of God and to obtaine a remedy for men how deerly soeuer it should cost him O (l) The vnspeakable affliction of our Lord Iesus in his sacred Passion most blessed Iesus to see thee tormented exteriourly in thy body doth euen breake the hart of a Christian but to see thee so tormented and defeated inwardly with such deadly griefe there is no eye there is no force that can endure it Three nayles O Lord did breake through thy handes and feet with excessiue paine and more then seauenty thornes they say did pierce thy diuine head thy buffetts and thy affrontes were very many and the cruell scourget which that most delicate body of thyne receiued they say did passe the number of fiue thousand By occasion of these and many other grieuous torments which concurred in thy passion which no man arriueth to vnderstand but thou that feltest them it was said in thy person long before O all you that passe by the way obserue and see if there be any griefe like myne And yet nowithstanding all this thou whose loue hath no limit didst both seeke and sind new inuentions for the drawing and feeling within thy seife certaine paynes which exceeded those nailes and scourges and tormentes which exteriourly thou didst endure and which continued
haue well considered that which hath bin said to thee of the mystery of the Passion of Iesus Christ our Lord thou wilt haue seene how thou art to obserue both his sufferance in the exteriour of his body and the patience and humility and those other vertues which were in his soule and aboue all his amorous and compassiue hart from which all the rest did proceed it will animate thee both to follow him in sufferance and to imitate him also in other thinges But thou art moreouer to vnderstand that thou mayst intertayne many other profitable considerations concerning the passion of our Lord. For thereby thou mayst know as we are permitted (a) We see not eleerly but as in a cloud to know it in this place of banishment how glorious a thing the ioy of heauen is and how grieuous those infernall torments are how pretious is grace how hurtfull and detestable is synne since for the purchasing of those blessinges for vs and the remoouing of these mischiefes from vs Christ himselfe being what he is was yet faine to suffer so great miseries A booke (b) The Passion of our Lord Iesus is a booke wherein we may read and learne all sauing knowledge this is wherein thou mayst read the immense goodnesse of God and the deare sweetnes of his loue and so also the wonderfull rigour of the diuine Iustice which did so punish the sin of others vpon the Iudge himselfe being made man And because I had both a desire a purpose to prosecute this matter more at large and to passe on to the consideration of the diuinity by this step of the most holy soule of Iesus Christ our Lord and that my little health doth keep me from all meanes to do it I now say no more and that which heere I write is the last of this (c) Of the Passion discourse sauing that I recommended to thee all perseuerance in the Meditation of this sacred Passion For (d) Why we are to perseuere in the meditation of the passion of our Lord Iesus although I haue seene some persons exercise themselues therein for a yeare and for more yeares then one without gusting it much yet by their continuance our Lord was brought to pay them at last whatsoeuer he had formerly deferred in such sort as that whē they considered the reward they thought their labour well imployed I (e) Many other courses of deuotion whereby a man may also profit in spirit do also aduertise thee that there are other exercises of Meditation whereby we may walke on towards our Lord as wel by the consideration of the creatures and of the benefits of God and by way of recollecting the hart that it may imploy it selfe vpon louing which is the end of all thinking and indeed of the whole Law And as there are diuers wayes of exercises so are there seuerall inclinations in men and it is a very great blessing of our Lord when he applyeth a man to that which is to be of most profit to him Which (f) Light is to be asked of our Lord in the address of our deuotions euery one ought to begge of him with great instance and to procure for as much as he sindeth in himselfe when first he shall haue giuen relation thereof to such as know more then he to iudge what exercise of prayer is fittest for him for this is that which he is to follow It is (g) A gooddirection for such as can not greatly frame to the recollecting of thēselues also fit for me to let thee know that there are some so imployed vpon exteriour things that they cannot giue themselues at least for any good space of tyme to these interiour excrcises at which they take discomfort disgust But now if lawfully they cannot forsake those imployments they must content themselues with that state which our Lord hath giuen them and with diligence and alacrity they are to comply with their obligation and to endeauour as much as they can to haue our Lord (h) A blessed thing to haue and keep the presence of God euer present with them for loue of whome they must performe their workes And because there are some who haue a kind of naturall inquietude in their soule and who are wholy so vndeuout and dry that although they imploy both much tyme and care vpon these inward exercises yet they profit nothing it is necessary to let them know that since our Lord doth not giue them the spirit of large and inward prayer they must content themselues with praying vocally vpon the partes of the passion and so praying let them thinke although it be but brei fely of that particuler mystery And let them haue some deuout picture to behould and let them read some deuout books of the passiō for it happeneth many tymes that by these steps a man doth rise to the exercise of inward thinking if our Lord be pleased that yet they shall not rise let them giue him thankes for conducting them by that other way Let (i) Concerning such as are scrupulous and pusillanimous such also as are scrupulous and deiected vnderstand That our Lord is not pleased that they should euer be thinking of the sinnes which they haue committed so to be buried in discomfort and griefe like a Lazarus in his graue But it is his will that after mortification be vsed and pennance done wherin they imitate his passion they may also receaue comfort by the hope of pardon whereby they may resemble his Resurrection And when they shall haue kissed his most sacred feete by lamenting their sinnes they may raise themselues vp to kisse his handes for the benefits which they haue receaned and let them walke on between hope and feare which is the safest way of all others And I conclude with telling thee that although there be some who through ignorance or pride haue committed errours in the way of prayer yet (k) We must not giue ouer good things by the ill vse that is made therof by some thou art not to take occasion thereby to leaue it since the fault of others must not make vs giue ouer that which is good but only we must attend to our busines with greater caution And it ought more to encourage vs towardes the following of it to know that Iesus Christ our Lord and his Saints haue walked therein for our example then the few who haue erred must discourage vs. For hardly will there be found that thing whereof ill vse hath not beene made by some CHAP. LXXXII How attentiuely our Lord doth heare vs and how piteously he doth behold vs if we manifest our infirmityes to him with that griefe which is fit and how ready he is to cure vs and to do vs many other fauours THE great goodnesse of our Lord hath this That to the end his Commandementes and Lawes may be kept by vs he maketh them easy in themselues and more easy by
tearmes that haue bin giuen what of the producing of the testimonies both of the plaintiffe and defendant and what can be said to this That the iudge ought to esteeme himselfe to haue receiued an affront if his sentence be reuoked Thou doest passe ouer it all by the loue which thou bearest and by the desire which thou hast to powre blessings downe vpon vs. And thou saidst I haue heard thy prayer and I haue seene thy teares All tearms seeme long till thou mayst free him that is faulty for neuer did any man so desire to receaue pardoÌ„ as thou dost to giue it and more doest thou ioy to pardon them to whome thou desirest to giue life then the sinner doth himselfe for hauing escaped from death Thou obseruedst no ordinary delayes or lawes but the law shall be That he who hath broken thy lawes shall afflict his hart with griefe for what is past and shall purpose an amendment of life for that which is to come and shall apply the wholesome receites of thy Sacraments which thou didst leaue in thy Church or at least shal haue intention to take them And the delayes shall be these That (k) Ezech. 33. whensoeuer a sinner shall be deeply sorry for his sinnes thou wilt remember them no longer And to the end that sinners may take hart in crauing thy pardon for their offences thou wert pleased to graunt this man more fauour then he asked of thee by fifteene yeares of life and the deliuery of his Citty and the retraite of the Sunne as far as it is wont to walke in ten houres in token that vpon the third day after that the King should go vp into the Temple safe and sound And thou wert mercifull by vouchsafing him other secret fauours who neither yet wouldst suffer sinne to approach to vs but only for the bringing of greater good from thence letting vs see thy mercy by our misery and thy pardon and goodnes by our wickednes and thy power by our weakenesse Therefore (l) A conclusionful ful of comfort thou O sinner whosoeuer thou be who art threatned by that sentence of God which (m) Ezech. 18. sayth The soule that sinneth the same shall dye be not yet all dismayed vnder the burthen of thy great sinnes and that insuportable waight of the wrath of God But taking courage in the consideration of the mercyes of him who (n) Ezech. 33. desireth not the death of a sinner but that he may be conuerted and liue do thou humble thy selfe by weeping in his sight whome thou hast despised by committing sinne And then receaue thy pardon from the hand of that piteous Father who (o) Infinit goodnes of God hath so very great desire to giue it yea and to impart greater blessings to thee then thou hadst before As he did to this King who rose vp sound in body sound â—n soule as appeared by the thankes he gaue in these wordes Thou (p) Isa 38. O Lord hast deliuered my soule that it might not perish and thou hast cast away my sinnes behind thy backe CHAP. LXXXIII Of two threats which God vseth to expresse One absolute and the other conditionall and of two kinds of promises like those threats and how we are to carry our selues when they arriue THov art not to be scandalized in that the word vvhich was spoken to this King Thou shalt dye and thou shalt not liue was not accomplished But thou art to know That sometymes our Lord commandeth that to be declared which he hath determined to be effected in his high counsell and eternall will and that vvillbe sure without all fayle to arriue In this sort he commanded that it should be told King Saul That he would cast him off and choose a better in his place And so also did he threaten Hely the Priest and accordingly it was fullfilled And in the same manner he also menaced King Dauid That he would kill that sonne of his whome in adultery he had begotten of Bersabee And notwithstanding the earnest suit which the King made for the life of the child by prayers by hairecloth and by fastes it was not graunted for God had resolued that the child should dye But (a) That which sometime may seem to be denounced by God as absolute is but meant to be conditionall at other tymes he commandeth that to be published vpon which he hath not absolutly resolued but only vpon condition of the mending or not mending such a fault And in this sort he sent word to the Citty of Niniue That within fourty dayes it should be destroyed But afterward by their pennance he did reuoke that sentence for he had not determined to destroy them because he did it not But he declared what their sinnes deserued and what