CHAP. I. What Devotion is, and wherein it consists.

THIS is not a Subject to be defined accor­ding to Rules: It has less of the School than the Closet, and good ignorant Souls can instruct us better in it, than those who have more Knowledge than Integrity. Yet the Schools, which busie themselves every where, un­dertake to define Devotion as well as other things. Some would define it by a tenderness of heart, and a mollified Spirit; Others by an internal Comfort, which the Devout are sensible of in their Practise of Piety: A third sort say, 'tis a Quickness and Prompti­tude of Mind, whereby holy People are carried to the Service of God. Some there are, who make it to consist in an unspeakable and a glorious Joy, which fills the faithful, and makes them say, My Soul is satisfied as with Marrow and Fatness. Others have defin'd it by the Affections In the first place, to all this I say, That it may be a piece of Rashness to go about to de­fine a thing we know not how well to express; since it is of the number of those which cannot well be con­ceived, but by them who feel it, nor can well be de­scribed, although one conceives it. Nevertheless we [Page 2] cannot define it by one word alone, nor by one mo­tion of the Soul: for it is composed of all the Speci­es's of Passions; it admits of contrary Sentiments. It has Desires, and it has Fears; Terrours and Hopes; Love and Hatred; Joy and Sadness; Ardour and Zeal; Quickness and Alacrity. It has Desires; every De­vout Soul vehemently desiring to be well with God, and to be united to him. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks, so panteth my Soul after thee, O God. My Soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before God? It admits of Fear; for a good Soul is ever afraid of its unworthiness to possess the Graces which it so passionately desires; I am not worthy, sayes it to our Lord Jesus, that thou should'st come under my Roof. If it be in possession of its God, it fears to lose him; it watches even in sleep: I sleep, but my Heart waketh: fearing, lest something should ravish away its Beloved.

Terrour also enters into the Compound of this Vertue; namely, when the Soul is fall'n into some great sin, the presence of its God astonishes it, and his Majesty fills it with horrible Apprehensions. And without this, the devout Soul never presents it self before God, but it remembers, that before him the Angels tremble, and it sayes, Oh! how terrible is this place; this is the House of the living God. Moreover, Love is to be found in it, and we may say, that Love is as the Source and Basis of Devotion. In consider­ing both the Beauty and Goodness of God, it is touch'd with a violent desire of Union; It says with the Spouse, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth, for his Love is sweeter than Wine. There is also Hatred; for the devout Soul cannot love God, unless it renounce Self-love, and hate the World, the love of which is incom­patible with that of God. There is Joy too, for Pie­ty has its Feasts, and the Wise man says, the heart of [Page 3] a just man is a continual Banquet. Thou hast put, sayes David, more Joy in my heart, than the wicked have of their abundance, My heart is glad, my Glory rejoyceth: my Flesh also shall rest in hope. Yet we must con­fess, that this Light is not altogether pure: Devotion has its Melancholy amidst its Joyes, and frequently it sighs at the sense of its Infirmities.

The last ingredient of Devotion is Promptitude and Ardour, which is, as it were, the Body of Devotion, and appears more than the rest in a devout Soul. It has an inconceivable chearfulness in the exercises of Piety; it hears the Word; it Prays; it Reads; it Meditates; it communicates; as others do the most Pleasant things in the World. It runs, it flies to these actions, and undertaking 'em with a Gaiety of heart, does 'em with great ease. These are, methinks, the movements that compose Devotion; but we must observe, that in all People, they are not evermore in the same degree. Always some one of them does Reign: sometimes Joy bears sway, another while Grief; oftentimes Alacrity, other times the Desires. And hence it comes to pass, that if we consult the Devout upon the nature of Devotion, they will answer us ve­ry differently, because every one will say, that he feels within himself, and that every one feels within himself things very different from those of other men. It happens also, that one and the same Soul feels a different Devoti­on at divers times; the Motions, whereof we have spo­ken, ruling by Turns; To day a faithful Person shall be fill'd with hope in the view of a blessing to come, and to morrow with joy in the possession of the present good. One time by reason of his Sins, Sadness shall domineer; another time the Desires shall reign: and this alteration proceeds from the diversity of Estates, wherein the Con­science finds it self, and the variety of Prospects, which Meditations presents it withall, in considering God some [Page] [...] [Page] [...] [Page 2] [...] [Page 3] [...] [Page 4] times with respect had to his Love and Mercy, other times to his Severity and Justice. Frequently too he will eye his Conscience both in its strongest and in its weakest parts; and this may change some things in the Agitations of his Devotion. Chearfulness likewise, which seems to be the very Essence and Soul of this Virtue, is not inseparable from it, and sometimes the most heav'nly Souls find themselves under a gloomy and sad weight: But when this Briskness is absent, its place is possest by a stinging Displeasure for its Absence.

CHAP. II. Of the Effects of Devotion.

IN speaking of the nature of Devotion in the pre­cedent Chapter, we insinuated all its Effects: but it will not be amiss nor unprofitable to un­fold them a little more: for, these Effects, well understood, will lead us to the knowledge of the Cause, and serve us for a Touch-stone, whereby pi­ous Souls may try both the purity and the progress of their Devotion.

The first of these effects is a vehement Passion, to converse with God and pour forth our grief into his Bosom; to hear his Word, and to receive the Gages of his Love in his Sacraments. You see this Disposition in David, who sighs after the House of God, and finds nothing in his Exile more insupportable than his Ba­nishment from the Court of the Lord's House. Jealous he is of the Condition of the Swallows, that build their Nests there. He would be a Door-keeper in this house, and never stir from thence; My Soul hath a desire to enter into thy Courts, says he: I have asked one thing of the Lord, that I may dwell in his house all the days of my life. He avows, that the hopes of seeing God again in his house do sustain him, and keep him from falling into Despair: I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living. The faithful Soul has no less Passion for the Solitude of its Closet than David had for the Temple of his God; It looks upon those hours as lost which 'tis obliged to throw away upon the World; and as soon as it can withdraw it self from the hurry and bustle of Affairs, it runs to the Bosom of its God, as the Hart to the Water-brooks; as a covetous Person to the search of [Page 7] Riches; as a Courtier watches for the Hour and Place to see his Prince and to be seen, and receive from him considerable Favours.

A second Effect is a Joy, which we may call incon­ceivable, when the Devout in their Devotions feel their Heart display'd, and the Holy Ghost appears with all the Riches of his Grace, and all the Treasures of his Consolations. If any one should inquire of such a Soul why it is so satisfied, perhaps it would be an hard matter for it to tell him: but the true cause of this Joy is, That God does exert in it his comfortable and wholsom Rays, which are ever accompanied with a plenary Happiness. The Pleasure which an avaricious man takes in counting his Money, which the ambiti­ous taste in hoping for new Grandeurs, which the Epicurean finds in his Feasts and Debauches; all this, I say, is unsavoury and of a bad taste in comparison of that Joy which the pious Soul perceives in commu­nicating with its God. This is an Ocean which over­whelms and drowns all the Perplexities and Troubles of the Flesh. The Persecuted find here their Sanctua­ry; the Poor, Riches; the Sick-man, Health; the Con­temptible, Glory; the Humble, Grandeur; and the Miserable, a general Oblivion of all his Calamities. This is that wherein a Soul, tired with the World, finds that heavenly Repose, which makes it with In­dignation, and yet with Pity, look upon the cruel Agitations of worldly men, that are tied to the rack­ing Wheels and Stones of Ixions and Sisyphus's, that is to say, to Labours, that always return and never have an end.

Hence springs another effect of Devotion; namely, To forget this World. When the Devout Person shuts the door of his Closet, we may say, he shuts the door to the World, saying to himself, Get ye gone ye worldly Thoughts; retire ye Objects of Vanity, and [Page 8] approach not near this place; let me rejoyce in the quiet of this secure Sanctuary, and suffer me to give my self wholly up to my God. The pious Soul after this manner dies many times a day: for Death does not more efface the Images of worldly things, than Devotion, when it takes a Christian out of the World. This Soul may say at such a time, The World is cruci­fied unto me, and I unto the World: I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God, who lo­ved me and gave himself for me. We need not wonder if the World quits the place in this moment, since I suppose, that it before took up but very little Room in the Soul, whereof I speak. God comes to possess it wholly, of which he had before the better; for the devout Heart ventures to say, The whole is in God, and God is in every part. In this state, if by perad­venture it casts its Eyes upon the World, it looks down from on high, and with an Eye of Contempt. Alas! What are these same Riches, says the faithful Soul, these Honours and Advantages, which frequently ter­minate in eternal Death, to compare with the Riches that God here bestows upon me? But near to God himself, whom I possess, these earthly Goods will va­nish and be lost; but I will never lose him who holds me and whom I hold: and Death, which will disrobe the Living of their Pomp, will invest me with new Glory.

The fourth Effect of Devotion is, an Alacrity in running, and advancing in the Practise of Piety. A General flies to the Combat when he sees an assured Victory: but the devout Person has other kind of wings, which make him fly whither Devotion conducts him. He knows not, that 'tis the drooping and weight of the Body that retains them who are call'd to Travel: he has not the Sentiments of the Sluggard, who rouls up­on [Page 9] his Bed as a Gate upon its Hinges, who fight Bat­tles with his Boulster, and wages Wars with Sleep and Idleness, with a Design to be vanquished. He is one of those Eagles, of which some think our Saviour spoke, Where the dead Body is, thither will the Eagles be gathered together. He knows that he shall find his Jesus, once dead, but now alive, either in the Church or in his Closet: he flies thither with the Swiftness of an hun­gry Eagle; nothing is capable of stopping him; Friends, Enemies, Employs, Occupations, Prayers, Menaces, Fears and Dangers, all useless: for in posting he can surmount all Obstaeles in the way.

Another Effect of Devotion is, a certain Elevation of Soul, which I cannot term otherwise than a sort of Extasie, whereby the Soul is as it were, ravish'd from its self. 'Tis so knit to the Contemplation of Coe­lestial Objects, that not only it has no more intelli­gence of earthly things, but it has no Sense, no Ears, no Eyes; it sees not, it understands not. St. Peter, while he prayed, saw the Heavens opened, and a cer­tain Vessel descending to the Earth, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four Corners. St. Paul in Pray­er was ravished even to the third Heaven; and the Devout even at this time of day have their Extasie. They see with Stephen the Heavens opened; they are lifted up to Heaven with St. Paul; for they enter into a secret Commerce with God. The Soul inwardly is so taken up, that it sees nothing at all of what passes without; and contributing its whole force to the Con­templation of God, no Wonder, it has no more for other Objects. Blessed are they, says St. Basil, who are fill'd with, and infolded in the Contemplation of this true Beauty; since being bound to it by the Cords of Charity, and of an heavenly and divine Love, they forget their Parents, Friends, Houses; they forget even the necessity of eating and drinking. And now why should it not be so in the [Page 10] Offices of Piety, when ev'ry day this happens to us in the Affairs of the World? While we are strongly fixt to Reading, to disintangle a crabbed and knotty mat­ter, while we answer an Adversary, a thousand Ob­jects pass before our eyes, whereof we do not take no­tice. The devout Soul is so shut into it self, so well gathered up and compacted, that no external thing is able to move it. If it prays, it is intirely in Hea­ven; if it hears, it is wholly tyed up to the Tongue of him that speaks; if it reads, its heart is always where the eyes terminate themselves; if it meditates, it is all over plunged in it's subject; and if a Flock of Birds, of vain and light Thoughts, come to soil its Sa­crifice, as that of Abraham, it scares them away in­continently. This is that which I understand by the Extasie of Devotion: otherwise, if you take this term for effectual Ravishments, which were the Priviledges of the Prophets and Saints of the first Order, I must take an infinite deal of pains to believe that the Holi­nesses of the Roman Cloyster do oblige God (as some would fain perswade us) so ordinarily to communicate such extraordinary Graces. Now a days we do not see those Devotions, which lift up not only the Souls, but make the Body to lose its Earth, and raise it to the very Clouds: Nevertheless, if we would believe some, who call themselves good Authors, there is nothing more common.

The last Effect of Devotion that I shall mention, is, a certain Fire that warms the Heart. One cannot well conceive it unless one had felt it; and I cannot ex­press it otherwise than in the words of holy men: Did not our Heart burn within us while he talked with us, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? My Heart was hot within me; while I was meditating, the Fire burned; then spake I with my T [...]ngue. We are told, how the Faces of the Saints have been oftentimes seen to be bright [Page 11] and inflamed in the midst of their Devotions, which could not proceed but from the glowing and fiery af­fection of the Heart, which manifests it self according­ly in the Countenance. This Fire we may call a Fermentation of the Spirits of Piety, which not seldom make Impressions even in the eyes. And hence, it may be, came the shining of St. Stephen's Face; of which it is said, that his Enemies saw it as if it had been the Face of an Angel; his Zeal and his Devoti­on were evident in his Eyes, and render'd 'em spark­ling. Now this Lightning is not without its Rain; I mean, that this Fire is ordinarily accompanied with Tears. The Heart is heated, blows up that Heat, makes it grow bigger; then it self grows tender, and at last the Eyes melt into Tears. St. Austin represents himself in one of these Illuminations, or rather, In­flamations of Heart. After, says he, that a strong Me­ditation had drawn out all my Misery from the bottom, where it lay hid, to present it to the Eyes of my Heart, there arose a great Tempest, which was followed by a great Shower of Tears. This weeping does not always come from a Sense of Sin; 'tis sometimes caused by a jarring diversity of Thoughts, and a confusion of good Emo­tions, which cast the Soul into a sort of Disorder, but which is much better than the greatest Calm.

CHAP. III. The great necessity of Devotion.

WHO can doubt on't, and is it not suffici­ent barely to know and to describe it, to perswade us to it? Devotion is the Soul of the Soul, and the very Life of Piety. 'Tis that which sets a price and value upon the Duties and the Worship of a faithful Soul. A due Preparation is necessary to every thing. An Orator who is to speak in publick first amasses his matter toge­ther, and then assays to put it into a good Form: A Souldier being to fight, prepares his Army, and rou­zes his courage. He that goes to a Marriage, puts on a Wedding Garment: And why then do we take upon us to present our selves b [...]fore God in Prayer, in reading, or in hearing his Word, in imploring his Assistance, or rendring him Actions of Gratitude, with­out having the holy dispos [...]tion of Piety and Devotion, that are before him of so great Price?

We do ever that thing well, which we do heartily: [Page 15] but when the Heart is no Party in the business, it avails nothing. The Souldier who carries not his Heart along with him, turns his back in the day of battle: and the Orator, whose Heart is not toucht with what he says, will never touch that of others. If without the Heart we cannot perform the works of the Tongue and of the Hand, how shall the work of the heart it self be done without the Heart? This is what I call the Exercises of Piety and the Service of God. A Lute, can it be plaid upon, unless it be string'd and tun'd? can a Bow shoot unless it be bent? the Heart is an Instrument and a Lute, the sound whereof charms the Ears of the Almighty; but it must be strung with all its Vertues as with strings, and Devotion must be to it a kind of Soul, that makes every thing else to act. Prayer is an Arrow, that flies to the Heav'ns, but De­votion only gives it both strength and Feathers. Pray­er is a Sacrifice and an offering of the Heart. We must not therefore present common Riches to God without preparation and choice; and the Passover-Lamb was separated from the Flock four days before its Immolation.

Let not the Sinner then offer to God dirty and soyl'd Prayers, but pure and devout ones; let him se­parate his heart from the vanities of the World and the Folly of his vain thoughts, if he will be well-pleasing to God.

Without Devotion the Soul is dead, the heart is but in its Body as in its Grave; What rashness then to lay a dead and corrupted Beast upon the Altars of God? will not God say; I hate your Oblations, th [...] Peace-Of­ferings of your fat Beasts, and the perfume of your Incense; I cannot away with them. Devotion is a Fire, without which our Sacrifices could not be consumed. It's a Fire coming down from Heav'n; it's an emanation of the Rays of the Sun of Righteousness; its what must [Page 16] lift up the Smoak of our incense to Heav'n. Assur [...] thy self, thou Christian Soul, that thy offerings are i [...] the right way, and that the Flames of Devotion are alone capable of piercing those Clouds thickned by In [...] quity, that separate us from God. The matter tha [...] makes thunder-bolts so massy and heavy, would no [...] alwayes be mounted in the middle Region of th [...] Air, from whence we see 'em hurl'd down upon th [...] Earth, were it not carried upon the Wings o [...] some inflamed Exalations. In like manner ou [...] Earthly Prayers as well as our hearts woud no [...] be able to mount the Skies, did not the flames of De [...] votion lift them up. So that we ought to put ou [...] heart into a good condition to hope a good success o [...] its worship. Tho never so much prepared, it canno [...] be too good for him to whom we ought to present it▪ It will be an acceptable thing to be receiv'd in this Estate. And what on the contrary can we expect in presenting to him an indevout Soul, but a shameful an [...] sad refusal? God does not hear our prayers, unless th [...] Heart be disposed to make them; Seek and ye shall find▪ saith our Lord; but seek with zeal, otherwise ye shall not find. God said once, I was found of them that sought me not. But this does not happen every day: this is but one of those singular events, whereby general Rules are not established. But the Law in common bears, Ask and it shall be given. Lay hold on the Kingdom of Heaven and thou shalt obtain it. To what is not Devotion useful? It is of use in all Places, all times and all things as well in the Closet as the Church? there­by we hear the Word pronounced by men as if it were truly the word of God, and receive it as the dry and chapped Earth does the rain. Hereby the Con­secration of the Divine benefits touches us, the thought of God's love inflames us, his promises comfort us, his threatnings terrifie us, and his Consolations have their [Page 17] Efficacy upon us. Without this, the word, which ought to be a two-edged Sword, recoyls and turns its edge on the hardness of our hearts; and without this we joyn the Sin of Insensiibility to that of Impe­nitence. By this we look upon every thing in the Church with veneration; the Preacher as the Embassa­ [...]or of the Gospel; his Word as the voice of Heaven; The Faithful as the Children of God, and as it were a Troop of Angels, that always rejoyce in his presence; the Sacraments as precious vessels, the appearance whereof is contemptible, but which do contain the Treasures of his Grace and Mercy. It's Devotion that makes our Closets to become little Churches, whether the Divinity descends, and upon which it ex­tends its Wings like the Cherubims over the Mercy-seat; where God speaks to our heart as we speak to his ears; where he makes us understand his Oracles, [...]nd taste his Consolations; where he says to us in a still small voice, My Son or my Daughter, Be of good chear, arise, thy Sins are forgiven thee. Oh! how blessed is the faithful Soul, that God honours with such sacred Entertainments. Now he does never do this, but when call'd upon, if not forced by an ardent Devo­tion. These desires of Devotion may be the Eyes of the Spouse, whereof it is said, Turn away thine Eyes from me, for they have overcome me. Far be from hence those prophane Wretches, that know not the use of Devo­tion. They say, that Valour is the Rampart of Estates, and the Tutelary Angel of the Publick and of Privates; that Liberality sweetens the misfortunes of the miserable; that Justice is the nurse of Peace and the ligament of Society; that Temperance causes tranquillitv of mind, and health of Body; But say they, Devotion, 'tis alone, that is good for nothing but to render the mind weak and effeminate, and to depress the Spirits. Do not call so universal a Vertue [Page 18] unprofitable, without which all the rest are meer shadows: for he, that having not a habit of Devotion, doe [...] not refer all his vertues to the Glory of God, is a ba [...] good man. Do not call that an useless Virtue whic [...] appeases the wrath of God, and turns away the Tempests flying over States; a Virtue which had draw [...] Sodom out of the Fire, had there been found there bu [...] ten devout Persons like Abraham, who would hav [...] Devoutly with him interceded for it; a Virtue, whic [...] saves the Church so often from ship-wrack; a Virtue which in the Conscience raises up and establishes [...] profound Peace and a Divine Light. Do not say tha [...] it softens the Mind; seeing it confirms the Courage▪ makes men run to death as to a Feast, makes 'em to despise Perils, and in its occasions mannages nothin [...] wherein the Glory of God is not concerned.

CHAP. IV. That Devotion is extremely rare, and neglected.

HERE is an Exception to the general Rul [...] that things rare are esteemed: nothing [...] the World more rare than Devotion, a [...] nothing more neglected. Herein men [...] not sin through Ignorance; they knowvery well, wh [...] we have said in the precedent Chapter, that wit [...] out these devout dispositions or Prayers they cann [...] please God. Nevertheless one cannot Express the ho [...] rible negligence with which they perform this pio [...] Duty as well as all others. People come to these exer [...] ses [Page 21] with a prodigious sloath: 'tis visible, that Custom [...]rains us to 'em, when our inclinations carry us another way. 'Tis the fear of the scourge and the Batton which makes Slaves to go: for we go thither as to a Task and a laborious work. What we do with regret, as little we make it as possible: whereupon we rob the World of one quarter of an hour in the day to be­stow upon God after which we believe all is well e­nough, and that God may very well spare us the rest. We go about this work, as if it were a burthen to us; we make haste with it, that it may be soon over; and when we are arrived to a Period, it looks, as if a mighty Load were taken off of our shoulders. Judge then, if one can do well, what one does in this wise. We think not of what we are a going to do, nor of what we do. We ought to daunt and amaze our selves in considering the Majesty, before whose eyes we go to appear; and we come thither in such an heed­less manner, as if we went to the meanest of Mankind. Are we got up the Mountain? our heart is still in So­dom: We wander through the Universe, and stretch our uncertain Gaddings of thought even to the Ima­ginary Spaces: our imagination is fill'd with Crotesques and Fantoms. The most part roul their Prayers upon their Tongues in a Torrent of words, neither the Heart nor the Imagination having any thing to do there: And so small an Impression is made upon the heart, that nothing appears a moment afterwards. In going from the Exercises of Devotion, every one ought to examin himself, to know, whether his faith, his charity, his hope, have received considerable aug­mentations; but he thinks of nothing less: every one running whither Interest or pleasure calls him, leaving his Conscience without examination.

Questionless, the greatest part, after their Prayers, may find their Conscience in a worse estate than be­fore; so that this Examination being so far from pro­ducing [Page 22] Peace to 'em, would increase their Inquietu [...] If their Prayers be indevout, their other Exerci [...] are they less so? If in hearing the word of God th [...] lend some attention, 'tis not to the things themselv [...] but to the manner wherein they are spoken. If t [...] Preacher has not the Talent and Knack of pleasing, th [...] don't hear him, he does not Edifie, say they, he can't ke [...] one awake: and after this a piece it is of good Cons [...] ence to be able to sleep at Sermon: Insomuch as he spe [...] to Deaf People, and our Churches, from whence [...] have banisht Images, cease not to be Temples of Ido [...] which have Eyes and Ears, and yet neither see n [...] hear. The Preacher seems to have in his ha [...] the head of Medusa; when he appears, every thing [...] turned into Marble: and the word of God is a Char [...] that makes Stones of the Children of Abraham, inste [...] of making the Children of Abraham of Stones. [...] good part of those that hear, do only retain wh [...] they judge may afford fit matter to their Censures a [...] their profane Ralleries. They pass by an excelle [...] thing, and pick out a bad word: That is to say, in [...] field covered over with Riches they gather a Thorn [...] a Flint, and let the Flowers and the Fruits alon [...] They that are less guilty, hear and would make a go [...] use of what they understand; but their Will is ve [...] imperfect, and is not of a very long duration; since [...] ceases almost as soon as the Preacher ceases to spea [...] What Indevotion and what coldness have we not in t [...] partaking of the Lords Supper; in which venerable S [...] crament God gives us his flesh to eat and his Blood [...] drink? our Piety is not now divided into a crowd [...] Worships and Services, as it was under the Law: all [...] reduced to a few Ceremonies, and for the Adult b [...] one Sacrament. In such a case therefore we oug [...] to rendezvouz all our Devotion, and give to this o [...] pledge of God's Love all the zeal and ardour, which t [...] [Page 23] Israelites were obliged to have for those many and dif­ferent Ceremonies, the Law commanded. The Flame that is scattered, burns very little: the Sun-beams quartered into several places have small effects; but being assembled and contracted in the center of a Bur­ning-Glass, they kindle Wood and melt Metals. It woud be the same if our Devotion did re-unite it self in this Divine Object: it would consume all our Vanities, and melt the Ice of our Souls. If we were devout in the participation of this holy Sacrament, our faith would pierce the Appearance and the despicable out­side to contemplate the Flesh within of the Son of God, and all the Miracles of our Salvation. But we stick at the Bark; we come thither as to a common Repast; we bring with us our Indevotion, and carry away along with us for a wretched Companion our Damnation.

What we see in publick is a shrewd and an evident signification of what we do not see; and 'tis a diffi­cult matter to judge charitably of the Devotions of the Closet, since we have so little reason to be content with those in the Church; if People do somewhat for Glory, and for the Pleasure of being approved, when they will release themselves of that Trouble, at their having no Witnesses. Let none then accuse us of vio­lating the Rights of Retreat and Secrecy, if we say, that private Devotions are yet more drowsie and rest­less; as he who sleeps at Sermon will hardly keep awake at reading a single Chapter upon words aban­doned of sound and voice, which oppose themselves to sleep. Every one hath his Voice in this World, and every Condition has its Fauls; the Merchant is covetous, and oftentimes deceitful, for his Interest; the Courtier is ambitious; the Magistrate corruptible; the poor man impatient; the Rich haughty; but Indevotion is the Crime of all men in general. We will not say of All, if you please, but will confess, [Page 24] there are some good Souls, who groan to themselve [...] expand their Hearts before God with much Zeal, an [...] make such Sabbaths their Delights. But how few a [...] these Examples! Perhaps it would be a hard busine [...] to find ten such righteous Persons in Sodom: an [...] since that Exceptions do not destroy general Rul [...] this will not hinder us from complaining of our Ag [...] as of an Age of Iron, so cold, the like is not to found in Geeen-land.

CHAP. V. That Indevotion is a far greater crime th [...] it is commonly thought.

TOuching the indevotion of the Profane, I do [...] speak, but of those that would be called t [...] children of God. I speak of all those neglects a [...] [Page 27] coldnesses, of all those distractions, and vain and car­nal thoughts, which traverse the excercises of Piety. The principal reason of the commonness of this crime is, the opinion which people have, that it is a very small fault. There is nothing which they do not say and imagine to flatter themselves in this Vice. One says 'tis the nature of the Soul to be active and boyling; we cannot fix it upon one only object; it takes fire and evaporates, even when we believe we can hold it: It is, say they, a Malady of the Soul, of which it self is not culpable. Ah! certainly, if it were an evil intirely unvoluntary, it would very well deserve we should deplore the misery of the Soul. 'Tis a sign of a strange Irregularity, and a proof that Sin is cau­sed within by great disorders. If you see a man in the midst of a discourse of good sense wander all on a sudden and speak a thousand impertinences and ex­travagant things, will not you say, he has a Desultory wit, and an ill-biass'd Spirit? Is it not a proof of a great Disorder in the heart, to perceive ones self in the midst of ones devout thoughts to evaporate, to go and take a leap from ones self and the Subject, to fall into a thousand Chimerical imaginations? But further, I say, there is as much of a crime as of misery in this Evil. It's sufficient to know that Sin is the cause of this dis­order, to be assured there is sin in it. The Product of a criminal cause cannot be Innocent: and I fancy that the inferiour part of the Soul being corrupted by Sin is like to marrish and fenny places, from whence Vapours are continually elevated to Heaven, which oftentimes obscures the Sun. Our passions, 'tis true, do raise up the Clouds of vain and evil thoughts, that rob our hearts of the Suns sight: but what of this? does it not follow, that this is not a great evil? do not all crimes come from this Source, and are they therefore the less to be condemned?

