with the reiterated breathings of an ardent but peaceful affection, and with silence full of the most profound respect, you must wait the return of the Beloved: thus only you will demonstrate, that it is himself alone, and his good pleasure, that you seek: and not the selfish delights of your own sensations. Hence it is said, (Eccles. ii. 2. 3.) "Be not impatient in the time of dryness "and obscurity; suffer the suspensions and delays of "the consolations of GOD; cleave unto him, and wait "upon him patiently, that thy life may increase and "be renewed."

Be ye, therefore, patient in prayer, though, during life, you can do nought else, than wait the return of the Beloved, in deep humiliation, calm contentment, and patient resignation to his will. And yet how this most excellent prayer may be intermingled with the sighings of plaintive love! This conduct indeed, is most pleasing to the heart of JESUS; and, above all others, will, as it were, compel him to return.

CHAP. VI.

OF ABANDONMENT, OR RESIGNATION.

IT T is now we should begin to abandon and give up our whole existence unto GOD, from the strong and positive conviction, that the occurrence of every moment is agreeable to his immediate will and permission, and just such as our state requires. This conviction will make us resigned in all things; and accept of all that happens, not as from the creature, but as from God himself.

But I conjure you, my dearly beloved, who sincerely wish to give up yourselves to GOD, that after you have made the donation, you will not snatch yourself back again remember, a gift once presented, is no longer at the disposal of the donor.

Abandonment is a matter of the greatest importance in our process; it is the key to the inner court; so that whosoever knoweth truly how to abandon himself, soon becomes perfect: we must, therefore, continue stedfast and immoveable therein; nor listen to the voice of natural reason. Great faith produces great abandonment: we must confide in GOD, " hoping against hope." (Rom. iv. 18.) Abandonment

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Abandonment is the casting off all selfish care, that we may be altogether at the Divine Disposal. All Christians are exhorted to this resignation; for it is said to all, "Be not anxious for to-morrow; for your Heaven"ly Father knoweth all that is necessary for you." (Matt. xx. 25.) "In all thy ways acknowledge him, "and he shall direct thy paths." (Prov. iii. 6.) " Com"mit thy ways unto the LORD and thy thoughts shall "be established." (Prov. xvi. 3.) "Commit thy ways "unto the LORD, and he himself will bring it to pass." (Psalm. xxxvi. 5.)

Our abandonment then should be as fully applied to external as internal things, giving up all our concerns into the hands of GOD, forgetting ourselves, and thinking only of him; by which the heart will remain always disengaged, free, and at peace. It is practised by continually losing our own will in the will of God; by renouncing every particular inclination as soon as it arises, however good it may appear, that we may stand in indifference with respect to ourselves, and only will that which God from eternity had willed; by being resigned in all things, whether for soul or body, whether for time or eternity; by leaving what is past in oblivion; what is to come to Providence, and devoting the present moment to GOD, which brings with itself God's eternal order, and is as infallible a declaration to us of his will as it is inevitable and common to all; by attributing nothing that befals us to the creature, but regarding all things in GOD, and looking upon all, excepting only our sins, as infallibly proceeding from him. Surrender yourselves then to be led and disposed of just as God pleaseth, with respect both to your outward and inward

state.

CHAP. VII.

OF SUFFERINGS.

BE ye patient under all the sufferings which God is pleased to send you: if your love to him be pure; you will not seek him less on Calvary, than on Tabor; and, surely, he should be as much loved on that as on this, since it was on Calvary, he made the greater dişplay of his own love for you.

Be not like those, who give themselves to him at one season, and withdraw from him at another: they give

them

themselves only to be caressed: and wrest themselves back again, when they come to be crucified, or at least turn for consolasion to the creature.

No, beloved souls, ye will not find consolation in ought but in the love of the Cross, and in total abandonment; "Who savoureth not the Cross, savoureth not the things "that be of GOD." (Matt. xvi. 23.) It is impossible to love God without loving the Cross; and a heart that savours the Cross, finds the bitterest things to be sweet "A famished soul findeth bitter things sweet:" (Job. vi. 1.) because she findeth herself an hungered for her GOD, in proportion as she findeth herself an hungered for the Cross. God giveth the Cross, and the Cross giveth us. GOD.

We may be assured, that there is an internal advance ment, where there is an advancement in the way of the Cross: Abandonment and the Cross go hand in hand together.

