THE DISPOSITION OR GARNISHMENT OF THE SOUL To receive worthily the blessed Sacrament, denyded into Three discourses,  

1 Preparation.  
2 Presentation before Christ.  
3 Entertainment.   
Qui timent Dominum pra●arabunt ●●orda sua: & in conspectu 〈◊〉 sanctificabunt animas suas.  
Those that fear God, will prepare their hearts: and in his sight, sanctify their souls  Eccl. 2. 
Imprinted by joachim Trognesius. 1596.   

Cumque plena fuissent vasa, dixit ad filium suum, affer mihi adhuc vas: et ille respondit, non habeo, stetitque cleum.  
And when the vessels wear full, she said to her son, bring me yet a vessel, and he answered, I have none, & then the oil seized.  4 Reg. 4. 
Substantia enim tua, dulcedinem qnam in filios habes ostendebat, & deseruient uniuscuiusque voluntati, ad quod quisque volebat convertebatur.  
Thy substance did show the swetne● thou hadst towards thy children, & serving ichones will, it was converted to what every one desired.  Sap. 16.  

To the virtuous & zealous Matron Mistress S. H. and her Religious & fernent Son M. R. H. perfect devotion in this life to the Eucharist, & full possession thereof in the life to come.  
IN the depth of winter, when light ●●●keth, heat faylethe, Rivers are congealed, a hoary frost covereth the face of the earth; then the vital spring, vent forth of their hidden vainis, mor●●bundance of water, a warmer liquor more fervent streams, a better digested ' substance. In like sort (my dear friends, whom I love most effectually, because I know that you love God effectually) it fareth with you while the light of true Faith and Religion, is banished out of England, the heat of Charity exiled, the floods of alms and bosp●●alitie (which in former ages ran a ●●ine) are frozen with imputative justice, and a solifidian error: while all the churches are hoary white without Image, Taper, Altar, priest, sacrifice, piety or devotion: your faith shineth more bright, your hope appeareth more firm, you● charity casteth a greater flame, your bowels of mercy issue forth fuller streams of liberality & christian commiseration. When others lie either wallowingin wickedness, or buried in sleep, or drowned in sensuality, many hours before the son showeth his beams above our horizon: your prayers, your sighs, your tears, appear before the face of God. They spread their rays in the Land of the everlasting, as acceptable to god, as delightful to Angels. Your prayers ended in voice and external show but not in heart & internal devotion, immediately followeth some other godly exercise of piety and Religion: After some charitable work of mercy and compassion, consequently to this some good conference or study of spiritual books, so that from morning till night, you seem to me to do nothing else, but weave such a spiritual Cortayne, as covered the tanacle, more various for virtues, then That was with silks: Or like those chains of gold the Spouse of Christewar● beset with studs of silver. Murenulas auteas faciemus tibi, vermiculatas argento. We will make thee bracelets of gold, studded with silver. Cant. 1. But above all your singular virtues, none struck so deep a maze into me, as your fervor & devotion in receiving the blessed Sacrament. I know part, but he only knoweth all, whom there you participate, What hazard you put yourselves into, to come by it, with what Jubilee of heart you communicate, and what notable effects thereupon enssue. Therefore to you I present these my simple Meditations the which I am assured you practise better, than I can pen them. Therefore accept them as a form rather of that you do, then of what you should do. And in recompense of my pains, I will crave nothing else. but one effectual sigh to my sweet Saviour when you communicate, & enjoy the heat of your devotion, for that I weigh above all treasures. From my cell in the Charter house at Maclin.  
Yours in Christ. T. N.   

To the Reader.  
In the first ingress of this discourse before I descended to any particular Treatise, I preconceived, that these my slender Meditations, should come to the view and censure of three sorts of persons; Catholics, protestants, & demi-catholickes, or catholique-like protestants; or external protestants, & internal catholics: some call them Churche-papistes, others Scis matiques, whose minds I thought good to prepare in particular before I went any further.   

To the Catholic Reader.  
AFter I had finished my Former Book, of the possibility and convenience of the Real presence of our blessed Saviour in the Eucharist, my especial friend (whom for love I love, & for virtue I reverence) who was the cause of penning thereof, insisted vehemently with me, to proceed to an other work, by declaring the worthy disposition wherewith they aught to come who attend to reap the manifold fruits & treasures of this Sacrifice & Sacrament. His request for many respects, I could not nor would not resist, not only for the reasons he brought, because the other served for speculation, this for practtise: the other for deeper judgements, this for meaner capacities, the other tended to inform the under standing, this to move affections: but also in regard of my own proper exercise & devotion to the blessed Sacrament: that while I endeavoured to teach others, I might instruct myself, & like the water man, who by moving his boat forward, maketh his own journey: so I by stirring others to fervor, might enjoy some heat thereof myself. Yet I never minded, to let them come to sight of the world but only to some particular friends, till he assured me of the great good he expected thereof to many souls most precious in gods sight, whose authority I permitted to weigh down mine own judgement, & prevail against mine own reason, thinking that as god did refresh & revive Samson by 
judic. 15  sending forth a spring of clear water from an assesiawe, as he made a crow the cater and cook of Elias, as with 
3. Reg. 17.  the rural meats & rustic cates provided for Abacuckes reapers, he fed his dear Prophet Daniel, & as very 
Da. 14.  often with unfit instruments, he wrought wondrous effects: so perhaps he might do by me, whom as unworthy, he admitted to break the substance of his Sacrament to his children, so he would direct to show them the manner of eating, to whose honour & glory, I refer them both.  
I am also to advertise thee, how these meditations, pass in prolixity mine accustomed manner of writing, yet because I judged, they would not only help a man to receive devoutly, but also further him in many other spiritual exercises: I was contented to follow my friends advise, who deemed the treatise better, when the discourse was fuller.  
Some I know would desire an other part hereunto ad●oyned, as an accomplishment of the whole, that is a Discourse of the frequent use of this Sacrament; but I thought it superfluous, because he that read the these 2 books, & weigheth as he ought the inestimable & superexcellent riches communicated to them that devoutly communicate, & besides his own frailty, the temptations of the devil, the evil examples and occasions of the world, if he may frequent this Sacrament often & will not, I hold him either very unwise, or very vicious: For who is he that feelethe himself wounded to the heart, and will not seek ● physician, at whose hands he were sure to receive a present remedy? Were it not a folly to persuade this man with many reasons to look for such a physician to procure such a meditine, 
4. Reg. 5.  when Naaman Syrus came so far a journey with uncertenty to be cured of his leprosy? Were it not madness to persuade a man that were not mad, feeling himself starve for hunger, to eat meat set before him? Were is not doultishnes to exhort a prisoner cheaned & fettered, to accept his liberty? Were it not a want of sense, to persuade the blind to desire to see, the deaf to hear, the ignorant to be wise, if they might come by those gifts of nature so easily as we may by like gifts of grace communicating as we ought, with due preparation & denotion?  
He therefore that will peruse the second treatise, if, as he readeth, he weigh the matter maturely, pondering it with the balance of catholic judgement, he shall not need much more to induce him, to eat of this food, as necessary for the soul, as meat for the body.  
Lastly when I cry my book of the possibility & conveniency of the real presence, for brevity sake I call it the book of causes of the institution, for that the most part thereof is Spent, in declariuge 42. causes of the institution. Moreover for that mine intention in setting forth this discourse, was to help good catholics to communicate devoutly and religiously, therefore jest the length of the book should terrify them and bring a loathsomeness (as though every time they communicate, it wear necessary to transcourse the whole treatise) I have at the end drawn a table where in one prospect, who haveth read it once over, may call to Memory those heads and points that are requisite. I have also in two words, Fear, and Faith, comprehended almost, the substance of the first and last treatise. The second is reduced to divers Chapters, every one ser●ing for a particular receiving of the blessed Sacrament, so that perceiving what the words represent & reading one Chapter, a man may sufficiently though not condingly, prepare himself to the Bl. Saccrament.   

TO the protestant reader, wherein is declared how we have free willto do good works.  
MANY errors I find in the forged fancy of Protestants religion which root out of men's hearts all christian devotion & piety. For grant me once an imputative justice, that Christ's good works & merits alone, justify us before God, by only apprehensiou of faith; to what purpose then require they good works of us? They answer, as fruits of faith, but these fruits avail me nothing to justification the which went before them, & justified me without them, therefore imputative faith, cutteth up all good works by the roots, that prepare the way to justification.  
After one is justified, they have provided divers other poysens to corrupt the plant of grace & justice, soft by the endeavour and cooperation of man's good will, with the grace of God, it blossom devotiou, & fructify by good works: as that all o●re justice, virtues, & operations, done either by the good inclination of nature, or help of gods favour and grace, are sins, a steaned cloth, abominable in Gods sight, deserve death & hell.  
That we are not able (sustyned by Gods grace) to keep his commandments, to walk in his justifications without deadly sins & such offences as deserve damnation. That he which once enjoyeth a lively faith, is justified before God, & admitted into his favour, seethe most evidently by his Plerophoria, that is a certain internal & full persuasion, that god haithe accepted him into the number of his elect, and that as assuredly he shall never descend to hell as Lucifer shall never ascend to heaven. What followeth of this? Edamus, bibamus, 
1 Cor. 15. Is. 22.  eras morieu●ur. Let us eat & drink, to morrow we shall dye. Let us enjoy All pleasures and voluptuousness in earth, because we can not lose life everlasting, & so we shall be partakers of Paradyse in this world, and in the world to come. But the protestant presently will reply, that such a man had never faith, because faith necessarily bringeth with it good works. Ah poor wretches, than a protestant can not make such a resolution what hindereth him? Haith he not liberty to sin, although he lack liberty to do well? Do we not see daily those that boasted sometimes of this security, to change their religion & become catholics or puritans? This answer declareth well what the protestants defend, but taketh not away the argument, as if a man should say, David in kill Urias had no charity. 
2 Reg. 11.  It is true, but this yeldethe not the cause why he had no Charity according to the protestants religion, no more than he that seethe a tree withered, rendereth a reason why the tree lacketh life, by saying it lacketh leaves, because this is an effect: the reason is lack of nourishment, or some fault in the root. Now these men will swear unto death that they see their faith as well as the best protestants in the world, which is, as they say, the life of all good works, and therefore they will louse their senses to all lusts & riotousness.  
Besides all protestants by this means, should be confirmed in grace, not only not to sin finally, but also at any time for the like reason we may & must give of the one, as the other. Yet I hope they will not deny but S. Paul, Mary magdalen, S. Peter, David, & divers others, as good protestants as they, sinned, & that most heanously for all their Plerophoria. For I would learn of them whether David, or S. Peter, by sinning, lost their faith or no? For that they lost their Charity, the Scripture proveth most plainly Qui non diligit, 
1. Io. 3.  manet in morte. He that love the not, remaineth in death, but David in killing Urias, loved him not, David therefore remained in death. The death of the soul is want of charity, David was dead in soul, David therefore wanted charity, but according to the protestants ignorant divinity, he that h●ith faith, can no want charity David had faith, therefore he could not want Charity. The Mayor is allowed of all protestants, because charity is the fiute of faith: The minor they also grant, for he that once had faith, can never lose it, David had faith before, therefore by sinning, he lost it not. This point I have declared more largely, because I take it that thousands of our country men are gone to the devil grounded upon this heretical foundation. And I hard of men of good credit, that there was a puritan of late that killed himself not far from London & left written upon a table, that no man should conceive ill of his death, because he knew himself one of gods elected, & therefore he shortened his days to go to his maker. And in very deed if the protestants religion were true, we must needs confess, that he wa● saved: neither by this enormous sin & presumptuous he●esy either lost he his faith, or his Charity, for he that once haith faith, can never lose it finally, but is assured of his election.  
Many more errors I find in the protestants religion which overthrow good works, but especially one that toucheth to the quick & stingethe to the very heart of devotion & piety, that is want of free will to do well. For if we want free will, than all good works proceed from us by a certain necessity & compulsion, neither lieth it in our power, to serve God when we will, fast when we will, love God when we will: neither can we pray more fervently, nor fast more rigourouslye, nor love God more exactly, if we resolve ourselves never so effectually, because it lieth not in our power to perform those determinations although we be guided & assisted by gods grace. This heresy, for that I know it haveth made great impression in many men's hearts, and the very thought thereof might not impeach a little all my labour & industry, to dispose good souls to receive: by god's grace briefly I intent to overthrow. For of all other it seemeth to me, not only impious, absurd, and irreligious, but also senseless & most palpably to be perceived.  
Three or four arguments only I mean to propound, reserving the rest for amore convevient place.  
first I will begin with common experience, that every man proveth in himself, for as sensibly as I perceive in myself free will to sit down & rise up, to open mine eyes and shut them: so evidently & sensibly even now I perceive, that if I will, I may pray & not pray, give alms & not give alms, fast to day and not fast, say in my heart, oh lord I love thee, & presently make a rash oath or offend god. And in truth he that will deny these experiences, may aswell deny that he seethe or heareth, his ears being attended, & his eyes unshutt.  
But the protestants say, this can not be done without Gods grace, & did ever Catholic deny this? Had not Adam before his fall according to the protestants doctrine, free will? and yet he neither could pray nor love God without grace. But this doctrine repugneth with god's word. This we deny, and l●t but the protestantes bring one line from thence to prove evidently their error, & I will join issue with them.  
The se●ond experience I gather, by their daily practice, for they cease not to exclaim against catholics, because they come not to church, and accept their protestancy. Now you say that catholics go not to church, you say they are obstinate & wilful, in n●t going, ergo they may go if they will, ergo they have free will, for what else is free will, but power to do well or evil. Therefore either yield unto us that we have free will to do good works, or cry no more against us, since we feel not that compulsion & force of Gods grace which you say is requisite, or suffer us with patience till it come, for the jews Mess as whom they expect from the mount Cusp perhaps will bring it with him, as yet I must confess, I never pe●ceyued it.  
Secondly I would desire the protestants to give me a sign, whereby they know in civil actions, that men have free will, or what manner of dealing they use with them whom they know to have free will, & would induce their liberty to one part, rather than to an other: & I will find expressly in scriptures the like proceeding of God, in works of piety & religion.  
Election & choice can not be but in liberty, as all learned men will confess, for therein freely a man acceptethe one mean as convenient for his end, & rejecteth the other: as when a man taketh a journey, if he may go by water or by land, on foot, or on horse back, with company or alone, by sundry ways or at divers times. If he chose one of these & leave the other, by them virtue of election, no man can deny, but that he haveth free william.  
This choice & election in works of virtue & Religion, we find in the scriptures ascribed to men. joshua putteth it in the choyee of the Israelites, 
Ios. 24.  whether they will serve the true God, or false gods. Optio vobis datur, oligite hody quid placet, etc. Election is given you, chose to day what pleaseth you whom you aught most to serve, whether the gods whom your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell: for I & my house will serve our Lord. And the people answered, god forbidden that we should forsake our Lord & serve strange gods.  
Hear we see choice proposed, the true God, & the gods of Mesopotamia, & the gods of the Amorites, put to their election, whom of these three they intended to serve: the people reject the false god, & elect the true god. What liberty can a mandemaunde more manifest than this, in any woorken of piety or religion?  
The like free will we have registered that Solomon used, when God willed him to ask what he would, Postnla a 
3. Reg. 3.  me quid vis, ut dem tibi, Demand of me What thou wilt, that I may give thee. Now Solomon was put to his choice, he might have asked wealth, long life, revenge of his enemies, yet he preferred wisdom before them all: & this election so pleased God, thathe would not demand them, although he might, for so much those words signify, Quia post ulasti, Because thou hast desired this thing; & asked for thyself, neither long days nor riches, nor the lives of thine enemies: with wisdom he gave him all the rest. For if he could not have desired the other of god, at what time he requested wisdom: God had notrendered a just reason why he gave him with wisdom, riches & glory, for the particle Quia, yieldeth a reason or cause of this gift.  
The like we have of Abraham, who might have offered & not offered his Son Isaac. The word tentavit, God tempted Abraham, declareth liberty. It was put in his election, for so those words signify, Per memetipsum iura●i etc. I have sworn by myself, saith our Lord, because thou hast done this thing, & not spared thy son for me, I will bless thee etc.  
Some protestants will say, that Abraham could not but offer his son because he was a figure of Christ, & a representation of his passion: but by this answer they might aswell say, that judas was compelled to sell Christ and the jews to crucify him, because god foretold them by his Prophets, & represented them by figures in the old testament, which wear a horrible blasphemy. True it is that as god foresaw that judas by his liberty abused, was to cell Christ, & therefore depainted it in the old Testament: even so soreseing the good use of Abrahames free will with his grace, or deigned the oblation of his son as a figure of Christ's passion.  
In civil actions we declare liberty by conditional fpeches, as by saying if thou do this, this will befall thee, if otherwise contrary: & the reason is most pregnant, because by condition adjoined, we foretell the event that shall follow, intending thereby to induce liberty rather to one part then an other. As for example, the civil Magistrate in his law will say, if a man steal, he shall be hanged, if he defend his country, he shall be rewarded, if he commit treason, his treason shall be punished, etc.  
In works of piety & religion, in a hundredth places of scripture we find the like conditions annexed to God's 
Levi. 26 Deu. 28. Psal. 94 Mat. 19  promises or threatenings, If you hear me, you shall eat the fruit of the earth. To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Si vis ad vitam ingreds, serva mandata. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.  
Those that have free will to do one thing and an other, we use to threaten with punishment and death if they omit that we would ha●e them to do, or commit that we inhibit them. As for example the gallows to theirs, because they may live truly if they william. So God threateneth eternal death to those that keep not his commandments, exercise not works of piety, in a hundredth places of the scripture, Nisi paenitentiam egeritis omnes similiter peribitis. If you do 
Luc. 13  not penance, you shall altogether perish. Nisi quis renatus fucrit ex aqua & 
Io. 3.  spiritu, non potest introire in regnum dei. If one be not regenerate by water & the spirit, he can not enter into the Kingdom of god. Nisi manducaveritis 
Io. 6.  carnem filii hominis, & biberitis eius sanguinem, non hahebitis vitam in vobis. If you eat not the flesh of the son of man & drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. If a man had not grace to repent, or it wear impossible having grace but to repent, sooth these comminations wear ridiculous. For wear it not a madness for a hundred men holding a minister tied hand & foot in a cord, they above in a turret, & he below, to threaten him death & all terrors if he came not up, if they intended effectually afterwards by main force to hail him up? This poor minister can not stir or move himself upwards, & yet they stand threatening, to what end? when they have done all they can, they must compel him, and enforce him up. After this sort standeth it with the protestants, they say man lieth bound hand and foot wit & will, body & soul, in the cords of sin. He can not ascend, not not lift up his hand without the impulsive & compelling grace of Christ god must draw him up without free will, & liberty, and yet he standeth threatening & denouncinge hell to all those that will not ascend up unto him by good works & religious operations. This ridiculous doctrine, intelligat qui intelligere potes●, ego illam non capio. For a man would not threaten a horse fallen into a ditch, to rouse himself, except he intended that the horse moved with the imagination of terror, should help himself, & concur with his Master to get forth: for if the owner would wholly hoist him out by main strength, he never would threaten him, neither for this respect a horse haith reason, for that beasts do by sense, men work by judgement and discourse, as if a man wear fallen into a ditch & to be helped after the same sort, he would move himself by discourse & liberty, as the horse by imagination and sensue appetite:  
Them that God endueth with liberty, we persuade and exhort, to that part we desire they should follow, because persuasions bend the free will of a man, and induce h●m to change opinion & leave his former determination. Wherefore preachers, as christian oratovies, use no less diligence, to find owte such reasons as may remove men from sin, and incline them to virtue, than the pagan rhetoricians to imprint a worthy opinion in their auditor's minds of them whom they praised, or an infamous conceit of them they dispraised.  
The like persuasions God useth in the Scriptures, to incline our wills to serve his law. Here upon came those voices, Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis 
Mat. 11  & onerall estis, & ego reficiam vos. Come unto me all you that labour and are heavy loaden, & I will refresh you. Conuertimini ad me, & ego convertar ad 
Zac. 1.  vos. Convert unto me, & I will convert unto you. Revertimini ad me, & 
Mal. 3. & Hier. 3.  ego revertar ad vos. Return unto me & I will return unto you. To what other effect tended these inducements & pe●swa●īons, but to bend our free will on one side? No man needethe to persuade a man to eat, that haveth the use of re●son, when he i● almost starved for meat, because necessity will compel him thereunto: but if he be very sick, if he loathe meat, then because his free will may be induced by persuasions, we use to exhort him by shewing, what good meat will bring, & what evil abstinence will yield: So if God of necessity impelleth us to goodness, we need no persuasions, but having liberty, well appeareth to what purpose they serve.  
When men possess liberty, we blame them for their offences, or we reprehend & expostulate unto them, their misdemeanoures, because they have done evil & might have done well, as if a younker spend his money riotously, & after be cast into prison or fall into some incurable disease by his evil carriage, we accustom to say sooth he deserved it, who might have carried himself better & would not. The same lamentations, reprehensions, & expostulations, we find in the Scriptures used by God against men after their sins, Jerusalem, 
Mat. 23.  Jerusalem, quae oceidis prophetas, & lapidas eos qui ad te missi suut, quoties volui congregare filios tuos sicut gallina congregat pullos sub alis, et noluisti. Jerusalem Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, & stonest them which were sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children as the hen doth gather her chikins under her wings, & thou wouldst not. 
Ezec. 18. & 33. Isa. 5  Quare in peccatis vestris moriemini? Why will you dye in your sins? Quid debui facere ultra vineae meae et non feci? expectavi ut faceret vuas, fecit autem labruscas. What should I have done to my vinyeard that I have not done? I expected sweet grapes, & it yielded sour.  
Good Lord I will tell you: the protestāns say, you should have given such grace unto them, that your vineyard (that is the jews) could not but bring forth ripe grapes: for they hold opinion, without it they could bring forth none other, And thus they condemn you in their judgements, not to have performed all things necessary, to 'cause your vinyeard to fructify, according to your expectation. Again they accuse you most blasphemously, of folly & doultishnes, in expecting sweet grapes of that vine, which neither was wattered with your grace, nor fomented with the celestial heat of your favour, nor sprinkled with the sweet dew of your daily blessing, but planted in a barren desert upon a windy mountain, ubinec ros necplwia, where there was neither 
2. Re. 1.  dew nor raune, & therefore the protestants accuse you of ignorance, in expecting such fruce, & excuse the jews in not yielding.  
Nothing else you shall find so often inculcated in the prophetts almost, as this ingratitude, and evil carriage of the jews when they might have done well if they would. But in the new Testament we have Christ his own words, by which we are assured he giveth no such grace ordinarily to men as protestants dream of, as compelleth our free will without liberty, to come unto him, Ve●●b● Corizaim, va 
Mat. 11 Luc. 10  tibi Bethsaida, quia si in Tiro et Sidone, factae fuissent virtutes, quae in te factae sunt: olim in sacco et cinere paenitentiam egissent. Woe be to thee Cotizaim, woe be to thee Bethsaida, for if in Tire & Sidon, had been wrought the miracles, that have been wrought in you, they had done penance in haircloth & ashes long ago. Christ hear lamenteth that the inhabitants of Corizaim & Bethsaida, were not converted: & to show that the fault was their obstinacy, not the defect of his grace, he averreth, that defect of his grace, he averreth, that with the same helps, those of Tire & Sidon would have been converted. Whereby manifestly appeareth that they might have been converted, and would not, else Christ without all reason, had lamented of their obstinacy & in daration.  
Hereunto I might reduce all those Scriptures, wherein we are commanded to do good, or works of piety, or religion: for every Law intrinsically & necessarily, requireth a possibility and free liberty, to be observed. Likewise all those places, whearin men are praised for doing works of piety and religion, for the title of praise is joined to the good use of liberty, when for God's cause a man might have transgressed & did not. Those & many more of like sort, I leave for brevity.  
The fourth principal argument, may be collected out of Scriptures, that sometimes ascribe our good works to God, otherwhiles they attribute them to us, in such manner, that the same cleansing of our souls, the self same new heart, the same justification, the same preparation, whereof in one place holy writ acknowledgeth god the author, in an other place, it confesseth that man woo●keth them.  
What better reconciliation hereof can we bring, then that of S. Paul, Non 
1. Cor. 15. Apoc. 3. Mat. 22.  ego, sed gratia dei mecum. Not I, but the grace of God with me. God knocketh, & we let him in: God inviteth us to his marriage, and we bring hither 
Ibid. Mar. 12 Io. 1. Mat. 13  our wedding garments: God teacheth & we accept his doctrine: God illuminateth all the world, and we open the windows of our hearts: God soweth the seed, & we fructify with it.  
The places of scripture, be many: some few I will set down. What is more proper to god, then to wash our Souls? & therefore David said, 
Psal. 50  Lavabis me, & super nivem dealbabor. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall become whiter then snow. This same god commands the children of Israel to do themselves, Lava a malit tacor tuum 
Hier. 4  Jerusalem, ut salva fias. O Jerusalem, wash malice from thy heart, that thou mayest be saved,  
What wonder woorkethe God about us more admirable, then in changing our hearts, in giving us hearts of flesh pliable to be dealt withal, & by taking away hearts of flint, not aable to be pierced, & so by creating in us a new heart. Auferam a vobis cor lapideum, & dabo vobis cor carneum. I will take from you a stony heart, 
Ezec. 11  & I will give you a sleshly heart. And in an other place. Dabo vobis cor nonum, I will give you a new heart.  
This same heart, men make likewise, Facite vobis cor nowm & spiritum nowm, et quare moriemini domus 
Ezec. 18  Israel? Make you a new heart and a new spirit, why will you dye oh house of Israel? This same heart men doth mollify, by not hindering it against Gods inspirations, hody si vocem eius audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestrra. 
Ps. 94  To day if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts. If David desire god to incline his heart to keep his commandments, Inclina cor meum in testimonia tua, et non in avaritiam. 
Ps. 118  incline my heart to thy testimonies, & not to covetousness: In the same psalm he will say of himself, Incl●naus co●. meum ad faciendas iustificationes tuas propter retributionem I have inclined my heart to observe thy justifications, for a reward.  
If in one place a sinner cry to god 
Psal. 84  Convert nos deus salutar●s noster. Convert us oGod our Saviour. In au other place, God will cry to the m, Conuertimini ad me et ego convertar ad vos. 
Zac. 1  Be converted to me, and I will be converted to you. If God justify a sinner, & as a proper epithet, he will betake his title to himself, yet a servant of his was not afraid to say, Ergo sine causa iustificaevi. cor meum. 
Psal. 72  If so the wicked prospero & the just be afflicted, to what end have I justified my heart? If god say, Faciam vos ambulare in praeceptis meis. I will 'cause you keep my commandments, yet Christ will asscrybe the keeping to men Si vis ad vitam ingredi, serva maudata. 
Mat. 13  If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.  
The Fifth Argument, we may deduce out of those places of scripture wherein man is said to prepare his har● or soul, or God commandeth him to prepare, or reprehendeth him for not preparing it to come to his Majesty, to follow Virtue, to embrace Christ. Of a number, some few I will set down.  
Hominis est animam praeparare, etdomini 
Prover. 16  gubernare linguam. It concerneth a m●n to prepare his soul, & our Lord to guide his tongue. That is, Although man with gods grace, preparethe his soul, to utter any good thing: yet he needeth beside, a particular succour of god to utter his conceits. Samuel willed the Israelites if they had determined to abolish all profane gods, that they should 
1. Reg. 7  prepare their hearts to God. Praparate corda vestra domino, et seruite illisol●. Prepare your hearts to God, & serve him alone. Roboam is reprehended, Quia non praeparavit cor suum ut 
2. Par. 12  qu●reret dominum. Because he did not prepare his heart to serve our Lord. And the wise man affirmeth universally; that all good men, prepare their hearts. Qui timent dominum, praeparabunt corda sua. Those that fear God 
Eccl. 2  will prepare their hearts. And all the 
Mat. 3. Marc. 1  Evangelists except S. john, allege those words of Isay as S. john Baptist's 
Luc. 3  thcame, when he came to prepare the way for Christ, Parate viam Domini, rectas facite semitas eius. 
Isa. 40.  Prepare the way of our Lord, makeright his paths. These preparations effected by man, ascribed to man, man reprehended for not making them, do sufficiently prove the concourse of free will with gods grace, for otherwise god should be said to prepare the heart & not man.  
The sixth argument those scriptures afford us whearin holy men cry unto God to help them, Domine adiwa me, 
Ps. 108 & 118 & 69 Marc. 9 Psa. 18 26. 32. 61. 62. 70. 117  O God help me, or that God is said to be our helper, Deus adiutor mens O God my helper, because this arguethe both concourse of God to succour us and our cooperation to secure ourselves or to concur with god. Wherefore S. Paul calleth men the helpers of God, because they work together with God. unusquisque propriam 
1. Cor. 3  Mercedem accipiet secundum suum i●borem, dei enim adiutores sumas. Every one shall receive, according to his works, for we are gods helpers, that is, we concur with God in the manuring of his field, which are you, we work with God in the spiritual building of his Church.  
Again those places serve for this purpose whearin men are said to work their own salvation or sanctification. Cum timore & tremore, salutem vestram 
Phil. 2.  operamini. With fear and trembling, work your salvation. Qui 
1. Io. 3.  habet hancspem, sanctificat se. He that haveth this hope, sanctifieth himself.  
Moreover all those scriptures wherein Christ is said to knock at the door & desire to enter, or to expect that we come to him. For if he effected all, of necessity he opened the door of himself, he needed not to stay till we would come to him. Ego sto ad ostium 
Apoc. 3.  & pulso, si quis mihi aperuerit, in●roibo ad eum. I stand at the door & knock, if any open it, I will enter into him. Aperi mihi soror mea. Open 
Can. 5. Isa. 5.  the door to me my sister. Tota die expandi manus meas ad populum incredulum. All day I have extended my hands to an incredulous people. Venite 
Mat. 11  ad me omnes qui laboratis. Come to me all you that labour & be heavy laden & I will refresh you.  
The last reason shall be reason itself, for in truth as experience doth manifestly prove our liberty: so reason doth without reply convince it. The first reason, is remorse of conscience in this life & in hell. For if men had not liberty, remorse should be wholly extinguished. For what evil soever we do of necessity, presently we excuse it, & acquit our conscience with the impossibility. As if a man should drink poison, not knowing, he never would have any scruple of conscience, because it was inavoydable, he could not prevent it. But if he procured it of himself, or might have prevented it & would not: then the torture of conscience, will presently rack high, because he might have done good saved his own life, & would not. For he that resisteth any sin doth well according to that saying, Beatus ille 
Eccl. 31  qui potuit transgredi, & non est transgressus. Again the torture, the worm of Conscience, that stickethe so deep with her sting in the soul of all damned creatures, should never appear in hell, if man wear deprived of liberty. For their torment consisteth in this, that for their own demerits being created of God in such sort, that if they would, heaven laid open for them by doing well: and yet they cast themselves into hell by their own accord by working evil. For if they could not have done well but of necessity wear plunged into fin, I see not what remorse they can have.  
The second reason is, for that no Law with justice can be enacted, but such as may be observed, because the end of the law is to make good subjects, & therefore it wear most absurd, that all men were not able tokepe that law, which was ordained for all men. Again every law may be prevaricated, for else why should punishment be annexed to the law? and so consequently every law suppose the liberty. Moreover the very state of man, who is as it wear in this world fight, requireth liberty. For standing between heaven & hell, God & the devil, placed in this theatre either to overcome or be overcome: all reason required, that he might be pliable both ways, & of a flexible will, either to accept god, or reject him, follow Satan, or pursue him, yield to his temptations, or resist them, as by practice we see effected in the tragical comedy of job. For if job had lacked free will to do well, what great mastery had it been for God, with such necessary grace, to have overcome Satan? But job having free will, frail flesh, assaulted of the devil, pursued of his friends, tempted by his wife, spoiled of his riches, bereaved of his children, ulcered in body, and yet to overcome all infernal forces, by such grace of God, as he might have used or abused at his pleasure: plainly convinceth the great victory both of God & job against the devil, because for gods love, his changeable will, persevered without change.  
Scotus one of the mirroures of wit that ever this world brought forth, thought the experience of free will so palpable, that he judged the truth thereof not able to be proved by any argument more evidently, then by whipping the denier so long, till he confessed that the whipper had free will to whip him, & to leave whipping. So in good sooth I think if any minister wear in like case, he would confess, that the whipper might for the love of God, let him alone if he would, and proceed in his beating if he listed.  
If we want free will, what judgement shall that be in Scriptures so often times repeated, that every man shall receive according to his works? What justice will there appear to torment men eternally for sin & wickedness, to whom it was impossible to do any good? Or what reward shall that be which God bestowethe upon them, that wear compelled to do well, neither was it in their power to do evil.  
In mine opinion, all the thieves & harlots whom the protestants have punished in this time of error, shall give testimony against this heretical assertion. For certainly when the thief stole, & the harlot abused her body, they did it upon vehement temptation, (for otherwise they never would have plunged both their souls & bodies into so great dangers.) This temptation than I demand if they could have resisted at that time or no? If not, what law will hung a man so doing a thing unavoidable, for it laid not in the thieves power to avoid it? If he could resist it, than he had liberty to do a good work & did it not, & consequently answered not the grace of God (without which he could not resist any vehement temptation) whereunto he might have freely answered.  
Finally this errou● is the root of all licentiousness. For thus God knoweth two may reason in England, and in the protestants school insolubly; Either we have grace to do well or not, If I have it, than it is impossible to do evil, if I have it not, it is impossible to do well, for all goodness proceedeth of grace which compelleth our wills, & all evil cometh of lack of grace, which we have not at our wills. Therefore let all Epicures live as licentiously as they will, all riotous persons pass their days in all dissolution, for this error will warrant them sufficiently.  
The arguments or rather sophisms that protestants bring against this infallible, experimented, practised, & allowed verity, in all antiquity, deserve rather hissing then answering, yet one I will answer, that by it the reader may judge of the rest.  
They allege forsooth that part of the scripture in the parable, where the 
Luc. 14  King commanded his servants, to compel them that they found in the high ways, to come to his marriage dinner, & the other scripture where 
Cau. 1. Ose. 11 Io. 6. et 12.  God is said to draw men unto him. But this rotten objection, oflong since rooted out heresies, must have as old a solution, for by this drawing & compulsion, the scripture meaneth nothing, but that god useth great helps to draw men unto him, for which they are in excusable if they come not. As if one invite me to supper, yet I excuse myself, he insisteth with many reasons, at the last he induceth me: after I say, he compelled me to come he brought so many persuasions. For do we not see that one of them which wear compelled, came without a marriage garment? so that this compulsion 
Mat. 22  of gods grace, slandeth with the abuse thereof.  
I have been longer in this preface, than perhaps the proportion of the gate with the house required by just Ceintrie, yet the opportunity and necessity, causeth builders often times to break their square, as it befalleth me at this present. And therefore I leave of purpose an other discourse of the merit of good works, the which I could prove as manifestly as this, & perhaps it wear as necessary: but an other occasion will not want. In the mean time, I request all protestants in the wounds of Christ jesus as they tender their own salvation, to ponder these reasons with the balance of indifferent judgement, and daily to go forwards in good works for which they shall receive their judgement.   