We imagine that the mind of man cannot be fix [...] which is false, and a thousand Experiments can she [...] us the contrary. Were you to appear before a gre [...] Prince to defend your Life, you would think so eagerly and earnestly upon the business, that no other thin [...] would be allowed admittance into the thoughts: in spea [...] ing to him you wou'd not suffer the least Distraction. Th [...] Niggard that counts his Treasures, does not hear whe [...] any one comes to knock at the Door of his Cabinet. A m [...] that is upon an important Affair, and gives up h [...] mind to it, never finds these wandrings of Imag [...] nation. It's true then, that it is possible to hinder th [...] Levity of mind, whereof we complain, as of an i [...] curable evil. Thus in the vice of Indevotion there a sort of Pride of being unwilling to humble our selve [...] worthily before God, in whose presence all Natur [...] trembles. I would fain know, whether a King would ta [...] it well, that in doing him Reverence one should tu [...] his back upon him, or that one should do him Homag [...] with an air of disdain: and this is what we do [...] God. We give him not the very Moity of our hear [...] To slight and despise him, whom the Angels ador [...] can it be call'd a Peccadillo? The Lord reigneth, [...] the Earth be moved, are very rare words in our mout [...] And seeing that God does not immediately aven [...] himself on the great contemners of his Majesty, witho [...] fear we take up an habit of defying him. Unquestionab [...] if there were nothing else in Indevotion besides t [...] crime of Disobedience, 'twould be enough to render [...] worthy of all the most severe punishments. We kno [...] mighty well that God commands us Ardour and Ze [...] and we cannot be ignorant, how he calls us to ta [...] the Kingdom of Heaven by Violence. We hear [...] said every day, that he casts up the Luke-warm o [...] of his mouth. We read every where, that the w [...] of the Faithful ought to be in a swift Course, and no [...] [Page 29] slow walk. And in short, we know very well, that he would have us be eaten up with the Zeal of his House. Maugre all these Commands and Orders, still cold we are and languishing. Who then shall be o­bey'd if God be not? He who maketh his Angels Spi­rits and his Ministers a flaming fire: he who hath so many means to revenge himself upon Rebels, and to reward the Obedient: he lastly, whose commands are ever just and ever holy.

Let no one tell me then, that this is a light fault, since 'tis a most assured proof that we love not God. 'Tis not so, when we search after the things of the World. Seek for Wisdom, says the Wise-man, as Silver, and search for her as for hid Treasures. Ah! would to God we could make such an exchange of Sentiments, as to give to the World those thoughts which we have for hea­venly things, and to render to heavenly things what we have for the World. Is not this a crime which cannot be aggravated, to refuse God the Ardour, the Attention, the fond affections we have for the Earth; a [...]rime which deprives us of God, is not at all trivial: A Sin that robs us of the Divine Consolations is not to [...]e neglected. 'Tis for this crime we tast so few Delights in our Devotions, because God will not let himself be found but by those that seek him, and bestows [...]ot those Divine Consolations but upon such Souls as [...]re a living thirst after them, as the Hart is a thirst [...]fter the running Waters.

But supposing with these flattering consciences, that [...]he Distractions and Lithernesses of Devotion are Sins [...]f Infirmity, and by consequence, less severely punisht, [...]hat shall we say of a great number of them, and of [...]requent Relapses? will this be taken for nothing too? [...]f thou slightest thy sins because they are little ones, fear [...]hem rather by reason they are in a great number, saith [...] Augustin. If they should appear light in the Ba­lance [Page 30] of the Sanctuary, the very reckoning will destroy us; since, in a word, we return to 'em every day. Tha [...] grains of Sand nothing is more small; but yet i [...] we heap them together, we may in time make up [...] Mountain. We advance step after step towards Hell and of what importance is it, what brings us thithe [...] whether a great Sin or many small ones? we are sti [...] Damn'd ne'rtheless. The Egyptians that were oftentime troubled with Frogs and Flies, would not be reduced ti [...] the uttermost extremity: Wherefore let us not ca [...] those small Sins, which find a place in Hell, if they b [...] not expiated by Repentance: but let us rather sa [...] with a Doctor of the eleventh Century, ‘Peradver [...] ture thou wilt believe some of thy Sins very puny an [...] small: would to God, that our severe Judge woul [...] or could judge them such. But alas, does not all Si [...] dishonour God thorough Disobedience? how th [...] can the Sinner call those small that offend so great [...] God? O dry and sapless Tree, unprofitable, and wo [...] thy of eternal flames, what wilt thou be able to answ [...] at that day when thou shalt render an account in th [...] twinkling of an eye, when thou shall put every moment of thy life into the Ballance, and when it sha [...] be demanded of thee, in what thou hast spent th [...] time? then shall a process be made of all that can [...] found in thee, not only of thy words but of thy ve [...] silence. Thy least thoughts will be examine [...] even thy life will be a part of thy crimes, if thou ha [...] not liv'd for thy God. Oh! how many Sins will sta [...] then out of some Place, where thou hadst ne [...] seen them before? they will seize upon thee as [...] Ambuscado. They will appear to thee more terrib [...] and in a greater number. The Works which th [...] didst believe not to be evil, nay, which thou conside [...] est as good, shall be look'd upon by all as ghastly a [...] [Page 31] black Sins. This difference, saith St. Basil, of great and little Sins, is not to be found in the New Testament: one only sentence is pronounced against all: he that does sin is the Servant of Sin. And if we give our selves the liberty to distinguish and discriminate Sins into Mortal and Venial, or great, or little, it ought to be in this Sense, that we call all Sins great whereby we are overcome, and all Sins little, which we are armed to that pass as to vanquish: As among Sword­men, the conquered is ever esteemed the more Feeble, and the Conquerour the stouter. How hap­py then is that man, that strikes a terrour into him­self, and is delivered from this dangerous Prejudice, that Indevotion is a light and a pardonable crime.’

CHAP. I. Of Impurity of Life: The first Source of In devotion.

SInce Indevotion is so great an evil, let us [...] to find out its sources, that we may cut up th [...] evil by the very Roots. Now one of th [...] principal ones is Impurity of Life; nothi [...] disconcerting an heart so as an evil Estate of Cons [...] ence; nothing more extinguishing the fire of Pie [...] than the loathsom and muddy waters of Sin. Fire do [...] not easily take in things soak'd in water: Devoti [...] cannot easily be brought to fit Souls penetrated wi [...] Vice, one flame puts out another, and the fire of Co [...] tuousness choaks that of Zeal, as the flame of Gu [...] powder extinguishes that of a Candle. Devotion is certain alacrity of heart, that disposes us to draw n [...] to God with confidence; but how should we have th [...] Disposition, when we are guilty of the Vice, in goi [...] to present God with such offerings, as we our sel [...] know ought to be abominable to him? for we kno [...] that God does not care for a sullied and unclean Sac [...] fice. Go, says he, I hate, I despise your solemn feas [...] [...]our meat-offerings and sat beasts: I receive them as [...] price of Whoredom, as the bloud of a Swine, and a [...] [Page 35] Dogs head. Alas! the most spotless man is not enough so to present himself before God with Assurance, and the Prophet could say: Wo is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips: mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. 'Tis impossible therefore, that he who has not the Wedding-Garment on, whose Vest­ment is stained with the spots of the Flesh, must needs be put into a vast consternation in thinking of him before whom the Stars and the Angels are unclean. And how can this Fear, or to speak better, this Horour agree with Devotion, which is all love and all assu­rance? Let us go with confidence, says the Apostle St. Paul to all devout Souls, to the Throne of Grace, that we may find mercy in the time of need. To bring to God a criminal Conscience, is to bring to him a wit­ness against our selves to make our own process: 'tis to deliver us up into the hands of his severe Justice. We need not therefore be startled, if the wicked be Indevout and fly the presence of God: And since Im­purity of life wou'd do nothing else than take away the Hopes of being heard; This would be enough to hinder and stifle all Devotion. All the Vertues are interessed, and he that would take away hope takes their very life away. How then can a wicked creature that knows God will not hear him, pray devoutly? When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when you make your prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of Blood. It is for this reason that St. Paul would have us lift up pure hands with­out wrath and murmuring: And David says, If I had Iniquity in me, the Lord would not have heard me. 'Tis for this c [...]u [...]e, he professes elsewhere, that he washes his hands in Innocency, before he goes to Gods Altar. And why should God have any regard to the Prayers of those that have none for his Commandments? upon these Principles, the wicked man says to himself, why [Page 36] should I present my self before God? Have not my Iniquities barr'd up against me the Gates of Heaven, and why should I go to ask of him that is resolved to re­fuse me? Unprofitable Devotions wou'd these be, and submissions that wou'd only serve to hasten my Pu­nishment. I cannot have the impudence to desire any thing without promising to my self somewhat; but I am resolved to bridle nothing within me, and to continue in this way of living. 'Tis better therefore that every one holds where he is. Devotion is of a great extent; it takes up the whole heart; it cannot dwell in a Soul divided betwixt Avarice, Ambition, Violence, Pleasure, and the love of the World. Where­fore if you sometime see those worldly Persons, who refuse nothing to their heart, to have their Days of Devotion well regulated, and even sometimes to shed more Tears, and fetch up more sighs than the Faith­ful; you may, without hesitating, conclude, that these are Hypocrites and pretended Zealots who would pay God with Phisiognomy and Posture, and cheat the World with fine Appearances. Perhaps some there are, who believe they are not such badly devout People, when they attone for a Months Debauch with a day of fasting. But they deceive themselves, for true Devotion is not un­equal nor full of Sallies. It does not resemble those Summer-Torrents, which roul with a head-long im­petuosity, and do not continue bu [...] for a day. So that holiness of Life is a preliminary of absolute Ne­cessity to obtain Devotion. This Vertue is one of the most excellent Graces that we receive from Heaven, & one of the most precious Gifts of the holy Spirit; but 'tis a Pearl, which is not to be cast before Swine. 'Tis an Ennamel only to be layed upon Silver or Gold: 'Tis, in one word, a Favour communicated only to pri­viledged Souls, that is to say, to the pure and clean [...]n he [...]: But as we shall have occasion to touch again [Page 37] upon this subject in another Rencounter, we will not drain it dry here.

CHAP II. Touching the love of the World: the second Source of Indevotion.

BEhold one of the great reasons, why there are so few Devout in the World: It is, because all are in love with the World: and this Love is one of the most efficacious Temptations, wherewith the Devil serves himself to distract and call us elsewhere. This love has pierced our very mar­row and entrails; and seeing 'tis the master of our Heart, can the love of God dwell there? can darkness and light, can Fire and Water, Life, and Death, be comparable together? In him that loveth the World, the love of the Father does not dwell. Where there is no love of God, how can there be any of Devotion, which is nothing else but love? what is it that makes up the fire and the zeal of Devout People, but Love? What is it that makes the desires spring up of union [Page 40] with God in Devout Souls but Love? what makes us find a Gusto in the possession? the same Love. What does indue good Souls with a readiness and alacrity to serve God? Is it not Love that renders every thing easie to him that loves? But as much as the love of God succours and helps Devotion, so much does the love of the World cruelly cross it. It extinguishes heat; it stifles the desires; it estranges from God; it takes a­way the taste of heavenly things; it purloins the heart from it self, and carries it elsewhere. Lot's Wife ad­vances towards the Mountain, but hath her heart in Sodom, she turns her Eyes thither. The superiour part of the Soul, which is in love with Heaven, makes some efforts to lift it self up to God: but this same lower part, wherein the Passions reign, turns its eyes towards the World, and wheedles the heart out of the Commerce whereinto it entred with its God: Rachel, in craving her fathers house, carries along with her his antick Images: In quitting the World to enter into our Closets, we bring with us its Idols, that is, its Ideas and vain Images: and from thence proceed our distractions, and those unhappy thoughts that traverse us in the midst of our Devotion. These are the Idols of Gold & Silver, the Devils of Ambition and Covetousness, which an hundred times pass and repass in our mind, in a quarter of an hour to distract us. When we come to Pra [...]er, our head is filled with a thousand Ideas of good and evil, of Desires and Fears, of Dangers, and distrust of hope [...] and despair, of Joys and Divertisements, and a thousand other vain Objects A Soul at this rate taken up and imploy'd, can it give place to the Ideas of God's greatness, of his Majesty, Goodness, Mercy, and Love? Faith, Repentance, Charity, Zeal, Hopes, Acknowledgments, and a thousand other Vertues, which comp [...]se, or at least, help Devotion, can they agree well with these Emotions that the commerce of the World communicates to us? We scarce ever think [Page 41] of things, but such as possess our hearts: if we lov'd the World less, 'twould not come so often into ourminds. We are hurried away with it: it is a Demon we know not how to lay: we cannot find a Sanctuary against its Persecutions: the solitude and affrightful Objects of the Desert, cannot banish it. An Antient tells us, that amid his Macerations, his mind sometimes transpor­ted him out of his Solitude into the company of young Women a dancing. I say then, we ought to imploy all our strength to dry up this second source, if we would be Devout. My little children, love not the World, nor the things that are in the World. We should Crucifie the Old-Man, if we would present our selves to God a living, holy, and acceptable Sacrifice, which is our reaso­nable Service. So that one of the most profitable Me­ditations, by which we can prepare our selves for Prayer, is that of the Worlds vanity. It is good to en­ter into our selves, to consider the brevity of humane life, the inconstancy of the Worlds Glory, which flou­rishes in the morning and fades and withers in the eve­ning. It is good to repeat frequently to our heart, what the Holy Spirit has said heretofore. All flesh is as Grass, and all the Glory of man as the flower of Grass; the Grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away. As for man, his days are as Grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days, and full of trouble: he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down: [...]e fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. His riches vanish away, and his Sins continue: his honours aban­don him; but his torments do not quit him. Thus by trying with a loud voice, Vanity of Vanities, in an heart infected by the bad Air of the World, it may chase a­way those worldly thoughts, and fright away those Birds which come to spoil our Sacrifices, and devoureth [Page 42] good seed of Piety, which the Heavenly sower had cast into our hearts.

CHAP. III. Of the too great sensibility towards earthly Pleasures: The third source of Indevo­tion.

THis Love of the World is a great Trunk, which divides it self into many Branches, that are also sources of Indevotion. The first branch of this Love is the too great sensibility towards earthly pleasures. These pleasures are of two sorts: The first are highly cri­minal, and are those we call Debauches of the Men of the times: and of these, certain it is, that not only the excessive sensibility but the least taste we take of them is the mortal Enemy of Devotion. Spiritual pleasures are of a taste so vastly different from carnal ones, that at the same time one cannot love the one and the other. A palat imbrued with Gall and Wormwood, and which has never tasted of other Savours, cannot en­dure our Sugar and Honey: A man sunk into the un­savoury sweetness of Sin, will find all the sweetnesses of Grace of ill taste. There is another sort of worldly Pleasures, whose Innocence the World maintains, be­cause the crime is not so visible: They are called Innocent, and they may be so, if they did not soon be­come criminal by the abuse of them, and they all may be great obstacles to Devotion, more than we are aware of. The Holy Ghost is called the Comforter; and the taste which the Pious find in the Exercises of Holiness is termed Spiritual Consolation. But to whom is the Comforter and the Consolation destin'd but to the afflicted? For certain therefore those Souls that are filled with the joy of the World, are not pro­per [Page 46] to receive these Divine consolations, and the whole­som impressions of the Divine Comforter; 'Tis fo [...] this reason the ever blessed Jesus saith, Blessed an [...] they which mourn, for they shall be comforted. And St. Austin saith to God: Thou art the only true and the onl [...] Sovereign pleasure capable of filling the Soul: Do th [...] cast far from me all those false pleasures, and at the sam [...] time enter thou into their place, thou, who art more swee [...] and more agreeable than all Pleasures, tho not to Fles [...] and Blood. The Manna did not fall upon the Israelite [...] but when the Victuals they had brought out of Egy [...] were consumed. And questionless that divine Manna [...] Grace, those Ravishments and those joys of Devotio [...] are not communicated to those that have a magazi [...] furnished with the things of Egypt, and the pleasures o [...] the World.

A person that returns from a Ball or a Comedy i [...] very much indisposed for Devotion. Some may s [...] in favour of the Theater, that it is become chaste, an [...] and that we see there more Lessons of Vertue th [...] Examples of Vice: But others may say, that the Pass [...] ons do not appear there animated but in defence o [...] Honour, and that there are produced no other sentimen [...] but those of Generosity. For my part, I say, that th [...] Vertues of the Theater are crimes, according to th [...] mind of the Gospel; and when there is any thing go [...] heard there, it is very much sullied by the impuri [...] of the Lips and the Imaginations thorough which [...] passes. Oh Impiety! said Clemens Alexandrinus, you ha [...] made Heaven to descend upon the Theater, and God is b [...] come a Comedy. Oh Impiety! we may say, in imitati [...] him, you have made Vertue to mount the Theate [...] and you have made her an Actress: Our Saviour w [...] not have his Preachers wear Buskins on their feet [...] Masks on their face. Tragedy, saies St. Cyprian, makes [...] ancient Crimes to revive in its verses, so as they may [...] [Page 47] die of old age. It draws them out from under the Tomb of ten or twelve Ages: And in the present age we learn such Crimes, as perhaps we should never have thought on; we observe, that what has bin done heretofore may also be done to day; So we make examples of those Actions which had ceas'd to be Crimes; nevertheless the innocence of Tragedy may be pleas'd with more colour. The La­cedemonians were wise men, who banished these evil Arts from among them, by reason, said they, that it was not safe to violate the Laws, even in appearance, and that one ought to respect them even upon the Theater.

This makes me remember a saying of Cicero, that it is not honest by way of sporting the mind to exercise one's Philosophy and Rhetorick against the Gods, in arguing either their Existence or their Providence without being an Atheist. This veneration we owe to them of not diverting our selves at their expence. I say the same of Vertue. It is not handsome to please ones self in seeing Vertue or rejoycing or wronged. But besides all this, these sights are absolutely disagree­ing with Devotion, since they fill the Soul with vain Passions, and we have need of a free mind. They make real Joys and Griefs to spring up for imaginary Ad­ventures. Into the Mind they put Idea's, and into the Heart vain Motions, which ruine the holy Dispo­sitions that we would establish in a devout Soul.

The same I say of a Play; a Fury which agitates men like a kind of Demoniac Spirit. A Man sees his Life and his Death, (that I may so speak) his Fortune and his Misfortune a rouling, with inconceivable Transports and Inquietudes. His Soul is agitated at the same time with a thousand Passions, with Fears, Desires, Hopes, and his Heart is entirely put besides the Seat. Is such a Man in a Condition to lift up his Soul to God? Such fine Devotions as these are they, which are made af­ter having past half the Night in this exercise. The Tempest has been over great, a long time will the [Page 48] Waves be moving; the Soul will be a good while [...] levelling it self: and yet after this the Sweetnesses o [...] Devotion will not be according to the Palate, for tha [...] they are not carnal Pleasures, of which alone it i [...] sensible. Whence it comes to pass, that young Peo­ple are very rarely fit for the Elevations of Devotion They are but lately come into the World, and all it it appears mighty fine. These Pleasures they gulp down by long Draughts, and nothing appears pleasant unto 'em but what flatters Flesh and Blood, which boils in their Veins. Hence also it comes, that the Constitution, where the Blood has the Ascendan [...] which is the Temperament of the World's Joy, is les [...] proper for Devotion than that which has the Ingredi­ents of Earth and Melancholy: the former is like t [...] Matter extreamly combustible, which takes fire a [...] the least Sparkle; but the latter being more difficul [...] to be moved, is less sensible of what charms other [...] and that which pierces through them, negligentl [...] passes it by.

We ought therefore to draw Men out of this error They imagine they can divide themselves betwix [...] heavenly and earthly Joy; but it is impossible. In the Rank of unclean Creatures the Law plac'd those Amph [...] ­bious Birds which both swim and flye, and live in a double Element of Air and Water. This is the Em­blem of worldly Men; evermore they swim in fleshl [...] Pleasure, and sometimes by weak Soarings they t [...] to get out thence and reach Heaven: but it happen [...] to 'em just as it does to those Aquatic Fowls, who [...] flight goes no further than to touch and curle the S [...] perficies of the Water with their Wings, and then the forthwith fall down again. Delicate and rare, sa [...] St. Bernard, is the Divine Consolation: 'tis a chast W [...] man, but jealous, who deserving only to be beloved, can [...] give her self to him that runs after strange Women. Wherefore [Page 49] Solomon pronounceth Vanity upon all the Pleasures of the Earth, whereof he had made a very large Ex­perience. It's for this also that David declares so often that he will not have any other Pleasure than that of his God: To draw near to God is my Good; to be uni­ted to him is my All. Forsake all, says St. Austin, and thou shalt find all: for that Man will find all in God that despises all for God's sake. Behold here one of the main Counsels which can be given to pious Minds which un­dertake to dispose themselves to Devotion. Renounce, renounce, thou devout Soul, all the Pleasures of the Earth, and make choice of Spiritual ones; let reading in holy Writings charm thee, as worldly-minded People are charmed by their ill Books: let religious Assemblies and preaching of the Word divert thee, as much as they divert themselves by their criminal Shows: let the Works of Mercy toward the Poor and Afflicted be used by thee, as the men of the Age use their vain Courses, their Sports, and their Converse: and if thou takest any Recreations and Refreshments, let Honesty and severe Vertue be the Governess of all thy Pleasures.

CHAP. IV. Of Worldly Troubles and Cares: a fourth Source of Indevotion.

NOW we come to another branch of the Love of the World, and a new obstacle to Devotion; I mean earthly Cares and Riches. Black and horrid Devils, that come to cross us, that draw us frequently out of the company of our Lord Christ Jesus, to lead us among Se­pulchres, and that walk, as in the sad Ruines of our Fortune and Grandeur. There are more unhappy than happy Persons in the World; so that this temptation is at least as ordinary as the precedent are: and whereas the World possesses our Hearts, when we have lost it, [Page 53] we bewail it most bitterly. A man, whom against his will, a contrary Wind drives from the Haven where he would be, always turns his Eyes on that side, and does not lose the View of it, but with inconceivable Regret. If he would take any rest, the Images of his Country, his dear Children, and his Friends, return in­cessantly into his mind to plague him and continue his Torture. So the afflicted Soul, that would retire into its self, to be united with God, doth see, amidst its Exercises, the Images of its misfortunes, which awa­ken its Grief and draw it from Heaven into the bot­tomless pit. These are the Wasps and Flies, whose Stings are so piercing: whilst we are fixt so on holy Work, and give up to it our whole attention, then these come and prick us so to the quick, that we are forced to lay our hands on the part affected. These are the Whips, wherewith the Taskmasters of Aegypt serve 'emselves to hasten us to the work of the Flesh and the labour of Bricks. These Task-masters are the Devils, that say with Pharaoh; this People is Idle; since they will serve their own God, let us re­double their Imployments: and hence they rowze up those smarting and stinging cares, recalling into the memory of one; the loss of a Cause in a Court of Judicature, and of another the Ill estate of his affairs, an he ruine of his Family. And these thoughts like so many stings, hasten a man to return to his works of Straw, to his worldly occupation, that make him to forget God's Service. When theref [...] we would espouse our selves in the bosom of o [...] God, we must drive and fright away these Gna [...]s [...]at whizz about our Ears, and we must lay thes [...] Demons. And as the Spouse said, I charge you, O [...] Daughters of Je­rusalem, by the Roes and by th [...] [...]inds of the Field that ye stir not up nor awake m [...] Love till he please: So we ought to say, Go ye car [...]al thoughts, thy earthly anxi­ties [Page 54] and netling Cares: away, ye Devils, return into your bottomless pits; let my Soul rest, and do not disturb its holy Conversations; do not draw it out of the Arms of its beloved, whose possession makes up all its Joy and all its Beatitude.

Good remedies there are against this Temptation, which we ought to make use of. The first is, to dis­comfit and destroy in us the love of the World: when we shall love it no more, we shall no more be sen­sible of the mischiefs and misfortunes that befall us on that side. So we do'nt love Money, Riches nor Gran­deur, we shall not be touched with the loss of them. So we love God only, we shall evermore be content, because we shall never lose him. The World makes men pay Interest for its Pleasures: the grief it causes in abandoning us, is much greater than the joy we taste in possessing it: and therefore we should disseize our selves in good time, that we may lose it without trou­ble. If we have cares that seem lawful unto us, and which we know not how to part withall, let us follow the precept and example of David, Cast thy care upon Go [...] and he will take care for thee. We do not want example to maintain this reliance. We can produce an Elija [...] that was fed by Ravens; a Prophet in the Lions De [...] that was respected by those Monsters; Israelites in uncultivated and desolate Places, upon whom the ver [...] Heavens rained down Bread. Have we need of A [...] surance and Promises? see that of our Lord Jesu [...] Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of the [...] not fall on the ground without your Father. Fear ye [...] there [...] ye are of more value than many Sparrows. Beho [...] the Fowls [...] the Air, they sow not, neither do they reap, [...] gather into ba [...], yet your heavenly Father feedeth the [...] God that takes ca [...] of the young Ravens, that call up [...] him, will he desert us? without doubt we must hav [...] a great stock of Incredulity to resist so great Promise [Page 55] After all, let us remember to think, how our Cares do change nothing at all in the state of our Concerns, and how they turn our Souls topsie turvy, and render them incapable of Devotion. Upon which account our ever blessed Jesus would not have us take care for the Morrow, for fear it should trouble our Devotion to day.

Wherefore, in entring into our Closet, we must say to our selves: why dost thou take care for so many things, and it may be thou must die to morrow? Afraid thou art of wanting necessaries for Life, but thou con­fiderest not, that these necessaries may be reduced into a small compass. Thou hast lost some Wealth, thou art afraid of losing it, 'tis therefore God hath retrencht thee of the superfluity. Whereas, how canst thou be afraid of wanting any manner of thing, when in that moment thou goest to find God, to whom appertain all things, and addest with St. Austin, Cast thy self, O my Soul, into the Arms of God; and fear not, lest he should let thee fall, for his Arms sustain Heaven and Earth. And having said this, shut the door against all the troubles of the Flesh, and cast them under thy feet, as thou fallest on thy Knees.

CHAP. V. Of Excessive Business: A fifth Source of Indevotion.

THIS is also another branch of the Love of the World, and another let and hindrance to Devotion. We love the World, and give up our selves intirely to its Imployments One imploys himself in Traffique, and thinks of nothing else. Another he is oppressed with the Affairs of other men, which he makes his own through interest: He pleads, as he saith, for the defence of Justice, but it is too often for iniquity; and though he gains his Cause, yet he loses his Conscience. A physician Visits his Patients with a design to make 'em pay dear for his Services and Attendance. The man of business is ever thumbing his Arithmetick: The Mechanick exerci­sing his Trade: the Husband-man Agriculture: And to these several ways goes the greatest and best part of their time. And so much is the World corrupted, as they think they deserve praises, in that among the sundry ways of spending time, this is the most innocent: but it becomes criminal as soon as it robs us of our God, and slackens our Piety. The mind of man is so made, as it cannot vigorously tend but to one Mark; it cannot ar­dently will but one thing: insomuch as if thou givest up the ardour and force of thy desires to thy Family and thy Occupations, God will but partake of the Reliques of thy Soul and thy languishing motions.

