fhalt live the more heavenly and angelical a life. Therefore, 4. Labour, above all things, moft exactly to forfake all for him; and chiefly to forfake and contemn thyfelf, purely loving him, and in a manner forgetting thyfelf and all things, for the vehement burning love of him: thus thy mind will run fo much upon him, that thou wilt take no heed what is fweet or bitter, 'neither wilt thou confider time or place, nor mark one perfon from another, for the wonder and love of thy Lord God, and the defire of his blessed will, pleasure, and honour in all things; and whatsoever good thou doft, know and think that God doth it, and not thou. 5. Choose always (to the best of thy fkill) what is moft to God's honour, and moft like unto Chrift and his example, and moft profitable to thy neighbour, and most against thy own proper will, and leaft serviceable to thy own praise and exaltation. 6. If thou continue faithful in this fpiritual work and travel, God at length, without doubt, will hear thy knocking, and will deliver thee from all thy fpiritual trouble, from all the tumults, noife, and incumbrance of cogitations and fancies, and from all earthly affections, which thou canst by no better means put away, than by continual and fervent defire of the love of God. 7. Do not, at any time, let or hinder his working, by following thine own will; for, behold, how much thou doft the more perfectly forfake thine own will, and the love of thy felf, and of all worldly things, fo much the more deeply and fafely fhalt thou be knit unto God, and increase in his true and pure love. SECT. V. 1. If thou ftill, above all things, feek that union, thou must transfund and pour thy whole will into the high high pleasure of God; and whatsoever befals thee, thou must be without murmuring, and retraction of heart, accepting it moft joyfully for His love, whofe will and work it is. 2. Let thy great joy and comfort evermore be, to have his pleasure done in thee, though in pains, ficknefs, perfecutions, oppreffions, or inward griefs and preffures of heart, coldness, or barrenness of mind, darkening of thy will and fenfes, or any temptations, fpiritual or bodily. And, 3. Under any of thefe, be always wary thou turn not to finful delights, nor to fenfual and carnal pleafures, nor fet thy heart on vain things, seeking comfort thereby, nor in any wife be idle, but always, as thou canft, compel and force thyfelf to some good fpiritual exercise or bodily work; and though they be then unfavoury to thee, yet are they not the less, but the more, acceptable to God. 4. Take all afflictions as tokens of God's love to thee, and trials of thy love to him, and purposes of kindness to enrich thee, and increase more plentifully in thee his bleffed gifts and fpiritual graces, if thou perfevere faithfully unto the end; not leaving off the vehement defire of his love, and thy own perfection. 5. Offer up thyself wholly to him, and fix the point of thy love upon his moft bleffed increated love; and there let thy foul and heart rest and delight, and be, as it were, refolved and melted, moft happily, into the bleffed Godhead; and then take that as a token, and be affured by it, that God will, grant thy lovely and holy defire; then fhalt thou feel, in a manner, no difference betwixt honour and fhame, joy and forrow: But whatsoever thou perceiveft to appertain to the honour of thy Lord, be it ever fo hard and unpleafant to thyfelf, thou wilt heartily embrace it, yea, with all thy might, follow and defire it; yet, when thou haft done what is poffible for thee, thou wilt think thou haft done nothing at all, yea, thou shalt be be ashamed, and deteft thy felf, that thou haft so wretchedly and imperfectly ferved fo noble and worthy a Lord; and therefore, thou wilt defire and endeavour every hour to do and fuffer greater and more perfect things than hitherto thou haft done, forgetting the things that are behind, and preffing forward, &c. 6. If thou haft in any measure attained to love, and abide in, God, then mayeft thou keep the powers of thy foul and thy fenfes, as it were,' fhut up in God, from gadding out to any worldly thing or vanity, as much as poffible, where they have fo joyfully a fecurity and fafenefs: Satiate thy foul in him, and in all other things ftill fee his bleffed prefence. 7. Whatsoever befalleth thee, receive it not from the hand of any creature, but from him alone, and render back all to him, seeking in all things his pleafure and honour, the purifying and fubduing thyfelf. What can harm thee, when all muft first touch God, within whom thou haft inclosed thyself. 8. When thou perceiveft thyfelf thus knit to God, and thy foul more faft and joined nearer to him than to thine own body, then fhalt thou know his everlafting, and incomprehenfible, and ineffable goodnefs, and the true nobleness of thy foul, that came from him, and was made to be reunited to him. 9. If thou wouldft afcend and come up to thy Lord God, thou muft climb up by the wounds of his bleffed humanity, that remain as it were for that use; and when thou art got up there, thou wouldst rather fuffer death, than willingly commit any fin. 10. Entering into Jefus, thou cafteft thyself into an infinite fea of goodness, that more eafily drowns and happily swallows thee up, than the ocean does a drop of water. Then fhalt thou be hid and transformed in him, and shalt often be as thinking without thought, and knowing without knowledge, and loving without love, comprehended of him whom thou canst not comprehend. SECT. SEC T. VI. 1. Too much defire to please men mightily prejudgeth the pleafing of God. 2. Too great earneftnefs and vehemency, and too greedy delight, in bodily work and external doings, fcattereth and lofeth the tranquillity and calmness of the mind. 3. Caft all thy care on God, and commit all to his good pleasure; laud and praise, and applaud, him in all things, fmall and great; forfake thy own will, and deliver up thyself freely and cheerfully to the will of God, without referve or exception, in profperity and adverfity, fweet or four, to have or to want, to live or to die. 4. Difunite thy heart from all things, and unite it only to God. 5. Remember, often and devoutly, the life and paffion, the death and refurrection, of our Saviour Jefus. 6. Defcant not on other mens deeds, but confider thine own; forget other mens faults, and remember thine own. 7. Never think highly of thyfelf, nor defpife any other man. 8. Keep filence and retirement as much as thou canft, and, through God's grace, they will keep thee from fnares and offences. 9. Lift up thy heart often to God, and defire in all things his affiftance. 10. Let thy heart be filled, and wholly taken up, with the love of God, and of thy neighbour, and do all that thou doft in that fincere charity and love. The fum is: 1. Remember always the prefence of God. SECT. SECT. VII. 1. Little love, little truft; but a great love brings a great confidence. 2. That is a bleffed hope that doth not flacken us in our duty, nor maketh us fecure, but increaseth both a cheerful will, and gives greater ftrength to mortification and all obedience. 3. What needeft thou, or why travelleft thou about fo many things? think upon one, defire and love one, and thou fhalt find great reft. Therefore, 4. Wherever thou be, let this voice of God be ftill in thine ear; My fon, return inwardly to thy heart; abstract thyself from all things, and mind me only: Thus, 5. With a pure mind in God, clean and bare from the memory of all things, remaining unmoveably in him, thou shalt think and defire nothing but him alone; as though there were nothing else in the world but he and thou only together; that all thy faculties and powers being thus recollected into God, thou mayeft become one spirit with him. 6. Fix thy mind on thy crucified Saviour, and remember continually his great meektiefs, love and obedience, his pure chastity, his unspeakable patience, and all the holy virtues of his humanity. 7. Think on his mighty power and infinite goodnefs; how he created and redeemed thee; how he juftifieth thee, and worketh in thee all virtues, graces, and goodness; and thus remember Him, until thy memory turn into love and affection. Therefore, 8. Draw thy mind thus from all creatures, unto a certain filence, and reft from the jangling and com pany of all things below God; and when thou canst come to this, then is thy heart a place meet and ready for thy Lord God to abide in, there to talk with thy foul. 9. True |