fuch an one could I, as I may fay, behold both miracles and wonders there, and yet not Jefus Chrift, nor hear any talk of him, I count all but amusement of fpirit, lofs of time, and a very dangerous precipice. Let us encourage ourselves, to lead this life unknown, and wholly hid from men, but most known to, and intimate with God; divesting ourselves, and chafing out of our minds all thofe many fuperfluities, and thofe many amufements, which bring with them fo great a damage, that they take up our minds. inftead of God. So that when I confider that which thwarts and cuts into fo many pieces this holy, this fweet, and amiable union, which we fhould have continually with God, it appears, that it is only a monfieur, a madame, a compliment, and chatting, indeed a mere foolery; which notwithstanding doth ravish and wreft from us the time that is fo precious, and the fellowship that is fo holy, and fo defirable. Let us quit this, I pray you, and learn to court it with our own Mafter; let us well understand. our part, our own world, as we here phrase it, not that world I mean, which we do renounce, but that wherein the children of God do their duties to their Father. There is nothing in this world fo feparate from the world, as God; and the greater the faints are, the greater is their retirement into him. This our Saviour taught us, whilft he lived on earth, being in all his vifible employments united to God, and retired into the bofom of his Father. Since the time that I gave up my liberty to God, as I told you, I was given to understand,

to what a state of annihilation the foul must be brought, to render it capable of union with him I faw my foul reduced into a small point, contracted and fhrunk up to nothing and at the fame time I beheld myself, as if encompaffed with whatsoever the world loves and poffeffeth; and, as it were, a hand removing all this far from me, throwing it into the ocean of annihilation.

In the first place, I faw removed all exterior things, kingdoms, great offices, ftately buildings, rich houfhold-stuff, gold and filver, recreations, pleasures; all which are great incumbrances to the foul's paffing on to God; of which therefore his pleasure is, that the be ftripped, that fhe may arrive at the point of nakednefs and death, which will bring her into poffeffion of folid riches and real life.

Affure

yourfelf, there is no fecurity in any estate, but this of dying and annihilation; which is, to be baptized into Chrift's death, that we live the life of mortification. Our best way is therefore to diveft ourfelves of all, that the holy child Jefus may govern all. All that can be imagined in this lower world, is of fmall concernment, though it were the lofing of all our goods, and the death of all the men in it; this poor ant-hill is not worthy of a ferious thought. Had we but a little faith, and a little love, how happy fhould we efteem ourselves, in giving away all, to attend no more, fave on God alone; and to fay, Deus meus & omnia; my God, and my all. Being (faith he) in a chapel richly wainscotted, and adorned with

very excellent fculpture, and with imagery, I beheld it with fome attention, having had some skill in these things, and faw the bundles of flowers de luce, and of flowers in form of borders, and of very curious workmanship; it was on a sudden put into my mind, The original of what thou feeft, would not detain thee at all in feeing it. And I perceived, that indeed all these, and those flowers themselves, not in pictures, would not have taken me up; and all the ornaments which architecture and art invent, are but things moft mean and low, running in a manner only upon flowers, fruits, branches, harpies, and chimeras, part whereof are in their very being but things common and low, and part of them merely imaginary; and yet man, who croucheth to every thing, renders himself amorous and a flave of them;

no

otherwise than as if a good workman should ftand to copy out, and counterfeit fome trifles and fopperies. I confidered by this fight how poor man was to be cheated, amufed, and diverted from his fovereign good. And fince that time, I could make no more ftand to confider any of these things: and if I did it, I fhould reproach myself for it, as no fooner feeing them in churches or elsewhere, but this is prefently put upon my fpirit, The original is nothing; the copy and the image is yet lefs; each thing is vain, except the employment of ourselves. about God alone. An abfolute abnegation will be neceffary to all things, to follow in fimplicity, without referve or reflection, what our Saviour fhall work in us, or appoint for us,

let it be this or that. This way was fhewed me, in which I ought to walk towards him: and hence it is, that all things to me ordinarily are without any guft or delight. I affure you, it is a great fhame to a Chriftian to pass his days in this world more at ease than Jefus Christ here paffed his: ah! had we but a little faith, what repofe could we take out of the crofs?'

I will conclude his fayings with his dying bleffing to his furviving children.

I pray God bless you, and may it please him to blefs you, and to preferve you by his grace from the evil of the world, that you may have no part therein: and, above all, my children, that you may live in the fear and love of God, and yield due obedience to your mother.'

Expreffions of that weight and moment to the immortal good of man, that they abundantly prove, to all fenfible readers, that the author was a man of an enlightened mind, and of a foul mortified to the world, and quickened to fome taftes of a fupernatural life: let his youth, let his quality, adorned with fo much zeal and piety, fo much felf-denial and conftancy, become exemplary to those of worldly quality, who may be the readers of this book. Some perhaps will hear that truth from the feveral authors I have reported, whofe names, death and time have recovered from the envy of men that would hardly endure it from me, if at all from the living. Be it as it will, I shall abundantly rejoice, if God fhall please to

make any part of this difcourfe effectual to perfuade any into the love of holiness, without which, certain it is, no man fhall fee the Lord: but the pure in heart fhall behold him for

To conclude, I cannot pass this reflection upon what is observed of the sayings of dying men, and which to me seems to have great instruction in it, viz. All men agree, when they come to die, it is best to be religious; to live an holy, humble, strict, and self-denying life; retired, folitary, temperate, and difincumbered of the world. Then loving God above all, and our neighbours as ourselves, forgiving our enemies, and praying for them, are folid things, and the effential part of religion, as the true ground of man's happiness. Then all fin is exceeding finful, and yields no more pleasure: but every inordinate defire is burthenfome, and feverely reproved. Then the world, with all the lawful comforts in it, weighs light against that fenfe and judgment, which fuch men have between the temporal and the eternal. And since it is thus with dying men, what instruction is it to the living, whofe pretence for the most part is a perpetual contradiction? O! that men would learn to number their days, that they might apply their hearts to wisdom; of which, the fear of the Lord is the true and only beginning. And bleffed are they that fear always, for their feet fhall be preferved from the fnares of death.