To the Catholic like Protestants.  
Your case, as it is most miserable, so it is most compassionable, for it seemeth, you in heart desire to serve god, & yet this desire is overweyed, with the desire to enjoy the world. Your case I said was moste miserable, because exiling out of the Church, you are like the straying sheep erring in the desert mountains, exposed to the pray of all ravening wolves. You have no weapons to defend your selves, deprived of the sacraments, spoiled of the communion of Saints, the incessant prayers & Sacrifice of Christ's faithful flock. Alas what will befall you? either the wild & savage beasts will devour you, or for lack of spiritual food, you shall dye in those unfruitful soils. What can the protestants Churches afford you? Ah infected sermons, corrupted with heresies. What prayers? Alas, how will god hear them who will not hear him? The Communion, oh poisoned cup, better it wear for you to eat so much ratsbane, than that polluted bread, & to drink so much dragon's gall, or vipers blood, than that sacrilegious wine. No doubt, but after that bread, entereth in Satan, & after that cup, some of the infernal crew. This you know & in your hearted confess, & therefore your sin is questionless the greater. You favour Catholics and in what you can, do them good. Ah, quid prodest homini, s● universum mundum lucretur, anima 
Mat. 16  vero suae, detrimentum pat●atur?  
For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and sustain the damage of his soul? What will it avail you at the day of judgement, to have favoured Catholics, when you shall be condemned yourselves for half heretics? What good Catholic is there in england, that would not lose with all his heart, your temporal favours, for your spiritual good, & wishethe not rather that you wear favoured of God, then gracious before men? If all the favours, riches, and sures of the world, wear summed in one man's dominion, yet who doubteth but that it wear better to receive once devoutly the blessed Sacrament, then to possess them all. Therefore you may see what detriment your soul suffereth, for the small favours you minister unto Catholics. Ah fear not that they shall be destitute either of spiritual graces or temporal favours.  
Cast your eyes upon God's providence, & you shall see him tendering them, as the crystal humour of his eye. Abandon for Christ jesus sake their excernall conversation in religion, whose company internally you detest. For in very deed most of the protestants hate you, the catholics mislike you, the devils laugh at you, & 
Apoc. 3 Eccle. 4  god doth vomit you out of his mouth. Woe be to that man that goeth with two hearts, that walkethe two ways, that intendeth to serve both God & 
Mat. 6  the devil, to be Christ's disciple, & a favoryte of the world.  
I wonder how the very hell you feel in your souls, the horrible torture of your consciences, enforcethe you not to leave that hellish Sinagog?  
In good sooth if ever you enter into yourselves, & consider your present state in what perils & labyrinths you have cast yourselves into: I marvel you either congeal not with fear, or pine not away with melancholy, or your hearts burst not with desperation.  
For in your own conscience, you live in continual, horrible, & slanderoous sin. The hour of your death is ever imminent, the severe judgement of God, you are assured you shall not escape, the eternal pains of hell you are certain expect you: & yet can you live merrily, laugh, & pass your time carlessly? This sin of yours I take to be a sin against the holy Ghost, and a final impenitency, because in you●e hearts you have determined, so long as this rigour of laws & punishment of Catholics endureth you will persever in your accustomed irreligious profession of protestancy, from which, I say no more, but Christ jesus deliver you, for whose reclaim I will not cease to pray.   

THAT NO MAN CAN PREPARE HIMSELF Condignly to receive the B. Sacrament.  

THE FIRST CHAPTER.  
THe sacred Eucharist, is not only a most Majestical & divine object, deserving the profoundest wits for speculation: but also a Sacrament & sacrifice by God ordained for action, & instituted for a real participation. Whence-from proceedeth, that it concerneth us with no less industry to prepare our souls religiously to receive it, then profoundly to understand it. Therefore having declared the speculative part in the precedent book, the practical we reserved for this present: not that those Meditations wear not ordained, or not most apt means to induce our hearts to receive this food of life with all respect, love, & affection (for all knowledge of God distillethe into the heart a certain sweet motion or impulsion to love him) but because they wear something remote from practice, they taught not fully the way & particular means how our souls aught to be disposed, to participate this holy Sacrifice.  
First then of all the next disposition that I can find, is a most prosound humility, whereby with heart & tongue we confess ourselves not able to prepare our souls, to receive condignly such a majesty, and that all our diligence, arriveth not to the thousand part of that which he deserveth. For if the natural philosophers mostewisely & naturally avert, that inter locum & locatum, recipiens & receptum, debet interueuire proportio, that is, betwixt the place and the placed, the receiver & the received, the conteyner & the contained, must be found some proportion: Alas what proportion can we make betwixt God & our souls? his majesty, & our misery? his greatness, & our weakness? his goodness, & our wickedness? For if I consider his greatness, it is immensive, quem caeli, 
Reg. 8  & cali caelorum capere non possunt. Whom the heavens & the heaven of heavens, can not comprehend penetrating and enuironinge this world and all the contained therein, as the boundless ocean sea penetrateth and environeth a spring, yet remaining without an incomprehensible vastness of water. How then can my body or soul receive such an immensity? What proportion or correspondence can we find? If I consider his majesty, his purity, his excellency & perfections: then I hearen that Angels non 
job. 4 & 15  sunt mundi in conspectu eius, & quanto magis nos qui habitamus domos luteas, & tanquam aquam bibimus iniquitat●m. The Angels are not clear in his sight, and how much more we that inhabit houses of clay, & drink as water iniquity?  
If his Angels now possess their complete glory, devil in the imperial heaven, where they never cease day nor night to sing his praises, if they enjoy a state impeccable fro blot, blemish, or wrinkle of offence, & yet they are unperfect, stained, unclean in his sight: what then am I, repletus 
job. 14  multis miseriis, replete with many miseries, conceived in iniquity, borne in misery, living in sin and wickedness? so that hear I find no way to prepare myself, the are can not be any proportion or just measure betwixt us.  
If I consider his infinite wisdom, lucem habit at inaccessibilem. He inhabiteth 
1. Ti. 6  light not accessible; Mine eyes will be dazzled with the vehement brightness of his beams, and the very Seraphimes themselves, who are all eyes & understanding, confess their 
Isa. 6  infirmity, inveyling themselves with their golden wings. If I consider his love, the vehemency thereof striketh me into a maze, for I know the conditions thereof to exceed so far the baseness of my love, that if the Seraphims veiled their feet to declare the imperfections of their affections: I may well with Adam seek 
Gen. 3  some shroud, to defend me from shame, as one afraid to appear before his face, with such remissness and congealed friendship; therefore hear I find no gate open whereby my loving Lord may enter into my heart. The like I might say of his omnipotency, of his justice, his bounty, & other attributes. Yea I will go further, if only I lacked proportion, if only my soul for a natural imperfection, wear incapable of him: then perhaps I might be excused in part if I came to receive him: but having so often, so voluntarily, freely, & deliberately offended him, What can I answer him? What an unfittte Temple have I prepared for him? O vere most truly I have made Do●cum orationis, 
Mat. 2 H●er. 7  speluncam latronum. The house ofprayer a den of thieves: the tent of virtues, a cave of serpents & basilisks, of vipers & infernal devils.  
But than what remedy? where shall I find a way to wind forth of this labyrinth? for receive him I must, receive him condignly I can not; not to receive him, is death, to receive him with a certain proportion I aught. What pillar of fire, can lighten me from heaven? what voice can comforth me? Humility. Say with the Centurion, Domine non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum die verbo, & sanabitur anima mea. Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof, but only say the word, & my soul shall be healed. So the Church saith, & so in very deed we must say & confess, that the first & chiefest preparation we can make, is to acknowledge ourselves insufficient, to make any condign preparation: & this not only in words, but also in heart, as this discourse evidently showeth.   

THAT GOD REQVYRETH A Certain Preparation of them that receive this Sacramen. ●.  
CAP. 2.  
ALthough the unsearchable providence of God, did well foresee our inability for condign Preparation, yet he would not be contented, with this humble nothing, or lowly privation, because the sweet disposition of his divine wisdom required aswell in grace, as in nature, the cooperation of his creatures.  
Ezechias could not recover his 
Isa. 38  ●●fe, yet God would not restore it, ●●cept he received the pultes of Ihais.  
Naaman Sirus, could not fyndeany 
4. Re. 5  cure of his leprosy within the compass of nature, & God would not miraculously heal him, before he washed his body seven times in jordaine.  
If Elias be almost starved for hunger, 
3. Re. 17  he must go to the woman of Sido●, to be supernaturally reliued.  
If our Saviour convert water into 
Io. 2  wine, he will have them to prepare the matter for his miracle, by filling their vessels. 
Io. 9   
If he give sight to the blind borne beggar, it must be after the bathinge in Siloe. And finally, his universal practice in curing the sores of the body and griefs of the soul, was not fully brought to effect, except the patientes in some sort or other, disposed themselves to receive his divine influence. Hereupon came those voices, Credis? Confided, quid vis? vis saluus esse? Dost thou believe? Have confidence, What wouldest thou I should do? & such like speeches, all which pregnantly prove, that God exacteth of men, a free & voluntary cooperation & preparation to their justification & salvation. For than he knew the music to be most sweet, when the triple & the base, the highest and the lowest, God & his creatures, consorted in one harmony, by due order, proportion, & subordination. For it standeth not with the nature of friendship that a man should be either admitted into the amity of God, or increased in his love, having free will, without the cooperation thereof, no more than a man that had hands, should feed without putting meat into his mouth, or a fish should live without swimming, or a bird without flying.  
Since therefore the sacred Eucharist, joineth our souls and bodies really with Christ, cureth our spiritual maladies, increaseth our friendship with God, describethe us Citizens in the heavenly Jerusalem, filleth our hearts 
Ephes. 2  with divine favours & graces: there is no reason but we should dispose ourselves to receive it, by free will defyre it, by fervent love affect it, and with the arms of Charity, most religiously embrace it.  
We know the Eucharist, is a food ordained for the norishment of the soul, for by Baptism, we are regenerated spiritually: by confirmation, we grow in grace: by the Eucharist, after we come to a certain perfect growth, we are nourished & confirmed in god's favour. All nourishment requireth a lively body, not overlaid with malignante humours, prepared by hunger & natural heat, to cooperat with it, for the reparation of lost forces.  
Moreover the Philosophers hold for a protrite axiom, that omne agens agit, secundum dispositam materiam. Every agent worketh, according to the disposition of the matter. So we see the soon, if it pass through a clear air, what a floodd of light it issueth from heaven upon the earth: if it found some rare or thin clouds in the way, the force is something diminished: if a gross and thick cloud, be interposed, the vehemency is greatly stayed, but if a misty fog, it scarce appeareth; if the moan, there followeth an eclipse though it wear at none.  
In like manner, if a soul come to this fountain of light but eclipsed, that is haveth a mortal sin interposed which fully & wholly hindereth the influence thereof: then what can follow but night and darkness, at what tywe the toads & serpents range abroad, seeking for their prey. If fogs of sensuality, clouds of concupiscences, mists of petty malices, overcaste the heart: the force of devotion, the fervor of charity, the sweetness of love, (the proper effects of this celestial food,) are greatly hindered.  
Therefore it lying in our power to prepare the way for these streams of light, since he haveth said, Parate viam 
Marc. 1  domins, rectas facite simitas eius. Prepare the way of our Lord, make straight his paths. Let us not harden our hearts, let us not stop his course give him free passage, prepare his way with piety, devotion, and religion.  
Doth not faith teach us, & divinity manifestly show unto us, that Christ the life & soul of this Sacrament, is an infinite dignity? his merits of infinite desert? this oblation, of infinite value? that, in fine, we have hear present before the doors of our hearts an immensive sea of heavenly favours & graces? Why then receive we not whole rivers of these supernatural riches? why fill we not our hearts as far as they are capable? Haithe not God said, Aperi os tunm, & implebo illud? 
Psal. 80  Open thy mouth, & I will fill it? Ah it is not the defect of Christ & his sacrifice, but our want & indisposition.  
The vessels first failed, before Elias oil seized, & our souls shall first 
4. Re. 4  be stopped with imperfections, than this Sacrament stayed to impart his graces. Therefore let us enlarge our souls with charity, let us make them deep with humility, let us raife them up a loft with love & feruoure, let us open all our passages with prayers, meditations, sighs, and godly affections, let us shut up all the sluices, & sinks, to sin & hell, that no malice or impiety, no sensuality or concupiscence, pass into the bosom of our hearts, & then, erit sicut flum●● 
Isa. 48  pax tua, thy peace shall be as a fludd then the soil of the soul will flowe● 
Exod. 3 Ps. 147  with milk & honey. Than, Ex adipe fruments satiet te. Than, Torculari● redundabunt vino, & horrea tua abundabunt frumento. Thy wine presses shall overflow with wine, and thy 
joel. 2  barns abound with wheat.  
When I call to memory the wonderful 
3. Re. 6 & 8 2. Par. 3 & 4.  temple of jerusalem, how many thousand woorkmen for so many years continually laboured there, when I see such choice of stones & timber, such abundance of gold & treasures such cutting carving, graving, pointing, painting, decking, & adorning, of that material, inanimate, & tipical Temple of God: I can not be but so greatly confounded in myself, to conceive, with what diligence, cost, reverence, and nycenes, they prepared that house for God's ark, a chest of wood, a figure & gross portraiture of this heavenly food, a footstool for God's feet to stand upon: & I who am to receive God himself, the true ark into my living soul, use so small & could industry to entertain him.  
So many stately Churches as I see built in England, condemn my indevotion: for they manifest unto their founder's religion and piety to this blessed sacrament. They builded them with their blood, their sweat, care, & long labour: & how much more ought I to do, for preparing mine own soul, for whose cause god would have Temples, Ministers, with all other rights and ceremonies appointed?  
Finally let us but weigh the dignity & worth of him whom we are to receive, by how many Titles we are bound to endeavour to show the extreameste diligence possible to provide him in our hearts a condign tabernacle.  
Who is this that thou shalt allodge? God. And what can be greater? and therefore all preparation too little?  
Who is this that will harbour in thy heart? The owner of thy heart, thy landslorde, he comes to visit his own possession, that farm he let thee: and wilt thou not prepare a decente room for him? Who is this that will sojourn with thee? thy redeemer, he that delivered thee out of boundage, he that paid thy ransom, he that set thee at liberty. And wilt thou not tender him thanks? Wilt thou not acknowledge his benefits? Wilt thou not by diligent preparation show thyself greatfull? Who is this that will visit thee? Thy dearest friend in the world, one that loves thee better than either father or mother, and haithe showed his love more effectually then either of them both, by shedding all his blood to save thy life, to cure thy soul, & wilt thou be so churlish as not to entert●ine so true, so entire & so faithful a friend with bowels of Charity, with zealous desires, with enflammed affection. Who is this that cometh thus masked, with the rinds of bread & wine to be eaten of thee? Thy pastor, to feed thee with his own blood: thy priest, to sanctify thee with his own Sacrament: thy master, to illuminate thee with his own faith: thy spouse, to marry thee, by his divine & ineffable union: thy physician, to cure thee with his immortal flesh: thy life, to revive thee with his glorious body; thy last end, to deify thee with his divinity. And for so many graces and favours, dost thou imagine that he expecteth not some preparation, some correspondence? truly if he did not, yet courtesy, civility, humanity, the law of nature, the bound of a loyal mind, good manners, would enforce any noble heart, to stretch the veins of his wit upon the tenters, to find out all means possible, to gratify such a benefactor, to content such a guest, to entertain such a friend.  
If thou lovest God effectually, this languag will not seem new, for souls that are touched with his divine fire, can never rest, but are always excogitating, inventing, & practising new ways how to receive him, how to please him how to enterteive him.   

THAT THERE BE TWO SORTS OF PREPARATIONS.  
CAP 3.  
AS there be two sorts of persons whom Christ haveth invited to his table, sinners & just men: so he haveth appointed two sorts of preparations, the first of necessity, the other of decency: the lack of the one causeth damnation, the want of the other, impeacheth devotion: Of that is said, Probet semetipsum homo, & sic 
1 Cor. 11  de pane illo edat, & de chalice bibat: qui cuim manducat et bibit indign, judicium sibi manducat et bibit, non d●udicans corpus domini. Let a man prove himself, & so let him eat of that bread, & drink of that Chalice, for he that eateth & drinketh unworthily, eateth & drinketh judgement to himself, not discerning the body of our Lord. Of this said Christ, Qui lotus 
Io. 13  est, non indiget nisi ut pedes lavet.  
He that is washed, needeth not but to wash his feet. Of these two preparations, I mean to deliver all that followeth in this treatise. And first of all what preparation of necessity Christians are commanded to bring when they come to participate these sacred mysteries. Undoubted it is, that who soever will eat this food & not to his damnation, must come without spot of mortal sin, that is in his conscience he persuadeth himself, that he is in the favour & grace of God.  
Many reasons I could bring, to confirm this position, but for this present I will content myself with two.  
The first is the general rule of receiving sacraments, that whosoever participateth them in mortal sin (except baptism and penance) sinnethe mortally, yea & sacrilegiously, because he hinderethe the influence of God in his veins of grace, frustrating the Sacraments of their effects, which questionless can not be but agreate injury to almighty God, and a notorious irreverence unto his instruments of grace.  
The Second reason, is peculiar & proper to the Eucharist where Christ is received: for who dare receive him being his mortal enemy? what proportion is betwixt God & Beliall? life 
2. Cor. 6  & death? light & darkness? a den of devils, & the glory of Angels? a sink of filth, & the God of purity?  
This is that judgement S. Paul said they eat, not judging the body of 
1 Cor. 11  our Lord, but casting so precious a jewel, into so loathsome a dongehill: so sweet a liquor, in so stinking a vessel, the dainties of heaven, in a platter of hell. This can not be done without a horrible offence & a most heinous crime. These saith S. Cyprian, 
Libr. de caena do.  lick the stone, but neither suck honey nor oil: & better had it been for than with a millstone about their necks, to 
Deu. 32 Mat. 18  have been drowned in the bottom of the sea. A man therefore that haithe committed a mortal sin can not be admitted to eat at this table, except he obtain first forgiveness thereof, at the hands of God, the which he may get by contrition, that is a most profound & internal grief rooted in the love of God, & hatred of sins, as injuries done to him.  
But this preparation, because it is very hard to come by, & seldom sinners addicted to the world, return to him with such perfection of love: therefore the holy counsel of Trent 
Ses. 13 Cap. 7  remembered a laudable practice, commonly exercised before in the church, that no man guilty of mortal sin, should receive this Sacrament, without premittinge sacramental confession. For the difficulty of contrition, & the enormous sacraledge of eating our Saviour without remission of sins did move the Church to premitt confession, as a way more easy and more secure.  
After the soul be washed, with this laborious baptism of penance, it must in effect, or at the least in firm purpose, perform, all that an entire & complete confession requurethe.  
The usurer must make restitution, & desist from all his trade: The manchante must restore his evil gotten goods, rectify his contracts, use just measures, etc. He that lived in hatred, must procure reconciliation. He that passed his days riotously, must leave his evil company, avoid dangerous & experimented occasions of deadly sin: finally he must agreed with his adversary while he walkethe in the way, that is, his own conscience, that it accuse him not one day, before his judge, when there is no place of appellation, nor time of amendment.  
A case of conscience might hear be proponed, for Catholics in England: if being in prison for religion, & not having any means to come to a priest to confession: if such a one might receive the blessed Sacrament without Confession, having only contrition of his sins. Some will say, let him confess by writing: But whether confession by writing, be avaleable or Noah, I will not now dispute, I know there are some that defend it, but I can not allow it, because by letters, I can not know the present state of the penitent, when I give the absolution: it may be he remembreth so me other mortal sin, the which he would confess before I absolve him: it may be he sinneth at the same time: it may be he haveth some circumstance necessary to be confessed. Yet whether this be a true opinion or Noah, I hold it in no wise convenient, to be practised in England, for the scandal that might occur, if any such letters were intercepted by protestants. Therefore I am os opinion, that such a person after that he haith endeavoured for his possibility, with prayers to god with grief of sins, with a firm purpose never to fall again; that he may receive the blessed sacrament with contrition, although he can not come to confession: because the precept of confession, being appointed by the Church, we are to suppose, that she never intended thereby, to hinder such good souls from the blood of Christ, who stand prepared to offer their blood for Christ. And it seemeth not agreeable to the bowels of piety, to deprive her children, in such extreme conflicts, of all spiritual armour, against the adversaries of her faith.  
After than I am confessed and intend infallibly, with God's grace, to perform all that concerneth a good confession, I may presently after I have breathed forth so many sins, receive the blessed sacrament.  
After this disposition, I am not bound under a mortal sin, to any other preparation, for by confession, I am reconciled to God, endued with his grace, apparelled with the wedding 
Mat. 22  garment appointed for this feast, an numbered amongst the friends and children of God, written as an inhabitant for the city of Angels. Yet the remembrance of my passed offences, the shame of my transgressions, the horror of displeasing so sovereign a majesty, aught a little to withdraw me from kissing his side, which not long before, I had so notoriously wounded: to make retire from imbracinge him, whose love not long ago, so basely I despised: to 'cause me stay my foot for using him so familiarly, whose friendship hard before, I disdained so contemptuously.  
Therefore I will dispose myself better for the dignity of his person, the perfection of his love, the admirable fruits and graces, which this blessed food affordeth, to all those who condignly receive it, the which preparation, shall be presently declared.   