also would haue happened if their liues had not beene reformed And although considering thinges after an exteriour manner it seemed to fauour of inconstancy to say that it shal be destroyed and not to destroy it yet is it not so in that high will of God because he did not absolutely meane to do it For as S. Augustine sayth God varieth his sentence but he changeth not his counsell Which in this case was not to destroy it but not to destroy it by means of their pennance which he resolued to incite them to by that menace And this is that which our Lord sayth by (b) Hier. 18. Heremy Suddainly will I say to Nations and Kingdoms That I will destroy them and roote them out but if that people do pennance for their sinnes I will also repent my selfe of the euill which I meant to bring vpon them and I will instantly say of Nations and Kingdomes That I will plant them and build them vp But if they worke wickednes in my sight and do not hearken to my voice I also will repent my selfe of the good which I sayd that I meant to do them The (c) What vse we are to make of not knowing whether any thing which God denounceth be an absolute sentence or a coÌ„ditionall threat vse which we are to make heerof is this That because we know not when that vvherewith God doth threaten vs is but only a threat or whether it be a finall determinatioÌ„ we must not cast our selues vpon despaire nor forbeare to implore his mercy that so he may be pleased to reuoke the sentence which he gaue against vs as he did to this King and to the citty of Niniue who did both of them get their suits And though Dauid did not obtaine his yet did he not sinne in beseeching our Lord to reuoke the sentence coÌ„cerning him because it appeared not to him whether it were a decree or a threat And in the same manner if God make a promise to affoard vs any blessing we must not vse neglect in seruing him by saying I haue a byll that is written by the hand of God which can deceaue no body For the same Lord (d)
thy prayses with great ioy and to serue thee with most ardent loue Nor doest thou content thy selfe O Lord to open thyne eares towards our prayers so to heare them with attentiue speed but as one that loues another in all truth of affection and doth take pleasure to heare him speake or sing so thou O Lord doest say to the soule which is redeemed by thy bloud Shew (y) Canâ— â— 2. me thy face let thy voice sound in myne cares for thy voyce is sweet thy face is very faire What is this O Lord which thou sayest That thou desirest to heare vs and that our voyce is sweet How doth our face seeme fayre in thyne eyes which we hauing defiled with many sinnes committed by vs euen whylest thou wert looking on are a shamed to let thee see Infallibly it is true that eyther we merit much in thy sight or else thou doest loue vs much But (z) The true humility which is taught by the doctrine of the holy Catholike Church far be it from vs O Lord far be it froÌ„ vs that out of thy mercifull proceeding we should draw a reason of being proud Since that whereby we please thee and are acceptable to thee is thyne owne grace which thou didst giue vs. And besides that thou doest regale and thou doest reward thy seruants more aboundantly then becomes any merit of theirs Let glory therfore begâ—uen to thee O Lord from whom all our good proceedeth and in whome all our good consisteth to vs in vs let confusion be for our vnworthynesse and wickednes Thou art our ioy and thou art that glory wherein we glory and this we do not vniustly but vpon great reason For a high honour it is to be beloued by thee and so beloued as that thou wouldst deliuer thy selfe ouer for our sakes to the tormentes of the Crosse from whence all blessings are deriued downe vpon vs. CHAP. LXXXVI Of the great loue wherewith our Lord doth behold such as are iust and of the much that be desyreth to communicate himselfe to creatures and to destroy our sinnes which we must behold with detestation that God may looke vpon them with compassion NOvv that thou hast vnderstood the speed wherwith God heareth the prayers of such as are iust it remaineth for thee to know the great loue wherwith he behouldeth them that (a) God heareth seeth our prayers as he requireth vs to looke vp to him to giue eare to his holy inspiratioÌ„s so he may entirely performe in himselfe that of hearing and seeing which he commaundeth of vs. The eyes of our Lord saith Dauid are vpon the iust to deliuer them from death but the face of our Lord is vpon the wicked that he may cast out the memory of them from the earth Heereby it appeares that our Lord placeth his eyes vpon the iust as the pastour doth vpon his sheep that they may not perish And so also doth he place them vpon the wicked to the end that they may not passe without the punishment which their sinnes deserue Two (b) What God made and what we make thinges there are in vs one which God made and that is the creature consisting of a Body and Soule with all the good that we haue the other which our selues did make and that is sinne Now if we did not accompany that good which we haue of God by somewhat else which is an euill of our owne there could be nothing in vs which our Lord would behold with the eyes of Anger but only of Loue since it is a naturall thinge for any cause to loue the effect of it selfe But now though we haue defiled and destroyed that which the beautifull God had made fayre in vs yet will he not totally cast vs off Nor can our wickednesse hinder his supereminent goodnes which for the recouering of that which he made good resolueth to destroy that euill which our selues did make For (c) An excellent comparison set forth with great life of circumstance if we see that this corporall sunne do with so liberall a hand impart it selfe and goeth as it were inuiting men to receiue it bestoweth light and heat vpon all them who giue no impediment thereunto yea when they do yet doth it as it were euen become obstinate in making them remooue the same and if it meete with any chinke or crany how little so euer it doth by that conuey it selfe and fill the whole house full of light what shall we say of that supreame diuine goodnesse which with so great anxiety as it were and force of loue doth go circling round about the creatures that he may bestow himselfe vpon them and fill them with liuely and diuine splendours What occasions doth he seeke of doing good to meÌ„ And to many for some smal seruices he hath vouchsafed to do no small fauours What entreaties doth he vse to them who depart that they will returne againe What imbracementes doth he giue them when they come backe What seeking of such as are lost What addressing such as are gone astray What pardoning of sinnes without reproach What ioy in restoring men to saluation Letting them know that he more desireth to graunt a pardon then they care to sue it out And therefore it is that he sayth to sinners Why (d) Ezech. 33. will you needs dye Know that I desire not the death of a sinner but that he may returne and liue Returne to me and you shall liue Our (e) Note this excellent consideration death consisteth in our departure from God and therefore to returne to him is to liue Whereunto we are inuited by Almighty God whose principall intention is not to lodge the eyes of his wrath vpoÌ„ the worke of his hands which is our selues but vpon the worke of ours which are our sinnes These would God faine destroy if we did not hinder him but this we do when we loue our sinnes giuing them life by our loue which by being loued do murther vs. And so great is the hungar which that soueraigne bounty hath towards the destruction of our wickednesse to the end that so his creature may not be destroyed that (f) Let all the Angels prayse our Lord for so infinite goodnes when soeuer a man will and how oft soeuer he will and how great soeuer the sinnes be which he hath committed if he will dispose himselfe to do pennance and to begge pardon of our Lord for his part he is ready to receaue vs. Forgiuing that which we haue deserued curing that which we made sicke straightning that which we made crooked and giuing vs grace to abhorre those thinges which formerly were by vs beloued Yea in such sort doth he destroy our wickednes and deuide it from vs that Dauid (g) Psalâ— 102. sayth Looke what distance there is betweene the rising and setting of the Sunne so far hath he separated our sinnes from vs. So that the beginning and first
pace that the eyes of God do make is not against the man whome he created but against the sinne which we committed And whensoeuer he looketh vpon a man to his destruction it is then when the man will not suffer him to execute his wrath against sinne which he would (h) By drawing that soule to pennance fayne destroy But man would needs continue in sinne giue life to that which destroyed himself and displeased God It is therefore but reason that his death remaine aliue and that his life be for euer dead since he would not open the gate to him who for loue and with loue both could and would haue murthered his death and endued him with life But some will say what remedy shall I meet withall that God may not behold my sinne to punish but that he may looke vpon his creature to saue it S. Augustine (i) Hearken to the great and good S. Augustine doth briefly and truely answere thus Let thy selfe looke vpon thy sinnes that is do thou consider them and do pennance for them and God will not see them but if thou cast them behind thy backe then will God place them before his face Dauid did beseech our Lord to forgiue his sinnes saying thus Haue (k) Psal 50. mercy on me O Lord according to thy great mercy and he also sayd Turne thy face O Lord from my sinnes But what did he alleadge towards the obtayning of so great a fauour Nothing lesse then any seruice that he had done For he wel knew that if a seruant should commit a treason against his Lord his seruices would not be considered though he should haue serued many yeares before with diligence For if he serued before he was obliged so to do and he brought not his Lord in debt thereby but his treason is the thing that must be thought of which he was bound not to haue committed and therefore by paying that which he did owe before he came not to ransome himselfe from that penalty which afterward he incurred Neither yet did Dauid offer sacrifices as well knowing that God takes no pleasure (l) Vnles it were accompanied by a penitent Religious hart for if it were it was acceptable to God in the old law for so himself had ordained in the burning of beasts But he who could find no remedy eyther in seruices that were past or in pious external works which then vvere present did find it in an humbled contrite hart And he desired to be pardoned vpon this ensuing reason For I know my wickednes and my sinne doth euer stand before myne eyes An admirable power did God giue to this our beholding and profoundly sighing for our sinnes since Gods seeing of them doth follow to the end that he may dissolue them And we conuerting our eyes with griefe towardes that which vve did wickedly commit he conuerteth his towards the saluation and consolation of him vvhome he did create CHAP. LXXXVII Of the many and great benefits which come to men in that the Eternall Father doth behold the face of Iesus Christ his Sonne BVT some wil say whence commeth so great force to our looking and to our weeping that so instantly it should draw after it Gods seeing and that so as to forgiue vs. It is far from comming from our looking it selfe For the theef deserueth not to be pardoned the gallowes because he knowes that he did ill in stealing and how much and yet much more soeuer he lamenteth But this proceedeth from another sight which is more fauourable and withall so full of power that it is the cause and fountaine of al our good This is that whereof Dauid (a) Psal 83. sayth Behold O God our defendour behold the face of thy Christ. He twice beseecheth God to behold to giue vs therby to vnderstand with how much affection we are to thinke of this and how much it importeth vs to obtaine it For as the sight of God vpon vs doth bring all benedictions to vs so Gods looking vpon Christ doth draw the