As soon as any thing presents itfelf, as a suffering, and you feel a repugnance against it, resign yourself immediately unto Gop with respect to it, and give yourself up to him in sacrifice; you shall find, that, when the Cross arrives, it will not be so very burthensome, because you had disposed yourself to a willing reception of it. This, however, does not prevent you from feeling its weight as some have imagined: for when we do not feel the Cross, we do not suffer it. A sensibility of sufferings constitutes a principal part of the sufferings themselves, JESUS CHRIST himself was willing to suffer its utmost rigours. We often bear the Cross in weakness, at other times in strength: all should be equal to us in the will of God.

IT may be objected, that by this method, we shall have no mysteries imprinted on our minds: but it is quite the reverse; for it is the peculiar means of imparting them to the soul. JESUS CHRIST, to whom we are abandoned, and whom, "we follow as the way, whom "we hear as the truth, and who animates us as the life," (John xiv. 6.) in imprinting himself on the soul, impresses the characters of his different states; and to bear

all

2.

all the states of JESUS CHRIST, is far more sublime, than merely to reason concerning them. St. Paul bore in his body the states of JESUS CHRIST: "I bear in my body," "says he, "the marks of the LORD JESUS;" (Gal. vi. 17) but he does not say that he reasoned thereon.

In our acts of resignation, JESUS CHST frequently communicates some peculiar views, or revelations of his states: these we should thankfully receive, and dispose ourselves for what appeareth to be his will. Indeed having no other choice, but that of ardently reaching after him, of dwelling ever with him, and of sinking into nothingness before him, we should accept indiscriminately all his dispensations, whether obscurity or illumination, fecundity or barrenness, imbecility or strength, sweetness or bitterness, temptations, distractions, pain, weariness, or doubtings; and none of all these should, for one moment, retard our course. God engages some, for whole years, in the contemplation and enjoyment of a particular mystery; the simple view or contemplation of which gathers the soul inward, provided it be faithful : but as soon as GOD is pleased to withdraw this view from the soul, it should freely yield to the deprivation. Some are very uneasy at seeing their inability to meditate on certain mysteries; but this disquietude hath no just foundation, since an affectionate attachment to God includes in itself every species of devotion: for whosoever, in repose and quiet is united to GOD alone, is, indeed, most excellently and effectually applied to every divine mystery: the love of GoD comprehends in itself the love of all that appertains to him.

CHAP. IX.

OF VIRTUE.

IT is thus we acquire virtue, with facility and certainty, for, as GoD is the fountain and principle of all virtue, we possess all in the possession of himself; and in proportion as we approach toward his possession, in like proportion do we rise into the most eminent virtues. For all virtue is but as a masque, an outside appearance mutable as our garments, if it doth not spring up and then indeed it is genuine, essential, and permanent: "The "beauty of the King's daughter proceeds from within," saith David. (Psal. xlv. 14.) These souls above all others practise

practise virtue in the most eminent degree, though they advert not to any particular virtue : GOD, to whom they are united, carries them to the most extensive practice of it; he is exceedingly jealous over them, and prohibits them the taste of any pleasure but in himself. What a hungering for sufferings have those souls, who thus glow with divine love how prone to precipitate into excessive austerities, were they permitted to pursue their own inclinations! They think of nought save how they may please their Beloved: as their self-love abates, they neglect and forget themselves; and as their love to GOD encreases, so do self-detestation and disregard to the creature. O was this easy method acquired, a method so suited to all, to the dull and ignorant as well as to the accute and learned, how easily would the whole church of God be reformed! Love only is required: Love" saith St. Austin," and then do what you 66 please." For when we truly love, we cannot have so much as a will to any thing that might offend the object of our affections.

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I

СНАР. Х.

OF MORTIFICATION.

WILL even affirm, that, in any other way, it is next to an impossibility to acquire a perfect mortification of the senses and passions. The reason is obvious; the soul gives vigour and energy to the senses, and the senses raise and stimulate the passions: a dead body has neither sensations, nor passions, because its connection with the soul is dissolved.

All endeavours merely to rectify the exterior, impel the soul yet farther outward into that about which she is so warmly and zealously engaged. It is in these matters, that her powers are diffused and scattered abroad; for her application being immediately directed to austerities, and other externals, she thus invigorates those very senses she is aiming to subdue. For the senses

have no other spring from whence to derive their vigour than the application of the soul to themselves; the degree of their life and activity is proportioned to the degree of attention which the soul bestows upon them; and this life of the senses stirs up and provokes the passions, instead of suppressing or subduing them: austerities may, indeed, enfeeble the body, but for the reasons

just