WHAT DECENTE PREPARATION WE ought to use, before we communicate.  
CAP. 4.  
I Once demanded of a godly and devout Religious man, what was the most forcible mean, that he by long experience had proved, to help a man to pray well & devoutly? He answered me, a good life, continually to live well: The which mean in very deed is most forcible, for such men have their hearts replenished with God's graces, their passions burst not forth vehemently, their souls are endued with many good habits, they fall rarely, rise more fervently, and consequently converse with God more familiarly, and pray more devoutly. I say after that manner what preparation principally oughtewe to bring to the eucharist? a continual good life. What secondly? A continual virtuous life. What Thirdly? I answer the same. For those that live religiously, quickly can revive & stir up, the grace of God that lodgeth in their hearts; they can presently with one blast, accende the flame of Charity.  
But because we find few of this stamp, therefore we must descend to more particularities, That all those who for the time paste, have lived lowsely, or at this present fall often, yet by God's grace recover again, or contend not much to go to perfection, but will be content with a certain mediocrity; yet would willingly go forward, else they must needs go backwards, because in the service of God, there is no staying in any one point of holiness, but of necessity, they must either ascend, or descend, as a boat going against the stream, must either go forward or backward.  
For these therefore, incipientes, & proficientes, for them that begin to serve God, & them that have made some progress in god's service, these notes may serve. For fasting, wearing of shirts of hair, disciplines, alms deeds, lying hard, and other like mortifications & holy exercises, concerning the body: there can no prescript general rule be given: for as the complexions, abilities, & means to effect these are different; even so the practice of all can not be alike, but these rules may be taken as convenient.  
first the more a man mortifiethe his body by prudence and discretion, the less difficulty he shall find in all his spiritual exercises, because one of the greatest enemies we have, is our body, if it be pampered, & therefore mortification, is a good preparation.  
Secondly the best discretion in this, I take to be an obedient mind of the pevitente, to his ghostly father, that he propound his desires, and the other approve or disprove them: for commonly a man is not the surest judge in his own cause.  
Thirdly all those who communicate once a month, or once every week, aught to use some one or two of these mortifications: for this sacred myrrh, will preseme our senses from corruption: these spiritual actions, in time, will spiritualize our carnal bodies, & make them fit instruments to serve our souls, as harboures for the sacred eucharist.  
Fourthly these serve as preambles, for this blessed Sacrifice: for as Christ did suffer many cruel pains, before he sacrificed up himself upon the Cross: even so we (that must dye with Christ spiritually by compassion in this sacrament, & suffer with him, 
2 Tim. 2  to glory with him) aught to prepare ourselves to this holy Sacrifice, with some painful mortification.  
These premised, it followeth that we entreat of those spiritual meditations, devout exercises, & godly preparations, that all good souls may conveniontly, easily, briefly, & religiously practise, before they sit down to this table, all which I reduce to six acts of five virtues. And the very same which the Council of Trent reckoneth, as dispositions to justification: those I judge most fit preparations for the sacred communion: Fear, Faith, Hope Charity, Repentance, which I divide into two operations, detestation of our passed life, and a firm resolution, not to fall again, the which for memory sake, I thought good to comprehend in this one word Fear: For Fear of itself, representeth unto me, the first act. F, the first letter of Faith: Faith, Hope, and Charity. R, the second consonant, Repentance, the which can never be effectual, except it carne with it grief for sins passed, and a resolute good will of amendment. These be those six wings which the Seraphims, that are inflamed with love, wear furnished withal, when 
Isa. 6  they appeared before the throne of the majesty of God. And all devout catholics endued with them, may have free access unto the tree of life, the seat of God, that is his altar.  
These be six gates, through which all courteours must pass, that willenter into the presence chamber, to deal with the king of heaven.  
These be six harbingers who prepare the lodging of the holy Ghost in justification, & most fit to do the same office for the son of God, in the communion. For if there we enter into friendship with the holy Trinity, here we renew it & increase it: If the are we abolished deadly sins, here we extinguish venial: If there we left the devil, the flesh, & the world hear we triumph over them: If there we wear united to god in spirit, here we are joined both in body & soul: If there we gathered the blossoms of grace, & first fruits of glory, hear we reap the crop of them both.  
And therefore as the holy Ghost in justification, appointed the aforesaid virtues, as ornaments to deck the soul against his entrance: in like sort our blessed saviour equal unto him, & of the same substance, seemeth to exact of us, the like preparations for his entertainment.  
Of these six therefore, some few discourses I mean to deliver: Howbeit I thought good to advertise thee gentle reader, that if time & opportunity will permit: it wear good to take some two or three of those causes or effects of this Sacrament, entreated in the former book, of the causes why God instituted this heavenly Banquet: & every day to stint a time, to meditate or consider, the admirable good, which issuethe from this fountain of life. For if we see many men labour & sweat all the week, to take a little sensual so la●e upon the sunday: with what greater reason aught we to labour some few hours every week, to participate this divine refection, & spiritual consolation?  
Moreover, if thou sinned thyself loaden with venial sins: wash thy feet, purge them with Confession, Lava iuter innocentes manus tuas, & 
Ps. 25  circunda altare domini: Wash thy hands with Innocentes, & compass the altar of our Lord. Have a diligent care, that no unclean thoughts obscure thy mind: no hatred or malice, occupy thy heart, for these two defects, hinder greatly this sacrament of Charity & purity. If of frailty they occur, lift up thy heart to god with some affectnall speech, as, Cor mundum 
Psal. 50 Mat. 26  crea in me deus. Ignosce illis domine, quia nesciunt quid faciunt. Created in me oh Lord, a clean heart. forgive them oh Lord, because they know not what they do.  

FEAR. 1  
Fear the beginning of wisdom, is 
Psa. 100  the first gate, by which we must enter into the palace of wisdom, whose chamber of presence is this sacrament.  
But because fears are various, therefore I will distinguish them, that we may better know what fear is required, & what fear is to be rejected.  
Four sorts of fears, I find proved by experience, and taught of divines: worldly, servile, filial, & angelical. 
Worldly   
Worldly fear, is an inordinate affection of the soul, whereby a man flieth 
Fear.  the service of god, to avoid pain disgrace, or some other temporal loss. This fear god knows, reigneth over to many in England, who flee from God to keep their goods, frequent the Churches of protestants, because they will not be thought Catholics, they dare not come to the Food of life, lest they lose their temporal life. But the day will come, when they will curse this hellish fear, which hindereth them of the joys of heaven, and heaped upon them, the pains of hell. This fear, all that come to the Altar of God, aught to detest.  
servile fear, consisteth in avoiding sin, jest God would punish 
2 servile Fear.  the offence, with loss of Glory, or gain of torments: and this Father's compare to a needle of silver, that draweth after it a thread of gold: for commonly all those who are justified, first eschew sins, jest god would punish them, and then they abhor them, because they so injuriously of fend so loving a Father: & so this silver fear, leadeth in the thread of golden Charity.  
Many could & indevout Christians, come to this sacred feast, once a year, rather for fear of hell, then for any great devotion or love, they bear to God, or to his Sacrament: & such without all question, are most base minded, and scarce deserve the name of Christians: But if they have this joined with Charity, than it will serve to make Charity go forwards. For when our love is could & remiss: the fear of loasinge life everlasting, or increase of glory, helpeth our souls greatly in this state of misery. And therefore even good souls, may make this discourse with themselves, I will frequent the Eucharist, for thereby I know my glroy shall be increased, & my soul confirmed more steadfastly in grace, for which cause, I shall not sinnlo often, and consequently avoyde hell.  
Filial fear, the of spring of Charity, 
3 Filial Fear.  hateth sin, as an offence of God, so good & loving a Father; and this questionless, is most requisite, for all those that frequent this Sacrament. Therefore let every good soul, cast a glance with the eye of his understanding, and contemplate all his passed life, & afterwards let him think with himself, most certain I am that mortally I have offended my god my Father, but were these sins yet forgiven me? Have I confessed them with such diligence, with such grief as I aught? Have I not left many unconfessed for negligence? Have I not since that time often with secret hatred, with hidden concupiscences, with cloudy desires, of pride, and wealth, offended my Father: I know what perplexities, affrighted even his greatest Saints: And what shall I say? One cried, Delicta quis intellig it? ab 
Psal. 18  ●ccultis meis mundae me domine. Who knoweth his sins? From my secrettoffences, cleanse me oh Lord. An other doubting said, Verebar omnia opera mea. 
job. 9  I feared all my works. An other remitting the judgement of his cause, to the mercy of God, confessed that he knew not himself then guilty of 
● Cor. 4  any crime: but for that God haithe purer eyes than any men, he can found a gross sault where men discover no error, therefore he referred all unto his merciful judgement. And so must we in this preparation, accuse ourselves in the sight of God, open our wounds, to this heavenly physician, that he may with his precious blood, cure our sores, & give us full remission of our sins.  
Angelical fear, is a most profound 
Angelical Fear.  reverence, humility, respect, & submission unto god. For the Angels knowing the majesty of God, his perfections, and infinite goodness: they fall down before him, they worship him, they cry incessantly, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, dominus deus Sabaoth. 
Isa. 6  Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth. And this sear, this reverence, humility, respect, & submission, happy is he, that can bring it in the highest degree, to the holy eucharist. Wherhfore we must prostrate ourselves before the blessed Trinity, & from the bottom of our hearts, bless, glorify, & worship them, & particularly for this admirable gift of the venerable Sacrament. Blessed is that soul, that can so submit herself, before the presence of god, that with most lowly & profound humility, she can acknowledge the majesty of God, & her own misery, that one abyss may call upon an other, in voce 
Psal. 4●  cataract arum, that is, our nothing of his omnipotency, with the virtue of the cataracts, that is the wounds of Christ. By this is appeareth, that servile, filial, and Angelical fears, prepare our Souls to this Sacrament.   

FAITH. 2.  
THere are three sorts of virtues, which the sanctified flock of Christ possess: Theological, as Faith Hope, & Charity. Moral, as justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence. The third are mixed, & border upon them both, as the virtues of penance, & religion. The first have God for their next object: the second our actions: the third, partly our actions, partly God.  
All divines confess, that albeit, all virtues are mentorious of god's grace, & eternal glory: yet the Theological they prefer before the rest, because they immediately converse with God, their scope is wholly for him, they mingle no creature with God, & therefore the exercise of them, as itis to us most beneficial: so to God, most grateful.  
He than that intendeth to communicate, may briefly run over, all those mysteries, & points of Faith, which we are bonnde to believe. For men in very deed have a precept, to exercise sometimes, these Theological virtues; & none more convensent, then when they dipsose themselves, to receive this Sacrament of Faith; They may then with tongue and heart say & confess, that they believe, 1. there is a God. 2 That he created heaven & earth. 3 That he punisheth vice & rewardeth virtue: those with eternal pains, these with eternal joys. 4 That he haveth a special providence over his servants. 5 That our souls are immortal. 6 That we are conceived in original sin. 7 That Faith, Hope, & Charity, are necessary means to salvation. 8 That repentance after actual crimes, god requireth at our hands; We may repeat the articles of our Crede, (for the other 8, were requisite to have been believed in all ages) 9 as, That we confess God the Father, God the Son, & God the holy Ghost. 10 That the Son was in carnate for us. 11 conceived by the holy Ghost 12 Borne of a Virgin. 13 Was crucified. 14 Dead & buried. 15 That he descended into hell. 16 He roase again the third day to life. 17 Andascended into heaven. 18. Where he sitteth on the right hand of hisfather. 19 The holy Catholic Church. 20 The Communion of Saints. 21 Remission of sins.  
Besides that, there be seven Sacraments in the catholic Church, five whearof appertain to all men, as baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, & Extreme unetion. Two concern not all, but certain persons, as Matrimony, & order. 23 That the Scriptures proceed from god. 24 That our saviour is really in this Sacrament, where the more learned sort, may exercise their faith most excellently, about transubstantiation, & all those points which the Catholic Church haveth determined in this mystery, or what else foever. And after this exercise, let them say, O Lord I believe all thief, but 
Marc. 9  help my faith: I am prepared to dye for them, & therefore grant me grace to be able to perform it.   

HOPE.  
Goddes' goodness after two manners may be considered, first in itself as it perfecteth God in his nature & essence, as it enricheth his substance: secondarily, as it haithe relation unto us, by pouring down graces & favours, as the light of the son adorneth the sphere and body of the son, and besides powrethe down light, heat, virtue, & influences upon the earth. The first goodness of God, divines call absolute: the second relative. The first is the object of Charity; the second, the object of Hope. For the virtue of Hope, haith two acts or operations; one to expect & desire of God, life everlasting, & the means to achieve it: an other to love God as good & beneficial unto us. Both which operations, be most convenient preparations, for the soul that intendeth to receive abundance of grace in the Eucharist, because therein we have our Saviour, our last end & felicity, and the chiefest mean that God haveth delivered to his Church to attain unto felicity.  
Therefore let thy heart then breath forth some affectuous exercise of hope. Say, O Lord in thee I hope, thou art my hope, thou art my last end, thou my glory, thou my path, thou my way. Ah when shall I see that day, that happy day, that day without night, that everlasting day, when this soonn shall never set to me, when no cloud shall overcast him? I hope o Lord by thy grace, by virtue of thy promise, that I shall perform all that thou hast commanded me, & so enjoy shortly that I hope. And therefore come dangers, come perils, come temptations, come persecutions, come prisons, come feters, come rack, come gallows, come death, come whatsoever the devil can suggest, or malice devise: in thee I trust, thou canst, thou wilt defend me if I fail not, & yet by virtue of this bread of life, I hope never to fail.  
Many more such sweet speeches, thy soul may most affectuously utter by the virtue of Hope.  
The other operation of loving of God, as communicative of his goodness, as beneficial unto us, serveth no less for our purpose, than the former. Because hear we may discourse over all the benefits that God haithe bestowed upon men in general, by gifts of nature, grace, and glory, and upon us in particular. The general are, Creation, Conservation, Redemption, Grace, and Glory, offered to all those that will accept them: particular, to be borne of Christianes', to be baptized, to have offended, and yet that God's justice would not condemn us to hell in such estate, but called us again, justified us: & so by passing distinctly over the favours of God, I know not how, but the soul ordinatily feeleth, a most sweet affection & tender love unto the giver. In so much that S. Augustine in his confessions, thanked God for the milk he received of his nurse, by his divine providence. For it is most certain, that if we be of the number of gods elected: all particular gifts & graces wear conferred to us, with an intention that we should effectually by them take occasion to serve God, & consequently merit life everlasting.  
Wherhfore I would counsel every one, to weigh his life paste, and what means God used, to do him good, as to converse with godlymen, to read such spiritual books, to see, hear, or understand, of examples which moved him to virtue, terrified him from sin. Let him call to memory so many illustrations, godly motions, fears of death, desires of heaven, sweet shows of virtuous life, deformities of a vicious, terroures of hell; glory & peace in the service of God, finally what infinite ways God provided to help him to his last end.  
All which recapitulated in one sea of graces: let him thank God for them Let him say, O bountiful Lord, thy goodness is endless, thy mercies boundless: how shall I repay such graces & favours? I am not able to answer a mite for a million: and low, to make them more aboundante, thou hast prepared for me, the treasures of heaven & earth in this Sacrament. As thou art mine, so I will now and ever be thine. What I can do for thee, I will perform, by enriching thy churches, feeding thy poor servants, procuring thy glory. etc.   

CHARITY.  
IF ever in this life Charity have occasion, to vent forth the purest flames of love, her most vehement affections, her fiery desires: If that sacred fire which our Saviour brought from heaven aught ever to be kindled: it is now especially when we approach to this fountain of charity, this springe of god's love. Truth it is, that Charity bendeth wholly, to embrace, please, & delight God, yet sometimes, through sloth and negligence, by our imperfections & venial sins: there is a certain smoke, that suppresseth the flame, the which we must remove or consume by blowing this fire, as S. Paul exhorted 
2 Tim. 1  his disciple, to stir up the grace he had received by imposition of hands, by the Sacrament of holy orders.  
And in this, we must imitate the cock, who flakereth and shakethe of drowsy sleep defore he croweth. This revyuing of Charity we may come by, if we procure in our Souls, a great thirst of the water of life, & a great hunger of this bread of immortality.  
And in very deed there lacketh nothing to attain thereunto, but a little demur and consideration of the mystery. For if one put his hand in a flame & presently pull it back again, the flame will not burn him, but if he demur a little, no doubt but fire will show what it is: so he that lingerethe a while in weighing what he receiveth, shall not need any great exercise to procure an inflammed desire, but like the Spouse who said, Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis, quia amore 
Cant. 2  langueo. Fortify me with flowers Inuyrone me with apples: For I languish with love. He will languish with the faintness of consuming affection, & cry with David, Quemadmodum 
Psal. 41  desiderat ceruus adfontes aquarum, ita desiderat anima mea ad tedeus: quando veniam & apparebo ante faciem tuam? As the heart thirstethe after the fountains of water, so my soul thirstethe after thee my God: when shall I come & appear before thy face.  
In this consideration we may briefly call to memory, the evils, the presence of our Saviour in this Sacrament removethe from us, and the good it bringeth to us. For if I be infirm, he will cure me: if wounded, he will heal me: if weak, he will comfort me: if blind, illuminate me: if poor enrich me; if naked, clothe me: if hungry, feed me: if dead, revive me; if sensual, spiritualize me: if drowned in worldly delights, divert my heart to the true joys of heaven.  
sins paste, he pardonethe: from future offences he preserveth: temptations, he diminisheth: passions, he bridleth: concupiscenses, he restraineth: remorse of conscience, he appeaseth: the pains of purgatory, he releaseth: the flames of hell, he who  extinguisheth: all evils in fine fly from the face of his majesty, as serpents & snakes from the light of the son.  
The good he bringeth, is no less than the evil he expelleth: For (by his presence) he doth dignify our souls, deisy our faculties, unyte us really to himself, join all the faithful in a perpetual leauge & amity, replenish us with graces, sprinkle our hearts with his blood, inflame them with his love, arm them against enemies, so●ve in them the seed of immortality; besides a sea of more favours which we declared in the book of the causes of this institution.  
I think that no man of discretion, would not desire most earnestly such a food, which bringeth with it so many treasures. Yet hear I might exclaim & call upon heaven & earth, to wonder at the blindness of men, who rip out the bowels of the earth, delve into the heart of craggy rocks, for the thirst of gold & silver: who sleep neither day nor night to hunt for honours: who spend their life, their patrimonies, their credit, their bodies, their souls, for a dram of drunken delight & carnal pleasure, and yet will scarce spend the tenth part of that diligence, to win the treasure of all treasures, the honour of all honours, the delight of all delights, true, permanent, glorious, not inferior to man, but elcuating him, to the equality of Angels.  
If a man be very sick, the thirst he haveth to recover his health, causeth him abide lancing, cutting, Lurning, he will not refuse purgations, though his sight repine at them, his imagination abhor them, his taste detest them, his stomach, both loathe & languish at them. And so dear brother ought thou to conceive thyself to be most miserably sick, for sundry spiritual infirmities of evil habits, strong passions, vehement concupiscences, many venial sins, divers evil occasions, which in short time without all doubt, will draw thee near a spiritual death, if thou preserve not thy soul with this medicine of life.  
Neither must thou think, that preseutly thou shalt recover thy spiritual health, for neither do patientes presently recover their corporal: but expect a time, use it often, procure that thy body be kept in good order, thy soul collected, thy company & conversation religious: & then after half a year of this carriage, tell me whether this medicine haveth not greatlycomforted thy soul, rectified thy faculties, and caused thee, to tender that fruit thou wished. Inflammed with this heavenly desire, & languishing with this sacred hunger: I will say with David, No● dabo somnum oculis 
Psa. 131  meis, nec palpebris me●s dormitationem, & requiem temporibus meis: donec inveniam locum Domino, tabernaculum deo jacob. I will not permit mine eyes to sleep, nor mine eyelids to slumber, nor my temples to rest: until I provide a place for our Lord, a tabernacle for the God of jacob. I will neither sleep nor rest, till I found the place of my God, till I see him, till I prepare him a grateful seat, a godly tabernacle, a princely throne. With the spouse in the Canticles, Cir cuibo querens quem diligit anima mea. I will circuit, searching, whom my soul doth love. I will use these circles. I will first consider how God created me right, but I fell; then he redeemed me, but yet I was negligent to apply his precious blood unto my soul: He gave me then his sacred food, wherein he is the applyer, the applied, & the means of application. O how many circles of God's love & our ingratitude, might devout souls run over, in meditating the passion of Christ, & the manifold favours he showeth us, in this Sacrament?   

UNION IN wills. HOW WE MU PROCURE to unite our Souls to God, in preparing them to receive him.  
ALL natural bodies, the nearer they approach their places and centres, the more they accelerate their motion, they run with greater force and vehemency: So our hearts running to God the most natural place of our souls, the very centre of all pyctie & religion, with the wings of our wills, we aught rather to fly then run. And therefore as our Saviour cometh to us running over the mountains, and passing over-hilles, 
Cant. 2  moved with the motion of love: so let us with the like love, encounter him. He cometh to unite himself to us (as was declared in the 41. cause) let us endeavour to unite our souls to him. And first of all, our wits and understanding: reveal to God thy secrets, 
Psal. 36  make him partaker of thy counsels, of thy designementes.  
But some wrangsing Sophister will say, to what end? doth not god know omnes cogitationes nostras a long? allour 
Ps. 138  thoughts a far of? Doth not he see them better than we? To what end then should we reveal them? He can satisfy this speculation. He knew well the contrary to be most grateful to God in practice who said Effandite coram illo corda vestra, Pour out your 
Psa. 61  hearts before him, open unto him your desires. He knows them before I am not ignorant, effundite, pour them forth, & he likewise will confirm it 
Psal. 36  that said, Revela Domino viam tuam, & ipse faciet. Reveal thy way unto out Lord, and he will work. For in truth although God know all we have in our hearts, yet, I know not how, but (in unfouldinge our secrets, unto him) we receive a marvelous contentation, as the prodigal son returning to hisfather, discovered his lewd behaviour, & riotous life in saying, Pater peccavi in coelum & coram te, & 
Luc. 15  iam non sum dignus vocari filius tuus. Father I have sinned against heaven & before thee, & am not now worthy to be called thy son. His Father knew well before his errors, he had seen his repentance, but yet this pouring forth of his soul, was questionless, no less grateful to the Father, then comfortable to the son. And David the Prophet seemeth to empty all the secrets of his soul, in his psalms, Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco, & peccatum ●●um contrame est semper. Tibi soli peccavi, etc. Because I acknowledge mine iniquity, & my sin is always against me, thee alone I have offended. So aught we in particular to receive the memory of our passed life, the sins of our youth what graces God gave us, & how negligently, how indevoutly, how irreverently we departed ourselves with him and them. And truly if this be done with good attention, and but a mean affection: It fillethe the soul with marvelous consolation. For me think I see God, powringe into those vessels of that heart, as many graces as it revealeth secrets; because he knoweth well enough, that men can not instruct or open unto him, any thing that he knoweth not: yet that friendly affection, that amiable conversation, that endevorethe to accomplish true friendship & amity, is most aceptable to his majesty, and consequently, most profitable to us.   