sight of God to vs. Do not thinke O Virgin (b) How Almighty God commeth to loue mankind that the gracious and amorous beames of the eyes of God descend in a right line vpon vs when he receaueth vs inâ—o his grace or euen when already we are in grace that they desceÌ„d vpon vs as vpon a differeÌ„t thing from Christ For if so thou thinke thou art no better then blind But know that first they addresse themselues to Christ and from thence to vs by him and in him Nor (c) No creature can obtaine the least cast of an eye of â—erev from God but only for the loue of Christ our Lord. will our Lord vtter one word nor cast one countenance of loue to any creature of the whole world if he see it separated from Christ but for the loue of Christ he so behouldeth all them as to pardon them who although they be neuer so wicked will behould and lament themselues in Christ he also behoâ—ldeth such persons for their preseruation and for their increase in the good which already they haue receaued Christ being beloued is the cause that we are receaued into grace And if Christ Iesus were not no creature at all would be acceptable or beloued in the sight of God as was sayd before Know therefore O Virgin what necessity thou hast of Christ and be thou (d) Al woe will be to such as are not so internally and profoundly gratefull to him For the good which thou hast came towardes thee by no other meanes then by Christ and in him is it to be conserued to thee and augmented by the eternall Father And this is that which was figured in the beginning of the world when the iust Abel that Pastour of sheep did offer a sacrifice to God out of his flocke which sacrifice was accepted as the Scriptore sayth For our Lord did looke on Abel and his guifts And this looking on him doth import that Abel was gratefull to him and for that agayne his guifts were gratefull And in testimony that so they were God sent downe visible fyre which consumed the sacrifice Now this is a figure of our iust soueraigne Pastour who sayth himself I (e) Ioan. 10. am the good Pastour and he is also a Priest consequently as S. Paul (f) Hebr. 5. sayth he is to offer guifts and sacrifices to God But what can (g) Leuit. 22. Deut. 22. he offer that shall be worthy of him Certainly not brute beasts and much lesse sinfull men for such do rather serue to prouoke the wrath of God theÌ„ to obtayne his mercy Nor without cause did God commaund in the old law that the beast which was to be offered should be male not female and of such an age neither too little nor too great nor blind nor lame nor subiect to any of those conditions which are there described to the end that the
nor any good purpose which he hath giuen me towardes his seruice nor one day of heauen which I expect heereafter and as (z) Gen. 31. Iacob affirmed I am lesse then any of the mercyes of God And if our Lord do say that they who do all that which they are commanded are yet to humble themselues and affirme that (a) Luc. 17. they are vnprofitable seruants that they did but that which they were bound to do how much more then am I to humble my selfe since I fall into so many faults by ignorance by weaknes or by malice A slaue I am and a wicked slaue and I serue not God so much as I am able and much lesse as much as I owe him And if he had cast his eye vpon that which I haue deserued of him a long tyme is past since he would haue throwne me into hell for the sinnes which I haue committed and for many other also into which he might iustly haue permitted me to fall Let this be therfore the feeling which thou hast of thy selfe let this be the place wherein thou mayst put thy selfe since this is that which for thy part thou dost deserue And let thy care be to serue our Lord the best thou canst without reflecting greatly vpon how much it is and without conceauing that God is bound to thank thee for it or that thou art able as Iob (b) Iob. â— sayth To answere him one for a thousand of what thou oughtst him And when thou hearest men speake of the much that good workes deserue let not thy hart grow vaine vpon it but say It is thy mercy O Lord thankes be giuen to thee who hast imparted such dignity to our vnworthy seruices And by such meanes as this be thou euer sure to remayne in thy true place of being a negligent vnworthy slaue CHAP. CXIII That a man being humbled and abased by the contents of the last Chapter may enioy that greatnes which our Lord vouchsafeth to impart to the workes of such as are iust with confidence and gratitude THY soule being thus secured from the aforesayd daungers by this consideration which our Lord doth teach vs thou mayst securely enioy the greatnes and dignity which he giueth to such as are his and thou art to blesse him in regard that euen to such as naturally are but slaues he infuseth his grace whereby they are made the adopted sonnes of God and if sonnes they are heyres togeather with Christ as S. Paul (a) Rom. 8. sayth Now because it is reason that such as are receaued for the sonnes of God should liue and worke according to the condition of the Father our Lord giues them the Holy Ghost and many guiftes and vertues whereby they may serue him and performe his law and giue him gust And they who for any seruices which they could do how great soeuer they were being considered in themselues did not passe aboue the roofe of their owne houses haue now drunke deeply of the water of grace And (b) How grace doth dignify our works by what meanes this growes this is so powerfull that it maketh a fountaine euen in the bowells of them which sproutes vp as high as eternall life by the valew whereof their good workes how little soeuer they be do also rise vp reach to eternall life because they deserue it for the reasons which are already touched And now reflect vpon the difference that runs between thee being considered in thy selfe and thee when thou art considered in God and in his grace Of thy selfe thou art but a huge bill of debt and how much soeuer thou doest thou art not only vnable to deserue eternall life but not so much as to pay what thou owest whereas in God in his grace the selfe same seruice which thou art bound to do is receaued into accompt for merit of eternall life And our Lord without being obliged so much as to thanke thee and much lesse to pay thee for that which thou doest for him doth yet ordayne thinges in such sort as that the good workes of his seruantes may be rewarded by their possessing him in heauen And though God owe nothing to any man for that which man is able to do for him yet he oweth it (c) How diuinely did S. Augustin expresse this by saying that Deus is debitor bonitati suae I he debtour to his own goodnes to himselfe whose ordination is in all iustice and reason yea and that most entirely to be accomplished Giue therefore glory vnto God for these fauours and know that if he had not bin a Father of mercy to S. Paul in giuing him a life which was full of merits S. Paul would not haue presumed to say when he was neere his death That the iust iudge was to giue him a crowne of iustice God (d) God sheweth his mercy in first giuing his grace and then his iustice in rewarding it according to his promise and it all redoundeth to his glory crowned him by iustice but first he gaue him the merites of grace and so doth all redound to the glory of God eyther vnder the title of a iust Rewarder of that which we haue done well or as a mercifull and primitiue Imparter of the good which we haue done and no man can deny this but he that will depriue God of his honour Put thy selfe therefore into thyne owne true place and esteeme thy selfe worthy of hell and of all miseries and vnworthy of the least good And (e) See heere the excellent immaculate doctrine of the holy Catholik Church yet be not dismaied by this consideration of thyne owne basenes but discharging all kind of pusillanimity hope thou in the mercy of God that since he hath placed thee in his way he will strengthen thee so farre as to proceed therein till thou mayst gather the fruit of eternall life from those good workes which heere by his grace thou didst performe CHAP. XCIIII That from the loue which we beare our selues we must draw a reason of louing our neighbours SINCE already thou hast vnderstoood with what eyes thou art to looke both vpon thy self and vpon Christ our Lord it remaines for the fulfilling of the prophets wordes which bid thee See that thou know with what eyes thou art to looke vpon thy neighbours that so on all sides thou maiest haue light and that no darknes may find thee out And for this purpose thou art to note that he beholdeth his neighbour well who beholdeth him with eyes which (a) The only good payre of spectacles through which we are to looke vpon our Neighbours first did passe both though himselfe and through Christ our Lord. My meaning is this When a man findeth trouble and paine for as much as concernes his body or else affliction ignorance and frailty for as much as concernes his soule it is playne that he feeleth incommodity and his sicknes troubleth him and he desireth nothing lesse then
were to heauen so to defend it self from the wrath of God if he should descend to drowne it a second tyme and that also by the setting vp of such a building their name might be celebrated throughout the world But our Lord did hinder their folly by giuing them different (h) Gen. 17. languages that so they might not vnderstand one another Whereupon they fell into brawles euery one conceauing that the other mocked him one man saying one thing and another answering him another and so the end of their pride was confusion vnquietnes and diuision Most (i) Why the name of confusion agreeth to sinners properly doth this name agree to the Citty of wicked persons For they would fayne sinne and not be punished and they wil not auoyd the iudgments of God by forbearing to offend him but if they could sinne decline the punishment either by force or sleight they would attempt it Proud people they are and al their end is but that their name may be renowned in the world and if they can they set vp the towers of vaine workes and if they cannot do it in deed at least they do it in desire God destroyeth such men as these euen when they are tasting the sweetest bit As it is written God (k) Iac. 4. resisteth such as are proud And because they would not liue in the vnity of one language performing obedience to God they are punished so far as that they shall neither vnderstand themselues nor vnderstand God nor vnderstand one another nor any one of the creatures for as much as when the wisedome of God is wanting they vnderstand nothing for their good as they ought How (l) A liuely description of the vayne variable hart of sinfull man many thinges do worke in the hart of wicked men which put them past their owne skill and they know not how to helpe themselues Sometimes they desire one thinge sometimes another yea sometimes they desire a thinge that is the contrary of the former Now they do and then they vndoe they weepe and they reioyce and all to no purpose Now they are ready to despaire and soone after they are vainely puffed vp They seeke a thing with much labour and when they haue obteyned it they are sorry that they did so much as seeke it They find not that which they imagined yea they desire one thinge and they do another being gouerned not by reason but passion And from hence it growes that man being a reasonable creature whose principall part is his soule whose office is to liue vnder reason whereas these men wil liue according to appetite it is plaine that they turne the wrong side outward since they lead a kind of life of beasts which is a life of bodies and not a life that is reasonable which is proper to men And vpon this it riseth that as God is a spirit and must be serued not by a beastiall maner of life but by a spirituall such persons as these do not serue him as hath bin said for their life is contrary to his law And since the vnion of Christians groweth from the vnion of themselues within themselues from the vnion of themselues with God these Cittizens being deuided from (m) How true do we find this by experience God cannot haue any good or stable peace with