I do not pretend here, as if Persons of all conditions could give up themselves wholly to contemplation. This contemplative Life is the Life of Angels and not of men: and since that we are in part Body, we must also live after a manner partly corporal. A Bird let [Page 60] its wings be never so strong, cannot always be flying: A Soul has not strength enough to be evermore lifted up to Heaven. I know moreover we ought to serve the necessities of Nature. In a word, I do not oppose the Order that man has received from God to eat his Bread by the sweat of his Brows, and by his labour six days in the Week; all I aim at is, that the imployments of Martha may not hinder the work of Mary, and that the Body, being the worse Part of us, may not carry away the better part of our time. If there be any thing wherein we ought to laud and praise the great con­descention of God to us, it is in this, all our time is his, but he pleased to give us six parts in seven: Six days shalt thou labour, and on the seventh rest. See­ing he has for gone so much, we ought at least to be ve­ry exact to pay him this Tythe of our time, one day in seven, one hour in seven. Six hours therefore should not slip by in a day without returning to God, to give him the seventh. Do more, and imagine not you can do too much, since you owe him all.

Why will you not have the same regard and conside­ration for the Soul as you have for the Body? On it you bestow Refreshment and Rest, and for this you intercept your most important Concerns, that you may repair the decayed forces of Nature. Take heed there be not made too great a dissipation of the Spi­rits of Grace: call the Soul to its exercises of Devotion as to repasts, which renders it vigorous; and as to sleep, during which it lyes in the Arms of its God; labour often in this Divine Recollection, and to withdraw the Soul from those wandring courses it makes in humane affairs.

Meals and repasts hastily taken are followed with a difficult digestion, and very little nourishment; and there­fore we repose our selves while we eat, let not any one then imagin he can serve God, whilst he is doing something else. These stirrings and turbulent Devotions are of ill [Page 61] consequence, and instead of nourishing do load and clog the Conscience. We must therefore in our or­dinary imployments set aside some hour, wherein our Souls may retire themselves, as it were in an Haven, to rejoyce over a Calm after a boysterous Tempest. Whilst the Water is rouling or stirring, it can neither receive nor reflect well the Image of the Sun: so a Soul in con­tinual action cannot receive the impressions of Grace, the beams of the glorious Jesus, nor the likeness of our great God. Thou raging and rouling Sea, hold thy self then still and hust, stop thy Surges to be the Looking-glass of the Heavens, to the intent all those matchless and illustri­ous lights may penetrate thee, and paint themselves in thee. How can the knowledge of God, said St. Basil, enter into a Soul taken up with a crowd of carnal thoughts? It ought to be master of its time and its self, to be presented to God. Pharaoh knew this well, since he told the Israelites, What ye say, come and let us sacrifice to our God, proceeds from that ye are Idle.

Certain I am, God does not love slothful People: and how should he love idle Lives, that will take ac­count of every idle word? But yet neither does he love People over busie. Martha, Martha, says he, Thou art cumbered and troubled about many things; Thy Sister Mary has chosen the good Part. She did not labour a­bout Evil things, but too many things: She did even good works in doing what she did; she served our Lord, she prepared him meat and drink. If there could be excess in these holy Employments, when they hin­der us from approaching often enough to the Throne of Grace; what must we believe touching the imploy­ments of the World? what people will be excluded from the sacred feast of our Saviour? Why, those men of Business, one of whom, forsooth, bought a yoke of Oxen, and will go to try them; another has purchased an House, and he must needs go see it: a third is con­tracted to a Wife, and he will wed her. Such Persons [Page 62] will find the Gate shut and barr'd, they come not time, neither will they find any one to open unto the It will be said to them as it was to others, go ye wo [...] kers of Nothing, I know you not. Let us not say the such a way I must go to day, to morrow another; must do such a thing, and finish such an affair; afterwar [...] I will think upon God! O my Soul. Thy great concern [...] to set thee well with thy God; 'tis to consult him often bout the Disposition, wherein he is with thee; 'tis to [...] licite his mercy, and implore the succours of his Grac [...] 'tis to pay him thy just Homages, and place all thy in [...] est in him. It is the one thing necessary, choose then th [...] good part which shall not be taken away from thee: T [...] one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behi [...] and reaching forth unto those things which are before; press toward the Mark.

Let not therefore the Indevout Person come wit [...] his Objection from the multiplicity of his Affairs: th [...] most busie steal their moments for Pleasure, and wh [...] can't they then for a Duty? Let no one oppose us wit [...] the goodness and innocence of particular Imployments nothing is innocent that renders us culpable befor [...] God, in estranging us from him. But what shall w [...] say of those Persons, who create to themselves affairs [...] vast and mighty importance, in the due setting of [...] Tower, or accurate scituation of a Spot, who consult the Glass an hundred times to place every thing in its pr [...] ­per order; who imploy the best part of their lives it these Idle Businesses; and amidst all this, find scarce a minute to consecrate to Devotion; I say, that these Wome [...] are to render an account of all, and of the time whic [...] they have so miserably squander'd away, and of thei [...] Beauty, whereof they have made so bad a use, and of th [...] unjust Division they have made betwixt God and thei [...] own Idol; seeing they have given all their Hours to th [...] Service of this, and to God only some moments of unadvised and hasty Devotion.

CHAP. VI. The Custom of letting the mind ramble [...] different Objects: A sixth Source of In­devotion.

I Believe that this is also another Source of [...] Indevotion, and especially of our Distractio [...] During Prayer we know not how to fire o [...] Heart, our mind wanders, and our attention [...] lost. Whence proceeds this, but from a pernicio [...] custom we have, of giving a soaring vaunt to our I [...] gination? It is in man, what Quick-Silver is in Metals: It rouls, it runs glibly up and down; A little f [...] makes it evaporate, and as it were, to vani [...] into S [...]oak, it becomes so subtle. We suf [...]er it to [...] what ever it pleases. When 'tis upon [...]he Wing, sometimes it flyes from East to West fr [...]m South to Nor [...] from Heaven to Earth, and as if the limits of th [...] Universe were too narrow for it, it over-passes the [...] and loses its self in the innumerable Whirle-po [...] of Des-Cartes. And no more can it contain it self wit [...] in the bounds of Time, it flyes to Eternity, and asks wh [...] it is; It would know what was when there was [...] thing. If it keeps its self within this World amidst t [...] great space, it curvets over all Beings, it swims over [...] Matter, and the compounds of it differently modified, a [...] yet penetrates none of them: And, as if the prodigio [...] Mass of Creatures did not furnish Imployment enou [...] to its Actions, it labours in the production, or rath [...] creation of Beings of its own forming; It imagin [...] Chimeras, Phantomes: it makes Mountains of Go [...] Worlds in the Moon, Centaurs, and Hippogryphick [Page 67] And these motions for the most part are of such quick dispatch, that in a quarter of an hours rambling we find our selves so far off, that the greatest Parted man in the World could never ghess by our last thought, what was the first. And after this shall we ask, from whence come those aberrations of our heart in the duties and exercises of Piety? can we expect that a Soul accustom­ed to wander, can fix and arrest it self all at once? It is an Horse that has not as yet received the Bitt: it does nothing night or day but kick and skip up and down in the Meadows. When one would put the Saddle upon the back, or the Rein in the mouth, it flyes out and struggles, it throws down him that gets up, and re­turns from whence it came. When we would gather our selves together, it dissipates its self like a Flame; it abandons us; it breaks the Rein of Piety, and before that we espy the first ways it took, we find it plun­ged in the diversity of its vain thoughts. St. Augustine acknowledges, that this is the cause of our Distractions When our mind is fill'd with these Phantasins, says he, and that incessantly it carries along with it an infinite number of vain thoughts, thence it comes to pass, that our Prayers are oftentimes troubled and interrupted thereby; and that when being in thy presence, O God, we indeavour to make thee hear the voice of our heart. An action of such importance is frequent­ly traversed by frivolous Imaginations, which come from I know not whence, to break into the crowd in our minds.

If we did well comprize the nature of Evil, we might easily conceive the Remedy. Evils ought to be cured by their contraries: So that let us learn to give bounds to our imagination, and not permit it to go so far, that we may have the less trouble to bring it back again: That is to say, For the disposing our heart to Devotion, we ought to accustom our mind to think a little of things and of good things: 'tis a Mercury, that must fix it self in being applied to Silver or Gold, 'tis a lively faculty, [Page 68] whereto we must give the Bridle and the Rein. [...] let us not imagine that the secret to cure this Ma [...] of the Soul, consists in retaining our mind in a privat [...] of all thought: this is not profitable to Nature nor use to Grace. The imagination of man is too active; 'tis [...] possible to hold it from doing nothing: 'tis to brin [...] Death upon it to leave it without imployment; s [...] it lives no longer than it acts. God hath not given [...] such noble faculties to bury them in an inglorious a [...] shameful Idleness. In short, a mind that is habitua [...] to think on nothing, would nevertheless find it as ma [...] trouble to fix it self upon the works of Piety, as [...] would to withdraw it from its ramblings and cou [...] that it formerly used.

From all which I conclude, that the imployme [...] of letter'd and knowing men, are perhaps the most d [...] structive to Devotion as any that are in the World. T [...] Eye is scarce ever weary with seeing, nor the E [...] with hearing; and we are so far from counting this [...] mong Defects, that we reckon it a great Vertue. Und [...] favour to those Great Names of Sciences, of fine kno [...] ledges, of curious Researches, of Sublime Speculatio [...] of miraculous Discoveries, there is established in t [...] World a method to mince the Soul, and almost infinite to subdivide it without Remedy; would to God exp [...] rience did not give us proofs of the Truth: But [...] very certain and very well known, that Atheists a [...] not to be found in the croud of the common Peop [...] The Epicures, the Protagoras's and Diagoras's were kno [...] ing men of great Wit. The thing is past into a Pr [...] verb: And they say, that they, who by reason of t [...] Art, whereof they make profession, are obliged [...] study Nature, and the second Causes very much, do t [...] themselves so strongly thereto, that they forget to asce [...] to the first Cause. These men so well read in Ant [...] quity, and that make so great a noise in the Comm [...] wealth [Page 69] of Learning for their knowledge, make none at [...]ll in the Church for their great Devotion. The study [...]nly of heavenly things can inspire an habit of Piety: [...]e also see now great Divines continue bad Christians, [...]ecause they refer not their Labours to God, nor to his Glory; all their industry is for themselves, and they [...]re the end of all their own watchings. I would never [...]herefore advise him that has a mind to be very devout, [...]o imbrace so many things, nor to fill his head with [...]onjectures, and his memory with these May-bees, [...]hereof those rare Sciences, so called, are composed: [...]esides, that this Acquisition brings in a habit of self- [...]onceited Pride, and surly Scorn, a great enemy to [...]e Spirit of Devotion, and it puts the Virtuosos up [...]ith Pyrrhonism and Doubt, which from Philosophy [...]sses into Divinity. And whereas some find nothing [...]rtain in humane Sciences, they take the same liberty [...] doubt of Divine Revelations. We accustom our [...]ves to judge of things according to the light of Reason, [...]r to condemn whatever does not agree with it: [...]d we are rash enough to introduce that Principle [...]o the Church, which ought to have been left in the [...]hools. I do not say this, as if I would be the ad­ [...]cate of Ignorance: seeing we are Citizens of the [...]orld, it is allowed us to inquire a little of what is done [...]ere: But the Author of Nature, whereof we make a [...]rt, makes us see plainly with what discretion and [...]isedness we ought to advance in the Discovery of [...]r Secrets. He has not shewn us but the Effects, and [...] hid from us almost all the Causes: which teaches that we may easily be without these knowledges, by [...]son that hidden things are not for us. I know not too, [...]ether a little Ignorance would not make more for [...] Glory of our Creator. If we understood Nature [...]well as we would understand it, perhaps we should [...]e the less Admiration for its great Author: for, [Page 70] as they say, Admiration is the Daughter of Ignoran [...] and it is certain that we get an habit of not admir [...] the finest and most wonderful things because we see 'e [...] and are over-acquainted with them.

The desire of Knowledge deceives us; but let guard our selves from its surprises: our first Parent [...] sted the effects on't sufficiently for their liquorish [...] kering after an equal knowledge of Good and Evil [...] the Gods. When they were in a good state, th [...] knew not even if they were naked, and they acqui [...] not this knowledge with the rest, but in the loss of th [...] Innocence. Only the knowledge of God ought to be [...] subject matter and end of our labours, and this is imp [...] ment enough for our whole life. Blessed is he that k [...] thee, says St. Austin, though he knows nothing else: and wr [...] ed is that creature that knows every thing wi [...] knowing thee. But he who knows thee and every [...] else, is happy, not because he knows those other things, because he knows thee. Run not therefore, O my S [...] after those vain shadows of Science, or if thou run after them, let it be as after shadows without fix [...] and without Love. Fix thy self only to the con [...] plation of thy God, he is an admirable object, he i [...] finitely greater than all the Creatures together. [...] vertheless this vast Object will not cause that Dissip [...] so inseparable from the contemplation of the Creat [...] It is infinite, but contracts it self in a point; I [...] Sun that re-unites all its rayes in the bottom o [...] Heart to fill it both with Light and Flame: Let th [...] vout Soul, says St. Basil, be a Mirror and a pure [...] that it may not receive the Image of any thing but it [...] vine Spouse. Let it continue wholly imployed and [...] up by this Image, so as foreign things approaching nigh, not find a place there to paint and contemplate thems [...] Thou eternal Star, saith another, who art the So [...] all created Lights, pierce thorough my heart with [...] [Page 71] thy beams, which may purifie me, and make me glad, which may illuminate and quicken my Soul to unite all its power to thee. If we do some violence to our mind to fasten it upon this one and sole Object, we shall find the good we expect and seek after, it being a remedy against our indevout Distractions. When we have a long time held this slippery and evaporate Soul in the Chains of Divine Meditation, it will become more stayed and weighty: It will not escape us with so much ease: and as in flying us, it does not take its flight but in its known Roads, and stumbles only on the Ideas that are familiar with it, whilst that divers thoughts will become estranged from it by the little Commerce it will have with them, it will not easily be able to get away.

CHAP. VII. The Rareness and interruption of holy Exer­cises: The last Source of Indevotion.

THE foregoing Obstacles, I confess, are very strong, and the love of the World, its Plea­sures, its Troubles, its Employments, and the Ramblings of the Mind are such evils, as are hard to be remedied: But nevertheless I be­ [...]ieve, that we may come to an end in labouring about [...]hem with much care and assiduity; For the most evi­dent Cause of our Indevotion is the seldomness and In­ [...]erruption of holy Exercises. Certain it is, that spi­ [...]itual Pleasures are diametrically opposite to carnal ones. The rareness only and the difficulty render these brisk [...]nd eager. The tast of Pleasure we lose amidst De­ [...]ghts: And assoon as the Pleasures of the World have [...]ost the Grace of Novelty, they have lost their [...]alue. Yesterday a Begger counted himself happy [...]ith a small sum; To day he finds a greater; And to [...]orrow he will be no more sensible of his felicity. If [...]reat Repasts be made at a pretty distance of time from [Page 72] [...] [Page 73] [...] [Page 72] [...] [Page 73] [...] [Page 74] one another, the pleasure of the Debauch will be som­thing to you; return to 'em every day, seeing that thi [...] will be called an Ordinary, the pleasure of feasting wi [...] quite cease, but on the other side return often to Go [...] reiterate your commerces with him; and sure I am, wh [...] appeared at the beginning unsavoury, will become [...] pleasurable exercise. But if you do this rarely, you wi [...] immediately lose the taste. The reason of this myster [...] is not difficult to be discovered: It is, because Piet [...] and its exercises are by us esteemed Labours, b [...] reason of the criminal dispositions which Sin brings [...] Now labour evermore is diminishing according to th [...] measure wherein we continue it. The Traveler i [...] weary at the end of his first days Journey; on the mor­row he will be much less: before two days are over, his Journey will be a mighty trouble to him, bu [...] such an one as will have proportion to his strength, a [...] in few Weeks it will become to him a divertisemen [...] By violence at first we bring our Soul to God: it fol­lows with uneasiness: It thinks the way uneven, shar [...] and craggy, but by little and little this Travel ceases [...] be a pain, and blessedly changes it self into pleasure. Is it not true, that the less we do a thing we do it not so well? The Vertues are habits; and tho Heaven besto [...] 'em upon us by powring them within our Souls, it no [...] withstanding gives us them much in the same manne [...] as we acquire them by divers reiterateed actions Wherefore as no one is a Good Souldier for his having been in one Campaign, nor a Painter for his having ha [...] two or three Lessons; So the Devout do not becom [...] so by one or two actions of Piety, but by long and fre­quent exercises. This is a Warr; wherein we have t [...] fight against our thoughts, against the hardness of ou [...] own thick, Icy heart: At the first and second re [...] ­counter, we are beaten oftentimes; so that at all bou [...] we must return to the charge. Indevotion is a mon­ster, [Page 75] which we are oblig'd to mortifie by little and little, for that we cannot kill it all at once. To day we ought to get one foot of it and to morrow another; but if we let it get breath never so little, it will soon regain what it had lost. When we shall have come to destroy it almost intirely, let us not imagin, that Assi­duity will be the less necessary: For if the rareness of devout exercises hinders their progress, let Devotion be never so much advanc'd, the interruption and relax­ation will destroy it. We may understand an art perfectly well, but if we don't exercise it, it is forgot. Above all, when we fight against our own inclina­tions, for a little abandoning them to their Bent; we shall find 'em again in the place, from whence we removed them. Our heart hath such a slopeness towards Sin as one can't imagin, and especially towards Indevotion. Let it be fortified with the best habits in the World, and let it be thoroughly confirmed in them, yet one in­flaming thought coming across presently will set it all on fire, and choak the flames of Devotion by those of concupiscence. If the heart be so easy to be burnt by the fire of Sin, it is, on the contrary, very heavy and cold as to Devotion; insomuch as after having been lifted up to Heaven by Machines and great struglings, the inter­ruption of a few days will spoil all, and bring it down again to its old Earth. To prove this truth, I desire nothing but the testimony of sincere Souls. If some wordly Affairs, and some hinderances, to which you have given the name of unavoidable, have estran­ged you for sometime from the place of religious wor­ship, and have made you lose your Closet-hours: at first this you doe withsome sort of pain, but insensibly you accustom your selves to it; and when you would return to the practise of Devotion and the exercise of Prayer, you do not know your selves any longer, and you feel an inconceivable heaviness in your selves. [Page 76] The Conscience resembles the Stomach; cease to give it meat, and after much abstinence, it will cease to ask it: Do but stay a little longer, and if you give it food, it will not know what to do with it; it cannot now di­gest it; it has lost all its natural heat; its forces are quite spent; and doing no more of its wonted Offices, it will leave the body for Food to Worms. So the Conscience loses an habit of Devotion by ceasing from its works, and the Soul dies in its crimes and Sins. In short, Devotion is a Virtue, that puts all the faculties of our Souls into motion, as one Spring makes all the rest in a Clock to move. Wind up this Clock with­out discontinuance, 'twill all go easily: but if you cease the Wheels will rust, all will become heavy and migh­tily unfit for movement. Let the exercises of Piety be constantly going on, and the Soul will conserve a Dis­position to devout motions: if they be interrupted, it will bring a nastiness into all the parts of the Soul, which will deprive it of an easiness to move towards Heaven.

These are the Sources of our Indevotion, and the Indispositions of Soul, which we ought to heal, to open unto us a way to this excellent Virtue. Others too we may find of them, but they will cast us into two general considerations. As for example: Who can doubt, that the languishings of our Soul do not proceed from the weakness of our Faith, Hope, or Charity? I [...] we were strongly persuaded that there is a God in Heaven that knows our though [...]s and considers all our ways, that is called King of Men and Angels, opening H [...]ll and Paradice, should we not present our selves be­fore him with a Spirit of due dread and submission? But alass! we believe after such a manner, as God hath need to help our unbelief. To be devout we need on­ly become Faithful: and therefore the Fathers found no counsel more useful to guard us from Distractions [Page 77] than this To remember him to whom we speak. Can w [...] doubt also, that our slackness does not come from the little love we have for God. One friend does not vi­sit another, nor a lover his mistress with such an air of negligence, as we show in Gods Service. If we were kindled with Love, all our motions would receive im­pressions from that heavenly fire. In a word, if the hope of glory had touch'd our hearts. we should not go so slowly to him, of whom we think to receive coele­stial happiness: But I know not, whether this can be counted among the Sources of Indevotion, since that the want of Faith, Hope and Charity, is Indevotion it self.

To conclude, we must confess, that we often find our selves in some certain Indispositions of Heart, where­of we can render no account nor reason; to day we are all Fire, to morrow all Ice. An upright Soul instant­ly pursues and awakens its self, thinks on every thing that may inflame it: It examins its own Conscience, to see, whether it hath committed any thing to dissorder, its heart and grieve the spirit of Grace it finds nothing whereof it can accuse its self, and knows not from whence it hath this coldness Whence then proceed these inequa­lities? Perhaps from the changable nature of man, who is not always himself; and peradventure from the Temperament too as well as the disposition of the Air. As the Soul imprisoned in the Body does not act but by its Organs and depends extreamly on the moti­on of its humours; it's very manifest, that Devotion al­so depends on these dusty Springs and Wheels, whose pace is frequently seduc'd and spoyl'd. And it may be the Devil finds his time, and amidst the good seed sows his Tares, in our field. In some perhaps God's holy Spirit, the author of every good thought, has hid him­self for sometime. This drought and barrenness of the Soul may proceed from that God hath lock'd up the Sources of those Waters springing up to eternal Life. [Page 78] However it be, this mischief does cause much trouble to devout Souls. We need not, for a cure, imploy any other remedy but Prayers and Tears. The Soul must say: Come Lord Jesus, come thou Son of my Soul, dis­perse this darkness, make the morning Starr to rise in mine heart. Why dost thou hide thy self? I have sought thee in the night and found thee not. Open thy fountains, and make thy Rivers of Water to flow on me, that I may quench my thirst and be refreshed: make haste, O God of my Salvation.

CHAP. I. That Pleasure is the mortal enemy of Devotion: what are the Sentiments and maximes of the world about Pleasure and Voluptuosness.

WE have examined the Sources of Indevo­tion, and have indeavoured to stop and stem them. But among all the rest one there is, more lively, more green, and more abounding in Impurites, and by con­sequence more an enemy to Piety; and that is the Spirit of the World: and after having well thought on't we find, that this Spirit of the World is the love of pleasure and sensual voluptuousness. Experience lets us see, that this Spirit is such an enemy to Devotion, as 'tis impossible to be animated with it and to be Devout. This perpetual use of sensual Pleasures does fix the Soul so strongly to Matter, as it becomes incap­able of any Elevation. The more we have of union with sensible things, the more we are disunited from God. We ought therefore to turn, on this side, our greatest industry and indeavours, to strive to bring the Soul back to God, and make that strong application cease, it hath for Material things; so as it may lean and adhere to God; and imploy its self about him. Upon [Page 82] which account, although the overgreat sensibility we have of earthly pleasures, has had its Chapter above, among the other Sources of Indevotion, we believe we have not sayd enough upon so great and so im­portant a Subject. This is a monster too redout­able to be beat and quell'd by the By and with so much negligence. If we could get rid of that we should gain all; but if it continue the Master, it's in vain we strive to become devout. And therefore I destin'd this third part to make such considerations therein, as may, if possible, ruine that grand Enemy of Devotion. Cer­tain it is, Man was born for Pleasure, since he was cre­ated to be happy; and happiness consists in the Pos­session of Good, and the sense of that Possession makes Pleasure. The sovereign good of man consists in the Sole possession and absolute fruition of God, and in being united immediately and after a most intimate manner unto him. And Pleasure ought to spring from this strict and close Union with the Divinity. This Union is made by Knowledge and by Love; and pleasure arises from thence, that God applies himself to the Soul by infolding it in the Arms of his goodness and Beauty, and that he fills it with the light and joy of his countenance. Sin has so far infeebled this Union of our Soul with God, that it hath no more sense of its pleasures; Your Sins have put a seperation between you and your God: and it is like a thick cloud that eclipses the Sun as to us. Whose comfortable beams would raise so much joy within us. The Soul has kept this sentiment, that it was born for Joy and Pleasure: insomuch as being disunited from its God, it intirely turns its self to the Body and its Pleasures; and the stricter it is united to these, the farther off it is from them. The ligament of this union o'th' Soul to the body is Corporal Pleasure: and proportionably as this pleasure tyes the Soul to the Body, so it disunites it from God: so that sensual pleasures [Page 83] cause this Disunion: and this Disunion is propperly Indevotion which we would destroy: for most assuredly Devotion is that motion of the Soul whereby she re­turns to her Principle and to the fruition of those plea­sures, that spring from her union with God. Let world­ly people take the pains to consult their own heart, and that will tell them what we are about to say: They well perceive that the reason why they cannot dispose them­selves to Prayer, to the love and Service of God, is, be­cause they are posses'd by their passions, and inchanted by the delusions of Sense: That is to say, they are abso­lutely turned toward sensual pleasures, and wholly taken up in them. The Soul is pinch'd and contracted, the mind is bounded when its full of the World and its va­nities; so that we need not wonder if God who will have the Soul intire, find no room therein.

Indeed, a very difficult work this is, we undertake to persuade, that those, who would become Devout, ought to renounce worldly pleasures. Although the Corruption of them be extreme we do not place all pleasures in the same rank: we distinguish them into two orders. There are those which are call'd excesses, enormities and crimes: but these the World abandons, and has not the face to defend. There are o­thers styled innocent Pleasures, Dancing, Play, good Chear, great Meals, Feasts, Play-houses Shows, vain Con­versations, the commerce of Gallantry, and Intrigues that are the guides to criminal Amours. The Church distinguishes Pleasures, as well as the World; Both a­gree, that there are Innocent ones: But the Church puts the greatest part of those, which the World upholds to be innocent, into the number of criminal pleasures.

Voluptuosness is an Idol, to which the World Sacri­fices, both young and old, Men and Women, Children and old Men, great and small, rich and poor; all ages, both Sexes, all conditions have their Pleasures: Inso­much [Page 84] as if we go according to suffrages, we should lose the Cause. Especially, Young men cannot indure, one should takeaway the use of Pleasure, they persuading themselves that youth is predestinately consecrated to it. The Painters and Poets that contribute to marr and viti­ate Mens minds, represent Voluptuousness to us like a young Woman, or Man, laid upon a Bed of flowers, environed with all the Objects, which are bodily plea­sures. The Passions, that are wholly carnal, and have a strait Aliance and Correspondence with the Senses, are in boiling youth: The Flesh all brisk, active, and vigorous, having received no manner of Mortification, Hectors and Domineers with insolence. Whereupon young men follow the furies of their Temper and Cra­sis: The sentiments of Piety and the habits of Virtue are not to be found naturaly in them. So that rea­son, destitute of this Succour, is easily vanquish'd by the Passions. We may say also, that Reason, in this age, con­spires with the Passions, and serves only to push on young people into the greatest excess and extravagences. After their own fashion they reason, they are persuaded, that wisdom and prudence doe not become them. they say, that these properly belong to old men; and thus abuse the saying of the Wise-man: To every thing under the Heaven there is a season. If any one has more happy inclinations, he is not so hardy as to follow them; he is stricken with a criminal shame; he would not have himself markt out for a singular Fop, He cast himself into the crowd, and lets himself be carrieds away with the stream: And even those, who are re­puted Wise in the World, if they dare not authorize these Irregularities, at least they excuse them. They are young, say they, they will come to it at length; we must allow somwehat to Age: we are not born wise; we were such as they are; they may be one day what we are.