UNION IN AFFECTION.  
THis Union of affection, the best offspring of Charity, questionless containeth the some of all perfection: whereof he that intendeth to fill his soul with God's favours & graces, must perfume it with this sacred incense, and conform his will with gods will, his intention, with God's intention, his desires, with God's desires. For in very deed, this maketh not only a good Christian, but also a perfect spiritual man.  
Two things specially God desireth, for which he created this mighty mass of the world, his own glory, & our sanctity or rather let us say but one, take whether of them you will: our holiness, is his glory, & his glory, is our holiness. For god's glory is, that we think of him, as creatures of their Creator: That we knowledge him, serve him, and love him in ourselves, procuring continually, that others do the same, and this is our holiness.  
He therefore that pretendethe, to make an exquisite preparation, Let him hear dilate his heart, and extend his affection. I know some good souls in the world, who every morning so soon as they awake, the first word that issueth out of their mouth is this, O Lord grant me that I may spend this day most fervently to thine honour & glory. And as often as they hear the clock strike, pass by any church see any Image, they renew this sweet & angelical breath. And truly in this point, we should be like the covetous merchants, who let no occasion pass where they think they may gain. You may see how they stand expecting at their stawles, every look or glance, every stop or stay, of passengers, is a sufficient motive, to invite or call them to buy: So should these souls do, who are trained up in the shop of devotion, and love of God, let pass no little occasion, where they may glorify God by perfecting their own souls, by benefyting their neighbours. For I let pass the bound we have to do so, for divers benefits god haveth bestowed upon us. I omit the excess of merits we offer up to God: I will say nothing of the fervent love of God which deserveth it, but that this affection, this desire, this thirst of god's glory, is a great sign of predestination. For I am not ignorant, that Fathers assign many great & notable conjectures, of the present grace & favour of god, of eternal predestination & future blessedness: as to live along time without mortal sin, is a good sign of present grace, & predestination, but secret sins creep in often, & a certain remissness of good works, cracketh the brake many times, wherein men seemed to sail securely.  
Patience in adversity, arguethe a steadfastness of mind, and exceesses of fortitude, but yet often he that is patiented to day, loseth his patience to morrow, he that was patient in loosing his goods, will not stick to fall into some other sin, or if he be patiented in one matter, he is impatient in an other. To hear willingly the word of God, (so our Saviour taught us) is a good sign, for he that affectethe god's word commonly haithe an intention to observe it, but this sign often faileth, for many for vain curiosity, or to maintain their wrangling spirits, as Caluenistes are never quiet, but when their ears are tikled with itching sermons, or cavelinge catechisms. To love and pray for our enemies, is a good sign of predestination, a note of great charity, but yet it may proceed of a certain natural disposition of a noble mind, rather than the true love of god. For many disdain to revenge injuries done unto them, for a natural inclination to magnanimity, as the eagle to seize upon the flies, although they molest her. Martyrdom, a confession of Christ's faith, a sealing of his love with blood, is an excellent sign, but yet we see how many heretics have offered themselves to death for their fantastical opinions. Yet in my judgement, this affection, this never-resting desire of God's glory, this continual procuring of a man's own perfection, or the spiritual good of his neighbour, is as manifest a sign of predestination, as any of the rest. For such souls are like unto a needle touched with the load stone, that never resteth till it be fixed with the pole-starr: even so they touched with predestination, vever rest night nor day, eating & drinking, at home and abroad, in prison & in liberty, they are always stirring, they never can be quiet, till they be united with their pole, with god in heaven.  
I know this sign doth not invincibly prove that a man is in grace, or predestinate, yet it is one of the best conjectures, because it carriethe with it so many excesses of virtue internally and externally for a man's own perfection, & the perfection of others towards God & our neighbours.  
Moreover it can not proceed but from most vehement Charity, and a continual motion of god's grace.  
I have seenc this fervent affection in certain devout persons, put in practise, & they seemed unto me, Scintillae 
Sap. 3  discurrentes in aruudinet●, certain sparks offyre flying among dry canes burning all they meet withal: Their eyes, actions, & words, wear all inflamed with this desire of God's glory & honour: They wear never well, but when they meditated, invented, or executed something for god for the reducing of sinners to good life, heretics to the church, & good men to the increase of perfection.  
In this union of our wills with gods will, consisteth the some, the soul, & very essense of that preparation, we aught to bring to this Altar of god. For by this affection, our hearts are enlarged, the vessels of our souls are made more capable, The temple of Christ is much more amplified. Therefore he that intendeth to receive our saviour, with convenient devotion: let him make a most firm resolution, not in words, but really, and from the bottom of his heart, that he will neither speak, think, nor do, any thing in all his life (as far as god will grant him grace) but all shall tend to god's honour & glory, to the profit of his own soul, and his neighbours. This is a heart, secundum cor dei, correspondent to the heart of god. O what a divine union will this be, where Christ giveth himself wholly to man, and man consecrateth himself wholly to Christ.  
Me think I see the son and moon in the full, to stand one against the other, a river running with a most vehement course, & incorporating itself with all the endless water of the ocean sea. Me think I see a fire fall from heaven, and consume this divine sacrifice, as it did devour the sacrifice, the wood, and water Elias had 
3 Re. 18  prepared.  
O blessed souls that understand this point & put it in execution. O how grateful an oblation is this, to him that thirsteth after our good? O how rich will such soul's return from this treasury of all god's graces? All other unions, all other vertnes, wait upon this good will, the efficacy whereof, the execution will try.   

ZEAL.  
GOd in this Sacrament, showed not only the first effect of love which is union, but also zeal, ecstasy, & benevolence, as was declared in the former book of causes.  
And therefore love requiring a reciprocate & mutual correspondence, we ought to come prepared, to receive him with a proportion to such love, as he offereth himself withal.  
This effect of love, causeth grief and anguish in those souls where it reigneth, because they can not abide that God be injuried, they can not tolerate the blasphemies of men, their improperations, maledictions, thefts heresies, and such like offences. For when they perceive God so despised, whom men ought so to have worshipped & reverenced: They consume away with grief, and so said he that felt it himself, Tabescere me fecit 
Ps. 148  zelus meus, My zeal did consume me.  
He than that draweth near unto Christ by intending to eat his body, consequently to his former resolution must determine with himself to proclaim open wars with sins & heresy, that he will root them out of the world, with as great industry & diligence, as lieth in his power. So taught he us that said, Qui diligitis 
Psa. 96  dominum, odite malum, You that love god, hate evil. For the love of God engendereth in our hearts a horror & detestation of sin, because sin was that which nailed him on the cross sin proclaimeth war against his grace, sin carrieth mortal hatred against his love, sin finally hindrethe us from due preparation, & would rob us of the fruit of this Sacrament. Therefore let the devout receiver renew this holy hatred, let him proclaim an endless war, without hope of peace or truce.   

ecstasy.  
〈…〉 actions by saying, this oh Lord I do for thee, this I offer thee, this I will effect most diligently & for thy love.  
Heareupon will ensue an admirable peace and tranquillity of mind, and that quietness of conscience, that surpasseth all sense. Besides an alacrity of heart to go forward in the service of God, according to that saying of David, Cucurri viam mandatorum tuorum, 
Psa. 118  cum dilatasti cor meum. I have run the way of thy commawdements when thou hast dilated my heart.  
Truly after that a man is thus translated into God, he shall find hear upon earth, a heavenly paradise, yea he shall possess a paradise of pleasure in his own soul, & consequently a most fit soil to plant the harbour of life, our saviour Christ, with the sacred fruit of his Eucharist.   

BENEVOLENCE. 5  
IF I have consecrated to God, my heart with affection, and all that I am, by offering him my body & soul, what remaineth to impart by benevolence? Love can not want this effect, and therefore we must find out some object.  
If my faculty serve, I will be bountiful to the Church by adorning his sacraments: I will secure those which suffer in prison for the confession of this mystery: I will procure means, although never so many dangers ensue, that God be glorified by the distribution of this sacred food. For better it wear that I should be deprived of a thousand lives, than God deprived of his glory. If my ability afford not, then will I wish & desire that it did, and supply in affect, that which I want in effect. Than I will ascend with my prayer into heaven, & request all the neene quieres of Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominations, Virtues, Powers, Princes, Cherubims & Seraphims, all the troupes of patriarchs & Prophets, all the college of Christ's Apostles, the invincible army of Martyrs, the holy congregation of Confessoures', the unspotted society of Virgins: to bless & praise God for his admirable love, in instituting this Sacrament, & beseech them with their inflammed affections, to accompany my could desires.  
After with the three children, I will invocate all the creatures of God to bless him by saying, Benedicite omnia 
Dan. 3  opera domini, domino etc. Praise ye our Lord, all works of our Lord. And with king David, Laudate Dominum 
Psa. 148  de coelis etc. Praise ye our Lord from heaven. And invite them now not only to praise him, as dwelling in heaven, but also as sojourning hear in earth.  
The devout receiver, might add hear, a reciprocate love of God, according to those diversityes of love, which we declared in the other book of causes, that our loving God in this crament, did manifest unto us, as a pryzinge love, a vehement love with 12 proprieties, an extensyve love, & a tender love. All which, as we there appropriated them to God: so hear we may procure in some part, to apply them unto us, & endeavour to actuate them in desire or effect, as near as we may. And therein, those that receive this Sacrament every day, shall find most abundant matter for Meditation, & those which communicate once a week, for divers days, & divers times.   

GRIEF FOR SINS PAST.  
The Fyfih act of Preparation.  
ALthough by confession & contrition, our sins be pardoned, yet we must not live in security that God haveth forgiven them, according to that saying of the wise man; De propitiato p●ccato, noli esse sine met is 
Eccl. 5  Be not without fear of the forgiven sin. And therefore the practice of good king Ezechias, may teach us a good lesson, Recog●tabo (sayeth he) omnes annos meos, in amaritudine animae 
Isa. 38  meae. I will think of all my years in bitterness of my soul. I will therefore cast an eye over my whole life & in one prospect, behold the deformity, the multitude, the iniquity, the turpitude, the malice, of my overpassed course, in what a hell of wickedness, I lay buried, in what a dangerous state I had cast myself, and yet God of his mercy haveth vouchsafed, not only to call me out of that chaos and abyss of misery, but also haveth been contented, to admit me to the participation of himself, that I might suck honey out of his side, in whose face so often I have spit the rancour of my spite and malice. O what fountain ofteares hear would I wish, to bathe my soul in, not tears of water, but tears of blood. For what tears can rynse that soul which nothing else but only Christ's blood could cleanse? Hear I would weep with Mary Magdalen: Hear I would 
Luc. 7 Psal. 6 Mat. 26 Psal. 50  wash my couch with David: Hear I would complain with S. Peter: Hear I will cry, Amplius lava me domine ab iniquitate mea, & a peccato meo munda me. Wash me again O Lord from mine iniquity, & cleanse me from my sin. O Lord I hope thou hast forgiven me my sins, but yet I am not contented, wash me more, wash me again & again, Ah cleanse me from my sin, leave no spot, no evil habit, no vicious inclination, no scar thereof in my soul. For, Peccatum meum coutra me est semper, My sin is against me always: methink I hear continually my conscience ringing a peal ro the ears of my soul, & sounding this lamentable Anthem without intermission. O unhappy art thou: do, say, or think what thou canst, thou hast committed such, and such horrible crimes, thou haste disgraced, dishonoured, despised, & crucified thy God: & now thinkest thou to have such free access to eat his sacred body & blood? With what face caused thou appear before him, whom so injuriously, so tratorouslye, for so small interest, for thine own loss, thou hast thus handled? Amplius lava me. Ah sweet jesus wash me more. What now avail thee all those pleasures, 
Sap. 5  what delight have all thy sensualities left behind them, but the poisoned sting of remorse? Ah, Delicta 
Psal. 24  mea ne memineris domine. Sweet jesus remember not mine offences. O my God I would come unto thee, to embrace thee, but my sins do fear me. Oza touched but thy ark, & 
2 Reg. 6  presently he was stricken dead. And if one irreverence deserved such punishment, what shall I expect, who have committed thousands, & am to eat the true manna contained in the ark? If Absalon durst not look 
2 Reg. 13  his father in the face for three years, after he had committed one sin: how dare I look upon this host after so many. If Moses caused the people 
Exo. 19  to prepare themselves for three days before they received their Law in the Tables of stone: alas what shall I do who have offended so often, to receive the Lawgever himself. If so many 
1 Reg. 6  thousands died, for curiously beholding gods Arck, which appertained not unto them: Alas I will say good Lord perhaps this sacred food appertaineth not to me, & therefore I shall fall into the same punishment with them, for having committed a more horrible offence. But yet oh lord hoping in thy goodness, trusting in thy mercy; hear I present myself before thy majesty, prepared to accept what cross, what punishment, what adversity, thy gracious hand will impose upon me. I am ready to tolerate sickness of my body, temptations of my soul, imprisonment for my religion, death for the profession of my faith. Ah sweet jesus, for extraordinary delights, I am contented, I desire (with the help of thy grace) extraordinary pains: And I would wish that rather malice should fail in inventing, than I in suffering.   

A PURPOSE TO OBSERVE Intyrely the commandments of God.  
The sixth act of Preparation.  
Charity or the love of God, haith two acts or operations, so annexed unto it, that neither they can be intended nor executed without Charity, nor Charity consist without them, yet Charity is the mother, & they the daughters.  
The first Act, is detestation of sin. The next, emendation of life, or a constant purpose never to transgress mortally, the Law of God. These two acts I say, issue out of the love of God, for no man can love god effectually, but he detesteth virtually, all that offendeth, iniurieth, or impareth his honour. Likewise he that loveth God from his heart, can not but consequently desire & intend really to observe, all that concerneth the mantenance & preservation of their love. Vos (saith Christ) amici mei eritis, si 
Io. 15  feceritis ea quae ego precipio vobis. You shall be my friends, if you do those things which I command you.  
He than that cometh to the Eucharist, aught to renew this good purpose, of observing the commandments of God, because this Sacrament being instituted, to fortify and corroborated our souls, enabling them to observe more exactly, the precepts of God: What a notable disposition will it be, to propound with ourselves, most firmly to keep them? But because we know, that, sine Christo, 
Ibidem.  nihil possumus facere Without Christ we can do nothing: therefore to help us to the perfect execution, we receive his body, we crave his grace, we have recourse to him in this vehement necessity. And therefore let us say, O Lord we now will begin, to observe 
Psal. 7●  thy law, to obey thy commandments, to execute all exactly, that thou hast appointed so lovingly.  
These six acts of Fear, Faith, Hope, Charity, Grief, & Emendation, comprehend the whole preparation, requisite before receiving of the Eucharist.  
Yet in these, I find degrees, for some bring more & some less, according to the measure of god's grace, & their free wills, for so God haveth tempered them together, & tuned nature with the key of grace, that the excess of perfection in either part rendereth the harmony much more sweeter, & specially because the increase of virtue so dependeth upon us, that god's grace is ever addressed to help us to a greater degree than we accept of, or put in execution, as I said, the river ever yieldeth more water, than we bring from it.  
Yet hear it is to be noted, that commonly divines grant, that in this sacrament, by three causes, our grace, Charity, & perfection, are augmented. first, ex opere operato. For the work wrought, that is, for the only receiving of this sacrament. So that if one wear in grace, & had no disposition at all, he should receive a certain degree of grace, as when little children in passed ages did communicate, although they brought no preparation actually, yet because they wear in grace, th'air grace was increased; the reason whereof we gather out of those words of Christ, Quimanducat me, & ipse vivit propter me. 
Io. 6  He that eateth me, liveth for me. Which words being absolute, must be understood, to agreed to all sorts of persons that, non ponant obicem, interpose not some impediment, which children do not. Yet for the reverence to this majestical Sacrament, the holy Ghost directed the church, to prohibit the use thereof to children & infants.  
The second increment of Grace, proceedeth from the disposition, for if a man fear, believe, hope, etc. or exercise any act of virtue: God rewardeth it with present grace, & some degree of future glory.  
Hereupon came those axioms in faith, Timor domini expellit peccatum. 
Eccl. 1  The fear of God, expelleth sin, the which it could not do in effect, but by the force of grace, that God poureth into the soul. Fides tua, te 
Luc. 7  saluam fecit. Thy faith haithe saved thee. Qui habet hanc spem, sanctificat 
1 Io. 3  se. Who haveth this hope, sanctifieth himself. Remittuntur ei peccata multa, 
Luc. 7  quoniam dilexit multum. Many sins are forgiven her, because she haithe loved much. And although most of those places, show but that grace in our first sanctification, is conferred unto us for these dispositions: yet I hope no man will deny, but the same are instruments deserving for the increase of justice. Because he wear very blockish that would say, that virtue is better rewarded of god when a sinner beginneth to live virtuously, then when a just man continueth his loyalty & service to god, for so grace should be a hindrance to reward, and sin a furtherance: and a man merit less being god's friend, then when he was his enemy: the which is not only absurd, but also foolish. He therefore that disposethe his soul by the aforesaid virtuous operations, for them precisely receiveth a certain degree of grace & glory.  
Thirdly he receiveth increase by the union of these two: that is, God communicateth one portion of grace for the Sacrament precyselye, one portion for the disposition precisely, & one portion, for the conjunction of these two: that is, this Sacrament conferrethe a certain limited portion of grace by itself, yet when it findeth the subject better disposed, and more capable: according to the capacity, our Saviour increaseth his influence, not unlike to the Son, which communicateth more light to those subjects, who are clearer and more transparent, as we prove in glass, Crystal, water, & aere. The reason of this excess, proceedeth from the manner that God useth in conforming grace as near as may be, to the manner of nature, in her operations.  
This augmentation and growth in grace, requytethe abundantly, the little labour and pains we bestow in preparation.  
For what is it to grow in grace? To have our Souls refined more exactly, & the Image of God more lively renewed in them? What is it to grow in grace? That our wits and wills, our hearts and affections, be more prove & pliable: & better inclined to goodness? What is it to grow in grace? To arm our souls & fortify them against all spiritual encounters. What is it to grow in grace? To love God more, to increase in his love & friendship. What is it finally to grow in grace? To have a title to an excess of glory in the Kingdom of heaven: to increase our glory, enrich our crown, to adorn us in this life: & after, to yield us no comomblisse in the life everlasting.     

THE SECOND PART. OF PREPARATION WHEn we Communicate.  
THe time when we communicate, I understand, not the real moment when we receive the host, but a good little space going before, some half an hour or a quarter, at what time I approach near the place, where my Lord & Saviour remaineth: or if I communicate at Mass, all the time of the mass.  
At that present (according to his precept) I will first call to memory, his bitter passion: I will Imagine, I did see him distilling his sacred blood in the mount calvary, to wash my sins, to cure my sores, to deliver me from death, to conduct me to a perpetual life. I will sit under the shade of this tree, & see if he will let fall into the lap of my heart, some of those fruits, which he brought from heaven, whose virtue causeth immortality. Hear I will set my soul fully in order, to receive my Lord. But because I know, that as one sort of colour, loathethe the eye, one sort of meat cloyeth the stomach, therefore I will put on the habits of divers persons, who come all to this fountain of life, to this tree of paradise, to this gate of heaven, to quench their thirst, to restore their forces, to demand some spiritual refection.  


First I will come as a beggar poor & naked, to be apparelled with this sacrament.  
2 As wounded to death, to find hear the medicine of life.  
3 As a son, to his father.  
4 As a friend, to his friend.  
5 As a soldier, to his Captain.  
6 As a scholar, to his master.  
7 As a creature, to glorify his Creator.  
8 As one chained by enemies, sekig for his redeemer.  
9 As a gardin after winter withered, & dried, to demand the dew ofheaven.  
10 As an infant, to the breast of his mother.  
11 As lacking some particular virtue, like a Lazarus, to crave the crumbs of god's grace.  
12 As the three kings came to adore Christ.  
13 As a ship in a tempest, to desire some prosperous goal.  
14 As the prodigal son.  
15 To honour gods Saints.  
16 As a heart, thirsting the fountain of life.  
17 As a pilgrim.  
18 As a faithless spouse, to her husband.  
19 As propitiation for the dead.  
20 As a grateful obsequy to God, for all his Saints.  
21 As moving to prayer.    

NAKED.  
CAP. 1.  
AFter the first & great fall of Adam, 
Gen. 3  we know he lost his garments of immortality, and in am of them, was cast out of paradise not only naked, but also disgraced with misery, & shame: And God to declare the base attire & beggary of his soul, apparelled him with the skins of beasts, that he might understand, his Angelical robes, were changed into the very scum of brute creatures. These beastly rags he bequeathed to all his posterity, & left them as a part of their inheritance. Yet this attire by baptism we cast away, Christ clotheth us anew, Quot quot baptizati 
Gal. 3  estis, Christum induistis. How many of you are baptized, ye have put on Christ. But alas by actual sins, we are turned out of these garments, & fallen into as beggarly an estate as before, in such sort that our saviour recounted to one, his internal misery, and spiritual spiritual poverty, who thought himself well apparelled, Dicis (saith 
Apo●. 3  Christ) quoth dives sum & locupletatus, & ●ullius egeo: & nescis quia tu es miser, & miserabilis, & pauper, & caet●s, & nudus. Thou sayest, that, I am rich, & wealthy, & I need nothing: and thou knows not, that thou art a miser, & miserable, & poor, & blind, & naked. Jest I perhaps be fallen into this misery, & be ignorant thereof: I will request my saviour, to clothe me with this Sacrament, the which I know not only to be meat to feed my body, but also a garment for my back. For me think I hear him from the cross (under which I sit) exhorting me to buy this apparel of him to cloth me again. Suadeo tibi emere 
Ibidem.  a me aurum ignitum, probatum, ut locuples fias, & vestimentis albis induaris, ut no● appareat confusio nuditatis ●●ae. I exhort thee to buy of me glowing gold, proved, that thou mayst be ri●he, & be apparelled with white garments, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. What gold is this so glowing, so fyned, but our saviour in the eucharist, but ninge with love, not defiled with any impurity? For he is new gold, never stained with sin, proved with temptations & torments. What can more enrich us then this treasure? And what garment is more fit & suitable to our soul than he that made it & redeemed it, the first piece from whence it was cut? For let us gather all the good & profit we receive of our garments, & we shall most evidently see, how the Eucharist better appareleth our souls, than any garments our bodies.  
Four commodities our attire affordeth. first it keepethe the heat and warmness of our bodies. Secondly it defendeth us from external injuries of weather, as rain, wind, could, etc. Thirdly garments adorn and deck the body. Fourthly many garments yield a most grateful smell.  
Let us run over them all and contemplate then in the eucharist, the which concernethe the heat of our souls, the internal devotion & Charity, for those words, ad literam to the letter, must be thus understood, If you eat not the flesh of the son 
Io. 6  of man & drink his blood, you shall have no life in you. That is, you shall lose your spiritual life the heat of Charity, for without this garment it vaporeth forth. Therefore we must procure the Eucharist, to keep in the vapours & exhalations, that the soul may be warm with piety & devotion.  
Besides, the Eucharist is meat, it nourisheth, & what more preserveth & manteyneth our natural heat, than meat? Therefore the eucharist in this surpasseth all sorts of garments: for it doth not only conserve the heat of our souls that we have, but also addeth an internal heat, which no garment affordeth.  
The eucharist secondarily, protecteth us from injuries of spiritual enemies, who with tempests of temptations, with congealed frosts of wicked examples, with boisterous winds of persecutions, contend to extinguish the spiritual heat of grace and Charity: But that table which Christ haveth prepared for David, against them that afflicted him: supplieth the want 
Psal. 22  of a winter's rob, no could can pierce it, no wind pass through it.  
The Eucharist thirdly, adorneth the receivers, by making one body with them: by communicating to the soul, the richest treasures of heaven: by enduing it with virtues: by refyninge the Image of God: by deifying all devout Communicants with his presence. Not scarlet, no purple, no stones, no pearls, no diamonds, no cloth of tissue: may be compared to this attire. For as the soul surpassethe by thousands the body in perfection: so the garments of the soul, the garments of the body, by millions, in degree of excellency.  
Lastly the Eucharist was represented by those garments which jacob 
Gen. 27  appeared withal before his old father Isaac, who feeling the fragrante smell thereof, tanquam agri pleni, cui dixit dominus, As of a full field, the which God haithe blessed: gave him that solemn benediction of the dew of heaven, & the ●att of the earth, abundance of corn & wine. Hear the soul appearing before God with the spiritual garments of the Eucharist: the eternal Father, our true Father by creation, our Father which is in heaven, perceiving the supernatural scent of this perfumed attire: by the hands of the holy Ghost, raineth upon us his celestial benediction, the dew of grace, and internal virtues, the fat of the earth, the fruits of all good works, abundance of corn & wine, that is, the means how to receive his blessed body & blood, under the forms of bread & wine, as often as we desire, for this questionless, is an exceeding & excellent benediction.  
Therefore I beseech thee oh sweet saviour, since this Sacrament will cover so well mine ignominy and shame, conserve the natural heat of my soul defend me from external injuries, adorn me more decently, than any corporal attire, tender such a grateful smell unto the holy trinity, that thou wilt not permit me to be ashamed under thy Cross, that I die not for could, where such warm apparel may be had, that I may appear before the face of my God, & not hide me from him, as my first shameful naked father did. Let me not be clothed with the skins of beasts, that is the garments of sensuality, but with the robes of Angels, the purple of Charity.  
But what is this contradiction sweet jesus I here in thy speech? Thou sayest that I am miserable, poor, blind, & naked. How can a beggar buy so rich a treasure? How can he that haveth not clothes to serve his necessity, bargain for such merchandise, as will 'cause superfluity? Did not thou say once, Come to me, & emite sine pretio, 
Isa. 55 Apoc. 22  and buy without price? If I be a beggar, I can not buy it; If I pay nothing for it, I buy it not, but thou givest it to me. By these means, I must buy it, & not buy it, which is a manifest contradiction.  
O blessed saviour, glory for ever be to thy name. Ah, no man appeareth so beggarly before him, but he may, (if he will) buy the most precious treasure of heaven, the sacrament of the Eucharist, this obryzed gold, this new gold, this glowing gold, 
Apoc. 3  this approved gold, this gold that will enrich him for ever. For God assistethe all men with his Grace, to save them if they will use it: He knocketh 
Ibidem.  to enter, if they will open the door of their hearts: He soweth the seed of his word, in the fields of 
Mat. 13  their souls, if they will manure it; He crieth upon them, if they will 
Psal. 94  hear his voice: He commandeth them to come, if they will obey his precepts: yet because he will not draw any man but with free will, the nature whereof is such, that it can not stand with necessity or violence: it will have liberty to do & not do.  
This free will, this to do that we might have omitted, this liberty, is all the price that god demaun death, even of the poorest beggars that live, for the greatest treasure that heart can conceive: the which in very deed, is not comparable with the reward, with the merchandise, that we buy: yet such is the goodness of God, so much he pryseth our liberty, so greatly he estemethe this free love, that he will give himself wholly for it.  
We buy then the Eucharist, because we give God our free love for it. We buy it not, because we pay an equal price for it: we bargay ne nothing for it, because the excess of Christ, surpasseth so far, all we can say or do, that in comparison, all is nothing, yet this little (because it is ours) god accepteth for a merit & desert.  
Although the blessed Sacrament, adornethe our souls more gloriously, then ever Solomon was adorned in all his glory, & bewtisyeth it better, than ever the lilies of the field wear decked 
Mat. 6  in their chiefest pride: yet these garments wherewith Christ apparelethe our souls, differ in many points points from the most precious robes that ever clothed man's body.  
first because there was never garment how strong soever, but time would wear it, age consume it, use make it unapt for use: But the garments of God are durable for ever: The more you use them, the newer they appear: yea if of malice or wickedness, they be not cut or torn, they will continue in all eternity.  
So long as the children of Israel 
Deut. 29  wandered in the desert, so long as they were fed with Manna from heaven, vestes non sunt attritae, their garments wear not torn with wearing: so long as we feed of this heavenly Manna in this life, veiled with a cloud, & in the other, face to face, our gracious garments shall never be consumed.  
secondly there is no garment, but wind and weather, water or rain, mists or snow, in time will pierce it, let a man defend himself as much, & so diligently as he can, either they Will find holes to pass, or soak through the substance: but these garments of Christ are so well woven, so well sowed, & so close: that no temptation, no persecution, no distress or tribulation, can pass through them to annoyed the soul, if we do our endeavour. So said she who had proved, Aquae multae non potuerunt extinguere 
Cant. 8  Charitatem. Many waters could not extinguish his Charity. Why so? Because the heat thereof was guarded and kept in, with the Garments of Christ, the sacred Eucharist.  
thirdly all other garments, are basser then our bodies, for commonly we beg them of beasts, and spoil them of their skins, to defend our skins, & consequently they elevate not a man to a higher degree than he was before, for an ass will be an ass although you trapp him with silver & gold. But these garments enhance a soul to a more noble degree, to a higher dignity, than it had before, from the low estate of a miserable man, to a certain confraternity & society of Angels, Suscitans a terra inopem, ● de stereore erigens paup ●re no, ut collocet 
Ps. 112  cum cum principibus, cum pr. populi sui. raising from earth the needy, and from the dung erecting the poor, that he might place him with princes, with the princes of his people. For as we declared in the book of causes, by this Sacrament, the receivers are deified by the real union of our Saviour with them: they are exalted to a supernatural resemblance of god, Facti divinae naturae participes, Being 
2 Pet. 1  made partakers of his divine nature. For in very deed grace & Charity, which our Saviour distilleth from this Sacrament, elevate the soul, to a supernatural & divine perfection, and consequently carrieth it beyond the bounds of nature: which neither the artificial atture of Solomon, nor the natural garments of the lilies or roses, ever could effect. Therefore if my blessed saviour would vouchsayfe to cover my nakedness with these glorious garments, I would account myself happy. I would not cast lots with covetous soldiers to have all, or lose all, for so perhaps I might go 
Mat. 27  without them: but I crave them for love, as the Liverye of my Lord. I would be known in the Court of heaven to carry his arms, his cognizanse, because I will glory more therein, than all base worldlings in their gayest attire.   