one another but rather certaine paltry quarrelles do spring from their discourses from their works and conuersations euery one liuing according to his owne fancy without caring to content any other body And on the other side they haue a quicke sense of any affront or iniury which is done to themselues without regarding that of others These (n) Selfe loue is the bane of Charity are the men who neither vse themselues nor other thinges to that end for which they were created but they vse both themselues and all other thinges to their owne aduantage making themselues the last end of all thinges And therefore with reason they are called by the name of Babylon since all goes contrary to the creatour They are also called sometimes Chaldâ—ans sometimes of Sodome and sometimes of Hedom with a thousand other names which decipher the wickednes of this people which names are yet all vnable to declare the malice thereof This is that people which is called world not because God created it so for the world is good as being created by him who is supremely good but because these men who are such as I haue heere described haue no other feeling nor no other loue but of the visible world which by (o) 1. Ioan. â— S. Iohn is called the pride of life the desyre of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes He that loueth these thinges shall perish as saith the same S. Iohn but he that will do the will of God shall remaine for euer And S. Paul (p) Rom. â— saith He that hath not the spirit of Christ is not of Christ and consequently he is to be of the world and S. Iames (q) Iac. 4. saith That the amity of the world is eâ—nity with God CHAP. XCVIII That it doth much import vs to fly from this Citty of the wicked which is the world and how ill it treateth the cittizens therof and of the sad end which they all shall haue THOV hast already heard sufficient reason to abhorre this people and to vnderstand how much God desireth that thou shouldst depart froÌ„ thence to saue thy selfe For this is that true spirituall Aegypt out of which God commaunded Israel to depart with speed and to go on though it were with a great deale of paines towards the Land of promise And this is that people out of which God commaunded Abraham (a) Gen. 12. to depart Go out of thyne owne countrey and from thy kinred and from thy Fathers house and come into the land that I will shew thee Which he accomplished with a simple and sincere obedience without knowing whither he was going as S. Paul (b) Hebr. 11. affirmeth Out of this very people and Citty God commaunded Let to go that so the punishments which he was resolued to inflict vpon that place might not lay hold vpon him and he commaunded him to saue himselfe in the mountayne by which the height of Christian Faith of good life may be vnderstood Finally (c) How the people of God is to carry it selfe and why this is the people whereof God saith to such as he will haue to be his owne Do (d) 2. Cor. â— not keepe company with infidells For what conuersation can goodnesse and wickednes or light and darknes haue togeather and what society can there be betweene Christ and Belial betweene a faithfull man and an infidell or what composition or agreement can there be betweene the Temple of God and that of Idolls For you are the Temple of the liuing God as God saith And I wil dwell amongst them and I will conuerse amongst them
for that is all that he can giue Such is the entertainment that he makes which were sufficient if men would but looke vpon it to make them fly from the Diuell and the World and to draw neere to God as the prodigall sonne did who finding himselfe put to so base an imployment as to keep swine and that he could not haue inough euen of the very food which they fed vpon he grew at last to get his wits againe and to obserue the difference which there was between being in the house of his Father and in that other house of the World and he left the ill condition wherein he was turning home and demāding mercy of his Father which he quickly found Do (t) How we must carry our selues towardes God if we desire to take comfort in his seruice thou also in like manner and if thou haue a mind that our Lord should receaue thee Forsake thy people And if thou wilt haue him remember thee forget thou it if thou wilt haue him loue thee do not inordinatly loue thy selfe and if thou wilt haue him take care of thee do not thou confide in the care of thy selfe and if thou wilt be acceptable to his eyes take no pleasure in thine owne and if thou resolue to please him do not feare to displease the whole world for him and if thou desire to find him make no difficulty to giue away thy Father thy Mother thy Brothers thy house and thy very life for him Not for that thou art to abhorre these thinges but because it is fit for thee to looke with truth and with entire loue vpon Christ and (u) The iust obligation of a Christiā not to faile of one haires breadth in pleasing of him though it be with the displeasing of that creature of the whole world which is most beloued by thee yea and of thy very selfe S. Paul (x) 1. Cor. 3. requireth That (y) We must do nothing nor haue any thing so much at the hart as to estrange vs from conuersing with almighty God they who haue wiues should haue them as if they had them not That they who purchase should be as if they possessed not That they who sell should be as if they had not sold They that weepe as if they wept not and They that reioyce as if they reioyced not And the cause that he addeth is this Because the figure of the world passeth quickly So then do I say to thee O Virgin that thou art to put the world and thy selfe away The (z) Note first because it passeth quickly and the second because it is none of thyne And so haue thou thy parents thy brothers thy kinred thy house and thy people as if thou haddst them not Not but that thou art to reuerence obey and loue them since grace doth not destroy the order of nature yoa and euen in heauen it selfe the child shall carry reuerence to his Father but (a) How this discourse is to be vnderstood to the end that it may not take vp and employe thy hart and diuert it from the loue of God Loue them in Christ and not in themselues For Christ did not giue them as meaning that they should be impediments to keep thee from that which thou shouldest euer be doing which is to serue him S. Hierome relateth of a certayne Virgin who was so mortified in the point of affection towardes her kinred that she cared not much to see a sister which she had though she also were a Virgin but contented her selfe to loue her in God Belieue me (b) A soueraigne truth and most fit to be so that as thou canst not write in parchment if it be not well and cleane taken off from the body of the beast that wore it so is not that soule prepared for our Lord to write particuler fauours in it till such time as the affections which rise from flesh and bloud be very well mortifyed We read how that in times past They placed the Arke vpon a carre to the end that two kine being yoaked in front might lead it on and the calues were shut vp in a certayne place And although the kine did low in the way of sighing for their calues yet did they neuer leaue the high way nor turne back nor degresse as the Scripture saith eyther to the right hand or to the left but by the will of God who so disposed therof They carryed the Arke to the land of Israel which was the place where God dwelt They (c) A figur of the old testament excellently applyed who haue placed the Crosse of Iesus Christ our Lord vpon their shoulders which is the Arke where he remaineth and wherein he is truly to be found must not giue ouer nor so much as slacke their pace for these naturall affections of the loue of parentes or children or houses or such other thinges as these Nor are they to be giddy-headed vpon the enioying of prosperity nor to be afflicted for aduersity For the former of these two is to turne out of the way on the right hand and the other on the left But thou art to follow on in the straight way with feruour beseeching our Lord to guide both the one and the other to his glory and to be as dead to such thinges as these as if they did nothing concerne thee or at least not to suffer thy selfe to be ouercome eyther with ioy or griefe howsoeuer they may be felt a little This was figured by those (d) 1. Reg. 6. kine which though they vttered certaine shewes of tendernes towards their calues yet did they not for all that giue ouer to conduct the Arke of God And if Fathers do see their Sonns serue God in some good (e) As when they make thēselues Religious men or women fashion which yet is not pleasing vnto them they must consider what is pleasing to God And although they may sigh deeply for the loue of their childrē yet let the loue of God ouercom that loue And let them offer them vp to God wherin they shal be like to (f) Gen. 22. Abraham who in obedience to God was resolued to kill his only Sonne not caring what his sensuality could say to the contrary And (g) How good is God only he wil be serued as God the naturall griefe which is felt in such traunces as these is to be endured with patience which yet shall not be without reward For as much as our Lord hath ordeined vs to carry those affections and for the loue of him it is that we ouercome them it is like the case of him that suffereth Martyrdome Forget therefore thy people O thou Virgin and be thou like to another Melchisedech of whome we reade not that (h) Heb. 7. he had any Father or Mother or any kinred whereby as S. Bernard saith an example is giuen to the seruants of God that they must so truly forget their
people their kinred that in their hartes they may be a kinde of Melchisedech in this world without hauing any thinge in those hartes which may captiue them or so much as foreslow the pace which they make in the way of God CHAP. XCIX Of the vanity of being nobly borne and that such persons must not bragge thereof as desire to be of the kindred of Christ. I would not haue thee blinded by that vanity which blindeth many whilest they presume vpon the extraction of their bloud And therefore I will tell thee what S. Hierome saith to a certayne virgin I will not saith he haue thee behold those Virgins who are Virgins of the world not of Christ And who not remembring their good purpose begunne do take ioy in pleasure and do please themselues in vanity and glory in corporall thinges and in the antiquity of their descent Who if (a) The extreme valew of temporall nobility sheweth that men vnderstaÌ„d not the true valew of that nobility which is spirituall they did indeed hold themselues for the Children of God they would neuer after they had bin borne diuinely of him make any estimation of this temporall nobility And if they felt that God were become their Father they would not valew the nobility of other parents Why dost thou glory in such nobility of descent God made one man and one woman in the beginning of the world from whome the multitude of mankind descendeth This (b) In nature there is no difference of nobility Nobility of linage is not giuen by nature which is alike to all but by the appetite of ambition Nor ought there to be any difference (c) That in spirituall nobility there is also no difference betweene one and another between them who are begotten according to this second spirituall birth whereby as well the poore as the rich the slaue as the free man may be accoumpted to be of noble linage and without which they are neuer made the sonnes of God The descent of flesh and bloud is wholy obscured by the brightnes of this heauenly honour and appeareth not to be any thing at all now that they wâ—o before were vnequall in respect of worldly honour are equally apparelled with the Nobility of that otâ—â—er honour which is spirituall and diuine No place is there left for this vaine kind of linage none of them can be thought to be without Nobility who are beautifyed by the height of a heauenly birth And if that former be esteemed it is but in the mind of them who valew temporall thinges more then eternall Which temporall aduantage although theâ— haue how vainely do they proceed who esteeme themselues