But alas! we do not stay there; we do not renounce Pleasures, as we leave our youthful years behind us: the love of Voluptuousness is a malady we carry along with us thorough all Ages. We go as slow as possibly or (to speak better) we go on not at all. Old Age and Sickness pull men sometimes away by violence from Pleasure; but we seldom view those, that voluntarily divest themselves of worldly pleasures: This is the most uncommon of all Sacrifices. How many Women do we see that would hold out even against time, and fore­slow themselves from being carried off the Stage? They forget nothing, that may contribute to conserve the air of youthfulness: They would deceive Men, and I know not whether or no they hope to deceive Death it self. They would evermore be the object of the Worlds care, and have a part in all its Pleasures. When old age is come, and has lain its Characters open in their meen, they draw a Skreen before it to render it invisible. You see these Women, Idolatresses of the World, to bury their head under an heap of Powder; that they may confound the whiteness of their gray hairs with this adulterated and strange whiteness: They fill the dints and hollows of their countenances with cou­sening Ceruse; they shadow the wrinkles of their fore­head with false hair and paints; and, in which they are most prudent, they imbalm their Bodies, and cover them with Perfumes, to corrupt the ill odours that a­rise from the Carkasses. In this equipage they mingle themselves in all companies: they would be ingaged in all sorts of Pleasures. They are seen in Balls and Comedies, trembling with weakness: they cannot see to distinguish red from black, nor four from two, but play they will at Cards and Dice with Spectacles. In sum, after having been the Idols of the World, they punnish it for the crimes they have made it commit; they become its punishment and its curse. These are [Page 86] the Spectres and Phantomes, that follow it: It flyes them and has 'em in horrour and detestation

Are men more wise than Women? Do not we see of the other old sinners, that have their members worn and wasted by Debauchery, but whose concupiscence within is as young and boyling as ever. Their inclina­tions are always vitious; but their members can no more obey, as the Servants of their beastly pleasures. While I look upon these men, I represent to my self what Happiness, after the burning of an house: when the great fire is over we along time after see Sparkles; and points of flames break out of an huge mass of Ashes; so as by this we ghess the fire is still in, and that it only wants Fuel and Matter. We may say, that these old men are now but a little heap of hot Embers, and of the Relicks of the Conflagration; but from amidst these Ashes we see the wild and sudden sparks of con­cupiscence j [...]tting out one after another: whereby 'tis plain, that the love of Voluptuousness is still alive within, and the body wants only strength to act.

All men therefore hold clearly for Pleasure: They are not contented to defend it by plurality of Voices, they would maintain it by reasons: God and Nature, say they, make nothing in vain: The earth is covered with living creatures, the Sea filled with Fishes, the Air peopled with Birds, and the Universe is full of Delights. Is it possible say they, that God has made so many things for our use to keep us from the use of them? has t [...]e a [...]thor of Nature made so many sensible Wonder [...] to fill the Senses with illusions, and to ex­cite criminal passions? has the finger of God writ upon every Cr [...]ature Touch me not? At this rate the condition of Man i [...] now very forlorn and miserable: when he was in Paradise he had but one Tree, whose Access was not permitted him: and lo! all the good things of the World are become so many reserved and Mortal [Page 87] fruits, which no one is suffered to touch without incur­ring his Death. And does this shew God's wisdom and goodness to have placed me among so many objects of Temptation, if I cannot yield without sinning? Is not there a natural Bond and connexion betwixt Love and Beauty, betwixt the desirable things and the Desires? And why should God have made so many good and desi­rable things if he would keep me from the injoyment and desire of them? Alas! say they, Are there not enow una­voidable things, but we must seek such as can be avoided and since worldly goods, If they be not the rewards of the Blessed, yet are the comforts of the unhappy: why will we not injoy those Pleasures which are the sweetning re­freshments of our pains? If you take joy away from the Soul, do you not withall take Life away too? do ye not bury it alive? do you not make of mans life a sad and gloomy night? in a word, do not you render Man the most miserable of all Creatures? they say, Last­ly, that religion is not to serve not so horridly beset with Thorns, as some would make one believe: If we ascend even to the Source, we find it say they, more pure and more dissengaged from those rigors, wherewith Superstition; has invested it: the Saints have had their Debauches they have thank'd God, he has given them a Table cover'd with delicious meats, a full bowl, and overflow­ing Cup. They have said, that Wine was intended to make glad the heart of man; our Lord Jesus Christ, the Author of the tru [...] Religion had his Feasts, and was frequently at such: he was at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, and there he made excellent Wine to please the Guests. Thus do they plead for voluptuousness, and the unhappiness is, that these maximes do not obtain only in the World, they try to bring them into the Church. They have put Guides and Dire­ctours, that dress up a Religion of Flowers, and cry Prepare the way; make the Paths plain. Enlarge the ways [Page 88] and make a great road that all the World may come into it: These make our Devotions easy, and they cry; My Yoke is easy and my burthen light. Love renders the Yoke of our Lord easy, for it is altogether sweet and easy to him that loves: but these ill Doctors rende [...] their yoke easy in dispensing with the love of God and permitting the Love of the World and the search after pleasing the Senses. And this is the reason why both in the Church and in the World there are so few De­vout because there are so many voluptuous persons.

CHAP. II. That the Pleasures of the Senses, neither in their Ʋse, nor in their Abuse, do agree with the spirit of Christianity and Devotion.

I Know very well, that this Maxime must appear strange to the greatest part of Mankind, especi­ally to them who are forestalled by those Princi­ples which we have examined in the former Chapter. The Maximes of the Church are as oppo­site to those of the World as Light to Darkness: The World authorizes all the Pleasures of Sense, the Church condemns almost all. We do not here draw up a pro­cess simply against those debaucht People, whose name is odious even in the Ears of the World: We condemn those, that repute themselves honest Persons, who, in effect, have some degree of moral honesty, and whose life is shelter'd from the severity of laws, but who con­sume and spend their life in the use of vain, worldly plea­sures. All those Pleasures, that some believe Innocent are Enemies to Devotion, and wholy disagree with the Spirit of Christianity, as well in their use as in their abuse. Now if we cannot render this Truth victorious by plu­rality of Suffrages, at least wee will endeavour to render it evident by strength of Reasons.

And first of all, let us hear our Lord Jesus Christ speak­ing from on high: For where can we better find the Spirit of Christianity than in Christ himself? Let us hear him painting out the way to us that leads to life. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction, and many there be, which go in thereat. But strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. If thou wouldest be perfect, go sell all that thou hast, and follow mee. [Page 95] If any one would come unto me, let him take up his Cross and follow me. If thy right Eye, or right H [...]nd offend thee, pluck them [off] and cast them from thee. Blessed are the poor: Blessed are they, which h [...]nger and thirst: Blessed are they that mourn and are pe [...]secuted. The Disciples follow their Master, and tell us likewise: Mortifie your Members, which are upon the Earth. If any one love the World, the love of the Father abideth not in him. Be ye sober and watch: Conform not your selves to this pres [...]nt wicked World. As Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lasts. Have [...]othing to do with the unfruitful works of Darkeness: Make [...]ot the Temples of the Holy Ghost the members of an Harlot. The Mind of the Prophets was not different from that of the Apostles, for they speak after this manner: Go to now, I said [...]f Mirth, it is vanity, and of Laughter, it is madness. It [...] better for a young man to go to the House of mourning, [...]han to go to the House of feasting: for that is the end of all [...]en; and the living will lay it to Heart. It is good for a man [...] bear the yoke in his youth. I said in my Heart, I will [...]ve thee with Mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure; And behold [...]is also is vanity. Rejoyce O young man in the days of thy [...]outh: but know that for all [these] things God will bring [...]ee unto Judgment. And now, in good earnest, are all these [...]raughts of the Character of us Christians now a dayes? [...]ese Crosses, these Thorns, these rough Wayes, these [...]rait Gates, this Yoke, this renouncing the World and [...]s Vanities, do they signifie that we can follow our Lord [...]esus Christ in the equipage of Sensuality, sometimes [...]mong Feasts, sometimes Dancings, sometimes at Co­ [...]edies, and sometimes at Play? Those soft and effemi­ [...]ate Lives, that are spent at Cards and Dice, in vain [...]nd lewd Conversations, in the intrigues of fleshly love, [...]ave they any resemblance with the combates, the [...]rastlings, the races, from which the H. Spirit takes his [...]mblems to paint out to us the Life of the Faithful? [...]ight the good sight of Faith, and so run, that ye may obtain [Page 96] the prize. Keep under your Body and bring it into subjection. So fight not as one that breaketh the Air. Heaven and Earth, Life and Death, are not more opposite to one another, than the Effiminate life of us Christians to this pourtraict of the Life of the Faithful which the holy Ghost hath given us.

But above all let us remember, that the Spirit of Christianity and of Devotion loves nothing so much as Mortification, to which sensible Pleasures are mortal enemies Mortifie your members which are upon the Earth, St. Paul bids us: do they mortifie their Members, that entertain and imploy them in Voluptuousness? in lying upon Beds of Down, in pillaging Sea and Land to furnish them with delicate Meats, in joyning An to Nature to compose delicious Liquors for them, and in running after all that may enchant their Senses? Some will say, that by these Members, whereof the Gospel commnads the Mortification, we ought to understand Vices. Very well: But doe no [...] we know that the Members of the Body are the origi­ne of the members of that Old Man, which makes Vices we cannot kill Vice, but by mortifying our members T [...]e flesh is that unhappy Field accursed by God which produces Thorns and Thistles: the more yo [...] fatten this Earth, the more will it produce of those venemous Plants. So that we are obliged to keep it in a great Privation of those Pleasures, that foment con­cupisence, to the end it may continue mighty barren in respect of those unhappy Products.

The Spirit of Christianity and of Devotion is a Spi­rit of strength; but pleasure is soft: It softens the Soul, and effeminates the courage: and the Church requires a vigorous Soul, and an heart of a Temper, which can­not be wounded by the most weighty blows; nor the most edged and hacking gleaves of the Churches Ene­mies. We are to march thoro [...]gh an hundred and an [Page 97] hun­dred sharp Swords: He that would follow the Truth of Jesus Christ ought to resolve to suffer Persecution, since we have alwayes, in our head, the Devil and the World. But can a soft and voluptuous Life be proper to dispose us to Martyrdom? In going out of a perfu­med Bed, in rising from a Table almost weigh'd down with delicious meats, with an head fill'd with the fumes of a debauch; are we in a good state to mount Scaffolds, to enter into Flames, and, without quaking, look upon Racks and Tortures? whether is it more reasonable to look for the Heroes of Jesus Christ, capable of facing Death it self, among our Christians, that overwhelm and (as it were) fuddle themselves in pleasures, or among those, whose austere and retired Life has decla­red War to all the pleasures of the World? But, says one, we are not called to Martyrdom, and according to all appearances we shall never be. It may be so: but still it is of great importance, we should alwayes have the necessary Disposition to suffer Martyrdom. For God will judge us not only according to what we do, but also according to what we would do. Furthermore, does any one believe, that the Sword and Fire of the Per­secutors of the Church are the most dangerous of all Temptations? we imagine, we have need of strength and courage only to vanquish or undergo such tor­ments. But alas! Some who have come off victorious from their bloody Battels, have yet fallen into the snares of the Devil; and some that have born the marks and brands of the Lord Jesus, have become children of Hell, by letting 'emselves be surpriz'd by the Devil of Pride, Covetousness, Uncleanness, or Heresie. Such an one who had torn a young Lion to pieces in his strength, broken the bands of the Philistines and pil'd heaps of dead bodies with the jaw-bone of an Ass, falls into the bracelets of a Dalilah, and is lead in her chains to an Idol Temple: This truth the World is not ignorant of. It was [Page 98] well said, that the Delights of Capua did more than the sword of the Romans, and that they found out the way to soften and break those hard Africans, that march'd after Hannibal, and made victory to march after them. So the Tranquillity, God bestows on us, ought not to make us sleep in the Arms of Voluptuousness: Prospe­rity is a strong Temptation, and pleasure it self is a Monster, which we cannot overcome without a vigo­rous Resistance.

CHAP. III. Other Considerations upon this Truth: That the pleasures of sense, nor in their Ʋse, nor in their Abuse, agree with the spirit of Christianity and Devotion.

THE Pleasures of the World are for the senses, or for the imaginations. Now these faculties are corporeal, and consequently all their pleasures are corporeal too: this is enough to teach those that would follow the mind of the Gospel that they cannot lawfully seek them. For the Gospel, of our Lord Christ leads Men to neglect and contemn that Body: And therefore it speaks of it with so much Slight. According to the style of the Holy Ghost, The Body is but Dust and Ashes, an earthly Tabernacle, an House of Clay destroyed by Worms, a Flower that cometh forth and is cut down, a River that runneth apace, a Shadow which disappears, a Dream which vanisheth away, a Smoke which is consumed in its lifting up. And as it speaks of it with contempt, so it would also that we have little care of it. Take no care of the Body saith St. Paul, to obey the lusts thereof. Take no thought for the morrow; the morrow shall take thought for the things of its self: be in litttle pain for what ye shall eat, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed.

As for the Soul, the holy Spirit would have us turn all our cares on that side. He would have us vigilant and sober, because the Devil watches about it as a roaring Lyon, seeking to devour it. He commands us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling, and that we be in a perpetual solicitude about it. He Or­ders [Page 105] us to nourish it with the milk of the Word, sincere and without deceit, and that we furnish it with strong meats. He wishes us to entertain it continually in an holy joy. He would have us search after those sovereign pleasures that are to be found in the possession of God, which are only for the Soul. The Gospel requires of us to imbellish it, and that we labour to adorn it, that it may be found a glorious Spouse not having spot or wrinkle, worthy to be presented to its head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Examine the conduct of Voluptuous men; it is quite contrary to this: they act as if they were all Flesh, and as if their Soul were only Salt to keep the Body from corrupting. All the Ideas they have of Pleasure, derive from the Senses and the Ima­gination, and without a metaphor, they are (as they call themselves) Men of Sense, and they conceive no more what we call spiritual pleasures, than blind men do co­lours. As therefore, they never tasted other delights than bodily ones, they believe themselves oblig'd to the Body for all their Happiness. And in effect so it is: For at the time when they taste carnal Pleasures, we cannot say they are unhappy, since happiness consists in Pleasure and Joy, and they have them at that moment: So that because we intirely love what we consider as the source of our felicity, we cannot think it strange that these worldly People love their body per­fectly, which they look upon as the only Source of their Pleasures. We see also, that these men have the same Sentiments for their Body as holy men have for God, who is their sovereign good, and in whom they find their sovereign pleasure. They adore this Body of theirs, they cherish, they perfume it, they offer Incense and Sacrifice to it: If one should give a blow or a gird to this same Body, Oh! how jealous they are on't as of a Di­vinity. More Indignation they have against him that should hurt this Flesh, than against a Blasphemer or a Sa­crilegious [Page 106] Person. In a word, their Body holds so much of a Divinity, that they Sacrifice unto it, even their very Conscience, nay and God himself. But nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity and Devotion than this Sentiment. For the truly faithful ones are oblig'd to slight the Body, to sacrifice it to God, to see it torn in pieces for his name, and to renounce all the pleasures of sense for his Glory.

The Spirit of the Gospel and of Devotion absolutely tends to the contempt of the World; but the spirit of Voluptuousness and sensuality to the love of the World. How must we love the World, when it caresses us, and is mighty kind and pleasurable to us, if we love it when it persecutes us and steeps us in Gall? The World is a mere Cheat and Gull, and an undeniable Source of Delusions: it masques it self, and would be seen by us under the image of fleshly pleasure: It imbraces us un­der the habit of Flowers, but under these Flowers are a thousand Thorns. We do not see these thorns, we only smell the Flowers; we are sensible of such plea­sures and love that causes them: But all the World knows, nought is more contrary to Devotion than the love of the World, and we have made it appear else­where: so as by consequence nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity and Devotion than sensual Pleasure.

The Spirit of Christian Religion would inspire a contempt of the present, and a desire after the other Life. Now certain it is, that nothing tyes men so much to Life, as the pleasures of Sense: the Saints say, and ought to say, I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better. I know, when this earthly house shall be dissol­ved, we have an House eternal in the Heavens; and there­fore we desire to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven. None of these things moving, neither count! my Life dear unto my self. As the hart panteth after the wa­ter-brooks, [Page 107] so panteth my Soul after thee, O God. When shall I come, and appear before God? It's impossible that men, who live in a perpetual use of Voluptuousness, should have these thoughts. Every one wishes to be happy, and when once he is, or at least believes he is so, he cannot renounce what he fancies the cause of his felicity: these carnal-minded men think themselves hap­py at such time as they injoy their Pleasures; they have no Idea of any other Beatitude but of that they injoy in this present life. They can every day speak both about a­nother life, and another happiness: But they have got an habit not to let themselves be touch'd but by sense and Imagination: and so because this life and this happiness do not fall under their Senses; nor can be imagined by them, they cannot consider them but as imaginary Beings, which have no relation to them; because they have not any Idea of them in their minds. Moreover their hearts meeting in this life with a fat Land, that is, much prosperity, do take very deep rooting there. Their affections being thoroughly ingaged in carnal pleasures, bound themselves in the possession of Sensible Objects: they wish for nothing more besides, for that no body wishes for things which he does not know, and whereof he has no clear and certain Ideas: The Earth becomes their Country, they naturalize them­selves here; every thing else is a strange and unknown Land.

Let people say what they please: but questionless we have an ill preparation for Death in the continual use of those pleasures, whose Innocence the World maintains. O Death, said a Wise Man, how cruel is the remembrance of thee to him that lives quietly among his Possessions. One lives indeed more commodiously in a Palace than in a Prison; but one finds it more trouble to dye in that than in this. How insupportable is the thought of Death, his presence how affrightful to [Page 108] him, who lives in the midst of Pleasures! he looks upon Death as a Judge that comes to pronounce on him a dismal Sentence; or an Executioner, that seizes him to be lead to punishment. But the faithful one, who has ever held his Flesh in an intire Privation of Carnal Pleasures, fancies Death as a Messenger that brings him good news, as a deliverer that is come to throw down the four Walls of his Prison down to the Ground, and will leave a passage free on all sides to flye away to Heaven. The Voluptuous they must be dragg'd to death; they lay hold on every thing in the way to stop themselves: they give place to necessity, but they do it with an aukward and ill grace. These therefore, who multiply the pleasures of their Senses, make themselves Chains, the breaking whereof will cost them many a groan and many a tear. But pious people who have renounc'd the pleasures of life, can­not be in pain to forsake the present life, since they have quitted that which life has most agreeable.

I should say here, that the Pleasures of Sense are ene­mies to Devotion, because they absolutely take away the taste of the Spiritual Pleasures which the faithful find in the commerce they have with God; but that I have said it already, and it is so evident both in Rea­son and Experience. We know, that those Slaves of sensual Pleasures look upon all that is said of the plea­sures of Devotion as mere idle Stories. Speak to them of the delights which the faithful Soul tasts when God speaks to it within its heart, and during, the silence of its passions, of the sweetness it finds in meditating on the Love he hath for us, and in contemplating on its Mysteries; All this will appear to them as Dream and Vision.

Undoubtedly, one is not sensible of the pleasures of the Mind, but in proportion, as he hath renounc'd those of the Body. And therefore we Christians are all so [Page 109] little touch'd with Spiritual pleasures, with Prayer, Me­ditation, Contemplation; because we are not of those who have perfectly renounced Sensual pleasures. In this respect, we must confess Rich and Great men are ex­posed to great Temptations: their condition, say they, obliges them to draw after them a great equipage of Pleasures; if it be so, they are very unhappy: And in prospect to this, it may be, our Saviour said; How hard a thing is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven? Riches and Grandeur are continual Tem­ptations to Voluptuousness, and it's very difficult for him that is always tempted, not to yield sometimes. But although Moderation and Temperance are praise-worthy, when they are kept amid so many Enemies that conspire their ruin, it is very rarely so; and therefore Devotion is not so common among them, who, by their Rank, fancy themselves obliged to live evermore in Pleasures.

In short, if it be permitted us to draw proofs from Examples, as without doubt it ought to be, we may easily prove, that the Spirit of Devotion and Christia­nity are enemies to Sensual Pleasures. Whether are the Christians of our age, that live with a freedom, which austere morality calls Libertinage, better en­tred in the spirit of Christianity, than the Christians of former ages, who led a most severe and rigorous life? Many there have been, who not finding a retreat secure enough, in the World, against the temptations of Vo­luptuousness, have gone to seek it in Desarts, where they found none but pure and innocent Objects: some have worn Sack-cloth as John the Baptist: and others residing in humane Society have prefer'd Fastings and mortification of the Body before Pleasures of the Sense. Do ye believe, that these people were wiser than us, or are we wiser than them? I know some will not he­sitate on the matter, but file these Austerities to the [Page 110] account of Fanaticism and Delusion of the Spirit of Errour. But certainly, this is a rash Judgment, for which we appeal to the Tribunal of God, to whom alone appertains the right of distinguishing Sincerity from Hypocrisie in such austere lives.

But would we have an example that is not subject to errour, let us look up to our Lord Jesus Christ: had his life any thing common with sensual pleasures? You see him born in a Stable, brought up in the house of a Carpenter: you see him fast forty days in the Wilder­ness; you see him live on the Alms of Women that followed him. We hear him declaring, that he had not whereon to lay his head: We see him go on foot and without equipage, from City to City. And does this now relish of the Spirit of the World, and a delici­ous Life? Who can know better what is the spirit of Christianity than our Saviour himself, and what are the effects of Devotion, but he who was perfectly de­voted to his Father? after this, let none tell me, that our Lord was no enemy to Pleasures, because he was present at Feasts and Nuptials. It were to be wish'd that our Lord Jesus Christ were at all our Feasts; We should not see Insolence and Debauchery to reign there, Wisdom, Temperance, Sobriety, and the highest mo­deration would march in his Train.

CHAP. IV. What may be accounted innocent Pleasure. That Devotion is no disquieting and unea­sie thing, nor an Enemy to Pleasure.

IN the foregoing Chapters I have proved, that the Spirit of Devotion is an Enemy to sensual Plea­sures, and not only to those Pleasures, which, 'tis confest on all hands, are criminal, but to those too that we call innocent ones. In this rank I have pla­ced the continual Divertisements, whereunto the high­er part of mankind give 'emselves up. It is time now [...] explain and unfold a question, which may be started here, To know, whether it be necessary to renounce all sort of Pleasure to be Christianly and truly pious? Now in one word the answer cannot be return'd, [...] [Page 117] being one of the most nice and delicate matters in [...]ristian Morality.

I say therefore, first of all, That Devotion is no Enemy [...] Joy, it suffers us to distinguish betwixt innocent and [...]ful Pleasures; it is neither fierce nor brutish: It ought [...] be courteous, civil, sweet, and modest: It flies soft­ [...] nor does it invest it self with flowers, yet it affects [...] to appear beset with Thorns nor habilimented with [...]ickles. In short, 'tis not necessary, That a faithful [...]son, to be sincerely devout, should nourish, in himself, [...]pensive and lumpish melancholy: On the contrary, [...]ry is all gay and free: The Heart of the righteous man [...] a continual Feast. Our Lord Jesus would not have us [...]ct a gloomy Visage, or an abased Air; he com­ [...]ds us even when we fast and are mortifying our selves [...] anoint our Heads when we must be seen by men, [...] we may avoid Ostentation in our Piety.

To know what are innocent Pleasures, we are to di­ [...]guish with exactness; and make a short but general [...]view over all sorts of Pleasures.

First, all the Pleasures are either of the Mind, or of [...] Senses: Among the Senses some are more visible [...]d, to matter, others are more disengaged from them. [...] the first order are the Taste and Touch: Of the latter, [...]e Sight and Hearing. The more spiritual the Pleasures [...], the more easie it is to render them innocent: The [...]re material they are, the more common they are to [...] with Beasts, and the more easie do they become [...]ish and sinful. The Pleasures of touching and ta­ [...]g are such: they are common to us with beasts. If [...]e look upon them in themselves, they are unworthy [...] man; and if they be in the least degree ex­ [...]ve, we may say they become brutal. Neverthe­ [...] it's certain, that these Pleasures, for that they are [...]essary, are innocent in some degrees. There are in­ [...]rable Pleasures, and actions necessary for the con­servation [Page 118] of Life; these Actions are eating, drinking▪ and sleeping. These Pleasures cannot be enemies [...] Piety, and Vertue. God is the Author of them; [...] has put certain Relations between us and their Objects he hath joyned Pleasure to certain Actions, that [...] might love to do them, and, without perplexity, w [...] what is necessary to our Conservation. We ca [...] but judge that Honey is sweet and Gall bitter: we [...] not but find Pleasure in the use of a good eatable, [...] feel a sort of pain in eating any thing that is an En [...] to our Taste. 'Tis impossible but we must have a gr [...] pleasure in drinking, after having suffered a long th [...] This is not what I call the use of worldly Pleasures: [...] their use is voluntary, but it is not so here. Now [...] Christian Dispensation, as severe as it is, cannot ac [...] of sin unvoluntary Sentiments. We cannot sepa [...] this Sentiment of Pleasure from Actions that conc [...] life; And if one could, we are not obliged to do [...] Jesus Christ does not command us to steep all our [...] in Gall, and mingle our drink with Wormwood. [...] there be devout Persons in the World that make th [...] Vertue to consist in a privation of those necessary [...] sures, and that say, O God, grant me not to taste any [...] sure in the use of Worldly things, they are hypocrites, [...] have got the maggot of Superstition in their heads. [...] let us take heed, this being a very slippery place. [...] bounds that separate Innocence from Sin are so deli [...] as they are almost unperceivable: we pass from o [...] to the other without minding it. The point of sep [...] tion is that which distinguishes necessary from supe [...] ous. To find Pleasure in eating, is innocent: To [...] for the sake of Pleasure, is s [...]nful: we are to take [...] rishment as we do Remedies, for necessity only; [...] this, in the way of the World, cannot be subject [...] altho Pleasure casts it's self a cross. But we canno [...] [...] herein without danger. There is nothing so well th [...] [Page 119] [...] what St. Austin says upon this occasion. When I pass from the uneasiness and trouble of hunger to the comfort that eating affords me, this passage is straightened with Am­ [...]shes by my concupiscence. For it is accompanied with Plea­ [...]e, and there is no other way whereby we can pass to arrive [...] that comfort, which necessity obliges us to seek. And [...]ugh the maintainance of life be the only thing that for­ [...]es us to eat and drink; this dangerous Pleasure comes [...]thwart the way, and appears as a servant at the board. But [...]equently it indeavours to march before, with an intent to [...]rry me to do for it, what I had design'd to do only for ne­ [...]ssity. And that which serves to deceive us in this, is, [...]at necessity has not the same extent as Pleasure hath; [...]ere being oftentimes enough for necessity, when there is [...] a little for Pleasure. We are also frequently uncertain, [...]hether it be the need that we have to sustain life that [...]veys us to eating, or whether it be the enchanting deceit [...] Pleasure which hurries us away. Our unfortunate soul [...]eases it self with this uncertainty, and strives to find out [...]cuses to defend it's self.

The sight and hearing, do they furnish us with pleasures [...]re pure and less carnal? Brutes are not accquainted [...]th them: they are peculiar to men: If beasts find [...]leasure in the sight of certain objects, it's alwayes in [...]lation to tasting and touching; whereof alone they are [...]nsible. Nevertheless it is certain that among the Plea­ [...]es of the Eye and Ear, there are many sinful ones: [...]d they are those, which have a particular and near [...]ance with the corruption of our heart and mind, [...]d are capable of awakening this Corruption. Of this [...]der are obscene Pourtraits and Figures, lascivious Dis­ [...]rses, the s [...]ghts of Theatres, Beauties, loaden with [...]rowed Ornaments, accompanied with Gestures, Acti­ [...]s and Speeches, proper to enflame lust; when we use [...]se pleasures we [...]lwayes abuse the Senses; for this [...]e of them is unlawful. But among the Pleasures of [Page 120] seeing and hearing we may find innocent ones, and these are almost those only which come from the hand of God, without passing through the hands of Men; for man hath this unhappiness, that he leaves the traces of his Corruption in what ever he handles. There can be no sin in looking with Pleasure and Admiration upon the Beauty of the Heavens, their Order, their Move­ment, their Light; upon pleasant Landskips, green Meadows, the delightsom obscurity of a Forrest, or a River, that creeps between two Mountains. No fault is to be found with the Pleasure of a murmuring Stream, nor in the innocent Musick of a Multitude of Birds, that are rejoycing at the return of the Spring. None of these Pleasures disturb or disquiet the Soul: sweet, and not at all violent are their Impressions: They are no [...] capable of carrying the Soul from without it's self: and therefore they are well enough beloved by Piety. These natural and pure Ideas may excite motions of Admi­ration for the great Creator, and Acknowledgement for their Authour, and consequently they may inspire Devotion for the Deity.