WOUNDED.  
CAP. 2.  
I May (for exercise of my devotion, & incertitude of my repentance, after my most certain fall, & relapse into so many offences) Imagine that I am that disgraced traveller, who straying 
Luc. 10  betwixt jerusalem & jericho, fell into the hands, of those graceless thieves, who spoiled me of grace, & wounded me in nature, rob me of the treasure I brought from jerusalem, & half dead, abandoned me, leaving no refuge, but this good Samaritan, this Viator declinans ad manendum. 
Hier. 14  This passenger declyninge a little to stay with me, of whom first of all I must expect some sacred medicine, to cure my wounds, that he power in his wine, & anoint them with oil: I will open unto him the places, I will show the pain, I will discover in what continual agonies they have cast me: & then I hope to find redress. My wit, the light of my soul, the pylott of my spiritual ship, the soonn of my little world, they have blinded with ignorance, wounded with errors & false opinions: I am become extreme curious in other men's affairs, and marvelous negligent in mine own matters; I see, that lies before me, and make great other men's faults, but with other eyes I behold that lieth within me, & concerneth me most.  
What distractions feel I in all good actions? If I converse with God in my prayers, my mind wandereth most undecently & most irreverently in impertinent discourses, in foreign countries, in temporal business: There am I most absent, where I aught to be most present.  
How seldom do I remember god? How many hours pass I vainly without thinking upon him, who never omitteth minute, but he thinketh of me? O fountain of all Light, power thy sacred oil into the lamp of my soul, that I may see more distinctly, what concerneth thee, and what concerneth me. This Sacrament I know, is not only meat, but also a medicine: It is not wine alone, but wine & oil. For if it wear not oil, the scriptures would never so often have inculcated, the benediction of God principally to consist in corn, wine, and oil: except this blessed 
Psa. 4  land of promise, the holy Catholic Church, did afford her inhabitants, abundance of them all.  
I hope then by the benefit of this spiritual unction, that the mists of my mind, the errors of mine understanding, shall be in great part taken away, or diminished. But the weakness of my will, yieldeth nothing to the ignorance of my wit, in faults & imperfections. For what extreme difficulty find I to do well? What extraordinary facility to do ill? I ascend the hill of virtue by violence, & descend into the cave of vice, by a natural inclination. What exorbitant desires do boil in my breast, to please & delight this sack of dirt? this meat for worms? this gate of sin? this body of mine? What care, what industry, use I, to find out means to feed and pamper it●  
But contrary wise, I attend nothing less than my soul, how it behaveth itself, what hunger it suffereth, what repast it aught to have.  
Temptations abound, & I regard not: occasions of offence are daily offered, & I flee none: sins exceed in enormity, & number, & I never repent me. How unconstant do I find myself in all affairs? Now I will, now I will not: yea in theselfe same moment, I feel my soul willing & unwilling to effect divers things.  
This instability causeth in me, an internal combat, where I must both fight, & defend: I must be the agent & patiented.  
O blessed spring of all comfort, power thine oil of consolation, into these hard impostumed wonndes: Mollify them, with this mollifying balm. Hear I lack wine to rynse my sores, & therefore wash them oh lord with this sacred wine, sprinkle me O sweet jesus, with this I sopc & blood, for thereby my wounds shall be washed, my faculties fortified, my soul corroborated & enabled for action.  
Mollify the hardness of my heart, with this sweet oil, anoint my heart, with this sweet oil, anoint my stiff & unplyable joints, that I may exercise them to thine honour and glory.  
But what shall I say of the untowardness of my passions? my sensuality, concupiscenses, & all that ughe brood of original sin, who like so many vypets, would kill their mother, so many hungry dogs, devour their master, so many horseleeches, suck out the sweetest blood of my soul. Ah alas, A planta pedis, usque ad v●rticem 
Isa. 1  capitis, non est in me sanitas. From the sole of my foot, to the crown of my head, there is no health in me. Ah good Lord, I may rather say I am dead, then wounded: & therefore I can not find out any way, to heal those sores, but thy blood which raiseth the dead to life.   

AS A son TO HIS FATHER.  
CAP. 3.  
IT wear hard to discern, whether is more sweet to a good man, to be called the son of God, or grateful to God that the just call him Father. For questionless this title is the first & sole, with which God appointed us to call upon him, in that sacred prayer, which he himself registered to be recited of all his faithful children, Pater noster qui es in caelis. Our-Father which art in heaven. And therefore before I receive my heavenly father, I will dispose myself, as a son aught to present himself before such a father.  
I am not ignorant that Christ as God, is my Father by creation, yea more than my father, because my soul did wholly proceed from God, & my body wherein my parents challenge their part, by a more special and excellent influence, was produced of God, then by my carnal progenitors. Therefore I will acknowledge my saviour, as my Father, the principal. Author & framer of my nature.  
But because this agreeth to all men aswell as me: I will pass a little further, & call him mine adopting Father, yea rather supernatural Father by a new regeneration in baptism, wheareby, the Adoption of God, surpassethe all other adoptions that occur betwixt men. Saluos nos fecit, per 
ad Tit. 3  lau●erum regenerationis. He haveth saved us by the laver of regeneration. For men that adopt others, to be their children, take those that be strangers unto them, that are not their own sons. 2 They adopt other men's children, for lack of properissue. 3 The adopted must freely accept the adoption when he cometh to years of discretion. 4 He must show himself obedient & dutiful, to his adopting Father. 5 He can not possess his inheritance, till his Father be dead.  
All these conditions most excellently agreed to Christ, in adopting men to the kingdom of heaven. For although God be our father and no stranger unto us according to our nature, yet to elevate us supernaturally by grace, to the kingdom of glory, this our nature can not challenge, she is a stranger, it is not due unto her, it proceedeth of gods good will, mere supernatural & above the bounds of nature. And therefore in this respect we may be called strangers to God, & God to us. 2 God haveth a natural son within himself, to whom all his kingdom apperteynethe, by as good right and title, as to himself: but for that he participateth the whole substance of his Father, and the same nature, therefore his bounty needed Sons of distinct nature from himself, specially seeing his kingdom was most sufficient for all.  
3 No man is justified when he haithe the use of reason, or admitted to baptism without his proper assent, Quotquot 
Io. 1  autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios dei fieri. To so many as received him, he gave power to be the sons of God. Therefore first they must receive Christ by faith, and not yet presently they are annombred among the children of God, but there is required a further disposition a nearer preparation, a loving assent, for faith only enableth them to see, by what means, they may become the children of God.  
None shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, that keepeth not the commandments, because they are means & ways, by which all just men must go to heaven, Vos amici mei estis, 
Io. 15  s● feceritis quae ego praecipio vobis. You are my friends, if you do those things which I command you. And twenty more places pregnantly prove that no man can gain the kingdom of heaven, except he effect that Christ foretell, Si vis ad vitam ingredi, 
Mat. 19  serva mandata. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.  
For this reason, howbeit Christ 
5 Apoc. 13  was, Agnus occisus ab origine mundi. The Lamb killed from the beginning of the world; yet none of those patriarchs or Prophetts, could enter into the gates of glory, till Christ our saviour, died upon the cross, who then opened with the blood of his passion, these Sancta sanctorum, Holies of holies, which always we are covered, but once a year, to signify hissolemne entrance into glory.  
Before I come to kneel in the sight of this my loving Father, I will meditate with myself, these points of adoption. I will offer myself unto him as a most obedient son, desirous in all things to deport myself, as shall best agreed with that dignity I am called unto, & standeth with the honour of my Father.  
But I know not how by receiving this blessed Sacrament, I am adopted in a more excellent manner, then by baptism, by justification, by infusion of grace. True it is that in baptism, I receive the grace of God, a participation of his substance, and hearein, this spiritual adoption, may rather be called a regeneration (as the Scriptures call it) than an adoption: because, as 
Tit. 3  in natural generation, the Father communicateth to his son, a part of his nature: so God in this spiritual regeneration, imparteth a certain participation of his substance, which is grace, whereas the adopting Father, communicateth no internal substance or quality, to his adopted son, but only an external & terrene inheritance: But in this holy eucharist, he powrethe into us all his substance, he admitteth us unto his kingdom, he openeth the gates of heaven, for soul & body: we prove ourselves, & voluntarily accept him for our Father.  
And therefore I will call this sacred communion, a divine regeneration, & a most real adoption of Gods deified children: & finally, the third nativity in this life, most like to our final regeneration in glory.  
By this admirable participation of Christ, by the influence of his grace, I know that my supernatural adoption shall be ratisyed, the love betwixt my Father & me, confirmed, increased, & revived. And therefore attentively I will recite our saviours prayer, by saying, Pater noster. Our Father, expending every parcel thereof as most appertaining unto me; for whom especially, it was instituted of Christ.   

AS A FRIEND TO HIS FRIEND.  
CAP. 4.  
IT wear great presumption for a man, to think himself a friend of god, if god himself had not vouch safed, in so many places of scripture, to ennoble the style of the just, with the title of friend. For as betwixt the Father and the son, is included a certain Identitye, betwixt the master & his servant, superiority & subjection: so betwixt friends, there must needs be a certain equality. So said Christ to his disciples, Dixi vos amicos, 
Io. 15  quia omnia quae audivi a patre, nota feci vobis. I have called you friends because all that I have hard of my Father, I have manifested unto you: and consequently enhanced you from the base state of servants, who know not their master's secrets, to the equality of friends, to be partakers of my most profound mysteries. And the reason may easily be yielded, for that if god be the hire and guerdon, deserved of the just by their merits & labours in this life (according to that God uttered to Abraham, Ego ero merces tua 
Gen. 15  magna nimis. I will be thine exceeding great waige:) Than certainly, the just possessing god as their crown & God embracing them as his beloved creatures: there must of necessity follow, respectyve & reverent equality, not in perfection, but affection, quia amicorum, omnia sunt communia. Because all things of friends are common, by which friends enjoy all things as common.  
Since therefore god (as I hope) haveth accepted me into his friendship, and vouchsafed to call me friend: I will endeavour (as near as I can) to observe the conditions of true friendship, neither to violate any circumstance or jot, that such bountiful amity requireth.  
And for that grace perfectethe nature, and the true beams of natural reason, serve as preambles unto grace; 
Rom. 1  Therefore I will search the conditions of humane friendship in nature, and transfer them to the divine friendship of grace, that nature and grace may both consort in one heavenly harmony.  
The Romans (in whom natural reason showed greatly the beams of her light) among many statues they erected, one was the Image of friendship, to show what conditions, in true & faithful friendship, the light of nature required.  
This Statue, was a young man in the prime of years, bore headed, clothed with a torn mantle, pointing with his finger to his heart, about which was written, Long, & Prope. far of, and near hand. In the hem of his garment was graven, Hiems, et Aestas, Winter and Summer. The youth & flower of years, signified the fervour of love: that although the silver hairs, & hoary heads of friends commend their friendship greatly for antiquity, yet they exacted youth and strength, for the force & vehemency, because love aught always to be young, fervent, and zealous, never old, could, or remiss.  
This condition greatly importethe a friend of God, & I would it wear printed with letters of brass, and imprinted with indelible characters, in every good man's heart, that his love must always be fresh, ever new: for quod senescit, prope interitum est. 
Heb. 8  That which waxeth old, is near decay: that every day, yea every hour, he say with David, Dixi, nunc cepi, 
Psal. 76  I said, I now begin. What my passed life haveth been, I know not, my love to God haveth been nothing, childish, full of defects & imperfections, Dixi nunc cepi. Now I will begin, as if I had lived before all in a dream.  
Every morning, the first thought that shall open the eyes of my soul, shall be this, Dixi nunc cepi, This day I will begin to honour, grorify, and love my god. with that other fervent lover of Christ, I will forgeate what 
Phil. 3  I have left behind me, and carefully preconceave, what lieth before me, how I may come to my eternal rest, how increase in god's friendship, how I may serve him more diligently, more fervently: Dixi nunc cepi. Therefore lukewarm love, of God 
Apoc. 3  hated, of me shall be detested, and in the beginning, continuance, & ending, of every action, dicam nunc ceps, I will say, now I begin, for, justorum 
prouer. 4  semita quasi lux splendens procedit & crescit, usque ad perfecttam diem. The way of the just (that is the works of gods friends) goeth forward: they increase like a glistering light, till perfect day: that is, even as the son rising upon our horizon, increaseth in light till mid day, and shynethe more brightly upon us: so aught the friends of God, like so many spiritual soonns, shine in his church ever increasing till they come to their cheifeste height, that is the hour of their death: that first life fail them, then desire of proceeding in gods grace & friendship.  
He was bore headed, because true friendship, requireth no veils, for real friends, profess their friendship, no shame can surprise them, they are always prepared, to defend their friends, to show their faces for them: if any dispraife them, they answer for 
Luc. 7 & Io. 12  them, as Christ for Mary Magdalen, If any impugn them, they desende them, as S. Peter did endeavour by cutting of Malcus' ear, to defend 
Mat. 26 Io. 18  Christ against the jews: If any injury them, they account the injuries to concern them, as much as their friends: so Christ esteemed the persecutions of the faithful, followed so earnestly against his friends by S. Paul, to have been committed against himself. 
Act. 9 & 22   
Finally a true friend, will tender his friends case, & profess his friendship in all occasions.  
O happy wear Christians, if among them there wear many of these courageous and open professed friends of Christ. True it is, that (thanks be to God) the fervour and profession of english Catholics, is spread through the whole world, what they suffer in goods, body, honour, & life, rather than they will impeach, in any point, the glory of their faith: But we must not only profess our friendship to god in the main point of all, butalso when particular occasions are offered, when any sin or offend God, (if we can) prevent their faults, correct or amend them.  
A true friend will not omit so many & convenient opportunities, as daily we see offered: who converse much in the world, shall find open fields overrun with this pestiferous darnel, by blasphemies, oaths, detractions, imprecations, maledictions, impurity & thousands such detestable sins, the which will minister abundant matter, for the friends of Christ to extirpate & root out.  
His mantle was torn, to express Turrian effect of friendship, hardly found, but highly pryzed: that specially friendship appeareth, when friends suffer one for an other: when they spend their honours, goods: their garmets' are rent, their bodies afflicted: when they desire to show their friendship in some dysaster; when they procure occasions: when they rejoice in such sufferings, disgraces, losses, wounds & finally death itself.  
In the friendship & love of God, He that once arriveth to this degree of perfection, that Christ's cross seemeth sweet unto him: He that can gather lillees among thorns, & reap fruit in deserts: In temptations, profit: In desolations, merit: In afflictions, joy: In persecutions, peace and quietness of mind. This man haithe found a paradise in this lice.  
For as nothing in this world occurreth oftener to good men, than calamities & crosses: so by taking a delight in them, they have found out an indeficient spring of spiritual joy & comfort. For how is the devil, the flesh, & the world, confounded, by their own persecutions, when they see the just rejoicing, exulting, and triumphing in the midst of their torments: that their pains, are accounted gains; their tortures, treasures: their prisons, the gate houses of paradise: their gibbets, joys? How can they be revenged of such men, since the strongest poisons, their virulent malice can devise, they convert into so good blood, none otherwise, than the vigilant stork, the stings of snakes, into sweet flesh? And therefore he that by long experience, had tried this truth, willed us to make an account of this, as of the some & whole joy of this life: Omne gaudium existimate fratres mei, cum in varias tentationes incideritis. 
jacob. 1  Esteem it my brethren all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations. And Christ himself, Beati cum maledixeri●t 
Mat. 5  vobis, & persecuti vos suerint & dixerint omne malum adversum vos mentientes propter me: gaudete & exultate, quoniam merces vestra, copiosa est in coelis. Blessed are ye, when they shall revile you, and persecute you, & speak all that nought is against you, untruly for my sake, be glad & rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. And the Apostles followed 
Act. 5  his precept in practise, Ibant gaudentes a conspectu concilii, quoniam digni habiti siut, pro nomine jesu, contumeliam pati. They went from the sight of the counsel rejoicing, because they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach, for the name of jesus. For they knew well, that torn bodies, were the best liveryes: that Christ gave his guard in this life: that in the day of their death, a rent garment, for love was more to be esteemed of Christ, then cloth of gold, or any kings purple. They knew that the love of God, was an odoriferous gum, whose fragrant smell did lie hid, & therefore either with burning coals in the fire, or with the pestle in the mortar, the scent was to be dispersed. All they knew full well, that Christ's garments before them, were torn with thorns, and rent with nails, that he declared himself a most faithful friend, by tearing his soul and body, in two pieces. Ah they knew this sacrament instituted in such a form, read them a sylente lesson of suffering pain and crosses: that 
Io. 12  like wheat sown, they should dye to sensuality: like wheat threshed, 
Mat. 3  they should be persecuted, by the world, like wheat ground, they 
Luc. 22  should be tossed of ●athan: like wheat baked, they should be burned with griefs & afflictions: like bread cut, chewed, consumed, they should be cut, mangled, & killed, before they came to that end, which Christ intended, vz, his glory, and their felicity.  
With his finger he pointed to his heart, to signify that friendship aught to be cordial, not ceremonial: not only in mouth, but also in heart: not in external complements, but principally in internal affection. Populus hic lablis me honorat, cor autem corum, 
Mat. 15 Marc. 7 Isa. 29  long est a me. This people (saith god) honoureth me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, that is, they love me, with external show, not with internal devotion. It haveth no good root, that they do, to honour me, & consequently I make no account of such service. And in very deed it is not durable, but like that seed which natum aruit, quia non habebat humorem. Being shot up, it 
Luc. 8 Mat. 13 Mar. 4  withered, because it had not moisture. These men we may compare, to deformed women, who lacking natural beauty, cast over a marble gloss by art, the which if they mask not well, the soonn, wind, or wether, will discover their theft; so they who have no natural devotion, no cordial love, no internal affection & friendship with God: if any occasion be offered, they presently lose their colour: If the religion change, before they lose their goods, they will recant: If occasion of worldly delight be presented unto them, they care not to sin mortally: If they fear to lose temporal preferment, they will first lose their spiritual advancement: If in ●yne any godly exercise impeach their wealth, honour, or reputation, they are content to leave them, neglect them, despise, & contemn them.  
Therefore receiving the holy Eucharist, wherein is included the cordial love & affection of my Saviour: I will enforce myself, so much as I can, to plant the love of god as deep in my heart as I may. That it being sound lively & rectified, the external beauty of good works, my words, Actions, gesture, and conversation, may show, from how connatural a principle they proceed, from how lively a spring they flow, how proportionate they are to their subject, not as heat in water, or white teeth in an Ethiopians body: but as a good colour is joined to a good complexion. And therefore I will cry, Spiritum 
Psal. 50  rectum domine innova in v●sceribus meis. Renew oh Lord a right spirit in my bowels. Let me not be like them of whom it was said, Cor eorum non cr●● 
Psal. 77  rectum, nec fideles habiti sunt. Their heart was not right, neither were they accounted faithful.  
They wrote about his heart, long & prope, far of, and near hand, to give friends to understand, that neither distance of place, nor tract of time, aught to impair their love: because as these two circumstances, diminish feaned friendship, so they declare true & faithful amity.  
In the love of God, this condition importeth much if it be well observed. For sometimes men go far from god, as the prodigal son wandered 
Luc. 15  from his Father in foreign regions, & there miserably consumed his patrimony: & no marvel, because he was far from god, and consequently from goodness. For, qui elongant se a 
Psal. 72  te, peribunt. Those who estrange themselves from thee, shall perish. As we see the distance of the son in winter, to 'cause the nakedness of trees, flowers, & fruit, could rain, ice, & snow. Sometimes God seemeth to estrange himself from us, as our Saviour Christ insinuated when he said, Deus deus mens, quare me dereliquisti. God my 
Mat. 27  god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me? Which occurreth commonly in spiritual desolation, in aridity & dryness of soul, when it seemeth that God haveth shut all the cataracts of heaven, that 
Gen. 8  they should not water the soil of our souls, when he permittethe wicked men, to persecute his servants, when in fine we feel no taste of God, we see no light of heaven, we perceive no scent of devotion. In this sterility, we must not think that god haithe wholly aband oned us, for than he would not have said, Cum ipso sum in 
Psal. 90  tribulatione. I am with him in tribulation. For then God haveth most care over us, because then, we most need him. But he will only teach us to serve him like men, he will draw us from sensible devotion (wherein often we seek ourselves, for a certain spiritual delight in God,) to a reasonable obsequy, & friendly conversation.  
When I come to this Sacrament, although I perceive no jot of sensible devotion, whearewith many as it were fly with spiritual wings unto it: I will not desist from mine accustomed exercises & stinted time of prayer & meditation, because I know it is pleasant rowing with wind & tide: but against the stream, against the wind, it requireth no small force: & as it is of more difficulty, so of more devotion and merit. And doubt not, but he that gevothe the force to feighte, will not stay long from thee, to rejoice in the triumph of thy victory.  
Aestas & Hiems, engraven in the hem of his garment, signified temporal prosperity, & adversity, riches or poverty, sickness or health, and such external changes of fortune, which dissolve for the most part worldly friendship. These they would have no hindrance to true amity.  
For he that will leave his friend in these, never loved him truly, because he rather attended his own interest, than his friends person, virtue, & fidelity.  
If god afflict me either with sickness or poverty, if he grant me health, or riches, I will never change my style towards him, but as a rock in the sea in calms & tempests, stand immovable. I will not that sathan say of me truly, as he said of job falsely, Doth 
job. 1  job fear God without cause? Haste thou not blest the works of his hands & hath not his possession increased in earth? But extend thy hand a little, touch all he possessethe, & then try if he will not curse thee.  
And although prosperity & adversity be both gifts of God: yet I will incline my heart more to this, then that, because therein I shall be more like my Saviour, there is less danger of offending, there is more occasion of merit, the which favour I will ask in this Sacrament.   