more for lesse thinges then they esteeme others whom they know to be equall to themselues in greater things and who esteeme others as men creeping vpon the ground and far inferiour vnto themselues whome yet they belieue to be their equalls in celestiall thinges But whatsoeuer thou be of birth O Virgin thou who art of Christ and not of the world fly away from all glory of this present life that thou mayst obtayne all that which is promised in the life to come All this is sayd by S. Hierome Heereby thou mayst see how necessary it is for thee To forget thy people and the house of thy Father remembring well that the priuiledge which thy parentes gaue thee was to be conceaued in sinne and filled full of many miseryes and to be borne in the wrath of God by the first sinne of Adam which we inherit by our conception A (d) The basenes of the body body they bestowed vpon vs which was begotten in such a loathsome maÌ„ner that it would cost a man shame to speake of it and makes him loath to thinke of it Into which the soule being infused after the creation thereof doth grow to be spotted with originall sinne which yet by the hand of God was created without it Our body is besides full of a thousand necessityes and subiect to sicknesses and death and made fit to do pennance by suffering it Such a body it is that (e) Consider seriously of this if thou shouldst take of but the first thynne skinne that couers it the most beautyfull creature would be abhominable A body which if thou obserue to be exteriourly white yet consider the trash which is shut vp within thou wilt say it is some dunghill ouer cast with snow A body whereof I would to God the worst condition were to be full of paine and shame but this is the least matter of all the rest That (f) The emniâ—y of a sinnefull body to a soule which importeth is that it is the greatest enemy which we haue and the greatest traytour it is which was euer seene who goeth vp and downe in pursuite how to plunge that (g) The soule thing into death and death eternall which giues it bread to eate and whatsoeuer else is necessary for a body And which for the enioying of a little pleasure doth set at nothing the giuing of any offence to God and the casting of the soule into hel fire A body which is as sloathfull as an asse and as malicious as a mule And if thou belieue not me let it but goe a while without a bridle and do thou but neglect a little to keep it in order and thou shalt see whether it be a wicked thinge or no. O Vanity which deserues to be despised in them that presume vpon their descent whereas all the soules of men are created immediately by God and we haue not them by inheritance And as for the flesh which is inherited it ought to serue vs but for matter of shame and feare Let such giue eare to that which God hath said by (h) Isa 4. Isaias Cry out and what shall I cry out vpon sayth the Prophet Our Lord made this answere That all flesh is but withred grasse and all the glory therof as the fading flower of the field God commanded his Prophet to cry out but yet deaf men did not heare him who resolued to (i) A preposterous absurd kind of pride glory more in that filth which they drew from their flesh then in that height of dignity which by the holy ghost was graunted to them Be not thou blind be not vnthankefull O thou spouse of Christ The estimation which God maketh of thee is not for thy birth of bloud but for thy being a Christian not because thou wert borne in that sumptuous Chamber but because thou wert borne againe by holy Baptisime The former of these births was of dishonour the later was of honour the former of basenes the later of nobility The first of sinne the second of Iustification from sinne The first of flesh which kills the second of spirit which quickens Bâ— the first we are made the sonnes of men by the second the sonnes of God By the first as we be out Fathers heires to their estates we are also
that not only to auoyd punishment but by obligation of conscience how much more then must this be true in the case of Christian superiours of whome we are to (e) Vnles we do expresly see the contrary belieue that God will enable them to commaund iust things And when any of all these commaundements shal be wanting to thee thou shalt imbrace and follow as the will of our Lord that counsell which any such person shall giue of whome thou oughtest to take it And do not thinke for all this that thou art exempted from the necessity of begging the light of the Holy Ghost that so thou mayst take right to the seruice of God For our necessityes are so many and do presse vs in so particuler manner that no Maister without this will serue the turne And so The King will grow to desire thy beauty CHAP. CIII Wherein he beginneth to declare that word which sayth And the King will desire thy beauty And how great a matter it is that God should be content to place his loue vpon a man And that this is no corporeall beauty and how dangerous such kind of beauty is A Strang thing it is that there should be any such beauty in a creature as to draw the blessed eyes of God vpon it so far as to be desired by him It is a most happy thing for a soule to be enamoured vpon the beauty of God but neither is it strange that an vgly thing should loue the perfection of al beauty or is it worthy of thanks if a creature doe loue his Creatour since he owes him all that and doth yet further receaue for it an eternall reward But for God to be enamoured and delighted in any of his creatures this indeed is to be admired and most soueraingly to be acknowledged and it giueth vs reason of incomparable glory and ioy If (a) A strange thing it is that the great God should be takeÌ„ with the loue of the base creature Man it be matter of much honour for a man to be imprisoned for Iesus Christ and S. Paul did call himselfe as by the most noble title he could haue a (b) Eph. 1. Philâ—p 1. Prisoner of Iesus Christ hauing his body restrained by chains of iron and his soule by chaines of loue what kind of thing shall we say it is for man to haue taken God prisoner by the loue of God If it be great riches for a man not to haue any hart of his owne but wholy to haue giuen it to God what kind of thing will it be for vs to haue the hart of God as our owne which he giues to them to whome he giues his loue and after his hart he sendeth all that which he is for theirs without doubt we are to whome we giue away our harts Many and great are those benefits which that infinite diuine goodnesse imparteth to men But yet as if all the rest deserued to be little esteemed in respect of this Iob (c) Iob. 7. sayd O Lord what thing is man that so thou shouldst magnify him and place thy hart vpon him Giuing vs so to vnderstand that since by Gods giuing his hart to man he giueth himself there (d) A soueraigne cordiall against all the corosiues of this life is as much difference between giuing the hart for loue the giuing of other things as there is between giuing of God giuing of creaturs And if we owe our thanks to him for other of his guiftes the principall reason is because he imparteth them with loue And if we ought to reioyce by occasion of the benefits themselues much more ought we to do it in regard that we haue found fauour and loue in those most sublime eyes of God This (e) The true glory of a Christian indeed is our true greatenes wherein we may glory and not because we loue him For (f) And now let ProtestaÌ„ts consider what shrewd presumptuous people these Papists are cursed is that man who maketh any account of himselfe and who prizeth himselfe for the workes he doth but only in regard that so high a King whome all those quires of Angells do adore would through the excesse of his goodnes be content to lone so base thinges as our selues Consider therfore now O virgin if it be not reason for thee to heare and to see and to encline thyne care to God since the reward therof is that he will desire thy beauty Certainly although the thinges that he should require were full of difficulty they would grow easy to be accomplished by the addition of such promises as these And how much more then must it be easy since the thing it selfe which he commaundeth is by his grace not hard But thou wilt say perhaps how commeth the soule to haue beauty since of it selfe it is sinfull and of sinners it is (g) Thâ—en 4. written That the face of such is more black then coales If this Lord of ours went in search of the beauty of bodyes it were no miracle if he should find such a kind of beauty as were corporeall For as himselfe is beautyfull so did he create all thinges beautyfull that so they might carry with them some little obscure trace of his owne incomprehensible beauty in comparison whereof al other beauty is meere deformity But we know that Dauid speaking of the spouse of this greate King Psalm 44. saith That all her beauty is interiour and in her soule And this he saith with great reason For (h) What a toy exteriour beauty is the beauty of a Body is a meere toye and may be enioyed by him who is the owner of an vgly soule Now for what doth it serue if a man haue deformity in that which is of more valew and if he haue beauty in that which is of no importance For what doth that beauty serue which the eyes of men may looke vpon when yet there is deformity within which is penetrated by the eyes of God On the outside an Angell in the inside a Diuell Not (i) Beautifull persons haue no such great bargaine of it as they conceaue only doth this corporeall beauty not profit a person towards the making him beloued by God but for the most part it giueth occasion of making him vnbeloued For as spirituall beauty giueth vnderstanding and wisedome so is the other wont to take it away It is no small warre which many times is waged between Chastity humility and recollection on the one side and beauty of the body on the other And much better had it beene for many women to haue had a countenance extremely deformed that so they might not haue beene fought withall then great beauty with great vanity whereby they were vanquished God deliuereth it thus for no small mischiefe when he sayth to such a soule Thou (k) Ezech. 16. 28. hast lost thy wisedome by thy beauty And he saith elswhere Thou hast made thy beauty abhominable And this
he affirmeth because when lewdenes of mind is accompanyed with beauty of body such beauty becomes abhominable and groweth to be true deformity I well see and confesse if the mindes of men and women which looke vpon obiects of beauty were (l) Di quibus in terris pure in seeking God and none but God in his creatures that how much more beautifull the obiects were so much more would it be to them a bright glasse wherein they might behold Gods beauty But where now liueth he or she who hath not cause to feare what the Scripture saith That (m) Sap. 14. the creatures are growne to be as a snare and as a trappe for the feete of fooles such as they are who vse them towardes the offence of God who remayne rest only in them wheras they were created to the end that we might the better serue God and ascend to him by their meanes as by a ladder Of this troope was S. Augustine for a while but he lamented it (n) And so as that neuer mā I thinke did it more bitterly and yet more sweetly then he afterward and said I rushed O Lord vpon those creatures which thou hadst made faire and I the while was deformed And where is now so great purity in any woman of beauty as that she will so much more carefully keep cleane her soule as men discerne more beauty in her body We do naturally more fly from defiling our selues when we are very cleane then when we are not altogether so and yet many proceed in contrariety to this rule who if they were foule would (o) And so much the more will they haue to answere for not sinne so much and euen from their being cleane they fetch a kind of reason to become filthy Of these it is that the (p) Prou. 11. Scripture saith As the ornament of gold is in the snowt of a boare so is the faire woman who is foolish Little honour would the boare thinke that he receiued by hauing that gold in his snowt nor would he for all the shining thereof forbeare to foule it and to thrust it