Other bodily Pleasures there are, which I can't well refer to any of the Senses: and therefore we'l call them Pleasures of Imagination. Of this order is the Pleasure of having fine Houses, rich Furniture, magnificent Ap­parel, a great Train, and of having our estate prey'd upon by a vast number of People: these Pleasures are not without crime, seeing they are not without errour: these are pleasures of Imagination, and therefore they have delusion in them; and if delusion, then Vanity; and if Vanity, then Sin. Wherefore the wise man crye out upon all this, Vanity of Vanities. But there is more than Imposture herein, we find Pride likewise. The pleasure we take from this vain Pomp, Luxury, and Magnificence, proceeds from a desire we have to be Great, and a pleasure we take to appear so. We are [Page 121] very prone to deceive Men, and we try to deceive our selves. We are like those Dwarfs, that affect to set themselves on high places, that they may appear the taller. And therefore men who have less of merit and true greatness, are ordinarily the most enamour'd of these false Grandeurs. There are some Conditi­ons indeed, from which Magnificence is almost inse­parable: God, who has invested Kings with their Autho­rity, doth not think it ill, they should be invested with Purple: and it is highly necessary that they should be surrounded with a splendour to surprise the sense, so as more easily to obtain that veneration from the heart which is due to them. This is an ordinary Illusion of the Senses, which makes us consider how great that is which dazles them: but it is an Illusion, which, in this case, is of some use. Where there is the true greatness of Quality, and Authority, an apparent grandeur may be indured; although by excess there may be Sin here as well as elsewhere. Great men resemble those Giants, who were not content with their natural great­ness, but lifted their hands up towards Heaven to be seen afar off. Above all, this is a senseless pleasure, when one is little in all respects, to please himself with appearing Great, and debasing the Purple to the Dust, which should not appear but upon or near the Throne. This is a vice of our Age, wherein I believe, we surpass all other Ages: and the corruption is gone so far, that it is made a duty to follow it. For some wise and pious Persons there are, who propose this dangerous ma­xime with a great deal of Confidence: That there ought no difference to be made; that every one should be apparell'd according to his condition; that we are not to affect Singularity. In a word, they boldly blame those Women, who professing a great Devotion wear no other than very mean cloaths, at a mighty [Page 122] distance from the Luxury of Persons of their Rank. A very strange thing this, that we should be so far re­moved from Piety, and have so much fear of approach­ing it, as to fly even the Appearances thereof? Ac­cording to this Maxime 'tis held, that Christian Wo­men be cloathed with the most rich and magnificent Stuffs, that they be cover'd with Gold and precious Stones, since all Persons of quality go so. If they re­trench themselves of these Vanities to do Alms, they are accus'd of being Devoto's. The mischief, it seems, is without remedy, when't comes to this. The Church once believed, it did infinitely relax its self, when it tolerated these Disorders; but I am afraid it must shortly come to give them its Approbation. I would fain know of these People that maintain this Maxime, in what place they might find it? It is not in the holy Scripture; for St. Paul expresly forbids Christian Women the use of Gold and broidred hair. It is not in the Fathers; for they never speak with more vigour than when they speak against the luxury and pomp of Apparel: they call it the Pomp of the Devil. In all places they preach against this Vanity, and say that, by the Laws of Charity, we are obliged to renounce these superfluities, to cloath the Poor, to comfort the Mise­rable, to uphold the Church when it staggers, or is in a low condition. They say that Simplicity and Plainness of Array is a sign of Piety and renouncing the World.

But what is meant, when they say, we must make no distinction? must we be carried away by the stream because it is a general and common evil? must not we labour to guard our selves from it? must no one dare to get out of the crowd of those that destroy themselves for my part, I believe quite contrary, we ought to se­parate our selves, if we have courage enough to do it. I would know, whether that sovereign Moderation be not as good in Clothes as in other things: if it be good [Page 123] can it be evil to give examples of it? on the other side, is it not glorious to march the first in the way of Vir­tue? Apparel, I know, has been always different accor­ding to the diversity of conditions. But first we are to observe, that in our age there are no People but carry a Magnificenee infinitely above their Condition. Now it hath always been accounted glorious to a man to do what he ought, according to the Estate wherein he is, when he his only to do his Duty. Moreover, Men did not heretofore distinguish their Condition so ex­actly as they do now adays: The difference of Condi­tions, must have been extreamly sensible and great, if it were permitted 'em to distinguish themselves from others by Magnificence. It was not sufficient to be rich only, or of a Birth a little elevated above the com­mon people. And now if it be permitted to every one to be cloathed and have a Retinue according to his Condition, Pride and Vanity, that mark the bounds which distinguish conditions, will push men on to strange excesses. 'Tis also good to consider, that there's a great difference betwixt tolerating a thing as permitted, and authorizing it as necessary. Great Men may be suffer'd to distinguish themselves from others by their Train, Equipage, and Habit, provided this does not go to the Excess that reigns in our Age: But never ought we to make this their Duty, nor to say to them, be not particular from the rest of your Rank. On the contrary, we are to let them know, that it is glorious to them to renounce these unhappy Vanities, which are displeasing to God. In short, certain it is, that never was this Maxime more dangerous than in our Age, the keeping up one's Quality, in the style of the World: that is, to expend one's whole estate in Va­nities, Habits, Ornaments, Equipages, and in things of that nature. When therefore any one says to a Gentleman, be not singular, doe as other persons of your [Page 124] Quality, he certainly authorizes this unhappy prodiga­lity, which puts people out of a Condition to be li­beral towards the maintenance of the Church. So that men may say what they will, but I will never believe that any one is endued with perfect Devotion, as long as I see him environed with the vain pomp of the World. One cannot have a true Devotion, unless he is truly humble. Now this reason why we should make such unprofitable Expences to maintain our quality in the World, draws its rise from Pride. The true Christian considering himself in himself and with regard had to God, knows he is nought but Dust and Ashes, and nothing before God: He is not ignorant that God hath no respect of Persons, nor is acquainted with these differences of Conditions. Thus each truly devout Soul will, without doubt, renounce all those ex­cessive Ornaments, and spare all those superfluous expences to do good works withall.

In short, we are not to persuade our selves, that this Instruction which is really that of Christ himself, brings us into a Path, that leads us to Superstition; and that pious Persons are obliged to apparel themselves after a base and extravagant manner. 'Tis in this respect, we may say, that we are to affect nothing. But there is a vast distance between the magnificence of this Age and those cloaths that render men ridiculous. I could not refuse this small Digression to combat the corrupti­on of the age, in favour to many upright Souls, that desire to do their Duty, but know not to what their Duty tyes them. And now I return to the Pleasures of Imagination, wherof I began to speak.

Among these pleasures of the Imagination, some we find innocent. A man, for example, may, without sin, take a great pleasure in the cultivating a little land: His house is to him the most stately Palace, and Gar­den as good as the finest in the World. He will di­vert [Page 125] himself perfectly, in framing and setting right his little Parterres, his Palisado's, his hedge-rows of Fruit and his dwarfish Trees. He will gather the fruit with more acknowledgment to God's goodness than Mo­narchs would have in taking Tributes, from all the Earth. A Father of a Family rejoyces at the good con­duct of his House; a Woman at her work; an Artificer at the success of his labour. Is there not real happi­ness in all this? These are pleasures of Imagination, but not of a foolish one, which feeds its self with Im­postures; but, one that is conducted by reason, clarified by Grace; and judges that we ought to esteem more what we have, than all which we have not. These pleasures, and these innocent errours, if I may call them so, are not altogether enemies to the Spirit of Devo­tion.

Lastly, there are pleasures of the mind, amongst which it is easier to find Innocence: honest and civil Conversations, reading of good Books, eloquent Dis­courses, the study of good Sciences and works of Wit may afford these Pleasures. But many cautions are to be us'd herein. First, we must take care lest we confound the Wit with its impurity. Oftentimes we think we find Pleasure in a Piece, because it has Wit, and this is only, because it has Impurity There are certain Poductions of Wit, that flatter our Passions: Of this nature are the Composures of the Theatre, the fables of Romances, and that which they call gallant Prose and Verse. We admire there the delicacy of Expression, the Beauty of Thought, and the Strength of Imagination. Look a little nearer, and you will see, that the heart is incomparably more touch'd than the Mind. These Productions we love, because they have a secret Alliance with the Corruption of our Hearts, and a conformity to the Impressions of our vitiated Imagination. The Pleasure that we find [Page 126] therein, comes chiefly from the impurity, which is so nicely and delicately displayed. There are some ob­jects, whose Turpitude is so great, as at the first blush we dread them: When they are shewn us all naked, we cannot endure the sight; nevertheless we are wil­ling enough to take a view of them, if they be cover'd with a thin Veil which hides their Uncleanness from the Senses, and yet lets it be wholly seen by the Ima­gination, which applies it's self to these Objects with an extream Delight: This is the Character of those Works, whereof we speak. We are to take care also, that among the innocent Pleasures, we do not taste that which Springs from sinful, curious, and visibly vain Sciences, of no more manner of use, and that only serve to fill up the Mind's Capacity and an Emptiness of all good things. In a word, if it be permitted to taste Pleasure in the study of good Sciences, and useful and innocent Knowledges, at least we ought to have a care we be not wholly taken up by them. Nothing can be innocent that becomes to us an obstacle of Piety.

This is sufficient me thinks, to shew, that Devotion has not declared War to Pleasure and Joy: In making a wise and prudent choice of such Pleasures, we may find them sufficient to sweeten the bitterness of Life; so as there will be no need of burying our selves alive: and keeping the Soul constantly mourning and wail­ing, and cloathing it in a black and dismal melancholy.

CHAP. V. That we are not to consult our Heart and Senses in the choice of Pleasures: That Devotion leads us to true Pleasure.

'TIS observ'd, that for the obtaining any thing we must ask much more than we have a mind to get; and that to bring men to just Sentiments in withdrawing them from their Errours, it is good to carry them a little into the other Extremity, that in their return they may abide at least in a reasonable middle. This perhaps has made so many Christian Authors and Preachers to imitate the style of the Stoicks upon the Nature of Pleasure and Pain. These People say, that Pain is no evil; and Pleasure is not a Good: We can say, they be perfectly happy in the burning Bull of Phalaris, and perfectly unhappy in tasting the greatest Pleasures. This method is not, it may be, so good, as we imagine: We foyle and dis­hearten mens Minds by requiring too much of them; and nothing is persuasive, when Truth is invested with Paradoxes, which awaketh curiosity, but distemper the Mind. After all, we can never persuade men to the [Page 132] contrary to what they feel. Cicero tells us of one of these Philosophers, who had bin blinded by the pompous reasonings of his Sect; But a great Rheum falling up­on his Eyes, which put him to horrible Tortures, pre­vailed over the Illusions of his Philosophy, and made him abandon it. When we see one of these Sages cruelly tormented upon his Bed with the Gout or Stone; and hear him say, Thou mayst do as thou wilt, O Pain, but thou shalt never make me confess, thou art an evil, we cannot keep our selves from looking upon this as a Comedy and profound Hypocrisie: Reason can do nought against Experience, nor against a Sense so lively as that of pain. The Martyrs, I conceive might be happy amidst their punishments, because they did not feel all their Pains. For I hold that their Soul by the help of Grace was so strongly taken up with the Glory and Crown they were about to receive, that hardly any Room remain'd to them for other Sentiments. The Patience of the Faithful in their Calamities arises, in my Opinion, from no other cause, than that their Souls being fixt wholly upon God, and his Heaven the Object of their Hope, do partly unite 'emselves from the Body, and give less Heed or Attention to it's An­noyances: Impatience, on the other side, is a motion of the Soul, which turns it self wholly to the Body, to be abandon'd to pain, and to feel all its racks. So that I conclude, Pain is an Evil: Which is to confess bo­dily Pleasure is a good. 'Twas my belief, I owed this Confession to them, whom we would prevail with­all to renounce sensual and fleshly Pleasures, that by this sincerity and plain dealing, we may render them more attentive to our Reasons.

We do not entreat them to renounce bodily Pleasure as an evil in its self, but as a petty and small good, that brings along after it, in its train, an incredible Multitude of mischiefs; and as a good, which is unworthy of Man born for the most noble Pleasures, and destin'd to the [Page 133] possession of the greatest Goods. What ever we do we can never rivit out of the Mind of man this Opinion; that Happiness consists in Pleasure. I will not oppose this Maxime: The chiefest beatitude consists, without doubt, in the Possession of the chiefest Good, and in this Possession the Soul tasts it's chief Pleasure. And if we please, we may call this chief Pleasure the chief Hap­piness of man. But men are terribly chows'd herein: They are persuaded, that the Soul is not capable of any true Pleasure, without it be what comes from the Body. Among men generally, a spiritual pleasure and a chimerical pleasure are all one. All those who make their felicity to consist in Contemplation and in Actions intirely removed from those, which make up carnal pleasure, pass in the World for visionary wights; this Errour springs from the Heart and Senses: And therefore I say, that in the Judgment we ought ro have of pleasures, and in the choice we ought to make thereof, we are not to consult either our Senses or our Heart. This mistake, I say, is caused by the Heart and Senses; because they believe nothing agreeable, but what is agreeable to them. We judge things good or evil only according to the relation they have to the Faculties, whereunto they raise either Pleasure or Pain: And therefore the Heart and Senses which are cor­poreal cannot be touch'd by spiritual things: They judge these cannot be agreeable, because they are sensible of no Pleasure in them: Just as a blind man, if he would judge according to the report of his Senses, undoubt­edly he would judge, that there are no colours; or if there were, they could not make any Impression upon his Senses. This is then an Imposture which we must lay open and disperse.

First of all, we ought to remember, that Man is made up of two parts, the Soul and Body: Each of these parts hath it's separate and distinct Goods. The Goods of the Mind are spiritual, and those of the Body [Page 134] necessarily corporeal. Of these two parts the Soul is infinitely the more excellent. From this, Man is pro­perly denominated, and the Body is but a Retainer to him; so that consequently, the Goods and Pleasures which belong to the Soul by its self, are infinitely great­er than those which come by the interposition of the Body. Lastly, 'tis very easie to comprehend why the Senses and the Heart judge otherwise: These being bodily Faculties, we need not wonder they hold clear­ly for bodily things. As for the Senses, this is without dispute, they are corporeal, both in their Organs and in their Operations: they perceive only the Superficies of Bodies. This is no less true of the Heart, it is cor­poreal too; for I understand by the Heart, the seat of the Passions, and the Imagination: 'tis very evident, that both these Faculties are bodily Faculties. For the Imagination is the seat wherein are represented those Images that come from the Senses and offer themselves to our Mind in the absence of Objects. The Passions also are corporeal, because they are formed by Mecha­nical Movements: This is manifest by th [...]se Characters they impress upon the Body, as the motion of the Blood, quick, slow, or precipitate; Paleness or Ruddiness of Complexion; the Fire and languishing, which they impress upon the eyes. The Senses and Heart, which are corporeal, being the Gates whereat Objects do enter and accost the mind, bring nothing to it but bodi­ly Images, and raise in it only sensual Pleasures; and the Soul hereby gets an habit of believing there are no other Pleasures besides these, since it does not endea­vour to disingage it self from the Body, and to taste others. But can it be possible we should be such ene­mies to our selves, and so irrational, as to believe our Senses touching a thing of so great Importance? The Senses are unable to know the thousandth part of Bo­dies. As soon as ever a Body ceases to have a conside­rable Extension, we cease to see and feel it; and would [Page 135] we make these very Senses to be judges of things abso­lutely Spiritual? Certainly, the Soul is very unhappy and very much a Slave, if it cannot taste that Pleasure which is its sovereign Felicity, but it must be beholden to the Body for it. If Matter be the Spring of true Pleasure, what do those Souls do, I wonder, that are separated from Matter? what must be the Beatitude of Angels, that have no Body? Is it not true, that their Pleasures ought to be as far above ours, as Minds are above Matter? Assuredly, spiritual Pleasures spring from the knowledge of Truth, from the practise of Virtue, from our union with God by the tyes of Love, and from that Action, whereby God unites himself immediately to our Soul. All this is intirely above the Senses: they are not acquainted with Truth; for their Office is to report the Appearances of Bodies: They cannot judge of Virtue; it is not under their Jurisdiction: much less can they judge of that Union betwixt God and the Soul. And yet, although they make no report to us about any of these things, we are not nevertheless to doubt of the real Impressions they make upon our Souls.

But, from whence comes it, say some, that spiritual Pleasures are not so touching and make not such strong Impressions upon the Soul, as bodily ones doe? For you see not, say they, your devout People in those Transports of Joy and Pleasure, as we see men have in the injoyment of Sensual Pleasures. Is not this a proof that those intellectual pleasures are merely imaginary, or at least that they are very weak and languishing. This difficulty arises from that men know not how to distin­guish the Soul from the body: they believe it is concern'd in proportion to the greatness of the agitations of the Bodily Organs: They are persuaded, that it cannot receive an impression of Joy, but by the interposal of these great corporeal motions. But the thing is far otherwise: 'tis certain, that in the great Plea­sures, which the Soul receives from the Body, the [Page 136] great corporeal Agitations re'ncounter one ano­ther, and it receives not those pleasures but by favour of these agitations, and because the Bloud and Spirits are in a great heat and ferment: But the Pleasures of ho­ly Persons, which are lock'd up in the Soul it self, and which exert no external Characters, do not fail to make very powerful Impression. These Pleasures are so great and so touching, that they carry the Soul out of the World: And the Joy, which springs from the possession of God, from the Knowledge of his Truth, and the imitation of his Vertues and Attributes, must needs infinitely transcend all the plea­sures of the Body: Since that for these spiritual plea­sures, we not only renounce bodily ones, but also expose our selves to all, even the most sensible pains. True it is, the more the Soul is accustomed to let its self be moved by the Agitations, which do cause corpo­real Pleasures and Passions, the more is it uncapable of tasting Internal joys and spiritual Pleasures. And this is one of the greatest mischiefs that spring from the continual use of sensuality: the Soul waxeth fat, as the holy Ghost speaketh: the heart of the Wicked is fat as grease; he hath prophaned the Rock of his Salvation. It covers its self, as it were, with flesh and bloud, and tastes nothing, but what flatters this Flesh and Bloud. And therefore among sensual Pleasures, there are permitted our Devout Person only those which are moderate. The Senses love to receive strong impressions of Objects, provided there be no wound in the case; the imagination loves also to be powerfully moved: But all these emotions make such mighty impressions upon the Soul, as it hardly can come to it self again: And therefore they ought carefully to be a­voided.

But if we would have more sensible proofs, that the heart, the passions and the senses are not to be consult­ed [Page 137] about the choice of Pleasures; let us hear experience, and cast an eye upon the disorders of the world. Such are, the consequences of this blindness in men, who follow their own heart and senses in the choice of Goods and Pleasures. Why did the first Woman lay hold on the forbidden fruit? because it was good and pleasant to the eye, she hearkened to her Heart and Senses. How did corruption arise to that high pitch in the World, that it forced God's Justice to bring upon it a terrible De­luge? Because the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair: they stopt their Ears to the voice of God, which call'd upon them; they heark'ned to the sollicitations of their own sensual heart: they took them Wives, of all which they chose, and corrupted themselves with them. Did not David commit A­dultery and Murder in a little time, because he gave ear to his senses and heart, and let his passions seduce him? did not Solomon become an Idolater, because his sinful love for Women having blinded his eyes, separated him from God, and stopt the Ears of his Soul: so as his mind heard only the voice of his Passi­ons and his Senses? Lastly, did not St. Peter deny his Lord and Master; for that his heart, his senses, his imagination made him see present Death in an affright­ful posture, and he consulted neither God nor his own reason?

We seem here to blend and confound Innocence with Sin, in speaking of our Heart and our Senses, as common Sources of our errours: Since that the Senses may seem rather to be unhappy and unfortunate than Criminal and Sinful. True, the Senses are subject to two unhappinesses. The first is, to be forced to receive Objects which are sinful, and capable of trans­ferring Images of corruption to the Heart; such are evil Examples, scandalous Actions and Words. The other misfortune of the Senses is, that they take in in­nocent [Page 138] Objects, and sometimes in an innocent manner; and these Images do spoyl and corrupt themselves in the Heart. Nevertheless, I think we ought not to separate the Senses from the Heart, they make but one and the same thing. This is a Match at the end of which lies a great heap of Gun-powder. The Heart and the Imagination are the inward extremity of this Match; they are the Magazine of Powder: The Sen­ses are the other end, to which the Objects set fire. This Fire slides, or rather it flies along the Match: It en­kindles the Imagination, and puts the Heart into a flame: And therefore the holy Spirit puts for the same thing, To walk in the ways of ones heart, and in the sight of ones Eyes.

In short, if we would be perfectly assured that our Heart and Senses are evil Counsellors in this affair, hear what the holy Scripture saith; it considers our Heart as the root of all our Evils. Every imagination of the thoughts of Man's heart is only evil continually. The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts, Mur­ders, Adulteries, Fornications, Thefts, false Witness, Blas­phemies: These are the things which defile a Man. The holy Ghost represents the Heart to us, as blind, wrapt up in a thick Cloud and profound darkness: it speaks of it, as of a kind of Death, it is of the Earth, it is carnal. How then can an Heart thus composed and fram'd judge of the true Goods and Pleasures? How can there come any thing good from a poysoned Spring. And thus we see that the Wise man puts this Maxime among the members of those we are to detest and abominate; Walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes.

I should end here, were it unnecessary to take off one Scandal that may be taken at what we have said, that sensual Pleasure is a Good, and even a Good for the Soul: For, in a word, if the Soul, be that not only [Page 139] which perceives, and which tastes Pleasure, and if Plea­sure be a Good, 'tis a Good of the Soul. If it be a good, then some will say, we are to seek and love it. It's not sufficient to answer that this is a Good of the Body only, that is not absolutly true: 'tis, in some sort the good of the Soul, because the Soul tastes it. Further, if this Good were only for the Body, yet it does not follow, it should therefore be of necessity un­lawful; since we are not always forbidden to seek the Good of the Body. But we ought not only to consider a thing in its self, to know whether it be good or bad; we must consider it in its causes and its effects, in what pre­cedes it, what may be the consequence of it. I mean, that the Pleasure which comes to the Soul by the Bo­dy, is a sort of Good considered in it self. Look upon its Source, and see to what it produces. The Source is Sin, is Impurity, is Rebellion against the law of our Creator. What it produces is a disunion between God and our Soul: 'tis a pawning our selves to Death, 'tis the pain of everlasting burnings. How can we un­der the Idea of a Good conceive a thing which is in­compast about by so many moral Impurities and such real Mischiefs? If therefore, bodily Pleasure can be called a Good with respect to the present sentiment of the Soul, it's an Evil in all other regards; it's an Evil to speak Absolutely: and therefore the wisest men of all Ages, have plac'd it among the false Goods: for a true Good ought to be good on every side we view it.

The Soul then has no true Pleasure but what arises from its union with God. And this union is fortified according to the measure that we loosen our selves from sensible things, and are united to God by the knowledge of his Truth: Not of those Verities which Philosophy seeks after, and never finds with any certain­ty, but of those Divine truths which Faith discovers to us of those wholsome Verities, which are the Candle [Page 140] of the Soul. Thy Word is a Lamp to my Feet, and a light to my Paths. It enlightens the Eyes and makes wise the simple. The second Bond, whereby we are united to God, is Virtue; the Practice of which renders us like to our Creator; renews his Image in us, and makes us to be the Copies of that Beauty whereof he's the original. The third cord is the love, with which we love God, and that by which we are beloved of him. By this Love he is in us, and we are in him; because Love makes a transfusion of Hearts, and the Soul is more in the Subject, which it loves, than in that which it ani­mates. As to the pleasures which spring from this u­nion, it is of the number of those things, which cannot be conceiv'd without they be felt. 'Tis such, that all the Pleasures of the World appear unsavoury, to them that taste it. 'Tis so great as it hath often made the Saints to fall down, who have been extraordinarily touch'd with its holy Extasies and Ravishments, which seem'd to have entirely broke the Alliance betwixt the Body and the Soul. Now without question it is, that Devotion contributes and leads to this Pleasure. It di­minishes our union with sensual things; disunites us from our Body; lifts us up to God; purifies our Souls in drawing nigh to him; makes them partake of the Beams of that great Sun of righteousness; and renders them as so many little Gods, by communica­ting with the Glory of our great God.

CHAP. VI. That young People have no Priviledge to use sensual Pleasures, nor to dispence themselves from Devotion.

ONE Reflection is still behind, which we are obliged to make before we leave this Im­portant Subject; we having done nothing yet in regard to young People. They per­suade 'emselves, it may be, that whatever hath bin say'd does not concern them: it is almost impossible to deliver them from this Errour, That Pleasure is pe­culiarly their share, and that, without Tyranny, we cannot deny it them. To them Indevotion is natural, and they reckon it a particular Honour. We should make fine work of it (say they) to become Bigots at these years, they fancy that Modesty, Wisdom, So­briety, and Temperance, are not proper for them; 'tis the business of old Men, say they, we must not make our selves ridiculous by turning Cato's and Sene­ca's. And indeed if any one of them has more happy Inclinations, he is asham'd, he dissembles 'em, he follows the Crowd. They tell him, to every thing under the Heaven there is a time. In considering old and young men, we can never believe, say they, that Per­sons so different are destin'd to the same Actions: The wrinkled forehead of old Age, the paleness of it's Complexion, hollow Eyes, chap-sallen Mouth, and Limbs all trembling, have a correspondence with the Duties of Repentance, and it's fit that they pour forth Tears and give themselves up to Mortification. But the good disposition and plumpness of Youth, that flourish of Blood, that displays it's self upon the Com­plexion, lively and sparkling Eyes, Senses eager and capable to be toucht by their Objects, very manifestly shew, that this age is born for pleasures and all manner [Page 148] of Joy. Thus it is, they flatter and hug themselves in their security. Not only young People talk at this rate, but most part of mankind agree with them in it. I cannot deny, but that the extravagancies and disor­ders of conduct in the life of an old man impress much greater marks of infamy, than the debauches of the younger sort. I must confess also, that the disorders of old age discover a greater depth of Corruption. It cannot cast it's faults upon the first boylings of the Blood, which hath much filth and scum: It cannot take the default of Experience for excuse, and, in short, it breaks the barriers of a shame much greater than that which follows the crimes of Youth. But never­theless, God will not judge men according to humane Rules and the Sentiments of the World: there is no Age, that has receiv'd a dispensation from obeying God. All the violaters of his Law shall be punisht, since his Commandments are given to all; and if so be the diffe­rence of Age put a diversity in sins in respect of Pu­nishment, this would only in the upshot go upon the More and the Less: But what will that result to; seeing, in a word, even the less unhappy must have their share in Eternal fires, and the Worm that never dyeth?