AS A SOLDIER TO HIS CAPTAIN.  
CAP. 5.  
sitting under the standard of Christ's holy cross, opening the spiritual eyes of my soul, I will contemplate the universal world, wherein I behold my Saviour Christ on the one side, proclaiming an endless war (yet most just and worthy) against Satan, & all his damned devils: on the other side there is represented unto me, Lucifer, General of all the wicked, proclaminge war against Christ, & all his elected, as a tyrannical invader, & an unjust usurper.  
First I will suppose that this my meditation, is no Imaginary speculation, but a matter really & in very deed, daily effected. For daily & hourly this Samson, invadeth the Philistians: 
jud. 15 & 7. 1 Re. 17  this Gedeon, the troupes of Madian: this David, the Giant goliath: this more puissant Captain, bindeth the 
Mat. 12  strong man armed, depriveth him of his tyrannical possession, surprisethe his vessels of gold, keepeth in asaistic all the treasures of his house, unjustly usurped. Truly S. Peter willed us 
1 Pet. 5  to be vigilante, because that Satan our ghostly adversary like a roaring Lion, did range about, seeking whom he could devour. And S. Paul 
Eph. 6  told us, that our fight was against these princes of darkness, and the wieked spirits that fell from heaven. And job called his Angels, his soldiers, Nunquid est numerus militum eius? Is 
job. 25  there any number of his soldiers? because of this spiritual war, wherein they fight most valiantly.  
Secondly I will consider, the cause of this bloody field, for it seemeth to me very strange, that Christ the fountain of goodness & peace, the abyss of mercy and love, who came into this earth, to make the lions like lambs, the wolves like sheep, & 
Isa. 11  serpents like dooves, to dally and play with children; should now proclaim battle, pitch a field, cause mortal hatred, intend death & mortality. Moreover who can resist his power, that holdeth the earth with 
Isa. 40 job. 26  his fingers, at whose countenance, the pillars of Heaven do tremble, the foundations of the world shake: who as he with one word, made all things 
Psal. 32  of naught, so with one word he can reduce all things to naught: and yet 
Mat. 10  he said himself, that he came not to set peace in earth, but the sword, Non veni mittere pacem in terram, sed gladium. This difficulty may easily be answered if we understand two points, the causes of this war, & the manner, the which I will touch briefly.  
The majesty of God in that eternal and inscrutable Consistory of the holy Trinity, having determined, of mere goodness and love, to exalt the base nature of man, to the hipostaticall union of the son of God, thereby advancing all men, by assuming their form & substance, preferring them before Angels in grace, whom he had framed inferior by nature: He revealed this secret to all his Angels in the first moment of their creation, & commanded them, that entering the world, they should adore 
Heb. 1  him incarnated.  
Lucifer ravished with the gory of his own beauty, deamed this a disgrace, & too great an affrount to his person, that he being the goodliest creature, that ever issued out of the hands of God, the most exact similitude, figure, and resemblance of his divinity: a Lucifer, for brightness shining more clear, than any other star in the spiritual firmament of the Angelical nature, whose garments were 
Eze. 28  decked, with the most rare & richest stones that ever god created, he I say Elevatus in decore suo, puffed up with the lustre of his own glory: conceived that god had greatly injuried him, by preferring the nature of man so far beneath him, to such a dignity so far above him: adiudginge, that it had been more convenient for him, (supposed he would have communicated his person to any creature) rather to have assumpted his nature, so beautiful, so perfect, & most suitable thereunto. And therefore as he of pride, despised gods sacred election: so he disdained to worship Christ incarnated. And with this sophistical reason, he seduced the third part of Angels. Traxit secum tertiam partem stellarum. 
Apoc. 12  He drew with him the third part of the stars, persuading them, that it redownded greatly to their ignominy, to adore a man with divine honour, or to account him superior to them. The reprobate followed his suggestion, the elect resisted, reverencinge god's decree, admiring his goodness, & in effect obeyed his precept, by adoring Christ in carnated. And presently the good & reprobate Angels, began a mortal war: but Michael vanquished 
Ibidem.  the infernal dragon expelled him out of the City of life, cast him down into the dungeon of hell where he haithe continued in torments almost these 6000 years.  
And though he wander like a Tiger thirsting for the bloodd of man, yet his hell waiteth upon him, it never wanteth. Hereupon grew the mortal hatred that the devil with his companions, conceived against the majesty of God, our Saviour Christ, the blessed Angels, & all mankind, because he thought god did him wrong by not elevating his nature to hipostaticall union, because he banished him out of the kingdom of heaven, because he confined him to hell & earth so baise an element, & undecent a prison for such a noble spirit, because with flames of fire with the sting of remorse of conscience, with perpetual damnation & privation of felicity, he tormenteth him and all his followers. For these causes he hateth God extremely, & would if he could, pull him out of his throne: but for that he knoweth this impossible, he endeavoureth with all possibility, to injury his majesty, as much as lieth in his power. And therefore continually, those hellhounds never cease, to bark out blasphemies, & spit out fire of imprecations & maledictions against God. As I myself being present in a place, where a woman was exorcyzed, she uttered such blasphemies against God, that truly it seemed to me, that such curses, such horrible maledictions, could not but exhale from the venomous puddle of hell. And he that exorcyzed her, asked the devil how he having received so many benefits of God, did so maliciously & spitefully speak of him: he answered, that this was their continual music in hell, to curse and blaspheme God, of whom the more they had received, it redownded to their greater torment.  
What hatred he had to Christ & what emulation of that sacred humanity, S. john witnessith that Christ himself testified to the jews, that 
Io. 8  he was homicida ab initio, a murderer from the beginning, because he would have deprived that blessed humanity of the life of God his person & deity. And after in effect he showed it, by procuring his death, suggesting the jews to persecute him, judas to cell him, the scribes & pharisees, to bring 
Et postbuc cellam introivit in eum Sathanas. Io. 13  false witness against him, pilate to condemn him, & finally the damned ministers to crucify him.  
But because the devil did perceive the injuries & blasphemies, that he & his consorts breathed out aghasted god did nothing impeach his honour, or derogate from his glory: Therefore seeing that god was desyreous to save all men, & bring them to glory (yet with free will & liberty without compulsion, coaction, or necessity) here he bended his forces, first to dishonour God, by causing men to offend him, & despise his precepts. Secondly because th'air nature was taken by Christ & his refused. Thirdly for that those seats of felicity which he & his companions had lost, these eternal wales of jerusalem, which they had broken and ruinated, by their transgression, should be filled & repaired, by men. And lastly to have company in torments, he accomptethe it some solace.  
For which causes, no sooner had God given a precept to Adam in Paradise, 
Gen. 3  but he crept in by stealth to effectuate his purpose, & there with lying & cogging, deceived our first parents, & brought us all into his boundage & captivity.  
This was the first stratagem, and one of the most perniceous, to all mankind that ever Satan used, and prevailed in against us. Yet hearing presently after, that the seed of the woman, was to crush the serpent's head, & in very deed knowing that 
Apo. 13  this lamb was killed from the beginning of the world, by whose blood, all Gods elected wear to be saved; hereupon arose an other cause of hatredd of Christ, & all those who believed in him, or loved him, as one which hindered him of his intended purpose, & perverse project.  
These be the causes of war, betwixt our Saviour Christ, & this barbarous tyrant. Christ intendethe to glorify God: Satan, to dishonour him. Christ would have men to keep God's commandments: Satan to prevaricate: Christ to conduct men to heaven, Satan to cast them down to hell: Christ that one true God should be worshipped of all men, Satan that either he himself, the flesh, or the world, should be adored as gods. For what else pretended Satan by disgracing all the world almost, with Idolatry, but (as S. Gregory 
Orat. de calamitae. anim. suae  Nazeanzene well teacheth) to enjoy in earth, which he intended in heaven, that is, to be reverenced of men in those insensible Idols, as god? And therefore, the Prophet David, 
Psal. 95  well called Deos gentium, daemonia, the gods of gentiles, devils. And he most impudently, was not ashamed, to induce Christ to exhibit unto him divine woorshipp, Omnia haec dabotihi, 
Mat. 4  si cadens adoraveris me. All these will I give thee, if falling down, thou wilt adore me. Why temptethe he gluttons, with dainty meats: but to make them belly gods, Quorum 
Pbill. 3  deus venter est. Whose god is their belly? Why suggestethe he avarice: but to make the possession of riches, an homage to Idols, Quae est Idolorum servitus, which is a slavery to Idols? 
Collo. 3   
By this discourse, plainly it appeareth, how these two general's display their flags, strike up their drums; they call every man in this world, to this spiritual battle. No man can free himself, every one that lives, must stand either with Christ, or against him: be his srende, or his foe, there is no neuters, none may be indifferent.  
Therefore my soul, now resolve thyself, whose part thou wilt take. Christ offereth thee crosses, to give thee glory: Satan transitory pleasures, to bring thee to eternal pain: Christ inviteth thee to war, because he loves thee, Satan because he hates thee: Christ in this Sacrament will feed thee with his blood to confirm thee, Satan will poison thee with sin to destroy thee: The armour of Christ are Faith, Hope, Charity, repentance, mortification, with all the troupes of virtue & gifts of the holy Ghost, the armour of Satan are, the flesh & the world, self love, sensuality, the rabble of inordinate passions, the multitude of vices, & diabolical suggestions. No doubt but if thou wilt, the victory lieth in thy hands, Resist the devil, & he will flee from 
jac. 4 Eph. 6  thee: Put on the armour of Christ, & they will defend thee: But look well about thee, for the devil is most vigilant, he never sleepeth, & thirsteth 
1 Pet. 5  nothing so much, as the perdition of thy soul. For which cause, if God give thee a good Angel, to guide 
Psal. 90  thee lest thou fall: he haithe thrust upon thee an infernal spirit, to make thee fall. If God send preachers, to exhort thee to penance & perfection of life: Satan sendeth sectaries and worldlings, to oversow cockle, darnel, 
Mat. 13  and tars of stinking heresves, fleshly delights, & baise pleasures, to bring thee to eternal death. If god with examples of spiritual men, induce thee to piety: he with examples of carnal men, will lead thee to vanity. If God provide his servants to persuade thee with devout books to mortification; he will stir up some frantic poet, with lascivious rhymes to entice thee to dissolution. If God strike terror into the soul, of death, of the synall judgement, or the pains of hell, to move thee to amendment: he will inveigle thee with false arguments of long life, & presumption of God's mercy, to make thee wallow deeper in vice and wickedness. Finally, what means soever he seeth, God use to save thee, the like he inventeth so near as he can to damn thee. And therefore S. Paul forewarned us, that we were not only 
Eph. 6  to fight against flesh & blood, but against these spiritual and ghostly enemies, who impugn us with great advantage: they being invisible unto us, and we being open to them: they spirits, and we compounded of four corporal elements: they long experienced in tempting, & we little in resisting: they wonderful witty, & we very dull and ignorant. But yet the grace of God, & his good assistance, haithe more force to incite us to go forward, than all the fiends of hell to go backward. For, Omnia possum 
Phil. 4  in eo qui me confortat. I can overcome all, by virtue of him that comforteth me, with this comfortable food, which terrifyeth all the trowps of Madian, this bread striketh them 
jud. 7  dead. Therefore I would know, how this war of wit & sleight passeth. All this battle betwixt our enemies & us, consisteth in impugning the fortresses of our free wills: The devil would have us to consent to follow his vices, & Christ to imitate his virtues. If the devil could necessitate us to sin, or God would necessitate us to goodness: this battle wear ended. For than no doubt but a man should stand like a block betwixt them, and he that wear strongest, should prevail & carry it away.  
But the case standeth not so: For small glory should it be for a man of necessity to be moved to love god, or dispraise to hate him: But standing with free will betwixt them doth, neither using constraint, but such means as a man may accept, & refuse, use or abuse, both knock at the door, & leave it in our liberty to open it. God inspireth, and the devil suggesteth: but neither enforceth. For if that God had not intended to save us with our free will & liberty; to what purpose, would he have permitted those impious spirits thus to range amongst us? to tempt us? to seduce us? For it wear ridiculous, to permit the devil to tempt all men, if some could not resist him, because it was impossible; & others it wear impossible he should overcome.  
Besides, what glory should redound to God, by forcing us to do well? For who is so blockish that knoweth not, that nothing is able to resist his power and might? But if God leave man to his liberty, and then he move him to goodness, and Satan to vice: if a man resist Satan & seruc God, then plainly appeareth how God is glorified, by man's well doing: For of his free election, he resisteth flesh & blood, abandoneth pleasures & delights, only for the love, honour, & glory, of God.  
Lastly I will consider the stratagens of Satan, by what art he impugneth me. For since this spiritual battle consisteth especially in the undermyninge of our wills, in the deceipts & policies of the devil: therefore as in wars, to discover the ambushes, plots, policies, and stratagems, of enemies, is half the victory: Even so to know the craft of the devil, is in great part, to overcome his temptations. And withal, if Christ our Captain, have provided us means in this sacrament to frustrate them, we have almost won the battle.  
First the devil in his temptations, & warlye suggestions, extolleth extremely that sin or pleasure, he will persuade us. He useth all the rhetoric & logic in his bugett, to paint it forth in lively colours; as a mount bank to praise his wares, his medicines, his pomainders, in such sort, as by mere amplifications & lies, he deceiveth the poor simple people.  
Ask our mother Eve, if after this sort 
Gen. 3  he did not seduce her, by telling her that her eyes should be opened, she should become a god, knowing good & evil. The like he daily practiseth in his suggestions, for he will 'cause proud men to conceive such a foolish paradise in their stately buildings, their train of followers, their rich attire, & such like vanities: that in very deed, the very moulde-hilles seem mountains. How often do riotous yonkardes and gluttons, after their pleasures be past, wonder at their own blindness, that they pryzed so much, spent so much, ladoured so much, for a thing of so small delight? How they wear deceived in balancing the cost, with that rotten & unworthy merchandise.  
The sacred eucharist, discoverethe this deceit of the devil, die the increase of faith: for augmenting our light, consequently it discovereth the ambushes of Satan, whlollye under ground & in darkness. This light of faith, the scriptures often inculcate unto us, as a most strong defence against the devil? S. Peter teaching 
1 Pet 5  us to withstand the devil, he willeth us to resist, forts in fide, strong in faith. And S. Paul, induamur arma 
Rom. 12  lucis, let us put on armour of light. And after he had declared, with how potent and dangerous enemies; we wear to encounter, he exhorteth us 
Ephes. 6  in all conflicts, to defend ourselves wi●h the shield of faith: & the reason is manifest, because if the devil seduce us by lying, faith discovereth his deceit, by reveyling unto us the truth: for who would ever hoard up gold by hook & crook, right or wrong, if with the eyes of faith, he would but read considerately, that sentence, Fool this night thou shalt 
Luc. 12  dye, and haec cuius erunt? who then shall enjoy these riches? The like I say of all other temptations, if ourfaith be vigilant, they will quickly vanish: for which cause I have known many spiritual men, that had always prepared godly sentenses, taken out of the scriptures, to protect them against the temptations of the devil.  
The second stratagem of the devil, consisteth in tempering his temptations according to every man's taste. He considereth men's complexions, their inclmations & dispositions, & serveth every one according to his humour. Drunkards he allureth with delicate drinks: ambitious heads, with chimeres of honour: worldlings, with treafures: lasciurous spirits, with sensuality. I think I read once in Casfianus, or Sophronius, that a godly man entering into the church, he met the devil, coming forth all loaden, with bottles & glasses full of siroppes, & drinks. The good religious man knowing by revelation it was the devil, commanded him in the virtue of Christ, to tell him what he did in the church, with so many glasses & bottles? He answered, to give every one a siroppe, according to his so are: for rarely the devil will tempt a young man with covetousness, or an old man with lechery, except the vices of his youth, be incorporated into the bones of old age. Seldom he moveth a rich man to revenge to kill or slay, or a poor man, to seek for honour or reputation, except he find their complexions much inclined thereunto.  
Against this stratagem, the Eucharist affordeth us a most excellent defence, for it in contrariwise, armethe not only the soul, with all sorts of virtues, but especially with that grace that the soul most desireth, & most needeth. For as Manna served every manuestonge, of that taste he wished: so this celestial Manna, every good soul, of that favour he craveth. For as in the nourishment of our bodies, when nature haveth gotten the upper hand of any disease, than most of that purer blood or spirits, which the liver & heart suck from our meat; they send to resist, expel, & wholly vanquish, the disease: So the eucharist nourishing our soul, fouldinge our saviour, who not only with his divinity, but also with his humanity, seethe with what deceit the devil most intendeth to molest us, there he principally protecteth us, not unlike a prudent captain, who defending a fort, there principally placeth his chiefest forces, where he knoweth the wales weakest & easiest to be scaled.  
The third deceit, is not presently and at the first assault, to discover his intention, but to win ground by degrees, to insinuate himself by little & little: he layeth his deceipts, first to the heel, after intending to crush 
Gen. 3  the head, like unto them who pretend to undermine or entrench themselves about a wall, they begin a far of, & then approach, least if they attempted too near, their plot should be discovered.  
● In every vice or sin, who well considerethe, shall find certain degrees or preambles, which by little & little, prepare the way for vice to enter: as we read of Holofernes whose eyes were ravished even with the pantofles of judith, & his soul was made captive with her beauty. Sandalia ●ius 
jud. 16  rapuerunt oculos eius, & pulchritudo eius, captivam fecit animam cius. Her pantofles ravished his eyes, & her beauty enthrawled his soul. S. james 
jac. 1  declareth the same degrees in concupiscence, first by abstraction, than conception, than consummation.  
The reason why the devil goeth so far of at the beginning, I take to be for most part, with good souls, who if they did see distinctly, the deformity that Satan intendethe, he could hardly prevail against them. Therefore he blindeth their judgement with some inordinate delight, (as many fishers cast their nets, when the water is troubled, that the fish should not perceive them) and then entereth with more facility.  
The way to overcome this deceit, is at the entrance of sin, to resist it in the budding, for tender twigs, are bend with ease, aged trees break ear they bend. Young desires take not deep hold, but when they enter once into full possession, hardly they can be expelled.  
The Eucharist helpeth us greatly, to smell these motions of sin, even in their first rising: because the love of God, the fervour of devotion, two proper effects thereof, so purifyings the Soul, that every little spot, may quickly be perceived, as in a white corporal, every stain presently appeareth. Moreover by illuminating our understanding, it showeth these imperfections, which before we never marked, as in the beams of the sun, we see flying thousands of little atomies or moats, which before we never perceived.  
Fourthly the devil attendethe occasions, he watchethe fit opportunities to tempt us: he marketh what company we converse withal, what passions are afloat, how the heavens incline, what alteration the wether worketh in our bodies, what exercise or quietness preceded, & according to all these, he gathereth a fit time, to compass his impious intention. So he came not to tempt Christ, till he found 
Mat. 4  him so litarie in the desert, & ahungred with long fasting. Neither did 
Gen. 3  he tempt Eve while she was with Adam, but he got her alone out of his company. Therefore S. Peter 
1 Pet. 5  said, that Satan went circuitinge about, searching whom he might denoure, whereby he would signify unto us, that he went prying about, how to espy occasions to make us offend God. The way how to resist this encounter, were best in all tempests & vehement passions or alterations of the soul, not to resolve any thing about ourselves, or determine any thing of moment, till we receive the blessed Eucharist, which will calm the soul & give us better light to discern truth from falsehood, God from the devil, natural passions, from diabolical temptations.  
Many more stratagems of Satan I could hear discover, and also declare by how many ways God aideth us in this fight, & deliver certain rules, to know the motions of god & the inspirations of the holy Ghost, but this would exceed the bounds of mine intention, although perhaps not the present matter. Here only I will conclude, that I mean hereafter for so many good Causes, never to make peace, league, nor truce, with the devil, for one moment, but resist him with all force.   

AS A SCHOLAR TO HIS MASTER.  
CAP. 6.  
THe children of fear, durst not 
1 Exod. 20 Hab. 12  hear thy voice, O sweet Saviour, because with thunders & lightnings, thou spoke unto them veiled with mists and clouds, in the mount Sinai. But I know thou hast put of those terrifying garments, and hear clothed thy love with the rynds of bread & wine. Therefore I will receive thee, that I may hear Quid loquatur 
Ps. 84  in me dominus, what my Lord speaketh in me, because he will speak peace to his people.  
I will consider first, that my Christ came not only to redeem me, but also to teach me, not only to be my saviour, but also my master: And therefore the Prophet joel foretold 
joel. 2  us, that we should rejoice in our Lord god, because he haithe given us a Doctor of justice.  
I omit hear, how the very mystery of Christ's incarnation, openeth unto us many secrets that we never heard of: how all his actions were our instructions, all his miracles, aswell means to direct us, as remedies to cure us. Only I intend here to consider, by what manner, he teacheth me internally, he speaketh to my heart, without any noise of words, & how his inspirations, may be perceived.  
Secondly we can not doubt but that Christ our Saviour very often beateth at the doors of our hearts, speaketh internally unto us. Ducam eum in solitudinem, 
Ose 2  & loquar ad cor eius. I will lead him into a desert, & will speak to his heart. Ego sto ad ostium & pulso 
Apoc. 3  (saith Christ) I stand at the door of thy soul & knock, that is, by the sound of his spiritual speech. The spouse in the Canticles telleth, that 
Cant. 5  she hard the voice of Christ knocking, & willing her to let him in: all the Scriptures inculcate this favour of God, this calling, this light, this doctrine, this knocking, this speaking, of God to men, & especially to them who serve him devoutly, & hear his voice attentively: Because the Law of supernatural friendship between God & his servants, requyrethe a natural conference, that one speak to an other, that there pass a reciprocate communication, where by love is confirmed & increased: and those who have the eyes of their souls purified, well perceive by desisting from prayer & meditation, that their souls are thickened with a certain mist, they seal not gods friendship so sensibly, as when they converse with him, because they do not attend Quid loquatur in eyes dominus, what our Lord speaketh in them.  
Moreover, although a man have corporal eyes to see, yet he needeth external light, otherwise his eyes would little avail him: even so little it would avail a man to have a natural witted, if the light of God's internal motion & inspiration, did not prevent us, & cooperate with us.  
Thirdly it importeth much, that I attend & incline the ears of my heart, to hear the voice of God, since he haveth commanded me. Audi filia & 
Psal. 44  inclina aurem tuam. Here daughter (oh soul) & incline thine ear, that is, do not only hear, but attend diligently: as those who would here distinctly, bend their bodies & their ears to that part, from whence the sound cometh. For questionless God speaketh to me, because he would be hard: & therefore it were great discourtesy & irreverence, not to give him audience, especiially speaking for my good, not his own interest.  
Fourthly I will consider the different manner of the teaching of Christ, and other masters which teach in the world: that thereby I may frame my soul the better to be a scholar in this supernatural school, & the sooner understand the voice of my saviour, when he readethe unto me his lessons of life, after I have received his body.  
1 first other masters use corporal & material words: Christ internal speech.  
2 They beat first at the external cares of our bodies, and so pass forward to the cares of our souls: Christ immediately as Lord of the heart, needeth no passage by the porters lodge, but entereth at the first, the most secret chamber of the soul, where he speaketh immediately unto us.  
3 Other masters can not 'cause their scholars to penetrate the depth of their doctrine, except they bring a natural capacity & understanding with them which the master is not able to impart unto them: but Christ can call Prophets from the plough, Apostles from their nets, & linguas infantum reddere 
Sap. 10  disertas, make infants eloquent.  
4 Men teach in time, they distill their doctrine by drops, & therefore their scholars grow in learning, as in body, every day adding something to their increase: But Christ in one day of Penthecoste, in one hour, in 
Act. 2  one moment, can rain from heaven, fontes aquae salientes in vitam aeternam. 
Io. 4  fountains of water seasoning into life everlasting.  
5 Men can not persuade their doctrine, without the evidence of arguments, the force of reason, perspicuty of palpable demonstrations: Christ can make us believe the profound mysteries of our faith, surpassing all the bounds and borders of reason, with his mere authority.  
6 Men move not our affections, or at most very weakly, to accept their doctrine: But our Saviour moveth & compelleth even rebellious wills, to embrace his knowledge, & 'cause the affection to enforce the wit, & humbly to approve hard mysteries of faith.  
7 Men deliver truths mingled with errors, & never communicate doctrine pure & entire: But Christ poureth a sacred liquor into the soul without any dregs of untruths: For as he is truth itself, so he can not teach any error.  
8 The doctrine of men for most part 
1 Cor. 8  tendeth to vanity, Scientia inflat, knowledge puffethe up, but the doctrine of Christ joined with his Charity, aedificat, edifieth, because it moveth the best learned, to know best themselves, their own misery, and gods majesty: that when they know most, than they begin to learn.  
9 Men teach for their own commodity: but Christ for our gain.  
10 Men teach the naure of transitory bodies, subject to change, little they know of God, or life everlasting: but Christ principally, yea wholly, intendeth by his doctrine, to bring us to life everlasting, that the knowledge thereof once being fixed in our minds, we may run at the goal most lively to embrace it.  
5 Fifthly because the devil transformeth 
2 Cor. 11  himself into an angel of light, masking his ugly shape under a gouldon veil, his impiety, under the form of religion. And as fowlers often times imitate the voices of birds, to deceive the simple things & bring them as a pray to their nets: in like sort he pretending to deceive good souls, feaneth to speak with the language of heaven, the tongues of Angels, the voice of god: & except we attend very diligently, it will be hard even for most spiritual men, to discern his voice, yet these rules may be observed.  
The first rule is, that the motions of God & the devil, differ in the end especially: for God moveth to good the devil to evil: God to increase in goodness, the devil to decrease.  
And thus by examining our intentions whether the motion aimeth, if the last scope be devotion, piety, the service of God, than it can not but proceed from him: If it tend to sin, wickedness, or worldly delight, then questionless the author thereof is the devil: & by often practising this rule, we shall find great facility in discovering the motions of the two spirits. So oculus tuns simplex fuerit, totum corpus 
Mat. 6  lucidum erit. If thine eye be simple, (that is, thine intention right) all thy body shall the.  
God moveth the soul like a calm wind, he falleth like a sweet dew, 
Gen. 3  Ambulat ad auram post meridiem. He walketh in the calm air after dinner, when commonly all tempests seize. 
3 Re. 19  And Elyas found God's passaage, in a mild breathinge wind. The Prophet also said, Fluat sicutros cloquium 
Deu. 32  meum. Let my speeches flow in their hearts like a sweet dew, which falleth and fructifyethe, without force or violence. The reason hereof I take to be, the efficacy & omnipotency of God, who being the author of our souls, can move them in most convenient manner, & most agreeable to our nature. The devil moveth tempestiously with violence, for non inturbine 
3 Re. 19  dominus, God is not in whirl winds. The reason is, because the devil haveth not force to enter into the soul, in so sweet a manner, as god entereth, for that he entereth to take possession like a tyrant, that is by force: but God entereth quietly as a lawful king into his kingdom. With this it may well stand that God sometimes 
Eccl. 43 3 Re. 19 Psa. 104 Act. 2  useth great force in his motions, moving mountains, & cleaving hard rocks, descending like a vehement wind, as upon his Apostles at Penthecost: but these motions rather proceed of the great resistance they find in obdurated sinners, than their own nature. Even as a river that runneth very calmly, if you stop it, that it may not enjoy an ordinary course, you shall see how it will swell: & if it found but one chink to enter, with what force it passeth: so god when he can not pass into men's hearts in such sort as he intendeth, he of necessity must use some greater implusion, to rouse up those deadly sins which hindered his passage; & with his omnipotent hand, cause the very entrailss of the soul to tremble. Misit 
Cant. 5  manum suam per foramen, & contremuerunt omnia viscera mea. My love put his hand by the hole of the door, and all my bowels trembled. The which Christ's Apostles were to accomplish in the conversion of great sinners, & therefore our saviour to show that effect, sent the holy Ghost upon them, in form of a vehement wind, which blowethe down buildings 
Act. 2  & rooteth up trees.  
This rule you may often times observe in yourselves, for good souls feel their hearts as it were resolved, with the sweetness of devotion, with desire to serve God, to keep his commandments, follow virtue, flee vice: & can find out no reason in the world, from whence such a motion should come, for God immediately did vouchsaife to visit them.  
The third rule is, all these motions commonly proceed of god, which tend to the mortification of fensualitie, the frequent receiving of the Sacraments, the exercise of piety and mercy to our neighbours, of devotion & Charity to God: The reason is, because the devil can hardly enter into such good works, except by indiscretion or vain glory: the which may be very well perceived, if in the former, that is mortification, we follow our confessoures' council: and the other, we practise them more secretly, then openly.  
Sixtly I will run over a daily lesson that every Catholic may read, written in the external garments of the Eucharist: for God that spoke and did, dixit, & facta sunt, he spoke, and 
Psal. 32  they were made, can signisy his mind & reed us lessons, aswell by visible creatures, as audible sounds. And so red David, no doubt, some sweet doctrine written with planets & stars, in the parchment of the heavens, when 
Psal. 18  he said, Caeli enarrant gloriam dei, & opera manuum eius, annunciat firmamentum. The heavens blaze forth the glory of god, & the firmament showeth the works of his hands: & so intend I in this Sacrament.  
The circle of the host, representeth unto me, the divinity & deity of Christ, which is a most perfect circle, whose centre, is every where, whose circumference is no where.  
It telleth me also, that as the circle comprehendethe the centre on every side: so his immensity, foldeth all places & spaces: his eternity, all time paste, present, & future. Moreover this circle signifieth the eternity of glory, the full blessedness that he will communicate, to all those who receive him condignly.  
The colour so white & unspotted, teacheth me that under them lodgeth the only son of a virgin, the flower & favourer of virginity, qui pascitur inter 
Cant. 6  lilia, who feedeth among lilies: that who cometh to participate this unspotted Lamb, must come girded with chastity & purity. Besides it invytethe chaste souls to eat, because theirby their purity shall be confirmed & increased.  
The unlcuened taste, commandeth me, to approach with sincerity, in truth & really, for devotion, for the love of God, not with hypocrisy, not as to an ordinary meat, but to eat & feed indeed of my God.  
When I see the host elevated by the priest, I remember that my saviour was heaved upon the cross, to elevate my soul, from sensuality, to spirituality: from earth to heaven.  
When he devydethe it in thtee parts, than I consider how this sacrifice, is offered to the glory of gods Saints in heaven, for expiation of those souls which suffer in purgatory, & for the manifoulde benefit of all Catholics who live in the Church militant. Moreover how Christ was divided upon the cross, his soul from his body, & after united again; and likewise with his blood, which in the chalice is united with the host.  
The taste of bread, showeth to me that those effects which bread worketh in my body: in a more excellent manner, the sacred Eucharist worketh in my soul, as was declared in the book of causes.  
In the chalice I reed written in that wine, divers perfections and effects of Christ & his blood.  
The fragrante smell, representethe the odours of his virtues, the sweet scent of his Sacrifice, which surpasseth far, all Arabian odours, & omne opus 
Can. 3 Eccl. 49  pigmentarii, all works of the perfumer.  
The grateful colour, declareth his comely form of body, who was speciosus forma prae filiis hominum. beautiful 
Psal. 44  in form, above the sons of men; And the gracious beauty of his soul, which god had so adorned, that all other graces & favours, compared with his, may be accounted stains.  
The comfort and joy which wine causeth in them that drink it, the joy & heavenly consolation that all those participate, who devoutly receive him.  
The sweet taste of wine to the tongue, foretelleth me, that here I am to begin the joys of heaven: and therefore I will endeavour so to live, that I may continue them, & from the proof, pass to the full possession. For undoubtedly there can be no wine, that laetificat deum & homines chearetheboth 
judic. 9  God & men, but this which is a Sacrifice delighteth God, & as a Sacrament, comforteth man: & as containing the blood of Christ, yieldeth extreme contentation to them both.  
seven I know that after I have received my Saviour, he will not fail to communicate his divine illustrations, to give light to mine understanding, and his sweet inspirations, to breath upon mine affections, to move my will to accept his heavenly doctrine. Therefore I will attend most diligently, quid loquatur in me dominus what our Lord speaketh in me: for I am certain, that he borderethe my soul with peace, & all those whom he feedeth with the fat of this crop: Qui posuit fines tuos pacem, & adipe 
Ps. 147  frumenti satiat te. Who haithe made peace thy borders, & doth satisfy thee with the fat of wheat. Therefore loquere, speak sweet jesus, for thy servant will hear, sonnet vox tua in auri 
Can. 2  bus meis, Sound thy voice in mine ears, for thy voice is sweet, & thy face beautiful. I will shut my heart to all worldly delihtes: I will attend nothing but thee, what thou commands me, what thou counsels me, & by thy grace, I will learn whatsoever thou wilt vouchsaife to teach me. And because I know, that thou art pleased to illuminate my soul in those matters, I convert my mind unto thee, as thou diddest the sweetness of Manna, 
Sap. 16  unto the appetites of the jews. Therefore I will meditate those matters after I have received, which most I desire to learn, & would be instructed of thee, for than I know my Affairs can not but proceed well, when I have asked council of thee before. Sweet jesus instruct me, sweet I esu direct me, Amen.   