into stinking durt Iust so is the sensuall woman who imployeth her beauty without so much as the rising of her stomacke in a thousand dishonesties and loathsome actions both of body and soule Now (q) He growes on to another excellent consideration if beauty do not helpe but hinder the keeping of ones owne soule cleane what thinkest thou that it procures in the soules of them that looke vpon it O how happy a thinge it were for them not to haue eyes wherewith to looke nor feete wherewith to go nor handes wherewith to adorne themselues nor humour eyther to see or to be seene since by occasion of these thinges there groweth a resolute desire of an vniust delight the giuing of so many mortall woundes to their soule as they entertaine such resolute desires And of these who shal be able to count the number What will heere these wretched men and these miserable women be able to say who in appearance are so faire and in very deede so deformed when that beauty of their body shall once faile whereupon they haue imployed so much paines And when they shal be growne to stinck as truly in their sepulchers as their soules did truly stincke whilest heere they went vnder the couer of their faire bodyes And when they shal be presented wholy naked destitute of all graces before the eyes of him whome they tooke no care to please when they shal be confounded with the shame of their secret sinnes Finding then by experience that the day is come wherewith God threatned them thus so long before I destroy the names of the Idolls of the earth An (r) An Idoll she is more wayes thē one Idoll is this beautifull and sinfull woman who will needs be counterfayting the true God and painting her selfe as God did not make her procuring that the hartes of men may wickedly be imployed on her and executing to this purpose all she can and desiring euen to do that which she cannot The names of those men who are so often mentioned by these women God will destroy and they shall know that it serues for nothing to be so mentioned in the mouthes of flesh and bloud if withall their names be razed out of the booke of God Concerning this kind of beauty I admonish thee O Virgin of Christ that thou do not so much as call it to mind For (ſ) Note this reasō which is so well set of by an excellent comparison if euen women who are vayne do passe without any great care thereof where they are not seene by men do as it were lay vp their beauty against such a time as when it may be seene either by store of people or some renowned Prince how much more is the Virgin of Christ to proceed thus Expecting that day when she is to be seene by all the Angells of God at once yea and by the Lord both of Men and Angells Then will a face of lamentation shew fairer then a countenance of gamesome pleasure and a meane garment then a pretious and vertue of mind then beauty of body Yet do not thinke that it sufficeth if thou keep thyne owne hart free from this vanity for it concerneth thee also to take heed and heed againe that thou giue no occasion that such as looke vpon thee may diuert their hart one houres breadth from God The vaine Virgins of this world desire to seeme handsome in the eyes of men but the Virgin of Christ ought to feare and fly from nothing so much as to seeme pleasing and handsome For (t) How true is this and yet how little considered what greater folly can there be thē to desire that which is dangerous both to themselues and others Remember what S. Hierome sayth to a Virgin Take heed that thou giue no occasion to any of conceauing any ill desire For thy spouse is iealous and a worse thing it is to commit adultery against Christ then against a husband And elsewhere he sayth Remember how I haue told thee that now thou art made the sacrifice of God And the sacrifice is the thing which giueth sanctification to other thinges and whosoeuer shall worthily partake of this sacrifice shall be also partaker of the sanctification Procure (u) An aduice the reason of it which well becommeth the wisedome sanctity of that great Doctour therefore in this manner that by occasion of thee as of a diuine sacrifice other women may also be sanctifyed with whome thou art so to liue that whosoeuer shall touch thy manner of life either by looking on it or hearing of it may feele in themselues the force of thy sanctification and desiring to behold thee may become worthy of being made a sacrifice All this is sayd by S. Hierome CHAP. CIIII. That the dignity of being a spouse of Iesus Christ
the bloud of Christ our Lord. CONSIDER then how deformed the spot is which sinne doth cause and how farre we are to fly from it since being once receiued into the soule it could neither be washed away by the shedding of so much bloud as was offered in the Temple by the commaundment of God himselfe nor could all the force of man arriue vnto it And if that beautifull and deare (a) Christ our Lord. Word of God had not come downe to beautify vs the deformity of sinne would for euer haue remained in vs. But that lambe without spot comming downe he had the power and he had the way and he had the will to put away these spotts he destroyed our deformity and he endewed vs with beauty And to the end that thou mayest see with how much conueniency the Sonne of God rather then God the Father or the holy Ghost was to be he that should beautify our deformed soules with his bloud Consider that as Eternity is attributed to the Father and Loue to the holy Ghost so to the Sonne of God as God is attributed Beauty because he is most (b) The first quality of Beauty prefect and without the least defect and he is the (c) The second quality of Beauty image of the Father as S. Paul (d) Heb. 1. saith and so liuely an one that in regard he is engendred by way of the vnderstanding he is to all purposes as his Father who gaue him the same essence that himselfe hath in such sort as that he (e) Ioan. 14. who seeth him seeth the Father as the holy ghospell saith Now by reason of this proportion betweene the Sonne and the Father which is so absolute most iustly is beauty ascribed to him since the image is taken in so liuely a maner out of the originall Light (f) The third quality of Beauty is not wanting to him for he is called the Worde which is a thing engendred by the vnderstanding and in that vnderstanding as S. Iohn (g) Ioan. 1. saith which was true light Greatnes is not (h) The fourth quality of beauty wanting to him since he is infinitly immense and therefore was it conuenient that this beautifull God by whom we were made wheÌ„ we were not should come to restore vs when we were lost and who apparaylling himselfe with our flesh should take vpon him the resemblance of our deformity and so imparte to vs the excellency of his owne beautie And although neither our being punished or spoken faire was able to free vs from our spots yet was the valew so great of the punishing of that beautiful person that the sharp salpetre of his passion falling vpoÌ„ his shoulders there distilled downe vpon vs the sweet dew of his whitnesse And howsoeuer God doth say to the sinner Although (i) Hier. 12. thou wash thy selfe with salpetre with the Fullers hearbe thou shalt not be cleane yet telling vs that he would send a remedy against this spot he sayth in another place If thy sinnes be as red as scarlet they shal be made white like snow and if they shal be as red as bloud they shall become whyte like woll Very truly well did Dauid belieue this when he (k) Ps 50. sayd Thou shalt sprinkle me O Lord with (l) The inward meaning of this place deliuered â—yssope and I shal be cleane thou shalt wash me and I shall become more white then snow Hyssope is a litle hearbe and somewhat hot and hath the property to purge the lunges wherby we breath This hearbe they brought to a wand of Cedar they tyed it thereunto with a string of crimson double died And so being bound togeather they called it that Hyssope wherewith when first it had beene steeped in bloud and water and then with water and ashes they sprinkled both leaprous persons and such as had touched any dead body and thereupon they were held for cleane Full well knew Dauid that neither the herbe nor the Cedar nor the bloud of birdes or beastes nor yet water or ashes could giue any cleannesse to the soule although it were figured by them And therfore he desired not God that he would take into his hand a branch of Hyssope sprinkle him with it but (m) That hysop was a figure of the humility and Passion of Christ our Lord. he sayth so in respect of the humanity and humility of Iesus Christ our Lord which is called an herbe because it grew from the earth of the Blessed Virgin Mary and because he was begotten without the help of man as the flower springeth in the field which is neither plowed nor sowed For this it is that he sayth I am (n) Can. 2. the flower of the field And this her be is called little for the meanenesse which he tooke vpon himselfe in the world so far forth as to say A (o) Psal 21. worme I am and no man the dishonour of men and the very out-cast of the people This (p) The passion of our Lord is the only soueraign cure of pride humbled flesh of our Lord is such a remedy against the puffe of our foolish pride as that it may be cured by this so great humility since there is no colour for a worme to exalt it self when the King of Maiesty is so abased And forget not that Hyssope is hot For Christ by the fire of that loue which was burning in the roots of his hart was pleased to abase himself to purge vs thereby to make vs know that if he who was so high did abase himselfe how much reason there is why we who haue so true cause to abase our selues should not by our selues be exalted And if God be humble how much more should a man be so This (q) Of our Lord Iesus flesh so full of true phisicke was then put to the sticke of a Cedar when it was placed vpoÌ„ the crosse tyed by that delicate thrid of wooll twice died For although the nayles which fastned thereunto his handes and feete were hard and great and long inough yet if the thrid of his ardent loue had not fastned him to that crosse and vnles he had been willing to deliuer vp his life for the killing of our death those nayles would not haue beene strong inough for such a businsse So that it was not they but the loue he bare vs that held him there And (r) The double aspect which was carryed by the loue of our Lord the reparation of Gods honour and the remission of mans sin this loue carryed a double aspect as crimson which is double died for he suffered that which he suffered to satisfy for the honour of his father who was offended by our sinnes and for the loue of sinners who were lost thereby CHAP. CIX That the sacred humanity of Christ our Lord was figured in the gaâ—â—ent of the high Priest and in the veyle which God commaunded Moyses to make