Why should young people be less obliged to Devotion? Has God given them less? On the contrary, they, as well as old men, have received of God their Being and Reason: but farther, they have vigour of Body, force of Wit, Health, Youth, and the flower of Age. Assuredly, these are particular Obligations to devote themselves to God All these advantages they have not receiv'd to consecrate them to the Devil of Lust and Voluptuousness. Is any thing too good for God? They design for him a tatter'd body, putrified Lungs, gloomy Eyes, and dry Members. In truth, God will be mightily oblig'd to them: they would give him the bottom Lees of their years, and consecrate [Page 149] to him that Age which is the sink of Life, and the Center of all Miseries: that is to say, they would give him, what the World has cast off: they act like cove­tous men, who are only liberal when they are dying: they give what they can retain no more. Believe me, all the very best we have is not too good for our God. Heretofore he would not have Victimes that had any fault, that were ill or in no good case, or that had lost any part of the Body. Do we believe he will be pleas'd to accept the Sacrifices of a spent and wasted heart, and a man, who is only the shadow of what he was once? I exhort you, that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice. But young People, that take up the resolution of being devout, when they can be no longer sinners, promise God their dead and (as it were corrupted) Bodies: for in old age, Bodies are like Phantoms, and come near to the nature of Carkasses. God has thought nothing too good for us; he has given himself for us; he who is the sovereign good, has given us his Son: he devoted him to death for us in the flower of his age; and it is just that we be devoted to his service in all our Ages.

God is not satisfied with these promises of futurity, I will give thee. He would have us speak in the present tense, I do give thee; as he does himself in speaking to us, I give you my Peace. He is called, He who is, was, and is to come: So that to him appertain all the diffe­rences of time, the past, present, future: but among these he loves the present time, and he says, I am what I am, or, he who is, and not, he who shall be. He that would be like God, and please him, must speak as he does: I am he that is righteous, holy, separate from sinners, devoted to God, consecrated to his Service.

Heretofore God required our first-fruits, and the first born of our Herds, and likewise of our Children. Abraham rose betimes in the morning to go and sacri­fice [Page 150] his Son, and God commanded that an immortal Fire should burn in his Temple for the perpetual Sa­crifice of Morning as well as Evening. This signifies, God would be served first, and our Firsts are to be consecrated to him; he wills not we should say to him, Come and follow me, if the World leaves any thing remaining thou shalt have it. He loves not those Peo­ple that say unto him, Let us first do such a thing, or go to such a place, &c. He answers them, Let the dead bury their dead, come ye and follow me. For ha­ving put your hands to the Plough, if ye look back ye are not fit for the Kingdom of God.

Few persons there are but confess, That one time or other in ones Life it is necessary to think on God; They only dispute about the time. One says, I will become a good Christian when I have finish'd my House; another, when I have made my Fortune; and young People say, when we are old and have tasted the pleasures of Life: in a word, All remit this great Affair to Futurity. Since they confess that 'tis of ab­solute necessity to give up themselves to God, and that without this, Hell and Death eternal are inevita­ble; is it not the greatest Fury and Madness to deal thus, and to remit an Affair of so great Importance to the time to come, whereof we can in no wise be assu­red? Young People, you Idolaters of Pleasure, make use of the Example of the rich man, who said in the Evening to his Soul, Eat, drink, and be merry, thou hast laid up Goods for many years; when that very Night, that Soul to which he had given such bad Counsel, was required of him. Who has given you Assurances that you shall arrive to old Age? Or have ye made a Treaty with God, that in what Estate soever Death shall surprise you Heaven shall receive you. If Death re'ncounters you, cover'd with Vices, coming from a Comedy at the Theatre, or from a Debauch at the Tipling-house, or any place more infamous, Do [Page 151] ye believe ye are in a good Condition to say at the Gate of Heaven, Lord, Lord, open unto us? It will be answer'd, Go, I know you not, ye Workers of Ini­quity: Ye will say, without doubt, We have sinned against Heaven and against thee, we are not worthy to be called thy Sons; but spare us, and impute all our Sins to our Youth. This will do nothing; God cannot in favour of Youth disannul that irrevocable Edict, Nothing impure can enter into my Holy City.

The Jewish Doctors, who frequently happen to say very good things, say, Remember thy God, and turn to him only one day before thy Death. This is ex­traordinarily well said: think therefore of thy God to day, for to morrow perhaps thou shalt dye. What do we do then when we dispose of the time to come, and say, To morrow we will set upon such a sort of Pleasure, the day after we will act a Debauch, we will live in this manner for fifty or sixty years, and after that we will think of a Retreat to God? Truly, we imitate those ambitious and visionary Princes, who, upon the only hope of making Conquests, divide be­fore-hand the Provinces, and dispose of the Govern­ments which are none of their own. To whom be­longs the time to come? Without doubt, to God on­ly, who holds it as in Store-houses, and lets it run as pleaseth him, who stops its Source, or prolongs its Current: so that when we distribute the time to come, we take upon us to bestow what is Gods and none of our own, and which perhaps never will be; and yet we destine and divide it before-hand to sundry uses. And this is the utmost Folly, even in the opinion of the World, and noted by many Proverbs that are ve­ry well known.

Since therefore it is absolutely necessary to devote our selves to God, is it not to be done when it is most easie? And I maintain, it's easier to love God and be converted to him when we are young, than in old [Page 152] Age. This seems to be a Paradox, because in that Age the Blood boils, the Flesh is vigorous, and Sin sticks to the Entrails. We have a peculiar and sove­reign taste in all worldly Pleasures. True indeed; when once we have let the Reins loose to Concupis­cence in our Youth, it is well nigh impossible to stop its impetuous Passion and Fury. It ought to dry up the Springs, that it may put an end to these Disorders. But if in good time we turn our Souls to God, and to Devotion, it is sure, we shall improve therein incom­parably much better than in old Age: to what thing oever young Men are carried, they are carried to it with Violence and Ardour. 'Tis the Temper of that Age; if there be a good Conduct made of those first Fires, there will thence arise an excellent Zeal, and an holy fervour of Devotion, as we see in them who know how to make a right use, and serve themselves of the Rapidness of Torrents and Rivers, to turn Mills and Machines of great advantage to the Life of Man­kind. On the contrary, Experience teaches us, that Devotion relents and slackens with Age, and old men are more put to it to chafen and heat their Hearts in pious Duties: their Soul is hard'ned, 'tis not touch'd nor moved with so much ease, because it is not so ten­der as it was, the fire of Zeal seeming to be diminish'd by the diminution of natural heat.

Whence come the Difficulties we meet withal in the work of Conversion? Certainly, none of them there are but what augment and encrease with Age. This difficulty of thinking on God proceeds from Cu­stom and Habit. Now Custom by Age becomes a Ty­rant: it comes from the Devil; and when once it has establish'd its Tyranny by a long Possession, 'tis almost impossible to destroy it. At first it comes alone by it self, but in a little while it is call'd Legion, and such a Devil as cannot be conjur'd out by a Get thee behind me Satan, and cannot be chased away but by Prayer [Page 153] and Fasting. Again, our Faculties are us'd to it, and the Soul loses its strength, it is no longer capable of a Design and Enterprize so vigorous, as to turn to God and break with Sin. In short, this Difficulty proceeds from that God leaves off calling upon, and inviting and offering his Grace; and his Patience is changed into a just Fury and Indignation when it has been a long time abus'd.

But above all, let us consider how strong the Habits of Luxury and Debauchery do become when we per­mit them to take Root, and let 'em arrive even to old Age. The young Plant which might be pluck'd up with one hand, is now a trunck of immense Greatness, which resists the Hatchet and Wedge. This little Monster, the love of Voluptuousness, which might have been easily stifled at its Birth, is become so great and so terrible, as there is now no attacking nor fighting with it. Sins simply considered, do not be­come more strong by Age, their number is multipli­ed. These are Snow-Balls, that wax bigger and big­ger in rowling: these are Torrents, which swell big­ger the farther they remove from their Spring-head: 'twas an easie matter at first to pass over them on foot, but now one cannot cross them by swimming. Now the number of multiplied Sins augments the difficulty of Devotion and Conversion. We read in the Life of the Holy Fathers, That an Angel made one of those solitary Inhabitants of the Desart to see in a Vision an old Man, that cut Wood in the Forest, to get a Burthen for his Back, with design to carry them away. When the Fardle was extreamly big he essay'd to lift it up upon himself; but finding it too heavy, he let it fall to the ground, and fell a cutting new Wood, and added it to his Burthen; whereupon, he endeavoured again to lift it up, but that was more impossible for him than before. Nevertheless, it tumbling down again he put more Wood to it still: and this he did several [Page 154] times. The solitary Person admir'd the Folly of this old Man, till the Angel took up his Speech, and said, Thou see'st this old Man, he is the Emblem of World­lings, they heap Sins upon Sins; a design of lifting themselves up to God comes across; presently they sink under the burthen of their Sins: They begin a­gain to commit new Crimes, as if this burthen by en­creasing would become much lighter. When they have push'd on their Excesses a good way, a new de­sire of devoting themselves to God overtakes them, but the burthen of their Sins is become very great, and consequently the motions of Elevation are the more difficult. This Parable was composed for our Subject, and against those unhappy People that dedicate their youthful years to the Pleasures of the World, and re­mit the practise of Devotion, and the lifting up of their Souls to God to another time.

St Austin, in expounding the History of Lazarus his Resurrection, asks, why our Lord employs Sighs, Tears, Prayers, and a loud voice to raise him again from the dead, which he did not do for the others, whom he reviv'd? as for the young man of Naim, whose biere he toucht only, and Jairus's Daughter, to whom he only said, Talitha Cumi, Maid, arise. 'Tis says he, because Lazarus had been dead four days. Our Lord would give us an Image of the Difficulty to be met withall in a sinners Conversion, when he is confirm'd in his sin. The first day, says that Father, is that of Pleasure which we taste in the sin. The second is that of Consent. The third is that of Love and Application [...]o the pleasure of the sin: and the fourth is mere Custom and Habit. When we are come to this, we cannot be raised again, we cannot be converted to God but by Cries and Tears, and the Voice of the Lord fruit­ful in Miracles. This, methinks, makes us comprehend well the interest we have to think on God in due time, and to consecrate our Youth to Devotion. I [Page 155] know very well, that the end obtains the Crown, but I know too, that 'tis of the highest importance to be­gin well, that we may end happily. An Arrow which wanders and slides from towards the Butt, just as it parts from the Bow, will be found at a monstrous distance from the Butt before it comes to its journeys end. One, that in his youth is plung'd into debauchery, and abandons himself to sensual pleasures, will find himself far remov'd from God in his old age, he must take a great deal of trouble to bring himself back again from such an Aloof. And therefore, I conclude with the wise man, Young man, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth.

CHAP. I. The first General Advice is, to will, desire, and ask Devotion.

WE have seen from how many Sources Indevotion springs; let us now try to vanquish those Difficulties, by some Advices that may lead us to Devotion. Those Advices I would give here, are either general or particular. But before I pass further, we are to presup­pose, that he whom we would make devout must have a Mind himself to become so: he that has not this Dis­position will very unprofitably pass farther. How many indevout persons have we in the World, that do not desire Devotion for themselves, and contemn it in others? Of this sort we find some that are so hardy as to perswade themselves they have a Religion. I am, it may be, says one, as religious as another, though I laugh at Devotion and devout Persons. If they believe what they say, most assuredly they cheat their own Heart; and we must confess, that these People are re­ally profane. Others there are that esteem Devotion in another, and yet like it not for themselves: it doth not fit right with the Spirit of the World, which they make their Idol. They approve the better side, they admire it, but they fancy, as to their own particular, they may be saved with less Trouble. I know not whether these be better than the former; yet they are a little nearer to the Disposition we seek after: but still, alas! in how bad a Condition is their Consci­ence? [Page 160] They are in this worse than the former, that they sin against their own Sentiment; they know their Masters Will, and do it not. They are afraid of doing too much; provided they be sav'd, it's of no great Importance how. What a thought is this! Is not Paradise worth the purchasing at the Expence of some Tears, some Prayers, some hours of Humilia­tion? And how can we imagine we can obtain Hea­ven by the less, since we shall find a hard Task to ar­rive thither by the greater? If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the Ʋngodly and the Sinner appear? Do ye believe, ye backward and lukewarm Souls, that a truly devout Person has too much Righteousness to open to himself the gate of Heaven? Do not you know that all the World praises that Saying of St. Au­stin, Woe to the most praise-worthy Life, if it be examined without Mercy; and what the Psalmist says, If thou should'st mark Iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? I speak of the Iniquities of the Righteous. If those truly devout Persons have not over-much Righteous­ness, you will strangely want it then who come so much behind them: but ye say, God will supply what is lacking; for this did Christ Jesus dye, that we might obtain his Grace and Favour in the midst of our Infirmities. But how do ye know that the Blessed Jesus would this, does not he do what liketh him best with his own? You ought therefore to take the surer side. What assurance have ye that God gives his Grace thus to those that slight it? Although you could do it, the mercy of the Lord will have employ enough; and your righteousness, though pusht on to the extre­mity of your strength, will still have need of Supple­ments to attain to Glory.

There are other Indevout People, which are still a lit­tle farther off than the former. They would have a good deal of Devotion, but they are not yet come to desire it; that is to say, the motions of their Will towards it are [Page 161] very imperfect. I would willingly become so (says one) but I cannot; the World bears me away, my Affairs wholly take me up, the temper and frame of my Body and Soul have not the necessary Turn for the practise of this Virtue; I do what I would not, and what I would that do I not; for the law of my members continues Mistress of the Law of my mind: they are not much afflicted at the not having that which they wish, and it is a certain proof that they wish it very feebly. In this Estate, how far from Perfection must the Con­science needs be! This is not to love God with all the Soul; this is to seek him with the least part of the heart, and to desire him with a most imperfect Will. To will Devotion at that rate is, to take the way never to obtain it: for the Soul does not surmount the difficul­ties but by heartning it self against them, and by acting with all its might and vigour. Judge then, if an Heart in this looseness can attain one of the most difficult things in the World. We have seen how many strong Passions ruine and destroy Devotion; the Love of the World, its Pleasures, and its Vexations. If to these passions, so violent and head-strong, you oppose, I know not what imperfect desires it is but the Fight of Dwarfs against Gyants.

So that the first general Counsel I give to attain De­votion, is, to desire it ardently. Some will say, that they who desire it, have it already: but that is no neces­sary conclusion. Some motions there are, whereof we are not the Masters, and oftentimes we passionately desire a thing we are not able to effect, although it de­pend upon our Will. Most terrible is the tyranny of Habits, and the cords of Sin are difficult to break. St. Austin most divinely paints out to us the motion of such a Soul, as would elevate it self to God but cannot; ‘I panted after the liberty of thinking only on thee, O my God, but I sighed, being still tyed up, not by foreign Chains, but by those of my own will, which [Page 162] were harder than Iron. The Devil held it in his Power; he had bound it fast. I had a Will to serve thee with the purest Love, and to enjoy thee, O my God, in whom alone is to be found a solid and true Joy; but this new Will, which was but still-born, was not capable of conquering that other which had fortified it self by a long habit in Sin.’ Behold the Picture of a Christian Soul, that wishes to be truly devout, would only think on God and love him, but cannot. Nevertheless, how happy is such a Soul and near to Devotion! When we seek God we are on the Eve of finding him. This is that Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness to which the Lord pro­mises a Refreshment. These Desires are the effects of Grace: but if Nature doth nothing in vain, with much stronger Reason does Grace. These Desires therefore cannot be fruitless, they will obtain their end, they will be filled one day. There's hardly any thing but wherein the vigour of the Soul, and the force of the Desires, hit their mark: and hereby, ra­ther than by the strength of his Armies, did the Great Alexander vanquish the World, gain so many Battels, take so many Cities, and trample on the Necks of conquered Nations: when things necessary to the Accomplishment of his Designs fail'd him, the vigour of his Courage, that is, the force of his Desires, served instead of them. If the Desires can perform so much in things without us, and independent on our Will, what cannot they do in that which depends thereon, and is vertually our Will it self?

To make these pious desires succeed, we are to call God to our aid: these are younglings, that he has cau­sed to be born, and 'tis his Interest to nourish them; these be the Aurora of that Sun, who doth not fail to come and fully enlighten us, provided he be invok'd with fervour. Here is therefore another Adviso, which is but a Corollary and a Deduction from the former: [Page 163] We must ask of God the grace of Devotion, and in his presence groan after what we have not. If there be any favour of our Vows and Tears, if there is any Gift that comes immediately from Heaven, 'tis this Virtue; for nothing is more pure and more elevated among the Christian Virtues. If any of you lack Wisdom, says St. James, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberal­ly, and upbraideth not. I know not, whether there be my part of Christian Wisdom more desirable than this. Of God we ask our daily Bread, our Food and Ray­ment, health of Body, and cure of our Diseases: but the Soul is sick, poor, and dying, when depriv'd of De­votion, which is its Fire, Soul, Life. In a word, there is no­thing to which we may more assuredly apply the pro­mise of St. James, that God refuseth no body, but gives to all liberally; since it is the Prayer of the World, which is most agreeable to him, because it tends whol­ly to his Glory and our own Salvation. We ask of God, that he would please to enter into us, and that we may enter into him, to be perfectly united to him by a mutual tye: And how cannot this be well-pleasing to God, seeing our Lord Christ himself, the model of our thoughts and actions, hath asked the same thing for us; That I may be in them and they in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Here therefore we ought to begin our Instructions, and the Faithful are to begin their Work: for if nothing can be done without God of what doth not regard him, how can we do that without him, which depends immediately upon him, and is termi­ [...]ated in him.

CHAP. II. The second general Advice: To lead an holy Life, and practice all the Vertues.

WE have already said somewhat of the necessity of living well, to become truly devout; but the Subject is too important to make a halt or stop there. And therefore let us now consider, that there is no Union more streight than that of a faithful Soul with [...]s God in the acts of Devotion; 'tis a secret com­merce; 'tis to see God face to face, and speak with him as one intimate Friend speaks with another. All that is conceiv'd of the Union betwixt the Husband and the Wife, between the Father and the Son, betwixt the Body and a Member, is not strong enough to repres [...]nt [...]o us the Union of a Soul that flies to Heaven upon [...]he Wings of Hope and Faith, and to which God dis­covers the inestimable treasures of his Love. God [...]nters into it and it into God, and so they be­ [...]me one. But who do [...]h not see, that to smooth [...]he way to himself towards so strict an union, he must be [...]ure even as he is Pure? the h [...]avenly Lamp suffers no [...]vening, nor mixture of Day or Night. God who is [...]ight cannot be united to a Soul that is in Darkness.

If there be any Vertue, for which we are owing to the Holy Ghost's presence in us, it is Devotion. Now we know well enough, by what we may obtain this presence of the H. Spirit. 'Tis not by the magnificence of the house, but its neatness: when the evil Spirit goeth out of the house and at his return findeth it swept and garnished, he returns asham'd, and cannot enter thereinto without the help of six other Spirits more wicked than himself. That which drives the evil Spirit away, attracts the holy one? and he does not make our heart to be his Temple, unless we banish thence all Impurity. Moses carves and polishes two Tables of Stone, God engraves his Law thereon. A Painter cleanses his linnen-cloth before he draws on it the Picture of a Prince. We have two carnal tables of the Heart, the Understanding and Will: but we are not to hope, that God will write his Laws, or the H. Ghost paint his Image thereon, unless they be neat and polished. Thou devout and pious Soul, which wishest to see God abiding in thee, and his love in thy heart, cleanse the table of thy Understanding from those many Errours, Prejudices, fond Imaginations and evil thoughts, cleanse the table of thy Will from those sinful Inclinations and vicious Habits. When both these tables shall become blank and white, undoubtedly God will come to paint and engrave his Image thereon.

Devotion is an entrance into Gods Cabinet; He brought me, says the Spouse, to the Banquetting-house, but no one enters there unless he have the Wedding-Garment on, and be gracefully deck'd with Faith, Hope, and Charity; unless he put on the Lord Jes [...] Christ, and the Bowels of Mercy, of a meek Mind, o [...] Righteousness and Holiness. Devotion is an Elevatio [...] of the Soul, and Sin a Clog to it: If we burthen the Soul with these Weights, how shall it lift it self up? We are therefore to discharge our Heart of one Sin to day, to morrow of another, to subdue Covetousness [...] [Page 167] one day to attack Pride, another Ambition; and the more thy Heart is thus engag'd, the more free will thy Devotion be. Above all, we ought to remember that our Heart is the most delicate and tender part of us; there's no need of putting it into Disorder: We overthrow it with Age; but to re-establish it is the utmost Difficulty. It is the eye of the Soul; any chip, any grain of Dust is able to destroy it. It is Milk, which is corrupted by the Air's Motion only, and by Thunder; 'tis a Lute that is put out of Tune by unsea­sonable Distempers of the Air: and certainly, true Sanctification has more parts than a Lute hath strings; so that this holiness of the Heart is ruined by the dis­order of one of those parts, as one bad Sound destroys all the Harmony of a Consort: and therefore, with a wonderful Care we ought to guard our Heart and eve­ry part thereof. The Soul resembles a Sea, and it's Passions the Winds: If you do not bridle and keep in these Passions, they will raise terrible Tempests in the Sea; and Devotion, which is a peaceable Vertue, will scarce be heard. Every Passion carries the Heart to it self, and Devotion, being a Stranger, and standing only by it self, will never gain it.

There is, most assuredly, a very near Relation be­twixt Words and Actions; they come from the same Source, and the same Heart produces them: where­fore, I think, we cannot better employ the Mouth than to sing the Praises of God; nor the Mind, than to con­ [...]emplate his Wonders; nor the Soul, than to lift it self up by Piety and the practise of good Works. We have said, that a Man is ill disposed in coming from a Ball or Comedy, to fall to pious Ordinances. On [...]he quite contrary, I say, that in returning from the House of Mourning, where he has comforted the Af­ [...]icted, succour'd the Miserable, sustained the Weak, [...]ed the Poor, and defended the Oppress'd, he finds himself in such a Gayety of Heart, and such a Dispo­sition [Page 168] to Prayer, as is inconceivable. He comes to God with the Lightness and Alacrity of a Servant, who presents himself before his Master, after having done his Duty, to obtain the Reward: for, although he acknowledges he deserves nothing at God's hands, yet he knows, that God liberally recompenseth us for what we do only by the help of his Grace. He ap­proaches to the Altar with the Confidence of a Sub­ject that appears before his Prince with Presents, which he knows are capable of opening the way to his Heart: for, though our good Works be most imper­fect Gifts, that hold not what they have good in them but from God's Liberality, nevertheless, he is not ig­norant, that he accepts them as if they were of great Price. Insomuch, as I will not make any difficulty to say, that the Ancients and Moderns, who have distin­guish'd the Active Life of a Christian from the Contem­plative, and have believed, that this can be with­out that, and even that the Contemplative Life was far more excellent than the other, are assuredly in a great errour: for, by seperating the Active life, which consists in doing good to our Neigh­bour, and practising Charity to the afflicted and misera­ble, from the contemplative life, to which they belie­ved they could give themselves up entirely, they have certainly depriv'd Devotion of a very great help. I have already confess'd there to be no need, that the Imployments of Martha, which have regard to the bo­dily Service of our Saviour and his Members, should take away from us the time consecrated to Mary's works, to rea­ding Meditation and Prayer. But we have time enough for all: When Mary shall have been sufficiently heard, then its fit she take the place of Martha. Wherefore I would not counsel him that wou'd attain to perfect Devotion, to renounce that part of the World which consists of the afflicted Members of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the School of Virtue and Piety; and [Page 169] so far is it, that this practise of works of Mercy can distract devout Souls, that it is the readiest and surest way to arrive at Devotion. The Ideas of the World I confess are incompatible with those wherewith a devout Soul ought to be fill'd: A tragical event, the sight of a triumph, the hope of a fortune for one's self, the grandeur of that of another, a duel, a warr, all this (I say) hath no alliance with the sweet Images of God, of his Love and Benefits. Wherefore it's good to shut and bar the Door against these first Re­presentations, if we would with success labour to esta­blish others in their room: but the Images of a man languishing upon the Bed of Sickness, or another, that suffers for God's sake agrees easily with the thought of our Lord Christ suffering for us. A multitude of poor Creatures, to whom thou openest thy Bowels, will easily lead thee to the Consideration of those Libe­ralities, thou receivest from God. The aid thou shalt lend one to defend his Life, another for the defence of his Honour and Reputation, will oblige thee to think on the Benefits and Helps, thou continually receivest from Heaven. Thou shalt have no manner of need to banish the thoughts that attend an Active life; lodge those in their place, which spring from Contem­plation: They will be united in the same heart, and lend one another mutual Succour.

CHAP. III. The third general Direction; To be watchful over the Senses, and not let the Heart loose.

SO near a eommerce is there between the Heart and the Senses, that our strife would be in vain to guard the one, unless we set a strict watch over the other. The Heart is the House; the Senses are the Gates and Windows. And hereat does the Devil enter and seises on our Souls. This Ene­my prepares so many batteries without as we have external Senses, and if we escape Death on one side, he sends it us on the other. Notwithstanding, this we may say in vindication of the Senses, that they are more unhapy than criminal: they have a sensation of what they ought to have according to thc order of Creation: and even the greatest part of Ideas, which come to 'em, are innocent, but they are spoyled in arriving at the Heart. The beauty of a Woman, the glitter of Gold and Silver and precious Stones, the sweetness of vocal Musick are the works of God, and consequently they cannot be evil: but 'tis the Heart poysons these innocent Images. Nevertheless, since the Heart doth not scatter it's poyson but upon the Objects which are presented to it, we should take away the matter of its Crimes, and it's mischievous Habits would be assuredly destroy'd and lost, if they wanted Employment; and therefore it's of absolute necessity to have a constant guard over the Senses. I made an agreement with mine Eyes, says an holy man, not to look upon all Women. This has been ever the custom of those who would become truly devout, to hold their Souls shut up to the multitude of Objects that might assault 'em on all sides. True it is, the usage of this Max­ime has bin pusht on and wrested even to Superstition: some have voluntarily banisht themselves into Desarts, that they might see nothing at all: Others have lock'd [Page 173] themselves up in Cells and Caves never to come forth. And History tells us of an Egyptian Hermit, who would never agree to let his Sister have the Pleasure of see­ing of him. He receiv'd Order from his Superiour, at the intreaty of Athanasius to go and visit her: he went, but he presented himself before her with his Eyes shut, and would by no means see her: Glut thy self quickly (sayd he to her) with the sight of me. These excesses do a greater wrong and injury to Reason, than they bring help to Devotion. The Soul draws a vast aid from its senses, when it knows how to make a good use of them. To stop all the Avenues, where­by Knowledge may arrive to the Soul, is to keep it in a darksome and lonely Prison, and nourish it in Ig­norance. What is true herein is, that 'tis dangerous for it to be concern'd about evil Objects; because it carries thence a tincture which indisposes it for Devo­tion. 'Tis no less dangerous to permit it to meddle too much with indifferent Objects, since this dissipates its strength, and evermore it returns with somewhat of the Vain air of those Courses, it takes Abroad.