AS THE CREATURE TO GLORIFY HIS CREATOR.  
CAP. 7.  
THe ground & baise of all benefits, is out creation, for grace supposeth nature, as stones and foil, the gold which they adorn. Therefore because I know this benefit the most ancient that I ever actually received of god: I will call it to memory, acknowledge the gift, & thank my benefactor: especially understanding, that the sacred eucharist, is a Holocaust or  offering instituted of my Saviour Christ, in recogiuscence of our creation, conservation, and continual favours, which God not only as author of Grace, but also as Father of nature, powrethe upon his whole Church. And in regard that for this Title he is my Lord, and holdeth perfect dominion over me: Therefore I will consider what dependence, I have of him, & whar authority he rightly and justly haithe over me.  
First I will lift up mine eyes to the blessed Eucharist, & with the most fervent faith of my heart confess, that I acknowledge my Saviour therein contained, the first workman that framed me. I will contemplate a certain time before my nativity, when I was neither borne, conceived, nor memory was had of me in the world: If then it had been possible for me to have requested of God, that he would make me a man: what gratitude would I have promised? what service offered? what homage undemaunded, presented unto him? Ah shall I be now more ungrateful, because he bestowed on me the benefit unasked, then if he had granted it requested? This demeanour indeed, were too disloyal, and therefore what then in all wisdom & discretion I would have promised, now with all zeal & love, jintende to perform, that is because I have received all of him, all I will tender to him again: and that which he bestowed on me of mere liberality, with all free liberty I will return, cui 
Ps. 118  omnia serviunt, to whom all things serve and aught to serve.  
I will consider my case in my mother's 
2 job. 10  womb, with job, Sicut lac coagulatum est cor meum, Even as milk is my heart crudded together. with David, & 
Ps. 138 2 Mac. 7  that 7 times martyred mother, of the Maccabees: how I appeared in that dark night which continued so many months, without any spark of light, or appearance of day.  
How was this artificial clock of my body compacted together: this corporal common weal, so well ordered: this building, so well contrived, so just a consort observed, in such distinct parts? Without all doubt this admirable workmanship of bones, flesh, sinews, veins, cartilages, mussles, senses, heart, liver, milt, brain, with a number of other parts, struck The profane Philosophers, in admiration of the wonderful power and wisdom of God, who could frame so strange a work, in so secret a manner. And the wiser sort hereupon gathered, an invincible argument to convince all atheists, that there was a God. For who could be so mad to imagine, that such a worthy work, could come by chance, which yet the profoundest wits, can scarce perfectly understand. Therefore I will offer this blessed Sacrifice, as a testimony of my Faith, & a sign of my gratitude to the indevyded Trinity, in recognition of this universal & particular gift, wherein shineth the light of God's ineffable wisdom and providence.  
thirdly, if it had pleased God, he might in this palace of my body, have closed up the windows, as he did to the blind borne beggar, and 
Io. 9  many more, who would spend almost what they have, to enjoy the benefit of their eyes: he might without contradiction or opposition, have bereaved me of a leg, an arm, or some other principal part, the which many lack, or possess very deformed, yet of his bounty he haithe granted them whole & entire to me. Therefore the integrity of his gift, exacteth an entire oblation, and full use of them to his honour & glory. Wherhfore so often as I see any person deformed, lame, blyndè, or destitute of any limb: presently I will take occasion, to convert my soul to God, & bless him, who haveth delivered me from such miseries, not for mine own desert, but upon his mere goodness & lideralitic.  
Fourthly by this title of my creation, I may well account myself as one, who oweth all that he haith or can to God: That I am his vassal, his possession, a sheep of his flock, a p●ante of his garden, a subject of his kingdom, and consequently, that he haveth a more complete right & dominion over me, than any king over his subject: any pastor, over his flock: any Lord, over his possession. For if a kiug hold right over his kingdom, he needeth his subjects, he can not be without them, neither in wars, nor peace. The pastor gathereth the wool of his flock, he eateth the flesh, & in fine, enjoyeth divers commodties by them, in such sort, that his authority & right, standeth with a certain servitude, & subjection, in regard of his indigence & necessity. But god needeth not me, Deus meus es tu, quoniam 
Ps. 15  bonorum meorum non indiges. Thou art my god, & therefore thou needs none of my goods. But what king enjoyeth so ample an empire, as to carry in his crown, the title & style of all the world? And yet if there wear such a monarch, my Christ should have excelled him, who haveth written not in his crown or sceptre, but in the very basest part of his garment Rex regum, & Dominus dominantium. 
Apoc. 19  King of kings, & Lord of Lords.  
Moreover Christ's dominion, surmounteth all princes rights in perfection & integrity; For when he will, Deponet potentes de sede, & exaltabit 
Luc. 1  humiles. He will depose the mighty from their seat, & exalt the humble. But none can depose him, or withstand his right; Kings hold no dominion over the souls of their subjects, but only over their bodies: Neither can they lawfully kill any man, of their absolute authority, except he prevaricate their laws: But Christ who possesseth complete authority over life, & death, can kill or give life as it pleaseth him: For in ditione 
1 Reg. 2 Hest. 13  eius cuncta suntposita, Under his possession, all things are contained: & his dominion, concernethe the soul no less than the body.  
Finally no creature obeyeth so exactly his Lord & Prince, as it doth Christ, who with a word can change their natures, transform water, into 
Io. 2 Mat. 21 Marc. 11 Luc. 1  wine, cause a barren tree to flourish, an old woman to bear a child, a Virgin to conceive. Therefore, O blessed saviour, I will call thee my true Lord, mine only Lord, my most mighty Creator.  
Fifthlye I will confound myself with shame, to see all things so obedient to my Christ, that the very 
Mat. 8 Marc. 4 Luc. 8  insensible wind, the raging sea, bend the knees of their natures, to obey his precepts, & I whom God haveth endued with reason, inspired so often, granted so many benefits, should so irreverentlye transgress his commandments. I see even in this Sacrament so many effects of his omnipotency put in practice, brought to effect, and yet no repugnance, no resistance at all appearing: that I may well be ashamed of my disobedience. For if Christ say the word, his body presently is created, under the form of bread and wine, the sudstance of bread vanisheth, the accidents hung in the air: in the end after many alterations, a new substance of bread is substituted, to sustain those accidents.  
Hear oh Lord I may if I will, read the homage that thy cteatures yield unto thee, & by their example I intent with thy grace, hereafter more obsequiously to serve thee. But thou good Lord, as thou hast vonchsaifed to give me the nature of a man: so grant me grace to live like a man, the which I shall perform essectuallye, if I serve & keep thy Law entirely, which none can accomplish without thy grace, nor obtain grace without thy favour.   

AS ONE chained BY ENEMY'S sighing FOR HIS REDEEMER.  
CAP. 8.  
WHen I look upon thy cross sweet jesus, and behold those nails piercing thy sacred hands & unspotted feet: they seem unto me three hammers, prepared to break those infernal fetters, wherewith the devil & sin have cheaned me.  
When I look upon this holy Eucharist, I think upon him that said, Dirupisti vincula mea, tibi sacrificabo 
Ps. 115  hostiam laudis. Thou haste broken my cheanes, and I will therefore sacrifice unto thee an host of praise. Vncheane me this time good Lord, & then I will praise and glorify thee the next tyme. I hope those mighty chaunes of mortal sins, are broken with the force of thy grace, & loosed by the authority of them, to whom thou gave power to lose, what was bonnde in earth. I am not now bound 
Io. 20 Io. 11  like Lazarus hand and foot, that I can not stir. I am not quatr●duanus mortuns, four days dead, that I need to hear thee cry, Lazare, veni foras, Lazarus, come forth: But I feel certain bolts upon my feet, which hinder me greatly: I go forward, but still one bolt pullethe me back again. I may well compare myself to the bird that S. Anselme saw & fighed, when a Shepherd had 
In vita Anselmi.  tied her by the leg with a thread, so that as often as she mounted up, to have enjoyed the liberty of the air, and ampleness of the heavens, a stone whereunto the thread was fastened, pulled her back again. Ah how often would my soul tend to heaven, to converse with Angels, to enjoy the company of that blessed society, but ever I am drawn back again by one stone or other: I am gyved, I am bolted, I am constrained to stoop, to droop, to fall even upon my wings, they must help to sustain me on earth, that should have borne me up soaring in the air. But thou sweet jesus, disrump 
Ps. 106  vincula mea, break my bands. I● I fast, my forces fail, and thus saintnes with draweth me from fasting, lo a bolt. If I pamper my flesh or intend to feed it conveniently, it pray seutly repineth, rebellethe, & insulteth against me: lo an other bolt. How to find out the true measure, to exceed in neither extremities, who can teach me but thou sweet jesus? I have often proved, yet for most part miss. If I pray not, me thinks my soul departeth from God, our friendship breaketh through my long silence: If I pray, then so many impertinent thoughts assault me, so many distractions inveigle me, such aridity afflicteth me, & in fine so many impediments disturb me, that where I should enjoy most liberty, there I find myself most chained in captivity. Therefore sweet jesus, disrump vincula mea, break with the holy Eucharist these bands, & grant me the spirit of prayer & devotion. Many times I pretend to lift up my heart to heaven, and immediately the bolts of inordinate passions & sensual concupiscences, 'cause me to retire unto earth again, the which if I follow, I lose thy grace & favour, I fall into the thrawldom of Satan & his infernal crew: If I resist them, if I stytle them within, what an horrible conflict must I abide? O in what an agony I pass my days? O war of all wars most spiteful, most dangerous, & least of men accounted.  
But thou sweet jesus, Disrump vincula mea, break my bands with the holy Eucharist: the purity of virgins, purifyings the internal veins of my heart, that no drugs of corruption, infect that blood, which must be mingled with thine. With this food of force 
jud. 7  & strength, which in figure overthrew whole armies, enable me to vanquish these jebusites, these molestfull, continual, & domestical enemies.  
Many more bands & fetters, bind me from goodness, and detain me in sin: For if I confess not my sins, like a heavy burden, they weigh me down: If I confess me, than scruples or anxiety of conscience, tormenteth me. If I deal not with men to convert them, to help them to save their souls, & glorify god, my Charity seemeth could, my devotion vanisheth: If I converse with them, their exhaling breath, of sins & imperfections by little & little, enter into me, and stain my soul more with their faults, than I can profit them with my good desires. thousands more such fetters withould me oh sweet jesus from thee, but how shall I avoid them? I hear thee answer solve vincula 
Isa. 52  colli tui. Lose the chains from thy neck. Indeed it is so, thou must lose them, but I must help, I must lay to my hand, I must not withdraw myself, nor with thy grace will with draw hereafter. Therefore give me grace at this time, to begin resolutely, to continue constantly, & finish faithfully.   

AS A GARDEN.  
CAP. 9  
WHen I come to this sacred Table, I would gladly invute my sweet Saviour, as his loving spouse, invited him in the canticles saying, Veniat dilectus meus in hortum meum. 
Cant. 5  Come my love into my Garden. She ment questionless, the garden of her soul, as now I would wish my heart were set, decked, and adorned as a garden, which the Monarch of this mighty mass, will vouchsaife to honour with his presence, and behold with his glorious eyes.  
The door of this garden, is mine imagination, or the faculty of my fancyinge. At this door my good Angel attendeth, (quia Angelus ibi est, ubi operatur, ex commun● theologorum sententia, Because an Angel is, where it worketh, by the common opinion of divines) left Satan should enter in. Here they both stand in presence & person really, in the former part of the brain, so often as the one invitethe me to virtue, & the other exhorteth me to vice. And therefore since it lieth in my power (as the gardener unto whom the custody is committed) to let in whom I list: it behooveth me to look about me, & attend well, who knocks at the gate, for my good Angel cometh to root owte evil herbs, & plant wholesome & odoriferous in steed of them, mine evil Angel to root owte the good, & to sow darnel & cockle in their places. I know this false spirit endeavoureth with false keys to open the door, or by violence to break in; & therefore I must crave help of my good Angel to resist the fury of his force, for otherwise I wear not addle to encounter w●th him.  
The alleys of this garden, are the virtues of mine understanding, faith prudence, wirt, knowledge, wisdom, counsel. Faith, is a theological virtue, whereby I give an ineffable assent to all that God haveth revealed, whether it be written in Scriptures, determined in approved counsels, or kept by continual tradition, in Christ's Church: & this for none other reason, but because God haveth revealed, for he delivered all we are to believe.  
Prudence is a moral virtue, which guideth & directeth me what I aught to follow. This is the rule, the square, the touch stone, of all other moral virtues, that is, which concern our good life, & manners.  
Wit, called intellectus, is a gift of the holy Ghost, by which the soul is prepared to receive the inspirations of God, which consist in penetrating the deep mysteries of our Faith, the incarnation of Christ, the creation of the world, the ineffacle manner of Christ's presence in this venerable Sacrament.  
Knowledge, otherwise scientia, is a gift of the holy Ghost, moving a man, by the help of God, to find out reasons, examples, similitudes, conveniences, and persuasions: to prove, confirm, declare, and propound, the mysteries of our faith: as by Water, to declare the nature of grace; by seed, the wootde of God, & such like. The which gift, most palpably appeareth in many servants of God, who daily read new lessons in his creatures, to establish our faith.  
Wisdom, or Sapientia, proceedeth from the perfections and attributes of God, to prove and confirm, all that knowledge performethe by his creatures: so we may confirm, the mistenes of Christ's incarnation, and the Eucharist: that such infinite benefits, favours, & communications, stand with his supreme goodness, bounty, liberality, mercy, & love.  
Council likewise issueth from the Holy Ghost, & enableth our understandings, to follow his inspirations, when they go beyond the common course of faith, or prudence infused: as that Samson should kill himself, 
jud. 16  which both faith & prudence forbid generally: but those general rules, limit not the power & authority of the 
Num. 25 2 Mach. 14  holy Ghost. The like we might affirm of Phinees, Razias, S. Appolonia, and many more, who above all laws, inspired of the law maker, either caused their own deaths, or the deaths of others, yet warranted by him, in whose hands lieth the periods of life & death. These are the main alleys, by which my saviour must walk in the garden of my soul, & enter into the beds of my will, sown with the seeds of virtue: for in every just man's soul, grow the sweetest flowers, that ever appeared in Paradise; the seed whereof, our Saviour Christ brought from his imperial heaven, & with his own hands, sowed it in every good man's heart.  
The primrose of the fear of god, which first springeth and buddethe in the soul. Rosemary of repentance, something bitter in taste, but exceeding wholesome in the flower of forgiveness of sins, & the virtue of satisfaction.  
The Baliommie of hope, cleaving always to that corner stone Christ jesus who never confounded them that trusted in him, nor ever failed to uphold them that leaned upon him.  
The white rose of Charity, embracing with most pure & unspotted love, the son of the Queen of all virgins.  
The red rose of pains and crosses, which all zealous trendes of Christ, must tolerate for his sake: & although the thorn do prick, yet little it importeth, compared with the fragrant smell it yieldeth.  
The Gelover of justice, consuming all the substance, in exhaling delicate odours to the use of men, for whose cause it was created, repaying therewith the just tribute of nature.  
The violet of humility, debacing herself almost to the earth, & guilty of her own weakness, shroudeth her head under the broad leaves of gods protection.  
The Marigould of mercy, spreading her glorious train & grateful beams, when the sun letteth fall his heavenly influence upon her, that is, in this life she openeth her lap to receive all that stand in need of her: when the sun setteth, she veileth her face, because works of mercy, can not be showed but in this life, where aboundeth misery: in the life to come, mercy is shut up, for into heaven there entereth none that is miserable.  
The Lily of Chastity, & Virginirie, enamelled with gold of Christ's love, in the very heart.  
Many more flowers of exquisite odour, no less grateful to behold, then delightful to smell, adorn the beds & boards of every good soul that devoutly serveth God.  
Besides these flonures, there lacketh nor any sort of pleasant arboures or trees in this spiritual paradise. Their roots, are habits of virtues: their stems, divine operations or acts: Their leaves, religious conversation, grave and modest behaviour: Their flowers, talk of god, & speech of spirit: Their fruit, good works: Their rind, the custody of our senses: Their sap, the grace of God: The dew of heaven, which comforteth themall, the sacred eucharist, that like dew, fell in the desert.  
The banks of this garden, are prayer, meditation, contemplation, and devotion: where the soul sitteth & considereth her state, & speculatethe to practise the disposition, order, increment, or decrement of her garden.  
The birds that sing continual music, can not want in that orchard, where virtuous flowers cast such a scent: for hear the peace of a quiet conscience, causeth a heavenly harmony: The consort of grace and nature, of sense & reason, of wit & will, of passions & affections, God & the soul, a man & his neighbours, can not but make a most sweet melody, & most grateful to the ears of all that hear it.  
Hearr the Angels sing with sweet inspirations, & 'cause an incessant jubilee in the heart.  
In the midst of the soul, standeth a goodly fountain of water upon a hill, called inherent grace, situated in the highest & most essential part thereof, which divideth itself into four rivers, as the fountain of Paradise. One passeth through the garden, & carrieth away all filth and 
Gen. 2  trash wherewith filthy worms, mice, & hedgehogs, defile it: So grace washeth away sins in justification.  
another river yieldeth a water like gold, which bewtifyeth & adorneth all the flowers of the garden: So grace adorneth all virtues, & maketh them acceptable unto God.  
The third river, causeth them to grow & increase: So grace being the root of merit, augmenteth all virtues, & increaseth glory.  
The fourth river, haithe virtue to root out & consume all weeds and choking herbs, which hinder their growth & goodness: So grace by continual satisfactions, supplanteth venial sins, & the penalties due to mortal.  
The grateful gale that summeth in one, the fragrant smells of all these flowers, is the Sacrifice of the Altar, wherein the just join themselves to Christ, & both united (the head and the members) offer themselves unto God, as an incense compounded, of the quintessence of all smells and odours.  
The Eucharist, is the spiritual sum of this garden, whose presence causeth all roots to springe, bud, blossom, & fructify. It is the sea, whence from issueth the fountain of grace, which purifieth, adorneth, fructifyeth, & repaireth, all the plants, flowers, and herbs of the soul, that is, virtues, gifts, & good inclinations. Therefore sweet Saviour, let abundance of this water, fall into my soul, that is so dry & barren. Sicut terra sine aqua, 
Psa. 106  sic anima mea tibi. As earth without water, so cometh my soul now to thee. I may rather say, like a barren desert. I appear before thee, in 
Psa. 62  terra deserta, invia, & inaquosa, sic in sancto apparut tibi. As one wandering in a desert country uninhabited and unwattered, that is, consumed almost with drought: So appear I in thy holy Church before this blessed fountain of life: Let me not dye for thirst, let not my soul whither so near the river of life.   

AS AN INFANT TO HIS MOTHER'S DUGGE.  
CAP. 10  
THis Sacrament, affordethe not only wine for men, but also milk for sucklings: by encoraginge 
1 Cor. 3  the valiant, & enabling the weak. Wherhfore he that did foresee it, & after prove it, said, that he drunk milk with his wine, Bibi vinum 
Can. 5  meum cum lact meo: And thereunto absolutely invyteth all to drink and eat it, Comedite amici, & bibite, & inebriamini charissimi. Eat my friends & drink, & be drunk my dearest, that is, ravished, with the excess of love, not out of reason, but above all reason.  
Milk in many things agreeth with the Eucharist, by working in our bodies corporally, that which the Eucharist worketh in our souls spiritually.  
First milk is both meat & drink, & therefore you way both eat it, & drink it. He that eateth Christ's body drinketh it also, and he that drinkethe his blood, eateth it likewise. He that eateth his body, together drinketh his blood, & he that drinketh his blood, eateth his body. For which cause, he that is eaten here, the infinite wisdom of God, expressly said, Qui edunt me, 
Eccl. 24  adhuc esurient, & quibibunt me, adhuc sitient. Those that eat me, yet shall hunger, & those that drink me, yet shall thirst: Where we see the same God that we eat, the same we may drink, the same wisdom is meat & drink, and consequently, a spiritual milk. The like our Saviour said of justice, calling it both meat & drink, Beati qui esuriunt & sitiunt justitiam, 
Mat. 5  Blessed are they that hunger & thirst after righteousness. The Eucharist there fore either eaten or drunk, filleth the soul with righteousness, & therefore, quencheth the thirst as drink, & sustaineth the body as meat. The Theological reason hereof, may easily be yielded, for all spiritual food, is aswell drink as meat: because as drink it cooleth the fervent desires in part, & as meat, it maintaineth with grace & virtue, the spiritual life of the soul.  
By this we may manifestly perceive the foolish importunity of the Lutherans & Caluenistes still calling for the cup, censuring the church of sacrilege for depriving the laity of the chalice. For if they could penetrate the manner, nature, and effects of spiritual food: they would never fall into such an absurdine. For he that eateth Christ's body, both eateth & dtinketh his blood, aswell as the priest, & he that drinketh his blood, eateth no less of his body, than he that receiveth his body. For in the eucharist under the rind of bread, there lieth nothing but that lieth under the rind of wine in the Chalice: nor contrariwise, nothing under the rind of wine in the Chalice, but the very same is received under the rind of bread in the host: In so much as he which participate the both of the bread and wine, & he that only particrpate the of one: receiveth as perfectly and entirely, the body & blood of Christ, as he that communicateth with them both: Yet for a more sensible & external signification, the priest offereth & consumeth them both, but the substance received, & the effects instilled into the soul, are as entire & complete in one, as in both: in a mite, as a mountain: in a drop, as a butt.  
By this it appeareth, that Christ's body in the the Sacrament, as drink quencheth the thuste, by fulfilling the servant desires of them that love God: by cooling the flames of concupiscence, by mitigating the vehement affections of worldly delights: As meat, it restoreth the lost forces of our souls by sin, augmenteth our grace, increaseth our spiritual life, & finally affordethe all those effects of meat, in a more excellent degree to our souls, than any corporal meat to our bodies: & therefore is meat & drink, and milk, for sucklings of God.  
Milk, of all meats, is one of the most simple nonshments that we have: It needeth neither baking, boiling, nor roasting, as other meats requited, for in the mother's breast, it is baken, brewed, boiled, & roasted: & so the infant without any other sauce, simply & solely, draweth it from his mother's dug.  
By which propriety we are admonished, that with four simple words, without any tergiversation, labour, or pain: the priest draweth this sacred milk from the breast of Christ's love. And how like infants with simplicity not curiously questioning how it was made, how conveyed under the forms, how it lodgeth under those veils of bread & wine, how we ought to suck it: for infants use no such interrogations, but simply suck that their mother giveth. So the infants of Christ begotten with his blood should simply receive, that their mother the catholic Church, ministrethe unto than: & follow that ccuncell of the Apostle, 
1 Pe. 2  Quasimedo geniti, ifantes rationabiles, sine dolo, lac concupiscite, As new borne infants, desiring milk without deceit, not without reason: for the best reason that an infant can have, is to suck that his mother giveth. And so the greatest reason that the wisest children of Christ can yield, is not their own judgement, but the Churches, in interpreting scriptures, in judging of the conferences of places, in ordeuning the manner & use, of this blessed food.  
Moreover we may learn, how as this Sacrament is the meat of our souls all the time of our peregrination: so we should live always like infants in life and conversation, simple like 
Mat. 10 Mat. 18  doves, & innocent like babes, not sinisterly suspecting, not maliceously circumventing, not perversely dealing with any man: but simply, really, humbly. For this simplicity bringeth great peace to ourselves, and maketh us grateful to others; It winneth great favour with God, & therefore is exceedingly commended in scriptures. For with whom doth God most familiarly talk and converse? with the simple, Cum simplicibus sermocinatio eius 
Prou. 3  With the simple is his talk. What virtue of job objecteth God against Satan, to declare his piety & virtue, but simplicity? Homo simplex & rectus, 
job. 1  a man simple and right. When Christ propounded to his Disciples the pattern they should follow to come to heaven, took he not one of these simple babes, saying, Nisi efficiamini 
Mat. 18  sicut paruuli, non intrabitis in regnum coelorum. If you become not like infants, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven?  
Much more might be said of this exiled virtue, but that I think the commendation of Christ so great, that all I can say, would rather diminish the glory, then add any lustre unto it.  
There is no meats or drinks, among the infinite varieties that God haveth imparted to men, that only & solely maintaineth them so long, as milk. For children's meat & drink, cates & wines, baked & boiled, first course & second, all consisteth in milk. Whereby we may see, how this Sacrament most lively is expressed. For in life everlasting, at the table of god, all our provision, meat & drink, shall be the contained in this Sacramene, for it alone will suffice. And therefore now that I have the sacred breast of my saviour filled with this deified milk, boiled with the heat of love: I will imitate theinfantes as S. Chrisostom willeth me, 
Hom. 90 ad popul. Autioch.  who weep & cry for the dug, & will not be quiet till they have gotten it: so soon as they see it, with what promptness they roll their heads to it? how hungerly they press it, and thrust their faces unto it? Even so aught I moved with the want of this divine milk, with sighs of my heart, with tears from mine eyes: prefer it before all treasures. When I see it I should stir up all the virtues of my soul, to clasp it in my mouth, and with the affections of my heart, endeavour to make a most perfect union with the breast of Christ's divine love. Neither need I to doubt, that when my Saviour shall hearc my cries, that he will deny my request, since he haith invited me many years ago, to this wine and milk, promising the sail thereof, without either gold or money, only he craveth our thirst 
Isa. 55  & coming. Omnes sitientes venite ad aquas, & qui non habetis argentum properate, emite, comedite: Venite, emite absque Argento, & absque ulla commutatione, vinum & lac. All you that are thirsty, come to the waters, & you that have no money, hasten, buy, & eat: Come & buy without money, or without any exchange, wine & milk. Who haveth wit, & will refuse to accept so liberal an offer? Who will dye for hunger, having a sea of wine, water, and milk, running before his door? How can we excuse ourselves, if we want virtue, having prepared, so forcible means, to furnish us of all virtue?   