And what that was which Dauid begged when he desired to be sprinckled with Hysâ—ope that he might so be cleansed THE garment which the high Priest of the old Law did weare was to be double died in crimson because (a) How the figurs of the old TestameÌ„t were perfected fullfilled in the person of our Lord Iesus the holy Humanity of Christ which is the garment of his soule was to be dyed in bloud being shed both for the loue of God and man And this flesh being nayled vpon the Crosse is that veyle which God commaunded Moyses to make of the (b) Exod. 18. colour of Hyacinth Crimson and Purple double died and of whyte and well and strongly wouen linnen made with the needle and curiously diuersified by seuerall workes For this holy Humanity is died with bloud like crimson it is of a fiery colour which is signified by the purple as hath been said and it is white like fyne linnen through Chastity and Innocency and it is well and strongly wouen for it is not loose or weake but firmely and fast put togeather vnder all kind of vertuous discipline and much affliction And (c) The colour of the floure hiacinthus is blew though the colour of that stone which we know by that name is of a deep yellow this is well signifyed by the Hyacinth which is of a celestiall colour because his body was framed by the supernatural worke of the holy Ghost For this reson is it called celestiall and for many other vertues perfections thereof which were contriued by the admirable knowledge of the wisedome of God! The commaundment was that this veyle should be hung vpon foure pillars which were to vphold it which signifieth that Christ was to be placed vpon the (d) The crosse was made of foure parts One was the length two the breath the other wherupoÌ„ the litle was written foure armes of the Crosse and foure Ghospells they also be which doe publish and preach it throughout the world Now for as much as Dauid being a Prophet so illuminated by God in the knowledge of those mysteries which concerned Christ who was to come seeing how deformed himselfe was growne by the foule sinne of (c) The murther which he committed vpon the persoÌ„ of Vrias that so he might coÌ„tinue to enioy Bersabee his wife stealing the sheep and murthering the sheepheard fearing the wrath of the Omnipotent God wherwith he was threatened by the mouth of the Prophet Nathan he beseecheth God to take away his (f) The deformity of sinne the beauty of grace deformity and to giue him beauty not with materiall Hyssope since the same Dauid sayd to God That he tooke no (g) Not in any thing that was only external but the externall sacrifices were to be accompanied by internall sorrow for sinne delight in the sacrifice of beasts but he beggeth to be sprinckled by the flesh bloud of Iesus Christ being tied with the strings and cordes of loue vpon the Crosse Beleeuing that though his deformity were great and that otherwise it was impossible to remoue it yet he should grow white beyond the whitenesse of snow by the bloud which was to fall from the crosse O Beautifull bloud of Christ our Lord who art so Beautiful For although thou be as red as Rubies thou hast power to make a thing more white theÌ„ snow O (h) At the least we must now consider it and lameÌ„t the cause thereof which is our sinne if a man had seene with what violence it was drawne downe by those wretches with what loue it was shed by thee O Lord when thou didst stretch forth thyne armes and feete to be let bloud therein for the remedy of that so lewd disorder and distemper which we made by our ill desires and deedes With great force did thyne enemies come vpon thee but with much more violence did thy loue assault thee for it was that and not they which ouercame thee Dauid did stile Christ (i) Psalm 44. beautifull aboue all the sonnes of men But this beautifull creature who surpassed not only men but Angells would needes as it were dissemble that beauty of his and he apparailed the exteriour of his body with the resemblance of that deformity which possest our soules That so the same deformity might be swallowed vp in the Abysse of his beauty as some little straw would be consumed in a huge fire and that he might giue vs his owne beautifull Image and make vs so resemble him CHAP. CX How Christ did as it were dissemble those foure conditions of his beauty so to make vs beautifull to which purpose there is a passage of the Prophet Isay declared YF we do well consider the conditions which haue bin shewed to be requisite for the making a man beautifull al which are in the diuine word after a most excellent manner we shal find that he dissembled and hid them all that so being concealed in him they might grow to be disclosed in vs. Most (a) The first conditioÌ„ that any thing must haue if it will be beautifull was hidden by Christ Iesus our Lord in his sacred passion entire and perfect and full is the word of God which wanteth nothing nor can it want and which remooueth the want of all thinges But yet though in the bosome of his Father he be so rich if thou looke vpon him being made man in the wombe and in the armes of his mother as also throughout the whole course of his life and death thou wilt see how he wanted both to eate and drinke yea and a bed wheron to lye when the Virgin layd him in the manger For neither was there any bed for him in the stable of Bethleem nor any other place then that How often did he want meanes to put away both heate and cold and nothing he had if they gaue him nothing And if in his life tyme he had not a place where to lay his head as himselfe affirmeth what shall we say of that extremity of pouerty to which he was subiect in his death at which tyme neither had he any thing whereupom so much as to lay his head For eyther he was to haue leaned backe with it vpon the Crosse and so to endure excessiue paine by the thornes which might pricke him so much the deeper or else he must let it fall so remaine without a rest but not without exceeding paine O sacred head whereof the Spouse (b) Cant 5. saith That it is of purest gold as being the head of God and how much to thy cost dost thou pay for that resting place which in preiudice of the loue that we owe to thy selfe we procure to find vpon thy creatures both (c) How true is this and how truly ought it to be reformed louing them and desiring to be beloued and praised by them making that to be our lodging which should be only our high way whereby we might
O my Friend how beautifull art thou Thyne eyes are as of a doue besides that which is hidden within He saith two seuerall times That she is beautifull because (g) The soule that serueth God must haue both good desires good deeds she must be so both in body and soule within by desires and without by deeds And because that which is within is to exceed that which is without he therefore saith Besides that which is within And for that the beauty of the soule as S. Augustine saith doth consist in louing God he therefore saith Thyne eyes are as of a doue Whereby is noted that syncere and amourous intention which only aymes at the pleasing of God without any mixture of proper interest Then Behold thou Christ that Christ may behold thee And (h) We must giue all glory to God take the shame to ourselues as thou must take heede of thinking that he had done any thing for which he might deserue to take vpon him the shew of being deformed so be sure thou haue no imagination that thou hast deserued the beauty which he gaue thee of meere grace For without any obligation did he vest himselfe with our deformity and without any obligation but of meere grace he hath apparailed vs with his beauty Of such men as thinke that the beauty which they haue in their soules they haue of themselues God saith by (i) Ezech 16. Ezechiel thou wert perfected by the beauty which I had placed vpon thee and yet hauing confidence in that beauty (k) As if it had beene his owne not only imparted by God of thine thou didst commit fornication in thyne owne name and thou didst expose thy selfe in that sinne to all such as passed by to be made theirs This God doth say For when a soule ascribeth to her selfe the beauty of Iustice which God gaue her she doth after a sort commit fornication with her selfe For as much as she desireth to ioy in her selfe and not in God who is her true spouse and from whome she hath all her being beautifull and she resolueth rather to glory in her owne name which is to commit fornication in that name then to glory in God who gaue her that which she possesseth For this cause doth God with great reason take away the beauty which he gaue her since she rebelled from him by occasion thereof And because this vaine and wicked complacence which she taketh in her selfe is pride and the beginning of all mischeife therefore it is said Thou didst offer thy selfe in the way of fornication to euery passenger For (l) A iust punishment the proud man leaning resting vpon himself who is but a meere vanity is carried away with euery winde taken prisoner by euery sinne that passeth by and that most iustly because he would not humble himselfe so as to be established by putting his confidence in God Behold therfore this man Christ Iesus in himselfe and behold him in thy selfe In thy selfe that so thou mayst see who thou art In himselfe that so thou mayst see who he is Those ignominyes and abasements of his thou didst deserue and therefore they are thyne The good which is in thee is his and he gaue it without any merit in thee CHAP. CXIII Wherein is prosecuted the way that we are to take in beholding of Christ and how he is beautifull in all thinges and that those thinges which in our Lord seeme vgly to the eyes of flesh bloud such as are troubles and torments be of great beauty IF thou know how to make the right vse of that which hath been sayd thou wilt employ all thy intention in beholding this Lord of ours with thy spirituall eyes thou wilt find it to be of more profit to thee then if thou didst see him with the only eyes of flesh and bloud For to these eyes Christ was made deformed but in the eyes of fayth he was full of beauty Isay sayth That to the eyes of the body his face was as if it had beene hidden but (a) How cleare and piercing are the eyes of Fayth nothing is hidden from the eyes of fayth but like the eyes of a Leopard which looketh as it were through walles they passe through all exteriour impediments and striking in they find diuine strength vnder that humane weaknes and vnder contempt and dishonour they find beauty with glory So that the wordes which Isay sayd We saw him and he had no beauty were spoken in the person of such as beheld him with the only eyes of their body But thou O Virgin take in thy hand the light of fayth and looke further in and thou wilt perceaue that he who comes forth in likenes of a sinner is both iust and a iustifyer of sinners and that he who is murthered hath in him the innocency of a lambe And he that hath his face all discoloured is of himself most beautifull and did but dresse himselfe so for the making of them beautifull who were deformed And (b) There is nothing that ought so to enamour a soule vpō the beauty of christ out Lord as to consider that our sinnes and his loue did cause his deformity how much the more the spouse doth suffer and abase himselfe for his fellow-spouse so much the more is she to exalt him and how much the more he commeth wounded and steeped as it were in sweat bloud so much the more beautifull is he in her eyes considering the loue wherwith he resolued to suffer those afflictions for her And in fine it is cleare that if we ponder the cause why Christ tooke vpon him this deformity so much the more beautifull will he seeme to be as he shall seeme to be more deformed Tell (c) The foure cōditions of beauty recapitulated The first me therefore now if the first condition of beauty were hidden in him when being rich and aboundant he abased himselfe to the want of many thinges what cause can be assigned thereof but that he did it to preuent euery want of ours And (d) The second if he grew to seem vnlike the image of his beautyfull Father it was for no other reason but because the Father resolued not to giue vs beauty but by the sonnes taking vpon him our deformity And (e) The third if the third condition which is light or heat did hide it selfe from that sacred face which was obscured and mortifyed and those bright shining eyes were darkned when he was dying and after he was dead why was it but to giue light to put a liuely colour vpō our obscurities According to that which himselfe figured when of spittle which signified himselfe as God and of earth which signifyed his humanity he made durt which signifyed his contumelious passion and so the blind man who signifyed mankind receaued sight And (f) The fourth condition of beauty if when he made himself man and that the most abased of men