This is the way of the Worlds living: we give, we receive Visits; we expose our selves to con­versation, that is, to the contagion of every Comer. The eyes are always open'd to see new Objects; the Ears to hear News: Vain is our Discourse; we say there a thousand impertinences and more of evil than good things. One willl entertain you with a Dress; Another with a little intrigue of the Town: Others will pour profane or back-biting discourses into your Breast. One will carry you to see a new House, or any fine building: One lately come from a new World will tell you strange things, and enlarge his Recitals with Stories and Miracles, which he himself had been concern'd in: and your Soul will return to your House charged with these Toys and Gew-gaws. When it would enter into its Closet, it's certain, it will not find [Page 174] the Heart in its ordinary Dispositions: and upon that account it is the more difficult to be Devout in great Cities, where you can scarcely defend your selves from these Amusements; so that I would advice the faith­ful Soul to keep its self up close. The Souls of world­ly people are like to your great Streets, they are open to every Comer; we are never there but in a crowd: and Devotion, which loves Privacy, is not pleased with these publick places. These are Inns where all Stran­gers are lodg'd well, and the Master lyes oft out of Doors: But the heart of the faithful Person ought to be for himself, and God who is its Master, is to be ever at Large. A Garden inclosed is my Sister, my Spouse; a Spring shut up, a Fountain sealed, says Jesus Christ to his Spouse, that is, to every Christian Soul. Lock up this Garden, if thou wouldst preserve the Flowers and Fruits, and let not the purity of thy living Waters be corrupted by unclean Beasts. Temples and Oratories are not to be accessible to the prophane: our Hearts are the Temples of the holy Ghost; and therefore let us shut the Gates against a thousand indiscreet Ideas and vain Objects, that would prophane them. The Soul is a vessel which Grace fills with sweet Odours; but we should not give it too much Air, otherwise it would eva­porate and become insipid. If the vessel be full it can receive nothing new without losing what it had before. If it be filled with Devotion, and we bring it into the World, according to the measure it is filled with Vani­ties, these Vanities will send what it had good a packing away. 'Tis a truth we are to fix in our memories, that at all times we make any sally into the World, we lose so much of our own. Dinah went out to see the Daughters of the Land, and she lost her best ornament, the flower of her Virginity. But especially let us re­member, that in seeking out harmless Objects, we do not meet with sinful ones: every where the Devil is in ambush, he has made Nets of the very Roses. Sin [Page 175] reigns in all places; so that if we slip aside but a little, we most certainly meet with it; and then we shall find it a very difficult matter to avoid Infection.

But what shall we say of those, that with a set de­sign go into places, where they are sure Sin domineers, and Vice triumphs? After having lost half of their time in preparing themselves for a Ball, they will give the other part to the D [...]vil, and plunge themselves into criminal Pleasures. These people are deliberate murtherers of themselves in Ambush, and God will most justly de­mand of them an account of their Souls. Of all this, I conclude that the Devout Person ought to be very reserved as to the World, that he is not to be seen but by very few, and to see much fewer, and that he ought to get rid of that vain curiosity to know what passes therein. 'Tis enough for him to know what passes in his own heart, and well to regulate all its motions: Of what Importance to him is it to learn what is be­come of such a Fleet, what success had such a Battel, how prospered such a Negotiation, how goe the trea­ties on of Peace, or the preparatives for War? The knowledge of all this cannot make him happy: these are only Ideas, which are heapt in the memory, and thence do not fail to make an irruption upon his Heart amidst his pious Duties.

CHAP. IV. The fourth general Direction; To persevere in holy Duties, and not to startle at any Difficulties.

WE have not represented Devotion as an easie thing to obtain, and therefore the Faithful need not be surpriz'd to meet with difficulties therein; much less are they to withdraw and despond: 'tis a new Ad­vice I gave here to obtain it. Every upright Soul has frequently made experience, that in being willing to lift it self up it has found the Wings of its Devotion clogged either by worldly Vanities or the sluggishness of the Flesh: in this Estate, if it relax, it is undone. These Desires, so necessary (as we have seen) must have Action and Courage joyn'd to them. Solomon speaks in his Proverbs of the Motion of an idle Man, whose whole Strength was exhausted in desires: He always makes the best Resolutions in the World, but [Page 178] never stirs out of his place. This laziness of the Soul perhaps might be what Solomon refers so much to; for he hath hardly a Chapter, but [as he passes along] he has a hit at the Sluggard. This sluggishness of the Soul is the Vice of those who drain themselves dry in praising Vertue, and reserve no strength to run after and attain it. The falsly devout one does the same thing; he praises, he desires it, but he yields to the first Temptation his Devotion meets withal. But dost not thou know, that all Great things are difficult? Doth a Pilot abandon his Vessel at the first rough Blast of Wind? Doth not a Rower, that goes against the Stream of a rapid River, struggle stiffly to resist the Water? He holds on, tugs, wipes his Fore-head, takes Courage, and at last he overcomes. Does a Merchant renounce all Traffick for one loss; or a Courtier all his hopes for one ill turn of Fortune? Every one strives to regain by Diligence what his Dis­grace had taken away from him. We must also re­solvedly bend our selves against Indevotion; and when we perceive our Heart ill dispos'd, its motions lan­guishing, and its Devotions travers'd by Wand'rings, we are to quell and take our Heart lower till we have brought it to its Duty; we are to read, meditate, pray, let it be never so much against the Grain. ‘Although the Devil comes to fill your Mind with evil thoughts, (says St. Basil) you ought not therefore to abandon the use of Prayer; you are to make new and great­er Endeavours. You must pray to God he would be pleas'd to break this thick Wall of vain thoughts which separates you from him: you must beseech him, that your Soul may be able soon to get to him without being retarded by meeting vain and evil Objects. And if the Enemy should come even with a plentiful supply of Distractions, yet you are not to give back, nor lose any Courage, nor renounce Vi­ctory in the midst of the Combate. You must per­severe, [Page 179] till God, perceiving your Constancy, come to fill you with the light of his Spirit, put the Ene­my to flight, purifie your Understanding, and fur­nish your Reason with a divine Light, whereby your Soul, being put into the Possession of a Tranquillity exempt from Troubles, may serve God with a per­fect Joy.’ This holy Person insinuates a Reason to us, which we ought to remember in the design of Perse­verance; which is, That the Devil never leaves off tempting us; therefore we are not to leave off resist­ing him: our resistance doth not make him give back, so that we must not be foiled by his Temptations. God, who is the Spectator of our Warfare, and the Rewarder of our Labours, will with Pleasure see the faithful Soul in conflict with it's Infirmities and Distra­ctions, and when it is well nigh being subdued, will come at length and lend it his helping hand.

Perseverance is a vertue of such great use, that we owe to it the best works of Nature, of Art, and of Grace. If God had left the World imperfect, instead of a Miracle, he had made a Prodigy. There are particularly certain works, to which the last-hand is so essential, that if we do not conclude them, what had been begun, doth intirely perish. If you leave a Picture after its first rough-drawing and design, these beginnings will not cease subsisting upon the cloath: but if you carry a wheel half way upon an hill, and then leave it to it self for a moment; why, presently it will get to the Valley's bottom again, and your la­bour will not only be imperfect, but will come just to nothing. Devotion is of this last sort of things: if you leave it half done, what you had done, will soon perish. 'Tis Penelope's web; what is done by day, is undone by night. If thy life be not a perpetual day, and if thou dost not incessantly toil to advance thy Pie­ty by Practice, one night only form'd by the darkness of Indevotion and the absence of Gods Grace, will ruine [Page 180] the work of many yeats, and one minute of laziness will destroy that which Courage, upheld a long time, had produced. Thy Devotion, O Christian Soul, is no more than a spark. Nourish this sacred fire preciously, blow it without remission, gather combustible matter to it from all sides; make thee a treasure of good things, turn oft towards Jesus Christ, thy Sun and thy Star, and this small sparkle will become a great fire, and this fire will cause a kindling, and that kindling will cast up flames, and those flames will lift thee to Hea­ven: But if thou neglect this spark, it will go quite out. Sampson delivers himself up into the arms of Dalilah, he sleeps in her breast, his hair is shav'd, which is the seat of his strength, and when he awakes he goes ac­cording to custom to take away the gates of Gath, and break the cords of the Philistines, but he doth not find himself the same Sampson. So the Christian that is weakned by a non-assiduity to Devotion, sleeps in the arms of Pleasure; his Soul is enervated: he thinks to return to his old wont of having commere with God, but the Devil attacks and overthrows him by a load of evil thoughts, under which his Devotion lyes bound as by so many Chains.

If the Heavens should stop only for a day, perhaps there would follow a general slaughter and subversion of Nature; and much more without doubt the infe­rior things would receive a considerable damage. When the superior part of our Soul stops its divine motions, we cannot question but that a great disorder arises in the lower part: for the passions which would ever be the masters, do manage wisely these moments of Re­laxation to prepare a Revolt. So that our Piety and Devotion must have the constancy, swiftness and order of the heavenly motions, so as this little World may be always in a good Estate. Nothing should hinder or interrupt the course of Devotion. You see Daniel, all the terrours of Death could not stop him in his di­vine [Page 181] race. He must be cast into the den of Lions; if he invokes God; yet this hinders him not from falling down at his set hours towards Jerusalem, the holy City Above all, let us be far from the way of the World, that runs to its own affairs, as if they were the most pressing. Let us give to God preferably, what belongs to him: and let us be at no farther trouble for the rest. 'Tis said of the Serpent, that he secures his head, when he is pursued, and exposes his body, if he can't save it. The hours consecrated to Devotion are the head of our life, and 'tis an holy prudence not to expose them but to draw them out of Danger, least the Devil and the World devour them.

In short, persevering is far better than violent De­votion, 'tis much better to go a little pace, but to be going always, that to run impetuous, yet interrupted races. Some are devout only by fits: for a day, no­thing more ardent, more humble, more mov'd; but on the morrow so well dryed up in the torrent of their Tears, that you can't see so much as the tracks of 'em. The ardency of this fever is so extremely well quench'd as the least heat is not to be found. A con­stant mediocrity is preferable before these Excesses of a small Duration. Not that I think it not very ne­cessary, that Devotion have its Festivals, and labour ex­traordinarily to rewaken it self on certain dayes and times. These are the Extraordinaries of Piety, to which we are to return as frequently as we can, and mainly never to want it at times destin'd to pious Uses and Works; as the participation of the blessed Sacrament of our Lord's Body and Blood: But beside these Extraordinaries, I would have the Soul have it's ordinary course well regulated; and if that cannot be done always with those great motions, as it were to be wisht, yet that it never fall in the least in the Respites and Intermissions.

CHAP. V. The fifth general Direction to help Devotion: To have God always before our Eyes.

THis is a Remedy for most Mischiefs, but 'tis particularly so against Indevotion. I shall say by and by, that the Faithful ought to have their hours of Devotion wherein to retrace expresly the Idea's of the Divinity in their Mind, and awaken it to remember his Benefits and [Page 184] Graces: But this is not what I mean at present; I speak of that continual, and (as it were) habitual Thought of God, which is never to be abandoned. 'Tis a delicate and most spiritual Meditation, which comes a cross to rob our worldly Affairs of those Mo­ments which it consecrates to Heaven: 'Tis a sublime Operation of an Understanding illuminated by the light of Grace, that finds God all in all, that mixeth him in all our Actions, and spieth him out in all Ob­jects. 'Tis an act of the Soul, whereby, amid humane Affairs, it turns without Violence to God-ward, tho­rough an Habit it has acquir'd. It makes all things to be as so many Ladders to scale Heaven, and all Ob­jects to put one in mind of God. An Artificer while he is working, a Traveller in his Journey, a Scholar in his Study, will find means to sanctifie what each does, in causing God to intervene by pious Reflecti­ons. Let the Lamb follow thee, O faithful Soul, whi­thersoever thou goest, that thou may'st be able one day to follow him whither he shall go. If thou art lying down in thy Bed, think on the Tomb of thy Sa­viour, who, for thy Salvation, was pleased to enter in­to the Chambers of Death. Art thou near falling on sleep, think on Christ, whose eyes were shut by the sleep of Death. An Infant just born will recall to thee the thought of thy Lord's Abasement and Humility in his Birth. An unhappy Person that suffers for his sins, will bring thee to think on Jesus, who suffered for thine. One that asks an Alms, will ask it for Christ his sake, or will tell thee, that he became poor, that thou might'st be rich. In a word out of all things 'tis easie for thee to extract an Occasion to think on thy God. What shall I say of the Objects of Nature, that put thee in mind of him almost against thy Will? If thou risest betimes, thou canst not see the Sun rising, without thinking on him, that has made this work, and with­out being reminded of the Sun of thy Soul, who pours [Page 185] forth the gleams of his Grace into thy Heart, to dis­perse thence all Darkness. The Woods, the Rivers, the Mountains, the Feilds cover'd with harvest Corn, the Trees, Fruits, Flowers, all in short will entertain and complement thee with thy God: For the Heavens declare the Glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy Work. The Flyes and Worms themselves speak this, since we see the Divinity showing in them: For as St Austin says well, this worker in such a manner ap­pears great in great things, that he does not appear less great in the least of his works.

We are therefore to form an Habit to our selves of thinking on God, even while we do every thing, and this will be the true way of doing well, what we do, and engaging God to do it with us. Now there are some Employments, which take not the Soul intirely up. A workman at his work, or a woman in such concerns as are ordinary to that Sex, will roul about in their Imagination a thousand Chimerical designs, wan­der up and down every where, and think of an hun­dred things successively: But what is it, restrains 'em from giving up to God that part of their Soul and At­tention, which they deduct from their other work? why will they not think of their Redeemer, of the Ob­ligations they have to him, and the Acknowledgement and Recollection, which they rather owe to him than to a vain chat and conversation, they have had some where or other, or some adventure, the recital of which had diverted them. ‘We are carefully to guard out heart, says a father of the Church, and never to let the thought of God to abandon it, for fear the memory of God's wonderfull doings should be stifled under the croud of vain thoughts. We ought to do it in such sort, that by a continual re­membrance the thought of the Deity be fixt in us like the indelible impression of a Seal and Wax.’ [Page 186] This is not so impossible as some at first sight may imagine it; for a Soul truly devout thinks on God not only without any trouble, but frequently without per­ceiving what lead it to think on him. Thy praise, says holy David, shall be continually in my Mouth! Upon which the same Author, (whom we have occa­sion for almost every where) makes this Question: ‘How can this be done? Can a man in the midst of humane Affairs and Conversations have the praises of the Lord in his Mouth? When he sleeps, when he drinks, when he eats, and even when he holds his Peace, can he sing the Praises of God? I answer, says he, there is within man an intellectual Mouth, whereby he receives the Word of Life, which is his heavenly Bread; nought hinders him from ha­ving always the praises of God in his Mouth: and I say that the thought of God being ingrav'd and (as it were) sealed on the upper part of the Soul, may be call'd a praise, that never leaves the Heart.’

In short, we cannot conceive how mighty an help to Devotion this is. When we are to seek God a far off, the Soul wanders in the way: but if it holds God always near it, it cannot be to seek for him. O how easie is it to put the Heart into the steps of De­votion, and the ways of its Saviour, when it never lo­ses the sight of him! If you let a Furnace grow wholly cold, it cannot be heated again without great trouble and cost; but if you take care to keep up the fire with a little refreshing, you will conserve that de­gree of heat that is necessary to it. If our Soul in like manner relents it self, and makes an interruption from thinking on God, we must take much pains to kindle the Flames of Devotion afresh: and therefore we are ever to keep it in Exercise.

‘This continual thinking on God is a most accepta­ble Sacrifice unto him, like to the morning and even­ing Sacrifice, which was call'd also the continual Sa­crifice; [Page 187] like to that holy Fire, which evermore burnt upon the Altar; 'tis like, lastly, to an eternal Invoca­tion: for so it is, says St. Basil, that thou mayst pray incessantly, not in bringing forth Words of Invoca­tion, but in doing Works of Imitation: If thy Con­duct aims only at making thee like and united to God, thy Life will be a perpetual and a constant Prayer.’ But let us not doubt, that these continual Sacrifices, this Incense always smoaking, and these implicit and indirect Prayers, which come from our Heart in all places and at all times, are the most effi­cacious means to render God accessible to us: inso­much, as every time we would unite our selves still more straitly to him by more express Devotions and Prayers, he will forthwith be found near us, and fill­ing us with his Light, will lead us along with him, and honour us with his holy Communications.

CHAP. VI. The first particular Direction: To have our hours of Devotion well chosen and ordered.

AFter these general Advices, it will be neces­sary to give some more particular ones: And first, I believe, that to have the hours of Devotion well regulated, is a very great help to Devotion. Man is a Creature of Habit as well as other living Creatures. An Horse that has been [Page 190] us'd to go one way, will not fail to return that way again, and when the hours of baiting come, he will go no farther: so the Heart doth, without any guidance or endeavour, return by its self to those things which it has been accustomed to do. Choose then your hours of Evening, Morning, Mid-day, at nine of clock, at three: Make a Law for some time never to let those hours pass, but to consecrate them to no other thing than to Devotion; and without any trouble, your Heart will return thither at the same hours. Those very Parts, which in us are destitute of Knowledge, are capable of these Habits: When the Stomach has been us'd to eat at certain hours, if this be not done, it feels somewhat wanting. The Conscience being the Stomach of the Soul, gives it its meals, and if you happen to be wanting, it will advertise you on't: but have a care of doing violence to it, and being earnest with it to hold its peace. When it minds you, amidst your Occupations, that the hour is come, do not de­ferr it till another time, for it is undone if you put it out of order; 'Twill no more remind you; you your self must be forc'd to sollicit it, and then the Soul is in a wretchless condition, when the Conscience is asleep, when the Heart slumbers, and when there is need of awakening it by an express Reflection.

If you ask me what hours it is to choose, and how many, I shall perhaps be very much put to it to an­swer you. Good David orders seven for himself; Se­ven times a day do I praise thee. Daniel had chiefly three: Our Lord retir'd whole Nights together into a Mountain apart to pray. Alas! it were to be wish'd we could give all our hours to God; but the necessi­ties of Nature, and the infirmities of the Flesh vote it fruitless,; and I know not what mood and temper those Devotes might be of, who, we are told, pass'd whole dayes and nights in Meditation and Contempla­tion. I will pronounce nothing herein, and I leave eve­ry [Page 191] one to his own Conscience. If we cannot give all to God, certain it is we are to reserve to him the bet­ter part, and that amongst our hours we ought to set some aside, which may be proper to him, and never be­stowed upon the World. The number must be regulated according to the diversity of Strengths; and I believe it should increase according to the measure of the progress we make in Devotion. A Child cannot lift up a Burthen which a vigorous man can carry with ease: so that every one must regulate himself according to his strength. 'Tis good to eat when we are hungry, and to draw nigh to God when the Heart is warm, and as often as it pleases to do so, there is no reason for a refusal herein. But you are to observe, that if your Appetite be buried, and does not manifest it self, you do not fail of having your set Repasts, and rather love [...]o eat without hunger, than starve your self for want [...]f Food. 'Tis the same here; If you are so unhappy as [...]o be deprived of this holy appetite of Spiritual things, [...]o not wait till it comes, lose not the hours of your Devotions and your Spiritual repasts; eat without hun­ [...]er, and perhaps your Appetite will be renew'd, No [...]an in health, scarcely, but eats twice a day; and [...]et sick People we see take nourishment much oftener; [...]e observe only, that their Repasts are very short and [...]asie. I am of opinion, we ought to order the [...]me Diet to those indisposed Souls which are yet [...]ovices in the practice of Devotion. We must ob­ [...]ge them to return oft to it, but in short Exercises, [...]at such weak Souls may not take a Disgust at it.

If a Clock be not wound up sometimes a day, it will [...]ot go long; the weights, that are tied to the ropes, [...]escending to the Earth, whither, as soon as they are [...]me, the whole Machine stands still. The Soul is [...]is wonderful Machine, made up of its Faculties as of [...]heels and Springs, the weights of the Flesh drawing [...] down. Pull it up often if you would have it go: [Page 192] Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, They who look to these Automatous Machines, observe daily to wind them up at the same hours, otherwise they are put out of Order. And this, I say, is to be observed in the conduct of a faithful Soul.

All hours are good: for Heaven is alwayes open, and God's Throne evermore accessible; yet some there are more proper than others. Those of the Morning are so truly God's, that we cannot rob him of them without Sacriledge. If God will have the first-fruits of our Herds, with much stronger reason he will have the first of our hours: And what time more proper to lift up our Eyes and our Hearts to the Sun of Righteous­ness, than that wherein the sensible Sun arises upon the Earth? Is it not time then that the Morning-star arise in our hearts, and Prayer open the Gate to Grace? At what hour, with better effect, can we lift up our hearts to God, than at the beginning of a Race, the success whereof depends intirely on him? In the mor­ning we ought to seal our hearts with holy thoughts, and fill our minds with chaste and good Ideas, that the Corruption in the World, which the rest of the day will by the Senses give a thousand assaults to our heart, may find it well fortified. This will be a morning-dew, which in falling from Heaven upon our Souls, will make them fruitful in all good works for the rest of the day. This will be an Amulet against the evil air of the World without which we are not to leave our Lodgings, nor expose our selves to the ren­counter of contagious Objects. As God ought to be the first thing in our Hearts, so he must be the last too: for he saith, I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Let him open the door of our thoughts in the morning, and shut it up in the Evening. This will be a Seal which the Devils will respect; tho we be disarmed all, while asleep, they will tremble at our sight and will not dare to come near us. The de­stroying [Page 193] Angel in passing by will reverence this Im­pression, and this fruit of the Blood of the Lamb. These Evening-Devotions will be an holy Seed cast on good Land, which will not fail to spring up in the morning; since the heart will find it no trouble to be­gin the present Journey, where it had ended he pre­ceding one. And in as much as 'tis true, that the Soul, abandon'd to its self in sleep, is naturally carried to the last Objects of its waking, we need not doubt, but the dreams will be happy, and the Images which arise from those last impressions which Piety had made up­on the Heart, will be very sweet ones.

The night it self is perfectly a friend to Devotion. 'Tis there that recollectings are very easie, the Soul being not dissipated by present Objects. Nothing is sweeter than to fill the heart with God, when void of other things. God is well pleas'd if a faithful Soul makes an Altar of its bed, and makes him its vows in a retreat where are no witnesses. Let thy body be laid provided thy Soul be elevated and thou fall upon the knees of thy Heart, as Clemens Romanus phrases it. These nightly Communications with God seem more near and strict; since laying our selves down in our beds we bid fare-well to the World, and banish its cares and troubles from us, to give repose to the body. The Soul finds it self in a blest estate, and at its waking be­ing disengaged from the World, it hath all manner of Liberty to mount up to God. Thus we see, that a great part of David's Psalms were compos'd in the night, I will bless the Lord, says he in the sixteenth Psalm, who hath given me Counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night season. He assures us in the sixth Psalm, that he waters his bed with his Tears: and [...]he spouse saith, by night I sought him whom my Soul loveth. In a word, we learn from History, that Antony the Patriarch of the Hermits complain'd very frequently of the Sun's return, very near in these Terms; ‘Why comest thou, O Sun, to [Page 194] trouble the rest of my Soul? why risest thou so soon to tear me away from the service of my God? why comest thou to rob me of the sight of my true Sun?’

CHAP. VII. The second particular Help: Solitude and Religious As­semblies.

WE cannot but own, with a great earnestness of mind, that Devotion requires Solitude. We have our Master's word and decision in the case. When thou goest to pray, saves he, enter into thy closet. Very strange Prayers were those of the Pha­risees, that prayed in the corners of Streets, or in the Market-places. Our Lord Christ had good ground to indict them of Hypocrisie: Solitude is necessary, not only to avoid that Pomp and Parade which God so much detests in all things, and especially in Devotion, but also to make our Prayer more pure and perfect. [Page 197] How should the Soul, I wonder, be recollected into it self, if a thousand Objects lay hold on the Senses, and draw it abroad? We must therefore be in such a place where we need not defend it against the Assaults which sensual Objects make upon it. Let us retire never so far from the World, we shall be sure to carry enough of the World along with us, and the Images of its Ob­jects will persecute us sufficiently, without being volun­tarily exposed to the persecution of the Objects them­selves. Yes, the Commerces of the faithful Soul with its God require a secret retiral. Our Lord is its Beloved, who casts not his Favours upon the Crowd, and expo­ses them not to the sight of men, as St. Bernard sayes, He loves Shadow and Retreat. And therefore the Spouse will not let him go whom her Soul loveth, until she has brought him into her Mothers house, and into her clo­set. If we have a design to do any thing wherein is need of Application, we seek a Retreat, that we may not be distracted: We are therefore to seek it for Devo­tion, since nothing in the World asks a more fix'd Consi­deration. Far from all Witnesses must the truly Devout Person be, to be intirely Free in all respects. Devotion has its Actions and its Words: it impresses its transports and motions upon the Soul, [...]nd the Body frequent­ly may have its too; so that it should not be expos'd to the view of men, who make so ill Judgments thereof. If these Reasons have need of being upheld by Exam­ples, we have that of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the Mountains did not seem secret or solitary enough; s [...]nce he added to them the darkness of the Night: That of Daniel, who shut the door of his Chamber to pray: That of St. Peter, who went upon the House-top to per­form his Devotions: But this Subject is so little dispu­ted, and indeed so little disputable, as we need not dwell upon it longer.

The necessity of Solitariness for Devotion, may give us more extensive Prospects. There have been many [Page 198] great men, and (I would believe) many great Saints, who have thought Devotion and Solitude were so inse­parable, as that not only the truly devout were to set aside some hours of Retreat, but their whole Life ought to be consecrated to it. And 'twas this Senti­ment which sometime peopled the Desarts of Thebes, and of Syria, with so many Anchorites. They fled the World to lift up their Souls more easily to God, and to acquire an habit of more pure and ardent Devotion. And hence perhaps might come the very name of De­votion, which is deriv'd from vowing ones self to a thing, because those Christians by a Vow, in a particu­lar manner, consecrated themselves to God.

'Tis a matter extremely difficult to pronounce upon this sort of Life; I would not condemn all those that follow it. I do not doubt but many were led by the Spirit into the Wilderness, as our Saviour was: but I dare boldly say, that this Estate is subject to as great Temptations as a worldly life is. In my opinion, it's very much to presume on one's own Strength, to go and lye exposed to the strokes of an Enemy so potent as the Devil. In Society, if one falls, another helps him up again, but in the Wilderness he must sustain himself; he must stand upon his own bottom; he must be his own Pastor, Guide, and Director of Conscience: and he that believes he has Light enough to furnish for all these Duties, hath too high an opinion of himself. I would speak here nothing more forcible against this way of living, than what St. Basil himself, a great Lo­ver and Admirer of the Monastic Life, hath writ there­ [...]n. He believes that that sort of Life is no more chari­table than it is prudent. They have either need of suc­cour themselves, or they are in a condition to give it [...] others. If they stand in need themselves, 'tis an im­prudence to be confined in a place where they can re­ceive none. If they can afford it to others, this is to want Charity, and to rob Society of what might be [Page 199] useful to it. And with good reason he sayes, that this is to deprive ones self of the Hope to hear, one day, those words from our Lord's Mouth, ‘Thou gavest meat to him that was an hungred, drink to him that was thirsty; thou clothedst him that was naked, and visitedst him that was in Prison.’ In short, I fear the Remark of this Father in the same place is not over true, that this Life (so far out of the path of Humility) is not a Stair-case to Pride: for these men, comparing themselves to themselves, as St. Paul speaks, and seeing nothing more accomplisht than themselves, persuade themselves they are Perfect. Every one sees himself too near to know himself well, and does not know himself thoroughly enough to correct himself; and therefore an Anchoret who uses not the eyes of another to examin himself, lets many sins, without doubt, escape him, to which, Judges more severe than we are to our selves, would not have done that favour. To be brief; I have said that so far is this kind of living from any great use to Devotion, as I believe 'tis an impediment to it: be­cause it is depriv'd of exercising the Works of Mercy, which are so necessary. A man in the Desart hath his distractions; and if he have not a Soul of an extraordi­nary temper, 'tis to be fear'd, they are more dangerous than those met withall in the World. A mind aban­don'd, without any Guide, makes oftentimes strange slips. The wide World, and a narrow Lowliness, are most assuredly two very dangerous Extremities. There is need of extraordinary Grace to thrive well in either Conditions: so that those who have receiv'd indifferent Gifts from Heaven, are to choose a Life that holds the middle betwixt these two Extreams. But, at least, 'tis without Controversie, that Solitude is absolutely neces­sary at hours destin'd to Devotion: Which is not to be taken in such a manner as to do any prejudice to holy Assemblies or Publick Devotions. They have [...]heir Use for Devotion, and under Pretext of praying in [Page 200] our Closet, we are never to deprive our selves of so ne­cessary an Aid to Piety. True it is, every where else our Senses are enemies to Self-recollection; but there both the Senses and Imagination favour the motions of the devout Soul. The looking upon Churches, which are God's houses, the presence of Angels, who assist in those places; the society of a multitude of Souls that joyn their Vows as well as their Voices together; the Word of God resounding in our Ears; the Prayers that are united, and being conceived by many hearts, make up but one Vow: All these things extremely help the Soul to make its elevations, and serve very much to ba­nish worldly Ideas, to make holy ones succeed in their stead. Nay, 'tis not impossible too, but that among such a crowd we may conserve Solitude it self. A Soul tru­ly devout, in such places, is so collected into its self, that all the Objects which might do it an injury can­not find it; the faithful Person is in the Closet of his own heart; he leaves no door open but for God's Word, and for things able to instill Piety: but the doors are shut against the vain Objects that are too of­ten to be seen in such places. ‘There is a Spiritual So­litude as well as a Corporeal, sayes St. Bernard, and that is only in the midst of a throng, which is exempt from vain and frivolous thoughts.’ But 'tis an horri­ble Profaneness to have indevout Dispositions in the Church, to have there an heart open to all Vanities, to go thither to see and to be seen, to hear to get mat­ter to play upon, and to catch at Syllables and Words. How great an account will these People have to make! 'Tis enough sure to have offended man, and God him­self, all the dayes in the Week, there needs no coming on the Sunday to declare War against him in his face. I shall not inlarge here to speak of the manner after which we should act in Religious Assemblies, because I design here only to give Rules for Closet-Devotion.

CHAP. VIII. The third particular Direction to help Devotion: Medi­tation, and Prayer.

THE Soul comes into the World at least as ill instructed in the affairs of Grace as in those of Nature: It is in all respects a plain unscrolled Table, and an Ignorant, which has need to be informed in every thing. Very easily it acquires the Knowledges which are necessary to the Conduct of Life, because those Directions pass to it thorough the Senses, and these Objects are of its own size: but it hath need of the greatest endeavour to attain those Notices, which regard the Spiritual Life, since those Objects are disproportionate to its Strength; and yet those Knowledges are of absolute necessity to the practising the Virtues, and particular­ly that of Devotion. This last Virtue is made up of Love and Zeal, but we have not them but according to the degree of our Knowledge: and therefore, I know not of what nature those ignorant Devotions can be which are destitute of all Light, and are not guided but by the Senses: these are, it may be, rather weak­nesses of Constitution than effects of Grace. The Devo­tions of ignorant People are almost ever gross and su­perstitious; they are ordinarily fix'd to sensible Objects; whereas in Religion all is divine and intellectual: the Object of their Worship is mostly an Agnus Dei, a Re­lick, or an Image: and God, who ought to be the sole Object of our Devotions, has scarce any share in their Veneration. I do'nt require our Christian to be learned, and that he have prey'd either into the Se­crets of Nature, or also into the highest mysteries of Grace by an over-exact and curious Research. I hold that that is more disadvantageous than profitable to [Page 204] Devotion: but the devout Soul must be spiritual e­nough to lift it self up above the Senses by Meditati­on. Meditation is an excellent Operation of the Soul, whereby it penetrates the out-sides of Objects, and sounds them to the very heart: 'tis a reflected Action that rouls its subject upon the Heart till it makes deep Impressions; 'tis an happy Prospect, by which the Soul every moment discovers more and more Won­ders in that which it is about: but these Discoveries are not nice Speculations to be communicated to o­thers; they are particular Sentiments and Applicati­ons which the Soul makes and which are only for it. We cannot doubt but this is of absolute necessity to Devotion; for this does not embrace it's Subject but proportionably as Meditation makes it to enter there­in. Devotion is an agitation of a vigorous and lively Soul, whereby we are lifted up to God and to our so­vereign Good; and therefore, the more Devotion ap­plies us to this great Object, and lets us see the depths of his Goodness, the more ardent doth Devotion be­come: so that this is to be the principal Subject of our Contemplations. God is good, either in himself, or in respect had to us; in himself, because he is great, majestic, bounteous, merciful: if we did not par­take of the Fruits of these Divine Vertues, neverthe­less, God would not cease to possess them, and conse­quently, he wou'd be infinitely amiable. We cannot think too often on these Attributes of God: this is one of the most efficacious means which David uses to awaken his drowsie Devotion, Awake, O my Tongue, saith he, and thereupon he sings God Almighty's Pow­er in his Works, his Majesty shining forth in the Hea­vens, his Justice in his Judgments, his Wisdom in the Government of the World, his Mercy towards Man. But, because Interest has so great a sway with us, we are to joyn to this Consideration that of God's Benefits, to descend into the Abysses of [...] Love, and [Page 205] to consider him in Jesus Christ reconciling the World unto himself: we must essay to dive [if possible it be] into the depths of his Mercy, which are found every where and in all parts of the Dispensation of our eter­nal Salvation: above all, we cannot fix our selves too much upon the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; we shall see there a thousand Objects able to mollifie our Soul, since God's Love to Mankind appears there in all it's Extension. From general Considera­tions it is good to come to particular Applications; We ought to conceive how much we stand indebted to God for freeing us from so many Miseries to raise us up to such glorious hopes: in short, and to speak all in a Word, the Object of our Meditation is as vast as God, Nature, and Grace altogether: for there are no Flowers in the World but we may gather Honey from 'em: we need not fear therefore, that we can drain a Subject of so great a Bigness. But how comes it to pass then our Meditations are frequently so dry, and our Recollections so barren? It is not from the Seed, but from the bad Ground ‘Whence comes it, saith an Ancient Father, that our Mind is found de­stitute of good Thoughts, as if there were nothing well-pleasing to God wherewith we cou'd entertain our selves? This comes not, says he, but from a care­lessness of Spirit, for the subject is inexhaustible; and if the Eye cannot reach the end of Wonders to be seen, much less can the Mind attain it in those that are to be conceived: If the Eyes cease to see the Light when it is day, 'tis not for that the Light is exstinguish'd, but it proceeds from the dissipation of the Sight.’ If you pierce and open a Field in all parts with a Plow-share, it will render you an abun­dant Harvest, otherwise 'twill continue barren; and even if you penetrate very deep you may find springs of living Water. In like manner, if you open this great Subject, to wit, God and his Works, by pro­found [Page 206] and frequent Meditations, there will proceed from thence Sources of Consolations and Instructions.

Lastly, make no difficulty to repass oft upon the same subject for to make it familiar to you. Our Soul is depending upon the Body during the time we are upon Earth, and the most spiritual Idea's are form'd in us by bodily motions: so that it is highly useful to let the Thoughts of things divine pass and repass fre­quently in our selves, to the intent we may give an Inclination to the Animal Spirits, which may carry 'em that aways, and at length we shall find they will go naturally in that Road, in such sort, as without de­sign, and before we are aware, we shall think on good things. I shall say one Word more for the com­fort of those Minds which are not capable either of a piercing Insight or a strong Application: and that is, That they are to be griev'd if they do not find them­selves forcible enough to drive on their Reasonings so far, and if Conceptions fail them, provided this comes not from any Coldness. Some short, but frequent, Meditations, whereby a faithful Person of the meaner sort does often apply his Mind to the Author of his Salvation and Gods Benefits, may serve instead of long Reflections when one is not capable of them.

To help Devotion, we are, without doubt, to call in the reading of good Books; for, we must not ima­gine we can draw all from our own Well: and among those Books the Holy Scripture is as much above all others as God is above Men, and the Sun above the Stars of the sixth Magnitude. This is that Word which is as powerful and piercing as a two-edged Sword; this is that Fire which can warm our Entrails, and make as say, Does not our Heart burn within us? One only Passage in St. Paul (Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in Riotting and Drunkenness, not in Chambering and Wantonness, not in Strife and Envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ) wrought the Conversion of St. Au­stin. [Page 207] In every Page of this Book we shall find Gods Benefits, and his excellent Promises so proper to a­waken Devotion: we shall find there many Examples of heavenly Meditations, fit to lift up the Soul, and guide us in our own. Especially the Book of Psalms is an inestimable Treasure for devout Souls; and if we could prize it, and say of it beyond what the Anci­ents did, we could never say enough. 'Twere to be wish'd, that this Treasure were laid up entirely in our Memory, that every moment we might be able to re­peat them to our own Heart. We should, if it were possible, habituate our Mind not to conceive its Thoughts, and form its Meditations, but in the terms which the Holy Ghost useth in the Psalms.

To the reading of Holy Scripture, it will be profita­ble to add that of other good Books: and herein I would give a Direction which some People have found very good; which is, to choose such Places and Chap­ters of Devotion which have once warmed you, and to return often to the same places, that your Heart may get an Habit of awakening it self at that view. 'Tis the ordinary Turn of all Minds to joyn certain motions of Heart with certain Images, so as that assoon as the Images present 'emselves to the Mind, those motions arise in the Heart: for example, if a Man has run an extream danger in a Wood, the Image of a Forest will never offer it self to his Imagination, but his Heart is seiz'd upon by some Chillness. So our Heart having been once mov'd at the reading of some pious Discourse which had touch'd it to the Quick, will not fail of being awaken'd at the presence of the same Thoughts, in case we read them with a devout Intention and a design to be touch'd therewith. This may be compar'd to what happens to barking Dogs, which are quiet or otherwise as soon as they hear the Voice of those they are acquainted withal: so the Heart being become familiar with those pious thoughts [Page 208] that had mov'd it oftentimes, will evermore perceive in their Presence very near the same motions: for it is not so with reading in holy Books as in Profane; these please the first time, the second the pleasure ceases, but the third they are most insupportable. The same thing perhaps may happen if you read a Book of De­votion for Divertisement, to see there the neatness of Phrase and the beauty of Thoughts: as this way of reading is for the Mind and not for the Heart, one thing will not please you a second time. This Thought discovers a Mystery to us somewhat obscure, why that which touches some should not have the same influ­ence over others? Now the Reason is, because all do not read with the same Dispositions and the same In­tentions. A Preacher, that would preach an hour upon a pious Subject, will read Books which may in­struct him therein; but if he has not a Soul naturally very devout, they will have no great effects upon him, because he comes with no Intention to be moved by them; he only seeks for matter to fill up his hour. Our Heart does very near what we would have it do; insomuch, as pious reading, that it may be an help to Devotion, ought to be done with a most devout In­tention, without which Condition it will be a very hard matter to make any progress in it.

But, as much as the reading of good Books brings in Auxiliaries to Devotion, so much it is ruined by the reading of bad ones. 'Tis a great shame to Chri­stianity, that now adays it makes more account of some mischievous Books than ever did the most corrupted Paganism. Our Age, and in particular, this Kingdom, might be justly noted with Infamy for that swarm of Romances which the effeminacy of our Hearts, the corruption of our Minds, and the wiles of the Devil, have sent into the World. We must needs be great Lovers of Lying, since fifty Years have produced more Fables than six thousand Years could produce Histo­ries: [Page 209] and the Church must needs be very much cor­rupted, to suffer, and (as it were) to authorize such shameless Products, so full of impure Imaginations. Every devout Soul will have those Legends in Dete­station; for, certain it is, that nothing puts the Heart into greater Disorder. I wish People be safe from the last Corruption, and they proceed not even to the acting and imitating those irregular Examples in good earnest which they saw before in Jest: however, 'tis sure, that from the reading of these Books the Mind returns loaded with Images, which grieve and drive away the Spirit of God, and which are absolutely in­consistent with the Spirit of Devotion.

CHAP. IX. The fourth particular help to Devotion; The use of Prayer.

I Do not design here to make any Commendation of Prayer, nor to display all it's Uses; which both the Antients and Moderns have done very Amply. I shall only say, that 'tis one of the su­rest means to purifie the Soul; since there is no Action whereby we approach nearer to God, no time wherein he communicates himself more to us. He hath been very often observ'd to give his Extraordinary inspira­tions in Prayer. In praying St Peter fell into an Exta­sie, Paul was ravisht to the third Heaven; Cornelius in his Prayers receiv'd the Vision of an Angel: Monica St Austin's Mother after her Prayers and Tears for the Salvation of her Son, had in her dream that excellent Revelation of his Conversion. An Angel tells her, Afflict not thy self, thy Son is with thee. As God is the Sun of our Soul, and jets his beams perpendicularly into our Hearts, he must necessarily clarifie and heat them; he disperses the vapours of the Inferiour part and draws his own Image there. Now this Commu­nication of the Raies of Grace is never made more than in Prayer.

I shall not stay to examine any further the Condi­tions with which Prayers should be made to be Devout: it's already shown enough, that they ought to be At­tentive, Persevering and Ardent: I shall only give here two Advices, the one to avoid Weariness, the other to avoid Distraction. First I say, that few Souls are ca­pable of long Prayers: For to render a Prayer perfectly devout there's need of an extreme Contention of Mind, an extraordinaty Elevation, and an entire loosening ones self from the World. Now these Actions do a kind of Violence to the Soul, which naturally tends to [Page 213] a releasing of it self; and therefore they cannot be of any long Continuance. If we give no relaxation to the Heart, it takes it, and rambles some where or other in spite of our teeth: so as I would have the exercises of Devotion to be long, tho divided into little spaces of time; that they have many parts, and each of 'em be short. Devotion is composed of three principal Acts, Reading, Meditation, and Prayer: each of these need not be done presently, so as to follow one another, but they may be mingled: for we must allow some grains to the Souls Weakness, and we must keep it from disgust by variety: A little reading may be the first degree of it's Elevation; a little meditation on that reading will lift it a degree higher; and after the reading and me­ditation, a short Prayer will lead it to the highest de­gree of forgetting the World: after which, it will re­turn wholly new to reading and Meditation in the same order. In Prayer, it will fly through the Air by the force of its own Wings: and, at its return to reading, it will do like those Birds, that, weary with flying, come to repose themselves, not on the Earth, but some very high Tree of their own choice; so our devout Soul will come to rest it self, not by falling on the Earth, for 'twill never set foot there, nor permit the mind to return to the World; but it will continue elevated up­on the Props of the holy Prophets and Apostles; Ʋr and Aaron will sustain it, lifted up towards the Heaven, and from thence taking its flight, it will by little and little rise upon the Wings of Meditation, untill it re­turn by Prayers whither it was first lifted up. This method, undoubtedly, will give it time to renew its strength; it cannot hold out long, if its course be push'd on to the utmost of its vigour; but by taking breath, and marching fairly on from time to time, it will make a very great advance in a day.

The other Direction I would give, regards those, who having not been busied about the operations of [Page 214] the Mind, are less proper for the great Elevations. These People ordinarily make their Devotions in Pray­ers pronounced by heart; from which way Distracti­ons are almost inseparable. These I would counsel to endeavour to untye themselves from Words, and hold only to the Sense. I do not mean, that in their Family-Prayers they should dispense themselves from their Forms: I know very well that all the World has not the gift of forming their thoughts, and putting them into an order which may edifie the Publick; but for the Devotions of the Closet, they are rather to be made by Heart than by the Tongue. When the Imagination does not make some endeavour for the production of its Thoughts and the choice of its Words, in following the beaten Road, which it fears not to lose; it never fails of going some­whither else, as having nothing to do in the place where we would retain it: but when it gives Attenti­on to the manner in which is necessary to express the things which the Heart has conceiv'd, the Heart and the Imagination uniting their Forces make up a com­pleat Attention. I cannot endure to hear some say, That all the World is not capable of composing: all are not able to compose for Men, but to compose for God they are able. Let us make never such Efforts to speak well, we stammer in the Mouth before the Lord: and with relation to God; there can be no other difference betwixt the most eloquent and him that is least so, than between one Child and another. God understandeth all Languages and all Stiles; he requires no Order nor Elegance; the most confused Thoughts, that come in a Crowd from the Heart, are often most pleasing to him: he hears the Sighs of the Dumb, he knows what we desire better than we can speak or oftentimes conceive: for, The Spirit of God, as St. Paul says, maketh Intercession for us with Groan­ings, which cannot be uttered. After all, there are none [Page 215] but know what they want, and by consequence, none but can pray; for, Prayer is nothing but a weaving of Desires for those things which we stand in need of for the present Life, the Salvation of the Soul, and the Life to come. The Passions are eloquent, and the Ima­gination is warmed by its sympathy with the Heart; wherefore, those Persons that excuse themselves up­on the smallness of their Light, when they are infla­med with Choler never want Words: and certainly, if their Heart be heated with the Fire of Devotion, the Imagination will be very sensible of it, and they cannot complain of want of Thoughts or Expressions.

CHAP. X. The fifth particular help to Devotion: Fasting and Mor­tification.

NONE can deny, that Fasting and Mortifi­cation are most necessary helps to Devo­tion, unless they will deny the Scripture, and the Maximes of the Fathers of the Church. The Scripture seldom separates Prayer from Fasting: it gives to both joyntly the force of driving away the most dangerous Demons. This kind of Devil goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting. The Flesh is an head-strong Horse, which we cannot manage but by holding in the Bridle; it's a Lion, which w [...] must not feed so long till he is grown fat, unl [...]ss we would aug­ment his Cruelty, and cast our selves into the danger of being devoured by him. The Body (if we mark) is the same Flesh, whereof the Gospel complains so strongly and in so many places: of which 'tis said, that it is an Enemy to God, and its fruits are Debauche­ry, Strife, Sedition, Murder, Hatred, Envying, Am­bition, and Covetousness. So that to hinder the pro­duct of these fruits. 'tis good to keep this plant in continual great dryness: for if we besprinkle this root of bitterness with carnal Pleasures, it will shoot up its sprouts on high, and turn us out of the way of our Sal­vation. As plants, which are very tall, and surmount their Neighbours, leave them in a bad Estate, in suck­ing all the fatness of the Earth from 'em: so the Flesh grows not fat but at the Expence of the Soul, which it deprives of Comfort, and leaves it in a great bare­ness of Fruit. A great meal is a very bad preparative for the duties of Piety: we cannot be in the Kitchin and the Closet at the same time: and while the Soul is employ'd in its Rooms about seething and digesting [Page 219] its Victuals and distributing its Nourishment, it is not in a state to be transported in places destin'd to Contem­plation and Meditation. It lyes groveling beneath thick Clouds and foggy Vapours, which render the heart unfit to lift it self up. ‘The abundance of delicious meats [says a Father] send smoky Exhalations like Clouds that interrupt the Illumination, which is made in the understanding by the Holy Ghost. Wherefore Moses, that he might see God without a Cloud, stayed forty days upon the Mount without eating or drinking, with design that the superiour part of his Soul might remain disengag'd from Trouble, and the Obscurities of the lower part. Ease and Abundance of Bread cause the sins of Sodom: and Uncleanness of of Life is the consequence of the mouth's Excess.’ After the use of many delicate meats and drinks, the blood is all over inflam'd, which gives a Disposition to all car­nal Actions, and an Inclination to worldly Joy, which is ever immoderate. The People sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. We must therefore, of abso­lute necessity, observe the Rules of Sobriety, and nou­rish the Body only for Life's sake, We must give it what is necessary, and deny it superfluities, that it be never able to rebell against us. And frequently we must retrench, even the necessary things, that we may master it the more: for the Flesh when kept under, con [...]ri­butes much to make the heart contrite; and the less tye the Soul has to the Body, the more easily it lifts it self up to God. When we fast our Devotions are not interrupted by sleep; they are not corrupted by involuntary Motions; they are not viciated by dishonest Thoughts. In the mean while, touching the practice and use of Fasting, divers advices may be given. First, we are not to hold it for a part of Devotion, and as a worship wherewith we serve God: For the Kingdom of Heaven is neither meat nor drink: it is only an help to Devotion. This first consideration furnishes us [Page 220] with an other: which is, that we use not fasting as De­votion it self; for to fast whilst we are travelling, or about our Employments, is no work of great merit or great use. The first consideration has a third still that springs from it: and that is, that Fasting is not to be em­ploy'd no farther in Devotion than as it may be an aid to it: and by consequence we cannot give any certain rules either for the Practice, or the Duration of it. Some tempers there are so weak, that fasting is so far from being an help to Devotion, as it may be a great lett to it; because it immediately casts the body into a certain negligence, which hinders the Soul from soaring up. Again, there are those can't be tamed but by long mor­tifications, and these ought not to spare themselves. Others master 'emselves more easily, and these must know themselves; but nevertheless they are to take care that the weakness of their body do not serve for a pretext to dispence themselves from necessary morti­fications.

Yet we cannot approve those cruelties which some use towards the body, in treating it like a declared Enemy, without sparing either Fire or Sword. We put not on here the Spirit of Controversie, we leave every one to his own Conscience. We say only, that altho those excesses be not new, they are never the better for all that. Eccesiastical History supplies us with examples cnow, I confess, of these extravagant Morti­fications: But I had rather stand to the dicision of St. Basil, who is not to be suspected in this cause, since he was a great Associate in Fastings and Mortifications However he repeats many times the precept of Medi­ocrity, and insists very long upon it. ‘He denyes his Virgins and his Hermits the use of excessive Mortifica­tions, even to his saying [in the Book of Virginity] that the burthen of heavy and excessively pamper'd Flesh does not bring more incumbrance to the ele­vation of the Soul, than the weakness of a sick Body, [Page 221] thinn'd by a long and excessive Mortification.’ And therefore he expresly orders, That necessity be the rule of Fasting and Abstinence.

And now follows another necessary Direction upon this Subject; That bodily Mortification and Fasting does not reach to the very bottom of the Soul, nor mortifie all sort of Vice. ‘An Ancient said, That the Devil being not able to lay hold or take Possession of a Body master'd by great Mortifications, seizes upon the Soul all naked, and by it, and in it, begins and consummates the carnal Desires.’ If the Soul without the Body be capable of acting and committing bodily Sins though Mortification be in the way, how shall it heal it self, by this means, of those Diseases which are intirely in it, as Envy, Pride, and Self-love? So we see these Passions reign very often and very imperiously in those Men of Scourges and Sack-cloth. This so bloody War which is wag'd against the Body, and, in appearance, renounces all Self-love, can be no more, in the most part, than a Self-love very delicate, which leads to Glory by extraordinary Paths, that it may arrive there the more surely. From all this, I conclude, that the Mortification which St. Paul requires of us, when he says, Mortifie your Members which are upon the Earth, and that which we have judged necessary for Devotion, goes much farther than bodily Mortification. To stifle that Self-love, that Pride, those Jealousies, Hatreds, Envyings, and even Ambition and Covetousness, there is need of another sort of Fasting; that is, an Abstinence from all Actions which may nourish those Vices. So I con­clude this Chapter with those incomparable words of the Father, ‘Beware of defining the excellence of Fasting, by a sole Abstinence from Meats and Drinks; for true Fasting consists in abstaining from Evil. Thou dost not eat Flesh, but thou tearest thy Brother in pieces; thou abstainest from Wine, [Page 222] but thou abstainest not from doing Outrage; thou waitest till the Evening to eat, but thou spendest the day in a Law Suit. Woe to those that are drunk, though not with Wine. Anger inebriates the Soul, and, as well as Wine, casts it out of the limits of Reason.’

CHAP. XI. Of the rash Judgment which is made of Devout People.

I HAVE done with the Directions I thought ne­cessary to help Devotion; but before I conclude, I believe there is some Consolation due to truly Devout Persons, of whom so bad a Judgment is made in the World. Some put them all into the rank of Hypocrites; These are our false Devoto's, say the profane, who observe forms so exactly; who are careful to be at all pious Ordinances; who lend so great an attention to a Sermon; who pray and com­munic [...]te with so many visible marks of Devotion: we are never the less good Christians for our little Affecta­tion, we have what's solid in piety, and they the ap­pearance only. It must be confest, Hypocrisie doth a great deal of harm to Devotion: I do not deny there are falsely devout People; there's hardly any veil, wherewith evil Consciences cover themseves more or­dinarily than with this of Godliness. But because some Hypocrites there be, is it necessary there are none others? Because we find counterfeit Diamonds, can none find true and effective ones? because there are false and foolish fires, is there then no true light? Some indeed believe they have found out a good re­medy against this mischief; they affect an apparent Indevotion: for having some zeal at the bottom they imagine 'tis necessary to affect a Way and an Air of indifference to avoid the Accusation of Hypocrisie, but this is to avoid one evil by a greater: and being re­duc'd to the necessity either of committing a Crime, or of being the occasion of one, we are to determine on the latter. We are commanded to make the light of our good Works to shine before men, and to edifie our [Page 227] neighbours by our good Examples. Unhappiness there­fore attends them, who put their Candle under a bushel: but [to speak the truth] I believe those that so strenu­ously endeavour to hide their Devotion, do not hide any great thing from us; they have little enough within. When a Chamber is fill'd with fire the light appears thorough the Windows; Piety is a fire that casts its flame through all our vertues, tho never so much care be taken to conceal it. If the heart be full of godly zeal, it will appear upon the Tongue, in the Hands, and even in the Eyes. True, no affectation is to be us'd: God hates those pompous and vain-glorious Pieties, which expose 'emselves at the corners of Streets, and which wholly consist in the liftings up of the hands, the rouling of the Eyes, and a wan and deadish Visage: Devotions the more secret they are, the better: But how easie is it to distinguish Sincerity from affectation. If these prophane Judges did but know themselves a little they would not confound a modest Piety and sage Devotion, which shines only thorough the veil of a profound Humility, with a Devotion made up of Gri­maces. The Life, Conversation and Manners are the best touch-stone to know the Sincerity of Devotion. If the devout Person is Covetous, Ambitious, one that grows rich at the expence of the Poor, or that is vin­dicative, I agree we may put such an one in the rank of counterfeits. But if the Life, in all respects, be unre­provable, 'tis a Sin worthy of all the flames in Hell to judge that the Devotion is feign'd: 'tis a sort of Sin against the Holy Ghost, like to that which the Phari­sees were guilty of against our Saviour, in accusing him that he did through the help of the Devil, what he did by the Finger and Spirit of God. These prophane men do the same thing; to the evil spirit of Hypocrisie, they attribute the immediate works of God's Spirit. But say some, tho these same devouts appear regular in their Life, it's because they ave the Address, Dexterity and [Page 228] Knack not to discover their impurities: the love of their Reputation engaging 'em to use such Precautions as hinder the publick from taking notice of their crimes. But is not this to violate all sorts of Rights, to invade even those of God himself, to undertake to see into the Heart? Is it not to violate the as [...]lums of Secresie, to judge boldly of what doth not appear to the World? Is it not to goe against all the rules of good Sense, to judge a man is wicked, because he appears to be good. To conclude, I say, if we were to declare for the Hypo­crite, or the prophane Libertine, the latter is to be banisht rather than the former. The Hypocrite, at least has the moity of a Christian, tho he hath but the least part: his Externals make to Edification, and his false Godliness may enkindle what is true. But the Li­bertine hath it neither within nor without: he offends God, scandalizes his Neighbour; he undoes others as well as himself. I shut up all then with counselling our devout Person to affect nothing, yet to take heed of hiding his Devotion under the Veil of Indifference for the satisfaction of Libertines; to be an exact Fre­quenter of holy Assemblies; to hear with Attention; to pray with Ardour; not to dispense himself from the external Actions of Humility, but without being ex­cessively given to Appearances. After this, let him set himself above the Judgment of indevout People: God who sees the sincerity of his Heart will reward him, and punish those rash Judges most severely.