pag. 166. Chap. 34. That the perfect life of such as haue belieued our fayth is a great testimony of the Truth therof and how farre Christians haue exceeded all other Nations in goodnesse of life pag. 169. Chap. 35. That the very conscience of him that desyreth to obtaine vertue doth testify that our Faith is true and how the desire of leading an euill life doth both procure the loosing of Faith hinder the getting it pag. 175. Chap. 36. That the admirable change which is made in the hart of sinners and the great fauours which our Lord doth do them who follow him with perfect vertue and do call vpon him in their necessityes is a great testimony to the truth of our Fayth pag. 179. Chap. 37. Of the many and great good things which God worketh in the soule that followeth perfect vertue that this is a great proofe that our Fayth is true because that did teach vs meanes how to obtaine those graces pag. 183. Chap. 38. That if the power greatnes of the worke of Belieuing be well pondered we shall find great testimony to proue that it is much reason that the vnderstanding of man do serue God by imbracing of Fayth pag. 188. Chap. 39. Wherein answere is giuen to an obiection which some make against our Fayth by saying that God teacheth things which are too high pag. 191. Chap. 40. Wherin answere is made to theÌ„ who obiect against the receauing of Fayth that it teacheth meane and low thinges of God and how in these meane thinges which God teacheth most high glory is contayned p. 193. Chap. 41. That not only the glory of our Lord doth shine in the humble thinges of God which our Faith teacheth but also our owne great profit our strength and vertue pag. 200. Chap. 42. VVherein it is proued that the Truth of our Fayth is infallible as well in respect of them that haue preached it as of them who haue receaued it and of the manner how it was receaued pag. 203. Chap. 43. That such is the greatnesse of our Fayth that none of the aforesayd motiues nor any other that can be deliuered are suffâ—cient to make a man believe with this diuine Fayth vnles our Lord doe incline a man to belieue by particuler fauour pag. 207. Chap. 44. That we must giue our Lord great thanks for the guift of Fayth and that we must vse it to the end for which it was giuen in such sort as that we attribute not that to it which it hath not and what both the one and the other is pag. 214. Chap. 45. Why our Lord did resolue to saue vs by the meanes of Fayth and not of humane Reason of the great subiection which we must yield to those thinges which our Fayth doth teach of the particuler deuotion which we owe in especiall manner to that which our Lord Iesus taught vs by his owne sacred mouth pag. 223. Chap. 46. That the holy Scripture must not be declared by what sense one will but by that of the Church of Rome and where that declareth not we must follow the vniforme exposition of the Saints And of the great submission and subiection which we must performe to this holy Church pag. 227. Chap. 47. VVhat a terrible chastisement it is when God permitteth men to loose their Faith and that it is iustly taken away from them that worke not in conformity of what it teacheth pag. 232. Chap. 48. VVherein the former discourse is more particulerly prosecuted and it is declared what dispositions are requisite for the beginning to read and vnderstand the diuine Scripture the holy Doctours pag. 237. Chap. 49. That we must not grow in pride for not hauing lost our Fayth as others haue done but rather we must be humble with feare and the reasons which we haue for being so pag. 244. Chap. 50. How some vse to be much deceaued by giuing credit to false Reuelations and it is particulerly declared wherein true liberty of spirit doth consist pag. 249. Chap. 51. Of the way wherein we are to carry our selues that we may not erre by such illusions and how dangerous the desire is of Reuelations and such things as those pag. 256. Chap. 52. VVherein some signes are giuen of good bad or false Reuelations or Illusions pag. 260. Chap. 53. Of the secret pride Whereby many vse to be much deceiued in the way of Vertue and of the danger that such are in to be ensnared by the illusions of the Diuell pag. 264. Cap. 54. Of some propertyes which they haue whoÌ„ we sayd to be deceaued in the last Chapter how necessary it is to take the opinion of others and of the mischiefe that men are brought to by following their owne pag. 267. Chap. 55. That we must fly fast from our owne opininion chuse some person to whome for the loue of God we must be subiect and be ruled by him and what kind of man he must be and how we must carry our selues with him pag. 274. Chap. 56. Wherein he beginneth to declare the second word of the verse and how we are to consider of the Scriptures and how we must restayne the fight of our eyes that we may the better see with those of our soule which the freer they are from the sight of creaturs the better shall they see God pag. 279. Chap. 57. That the first thing which a man must see is himselfe of the necessity which we haue of this knowledge and the inconueniences that grow vpon vs through want thereof pag. 284. Chap. 58. That we must be diligent to find out the knowledge of our selues by what meanes this may be done that it is fit for vs to haue some priuate place into which we may dayly retire our selues for a tyme. 291. Chap. 59. Wherin he prosecuteth the exercise which conduceth to the knowledge of ones selfe and how we are to profit in the vse of reading of Prayer pag. 296. Chap. 60. How much the Meditation of death doth profit towards the knowledge of a mans selfe and of the manner how it is to be meditated for as much as concerneth the death of the body pag. 299. Chap. 61. Of that which is to be considered in the meditation of Death about that which shall happen to the soule that so we may profit the more in the knowledge of ourselues pag. 302. Chap. 62. That the dayly examination of our faults helpeth much towards the knowledge of our selues of other great benefits which this practise of Examen doth bring and of the profit which commeth to vs both by the reprehension of others and those also which our Lord doth interiourly send vs. pag. 308. Chap. 63. Of the estimation which we are to make of our good works that we may not fayle thereby in the knowledge of our selues and of true Humility and of the meruailous example which Christ our Lord doth giue vs for this purpose pag. 313. Cha.
as if it were some great and wholesome Truth A (*) Heresy is one of the most terrible iudgmēts which God inflicts for the punishment for other sinnes great and extreame iudgment of God is this and since he is iust that sinne must needs be great whereof the punishment is such and what this sinne is S. Paul (e) Thess 2. himselfe declareth to vs by saying Because they receaued not the loue of Truth to be saued thereby For if thou consider how powerfull the Truth is of that which we belieue for the helping vs to serue God to be saued soone wilt thou acknowledge it to be a great fault not to loue this Truth and not to follow that which it teacheth and much more to worke wickedly against it How (f) A good and iust consideration far should he be from offending God who belieueth that for such as offend him there is prepared an euerlasting fire with other innumerable tormentes wherewith such an one is to be punished as long as God shal be God without all hope of the least remedy How will he presume to sinne who belieueth that when sinne entreth into the soule by one dore God goeth out by another And what kind of creature a man is without thee O Lord he well knew who prayed O (g) Psal 4◠Lord depart not thou from me For when God is gone we remaine in the first death of sinne which is but an introduction to the second death of infernall paine With great reason did Iob (h) Iob. 6. say Who can find in his heart to taste that which being tasted bringeth death Without doubt it is but reason that since we would not taste of any food which a Physitian whom we belieued should tell vs did carry death therin we should lesse taste of sinne since God hath sayd That (i) Ezech. 18. the soul which finneth shall dye For the Fayth or beliefe which thou hast in the word of God doth not worke that effect in thee which the word of that Physitian doth worke and yet this later both can deceaue and vseth sometymes to do it which God neuer doth And since God hath sayd That he is the eternall reward of such a seruant why doth not this make vs all go towards his seruice with great diligence and courage although we were to passe through many labours and that it should cost vs euen our liues Why do we not loue our Lord whome we belieue to be supreame goodnesse and whom we know to haue loued vs first yea and that so farre as to dye for vs And so (k) Note we should discourse in all other things which this holy Fayth doth so powerfully teach vs and inuite vs to for as much as concerneth it our selues are in great fault for leauing to follow it yea and for doing the very contrary things to it Can there be a more prodigious thing in the world then that a Christian should belieue the things which he belieueth and that yet he should do so wicked things as many of them do In punishment therefore of this that they did not loue the Truth whereby they might haue byn saued putting in practise that which they were taught thereby it is a most iust iudgement of God VVho (l) Psal 65. is terrible in his counsailes ouer the sonnes of men That this Fayth be taken from them they be permitted to belieue errour And if thou do consider how God doth suffer the snare to be prepared whereby Iewes and heretikes are chastised as we haue sayd it will appeare to thee that it is a thing rather to be trembled at then to be talked of Aske any of these that are so peremptory in following the obstinacy of their errour vpon what it is that they ground themselues The (m) Almost all heretikes do offer to shrowd thēselues vnder holy scripture one sort will say that it is the Scripture of the old Testament and the other of the New and thou shalt plainely see the prophesy of Dauid accomplished when he sayth The (n) A passadge of holy Scripture excellently pòdered Table of these people shall be turned into a snare and into a punishment and into a stumbling blocke Didst thou euer see a thing of so contrary appearance as that the Table of Life should be turned into a snare of death the Table of comfort and pardon into a punishment that Table where there is light which guideth men into a way that leadeth to life to conuert it selfe into a meanes of making one loose the way and fall vpon death Great without (o) A holy contēplation of the Authour of much terrour to such as are in heresy all doubt is the fault which deserueth such punishment that a man should be blinded in the light and that his life should be conuerted into death But thou art iust O Lord and thy iudgements are iust and there is no wickednes in thee but that wickednes is in them who serue not themselues well of thy goodnesse and therfore it is fit that they should but stumble vpon the same goodnes of thyne that the dishonour should be punished which they do both to it and thee A great blessing O Lord an extraordinary blessing is thy Fayth being reuered obeyed and put in excution as al reason doth require And a great blessing didst thou bestow in giuing vs thy holy Scripture which is so profitable and so necessary for vs in the way of thy seruice But (p) Note because the wind which bloweth vpon this sea is a wind that cōmoth from heauen and there haue byn some who would needes sayle by the earthly windes of their owne braynes and studyes they haue beene drowned and thou hast suffered it Because as in the Parables which thou O Lord didst preach on earth those men were secretly taught therby who had a good disposition thereunto whereas others were blinded euen thereby through thy iust iudgment so doest thou also gouerne the profound sea of thy diuine Scripture which is deputed for the shewing of mercy to the lambes of thy fold who may swimme therein to the profit both of themselues and others and so also is it designed for the shewing of iustice in suffering proud Elephants both to drowne themselues others also A fearefull and very fearefull thing it ought to be esteemed to enter into the diuine Scripture and no man ought to runne vpon it without much preparation as to a thing wherein there may be much danger to him Let him that (q) An-vnderstāding exercised in humility a lifeled in piety are good dispositiōs for the reading of holy Scripture with profit entreth into it carry with him the sense of the Catholike Roman Church and he shall auoyd the danger of heresy Let him for his further profit by it carry purity of life as S. Athanasius doth aduise by these wordes Goodnes of life and purity of the soule and Christian piety is