AS HUNGRY AND NEEDY.  
CAP. 11  
THe poor Lazarus deprived of 
Luc. 16  garments, ulcered with sores, staruinge for hunger: laid craving the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. And such a Lazar, sweet jesus, lie I before thy mercy's gate. How I was naked & wounded before, I have revealed, sweet Lord, unto thee: My soul likewise I fear is not free from the botches & biles of internal concupiscence, for my misery surpasseth, because my spiritual forces, proceed not only from foreign foes, my ghostly enemies: but also from them that seem domestical friends, who lodge under the same roof with me. All this army of calamities, O blessed jesus, haveth assaulted me: but now hunger & spiritual famine, moste oppresseth me, & who will tell me where I shall be relieved, but thy loving & beloved Mother? Esurtentes implevit bonis, & divites dimosit 
Luc. 1  inanes. The hungry he hath filled with good things, and the rich he haveth sent empty away. What good things be these wherewith the hungtye shall be satiated? Suscepit Israel puerum suum, Israel haveth received his child, & with him, omne bonum, all 
Sap. 7  goodness. But O blessed virgin, I desire but the crumbs which fall from that indeficient Table. Here I see thou telleste me, I shall receive the best dish, the chiefest part, yea the whole banquet: So it is, & otherwise it could not be, for the crumbs, the lest bits of that Table where God is the food, are as great, as full, as perfect, as the whole: There is no difference in essense, or quantity: All the perfections of God, all his attributes & proprieties: all as entirely remain & devil in the smallest grain of mustardseed, as in the highest Ceader of Libano, or in the whole vastness, of the immensive heavens. Therefore in giving us in this Sacrament his person to be our food, in the  moat of bread that falleth from the Eucharist: he is as wholly, as in an hundredth loaves: But yet for the external rind, we may call it a crumm of bread, in regard we see not the beauty of his deity, we taste not the full effectt of his love, we enjoy not the ampleness of his deligtes: Therefore we may call this, a crumb of that light, beauty, love, & joy, which his Saints possess, who sit continually at his table in heaven  
Neither fear I here that it should be said, nemo illi dabit, none will bestow these crumbs upon me, for I know, no avarice, no scarstie, can enter into his house, where all glory & treasure flow, Gloria & divitiae in domo 
Psal. 111  eius, Glory & riches in his house. And whose glory most shynethe, in communicating himself, & what he haithe, to men. Yet I remember one that came begging to his doors as I do, & had the repulse at the beginning, when it was answered her, that it was not convenient, to cast the bread of children to dogs: Yet she replied (& so will I) Etiam domine, catelli comedunt de micis quae cadunt de mensis 
Mat. 15 Marc. 7  dominorum suorum, The little dogs O Lord, eat the crumbs, which fall from their masters tables. I am sweet jesus, for my sins, worse than a dog, for although he haveth no reason, yet he haveth no malice: But alas I know not how to transform myself, & change my doggish life, & become by loving & serving thee, like a man: but by eating the sacred crumms which fall from thy spiritual table.  
Therefore good Lord, let them fall into the centre of my heart, and I will prefer them before all kingdoms and worlds. I doubt not, but this food can transform dogs into men, & men into Angels: For we prove by daily experience, that the coals as black as ink, by the virtue of fire, become glowing like gold, and so long as fire possesseth them, so long they keep their colour: But cool them with water, or any way extinguish their heat, you shall see them return, to their former hellish hew: So sweet jesus, it standeth with me, my soul by vice, is become doggish & perverse, my sins have stained it most filthily: Thy blessed body guildeth it, reneweth it, deifyeth it: But if I keep thee not, if I let thee departed, I know it will return to the former deformity, as b●ack as a coal, that was as white as snow.   

AS THE THREE KINGS CAME TO ADORE CHRIST.  
CAP. 12.  
THe three Kings, by posting 
Mat. 2  night & day, seeming rather to fly then go, guided with a star: found Christ at last, wrapped in clothes, an insante on his Mother's knee. Here sweet jesus, I come a far of, because my soul haveth wandered with distractions, & impertinente affairs, far from thee. The star that guideth me, is my faith, a light sent by thee from heaven. Here upon thine Altar, I find thee, the very fame that they worshipped, attired with the rinds of bread & wine. They being Kings, left their states, laboured night & day for almost a fortnight: They came into jerusalem, & like three Apostles, preached thy kingdom, not fearing to be called in question, for declaring a new heir of that kingdom: but stoutly & courageously asked, ubi est quinatus est rex judoeorum? Where is he that is borne king of the jews? This courage of theirs, this extraordinary diligence, this admirable desyte to find forth Christ, confoundeth my base mind, my negligence & remissness, in searching my Saviour, in preparing me to this Sacrament. What have I abandoned for Christ's love? scarce so much as Peter's net. What long journaies' have I taken, to labour in his service? to convert wicked sinners to a good life? to mortify my passions? Such iournays and labours, as he that put his hands under his armepittes, and for fear did sit him down saying: Leo 
Prou. 26  est in via: A Lion lieth watching in the way: So I am afraid with mine own fancies. Ah I know too well, that if I intent to enter into the land of promise, flowing with milk & honey, I must departed with Abraham, de ur Caldeorum, 
Gen. 11 & 12  the City of the Caldyes': I must leave my country & parents: If I desire to hear the voice of my Lord god, I must forgeate my house 
Psa. 44  & friends: If I will find Christ with the three Kings, I must take a long journey, abandon my state, not regard jerusalem, the tumult of the world: That is, if flesh or blood, kinsman or friend, country or Kingdom, withdraw me from the service of God, hinder my devotion, impeach my spiritual increment in grace: I will leave them, I will departed from them. O that I knew in practice, this point so exactly, as I am assured in speculation, that it is most necessary, for all spiritual men, & those who desire effectually to serve God, for intmici heminis, 
Mat. 10  domestici eius. The enemies of man, his cohabitantes. How easily do friends withdraw me from prayer, to keep them company? How often neglect we to serve the law of God, & so to displease him, to please them? How often feel we our hearts moved to profess our faith coragiouslye? to proceed to perfection fervently? to exercise works of piety diligently? & presently the very memory of friends, parents, & country, cast us from the bias? Let us therefore examine our souls, let us with David sweep our 
Ps. 76  spirits, & cast out the dust & filth of these preposterous affections: & then we may appear, before this blessed babe, this child in body, and man in soul, this man in flesh, and God in person.  
The Kings would not show themselves before the Monarch of all kingdoms, without their tribute & offerings of recogniscence. For he that had commanded, that none should appear before him, without somepresent: inspired them to offer, three 
Exo. 23  mystical gifts, of gold, myrrh, and incense: the which contain great secrets. 
Cipr. de stella &  By gold, they confessed his dluinitie, for so his spouse long before 
magis. Cant. 5.  had described him, by calling his head, aurum obryzum, most pure gold.  
By Incense, his priesthood: to whom it appertained to offer.  
By Myrrh, his manhood and mortality, yet to be preserved from corruption, by the virtue of his resurrection: Non relinques animam means, in 
Psal. 15 Act. 2  inferno: nec dabis sanctum tuum, videre corruptionem. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor give thy holy one to see corruption.  
Here with them I confess, that in this Sacrament inhabiteth (sweet jesus) thy divinity, the essence & substance of God, common to all the three persons, besides thy proper person, the second hipostasis of that holy Trinity, united to the nature of man.  
Moreover, that the Father & holy ghost, are not only present with thee by their essence & power, as they are in all places, nor only by newoperations & effects, as in justification & glory: but more peculiarly for thy divine presence: In so much that if it were possible, to separate from them, all other sorts of presence, yet for the very connexion and dependence, the issuing & proceeding of one person from an other, both the Father & the holy Ghost, of necessity should be present with thee: For neither thy Father can continually generate thee, nor you both breath out the holy Ghost, except you were all three present, and one indistante from an other: as the Mother can not be absent from the child she beareth in the bearing, nor he that breathethe, distant from the spirit he breatheth in the breathing.  
I confess likewise, that thine office of preisthoode, here is exercised, thine ineruent sacrifice is offered, thy passion most expressly represented, that from this oblation ascendeth to heaven, the sweetest odours, and most fragrant smells, that ever our desert could yield.  
Finally I acknowledge thee mystically mortal in this Sacrament, by the sacrificial division of the soul from the body, & the blood from them both, yet without corruption, without death or pain, preserved with the myrrh of immortality, & gift of impassibility.  
These three regal oblations, teach likewise, all them that come to Christ especially by receiving him in the Eucharist, what dispositions or offerings, they aught to bring.  
By gold, they exhort us to present unto him our souls guilded with Charity. For as gold excelleth all metals, so Charity all virtues: As gold of all metals is most durable, so Charity remaineth after death, though 
1 Cor. 13  faith & hope vanish away. As gold cometh from the fire more glistering & beautiful: so fervent Charity in the fire of temptations & tribulations, receiveth a more perfect gloss & lustre.  
As gold buyeth all things, & so in value counteruayleth all the wealth of the world, so Charity buyeth god himself, and with him, all treasures in 
Col. 2  heaven & earth. Therefore this spiritual gold, I will offer to the king of my soul, more grateful I know unto him, than all the gold which Ophir, or India, can afford.  
By incense, they admonish us of prayer and devotion. For as Incense burned, ascendethe into the air: So our prayers hett with the fire of Charity, ascend to heaven. As Incense yieldeth our corporal senses a most delightful smell: So prayer to the spirituallsente of God, presenteth a most fragrant odour. As from a little Incense proceedeth a mighty odoriferous exhalation: So from our prayers, proceed most ample effects, as remission of sins, endowment with grace, the favour of God, & life everlasting.  
The incense then of prayer, I will exhale, from the heat of my heart, & request him as man, our true priest & mediator, to put it into the censer of his most purified love, & so present it before the face of his Fatherupon his altar, in the Temple of his celestial jerusalem.  
By their Myrrh, they advise us of mortification, that we must crucify & kill our sensuality & inordinate passions. For as Myrrh haithe a corrosive virtue, apt to eat and consume the moist & putrifyinge humours of the body: So mortification eateth & consumeth: the pestilent humours of the soul. As Myrrh preserveth men's bodies from corruption: So mortification, the soul & the body, from death & damnation. And therefore to my Saviour dead for me, I will offer this most affectual & sweet Myrrh of mortification, that by our union in death, 
2 Cor. 1  we may be united in life.   

AS A SHIP TOSSED AMONG SHELVES AND Rocks, in the tempestuous sea of this world.  
CAP. 13.  
ALthough my feet tread upon the firm & steadfast land, yet my soul continually sailethe upon the movable & unconstant sea. For what sea can be more unstable, than the humours of men? what tempest more terrible, than the temptations of Satan? what billows more boisterous, than swelling passions? what thunder & lightening comparable, with indignation and ire? What gulfs or whirl winds more danngerous, than concupiscences & inordinate affections? what shelves more perilous, than the alluring delights of the world? what rocks can more hardly be passed, than the infinite occasions ministered by the world, to cast away the vessels of our souls.  
Therefore I come to thee, sweet jesus, to secure me in this important navigation. This Sacrament must be the mean to conduct my frail 
2 Cor. 4  Bark to the haven of life everlasting. For I conceive the carcase or keel of this ship, to be the substance of my soul: the cabbans & hatches, her powers, faculties, or habilities: The main mayst, Christ crucified, who ought to be fixed in the very midst and centre, of every Christians soul: The pilot, my Faith. The anchor, my hope: the sails, my Charity: The gale, god's grace: The compass, his law: The card, the Scriptures, councils, Traditions, & voice of Christ's Church: The fraighte, merits & good works: The master of this ship, my person or substance: The nets & safeguards, my body: The holes & ventes, the multitude of senses: The pole star, the glory of heaven, the state of all felicity. But if I have nothing to eat, what will all this furniture do me good? This Sacrament, is the biscuit brought a far of: for which cause my bark may well be called, Navis institoris, 
Prou. 31,  de long portans panem suum. A passengers ship, bringing his bread a far of. Therefore I beseech thee good Lord not to permit that I proceed, in this my long navigation, without the provision of thy blessed body. For I know the Eucharist will not only serve me for bread, but like a tree that groweth in the west India, whose wood, bark, leaves, rind, fruit, & root: serve for all things necessary, to the furnishing of a ship. It planteth more firmly the cross of Christ in my heart, unyting that blood he shed thereupon, with mine. It confirmethe my faith, strengthnethe my hope, reviveth my Charity. Wind and fair wether can not fail in that soul, upon which the Eucharist breatheth: It teacheth the pilot, directeth the compass, animateth the Master, discovereth the haven, loadeth the vessel, with good works & grace, & finally waftethe it into the Ports of eternal bliss.  
O how happy wear mariners, if they could carry with them at their pleasure, such a sea-iewell, to have wind & wether, and so cunning a pylott to conduct them all their voyage. But how much more happy are the good Christians who often communicate, & carry almost continually in their hearts this precious treasure?  
They may securely pass among the temptations of the devil: They with facility may ride among the shelves of sensuality: They morning & evening, sleeping & waking, in prosperity & adversity, in fair wether and foul, have one that watchethe most vigilantly, & protectethe them most carefully. Yet I remember once that in thy presence sweet jesus, the 
Mat. 8  rebellious seas, had almost drowned thy disciples, & thou notwithstanding as one that seemed unmindful of them, diddest slumber & sleep. Where was then thy providence & Fatherly care? Ah that sleep covered a most vigilant heart, for he let them come to some perplexities, to teach them, & by them us, that when we are plunged into the bottom of seas of temptations and crosses, we should ever have confidence in him, because he loves us most faithfully: and faithful friendship most appeareth in succouting a friend at such pinches. For in prosperity friendship is commonly showed, but seldom known, in adversity, seldom it is showed, but manifestly known.   

THE PRODIGAL SON.  
CAP. 14  
Sometime I will present my soul 
Luc. 15  before my Saviour, as the prodigal Son, who received in baptism & justification, his portion and Patrimony of grace: yet in process of time, loathing the service of God, & desirous to enjoy the vanities of the world, by sin & wickedness: departed from his Father's house, followed riotous company, engulfed himself with transitory pleasures: and at last fell into such misery, that he neither enjoyed god, nor the delights of the world. For god permitteth often yea by his Fatherly providence, withdraweth occasions & means of sin, from them whom he intendeth to recall from their wicked ways. Satan asso when he haveth haled souls from God, of mere envy & malice, endeavoureth as much as may be, to molest them. For although he would, that men should sin, yet he giveth them no more bait, than he thinketh sufficient to cover his hooks. For which cause we read in the scriptures, that 
4 Reg. 3 Sap. 14 Psa. 105 Accost. li. 5 ca 19 & 20  he caused his vassals that adored him as a God, to offer their own children in Sacrifice. And Acosta, in his story of the Indians recounteth the horrible butchery of this infernal tyrant, how sometimes they sacrificed unto him, at the least 5000. And at the death of any noble man, he caused them to bury all his dearest friends, servants, & adherentes, to serve him, and bear him company, in the other life.  
The prodigal son then by god's providence, & the devils spite, was glad to feed hogs, & fill his belly with husks of pease, that is, desyted the very dregs of worldly pleasures, & could not have them. For either they want money, or opportunity, or ability to accomplish their ungodly & vicious desires, who leave God & serve the devil. For in fine, the tide of their iolitye findeth an ebb, because either poverty pincheth them, or sickness crossethe them, o●som indisposition or other, disableth them.  
As the prodigal son, after that the light of heaven, haveth illuminated the darkness of my heart, and opened the eyes of my soul, to consider the dignity of my Christian state, the abject & unworthy life I have lived in, Quanti mercenarii, in domo patris mei 
Luc. 15  abundant panibus. How many of my Father's hirelings, have abundance of bread: I will fall before my heavenly Father in this Sacrament contained, & will cry, Pater, peccani in coelum & coram te, iam non sum dignus vocari filius tuus. Father, I have sinned against heaven & before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son. I know his bowels of mercy, his heart burning with love, can not but fall upon mine unworthy neck yea vent his breast that I may drink of the floodd of his love.  
Many more discourses devout souls may here of themselves find out. For love is witty, grace pregnante, Christ vigilante, & the very presence of our saviour, sufficient to move matter and affections, to all fervent souls, that desire heartily to return unto him again.   

TO HONOUR GOD'S SAINTS.  
CAP. 15.  
BEcause I know this Sacrifice to be offered daily to God, in recogniscence of his divine majesty, supreme dominion, continual providence over the world, and also to glorify him in his blessed Saints: Therefore sometime I will communicate in honour of some of them, at which time, I may run over these five points.  
First thank God most affectually, for his manifoulde graces, which he vouchsaifed to impart to that Saint, without which, he had never obtained a crown of glory. Wherein I may extend my Meditation, to the grace of predestination, vocation, justification, conservation, final perseverance & glorifiication.  
Praise God & his Saint, for the good use of god's grace, that he so valiantly resisted temptations, accepted inspirations, freqnented the Sacraments & especially prepared himself devoutly to receive this passport to glory, sealed with the flesh & blood, of Christ jesus.  
If this Saint did excel, in any one particular virtue (as all did in some) I will consider as near as I can, the nature & qualities of that virtue, and how I may imitate him therein: as S. Peter, in love of God. S. Paul, in zeal of Souls. S. john, in purity. The Martyrs, in fortitude. The Doctors, in converting infidels, heretics, or evil Christians. The Virgins, in chastity. The Confessoures', in works of mercy.  
I will desire this Saint, to vouchsaife to accompany his prayers with mine to God: that this blessed Sacrament, which I am now to receive, distill into my heart, abundance of grace, that I may use well the manifold favours god haveth bestowed upon me, that I may imitate him in that special virtue, by which he gave so clear an example of god's goodness, to all the world.  
When I receive the eucharist, presently I will offer myself up to God with my blessed Saviour, in my body & soul, to praise his majesty for all his benefits, rained from heaven upon his Saint.   

AS A heart THIRSTING THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE.  
CAP. 16.  
FOr that my Saviour in this Sacrament, may well be compared to a Fountain and springe of life, ever swelling with new surges of lively water, ever pure, ever sweet, ever fresh, ever open, ever common: Therefore like a thirsty heart, pursued with the infernal hound, of hell, wounded with the darts of sin: loaden with the mud & mire of vices, & evil customs: fainting and weary with so many temptations, crosses & afflictions: I will repair to this long wished remedy, for all my calamities: where I may quench my thirst, cure my sores, wash away my sports & stains, renew my forces, & finally in the fountain of life, revive myself again: & therefore till I come to it, I will not cease to cry with David, Quemadmodum desiderat ceruus ad fontes 
Psa. 41  aquarum: ita desiderat anima mea, adte deus. As the heart desireth the fountains of water, so desireth my soul thee oh God.   

AS. A PILGRIM.  
CAP. 17.  
AS long as we carry this living corpse, or dying body about with us: so long Peregrinamur a domino, we wander from our Lord. & therefore in this mine exile, wandering 
2 Cor. 5  like a pirgrime, banished out of my native country of paradise, in the wilderness of this world, in the vast desert of Egypt, where nothing cambe found necessary, for maintenance of lice: with the fervent affections of my heart, I will call upon God, that he will let fall from heaven, his consecrated Manna. I will strike with the force of my love, upon the rock of my faith, whence-from I know will issue that sacred liquor, which will comfort my soul & body, all the time of my peregrination: desiring my Saviour in this Sacrament, to succour his poor pilgrim, in so long, so necessary, so dangerous, & so profitable a voyage: That he will cover me with the cloak of repentance: put on my feet, the shoes of diligence: on my head, the hat of his heavenly providence: in my hand, the staff of constancy and perseverance: in my bag the provision of meat & drink, his sacred flesh & blood, without which I should be constrained, either to return to Egypt, and there be slain by Pharo: or dye in the desert, and there be devoured of beasts.   

AS A FAITHLESS SPOUSE TO HER HUSBAND.  
CAP. 18.  
THe Prophetts of God inculcate 
joshua. 24  nothing so much to the jews, as the expostulation of their faith violated to God: that they having married their souls to him, as to their only husband, they broke their promise by following Idols & superstitions.  
Therefore they ceased not to exclaim against them, calling them strumpets, 
jer. 2 & 3  whoares, adulterers, & common harlots: yet exhorting them to return again to their former husband, and he would receive them as lovingly as ever he did before.  
My case not being much unlike to theirs, by vowing to God in my baptism, & promising so often in my confessions, to renounce the devil, the flesh, & the world, to eschew all sorts of sin, to observe most exactly his law, never to offend him mortally again: yet so often afterwards transgressing his commandments, when small occasion was offered, and would to God not often sought.  
truly I may well be called a spiritual harlot, an unchaste spouse, to my sweet saviour. But now I will demur no longer, I will return to the soul of my soul, to my faithful constant, & inviolable lover. Here. I will appear before his face, fall prostrate upon the earth, and with the flame of my heart, the sighs of my breast, the sobs of my throat, the tears of mine eyes, the words of my mouth, the submission of my body: Cry for pardon of my faults, grace of amendment, union of affections, and finally, that by the virtue of this Sacrament, we may be duo in 
Eph. 5 Gen. 2  carne una, two in one flesh.   

AS A PROPITIATION FOR THE DEAD.  
CAP. 19  
THe common bound of natural affection, & right order of supernatural charity, enforceth me to secure my parents, friends or Christian brethren: who now in purgatory for the relics of their sins, satisfy the justice of him, who letteth pass no good work without reward, nor sin be it never so little, without some punishment.  
And therefore since I firmly believe & undoubtedly aught to believe, that of all remedies, none can be of more force & efficacy, than this blessed sacrifice, I will offer it up to god most affectually, to redeem them out of that misery, the which I shall persorme the better, if I set before the eyes of my consideration, thief five points.  
The horrible torments that those good souls suffer there. For according to the received opinion of most learned doctoures, all the pains that ever were inflicted in this world, may be called painted, in respect of them which in very deed are real. The which doctrine, as in some great sinners (who repent not long before their death) I hold it most certain: yet in other good souls who departed but with some few venial sins, as idle words, and idle thoughts, I think it not probable for divers reasons, & so I doubt not but those learned doctoures, were of the same opinion. But howsoever it be, the secret sins of men be many, & nocman seeth the faults of other men's hearts: Therefore it were wisely, charitably, & discreetly done, to provide for the worst.  
Let us consider, that we by god's grace, one day must pass that fire, for, uniuscuiusque opus, quale sit, ignis 
1. Cor 3  probabit. The fire shall try every man's work what it is. For few there be who bring so good wheat, 
Mat. 3  into the barn of God, that there remaineth not some chaff to be burnt in the bottom. Therefore if we be careful now of our brethren, the providence of God will be careful of us: & in like necessities will stir up some good soul or other, to pray, give alms, or fast for us. For questionless the providence & justice of God, are most punctual in repaying good works with proportioned rewards, as I could largely declare if I intended not brevity.  
That this Sacrifice, besides the particular application of the Priest, and those that hear mass, or participate the Sacrifice, generally is applied by the Church, to them that suffer in purgatory: & they principally receive the effects thereof, who in this life, with more devotion hard Mass, received the blessed Sacrament, applied it to secure the souls in purgatory. Because right reason requyrethe, that to such persons, it should be more peculiarly appropried, then to others.  
The very nature of compassion, if we had none other motive to stir us up hereunto, were sufficient. For who is he, that if he did see any good Christian in a furnace burning for half an hour, & would not vouchsaife to hear a mass, or receive the Sacrament, either wholly to deliver him or at least, to diminish the greater parts of his pain? Surely I would say, he had not the heart of a man.  
That by delivering such a soul, we win a perpetual advocate in heaven for us, because that soul entering into glory, where all virtues flow & live in their chiefest perfection: will not be overcome with courtesy & benevolence, but by the virtue of gratitude, will repay abundant interest, for the loan of ou● few satisfactions.   

AS A GRATEFUL OBSEQVIE UNTO GOD FOR all his Saints.  
CAP. 20.  
AS God floweth with goodness, & willingly communicatethe his treasures: so he desireth that men should acknowledge them and be thankful, and especially for that I know one of the chiefest causes of the institution of this Sacrament to be, for to call to memory, the passion of our Saviour, as was declared in the book of causes.  
Therefore sometime I will communicate, with intention to give most hearty thanks to my loving Lord, for all his benefits: The which I shall be able the better to perform, if I meditate these points.  
1 The multitude of his benefits: of nature & grace already received, & of glory promised.  
2 The manner of giving, that is, uviht most affectual love.  
3 For our good, not for any interest.  
4 The greatness of his blessed gifts, as Life, Grace, Incarnation: And among the rest, this blessed Sacrament.  
5 Without our desert.  
6 Not demanded. For who ever asked of God, his soul or his body, or to be a Chtistian?  
7 When we were his enemies. And in particular, how often did he call me to serve him, when I most of all fled from him.  
8 How dear his gifts were to him: They touched him even to the quick. For in the incarnation; & this Sacrament, he imparted his only Son, his own essence & substance: & with him, all the riches of heaven & earth. For my part, to show myself grateful, I aught first, to acknowledge & confess these graces to proceed, of gods mere liberality. 2 That I am not able to acquit them. 3 That I desire to be grateful as near as I can.  
4 To praise & magnify my benefactor with the blessed virgin saying. Magnificat anima mea Dominum, My soul doth magnify our Lord. 5 To 
Luc. 1  give him thanks most affectually for them. 6 To procure according to mine ability, to show by works, the efficacy of mine intention, by deeds of Charity, to those that stand in corporal or spiritual necessity: by endeavouring so much as lieth in my power, that all nations & tongues may bless & glorify him. 7 To invite all creatures to praise God for his benefits: To request all the quieres of Angels, to sing their sacred Alleluia in his holy Temple, & supply my defects. 8 I will humbly request my sweet Saviour, who haveth vouchsaifed to be present with us, and pleased with his flesh & blood to feed us: that he will condingly praise god & thank him for all, because I know that he alone can do it sufficiently & with that infinite perfection, such graces require.   

AS MOVING TO PRAYER.  
CAP. 21.  
LAstly for that no man liveth on earth, that dependeth not of god, & many times falleth into such necessities, either of soul or body, in such distress of grace, or temporal commodities, that without some particular favour from heaven, hatdlye he can wade out of the depth, of such extremities. Therefore understanding that God will give his gifts, but yet he will be demanded: according to the exigence of my necessity, I will fall down before my Saviour, & require his favour. Neither doth this-Decree, prejudicate the depth of his bounty, & liberality. For in that he will not grant us graces & favours ordinarily, without prayer, it is a great grace & favour. Because a troop of virtues we revive, by praying to god, & so merit the more and enable our souls, the better to resist all sorts of vices & sins. For who prayeth and exerciseth not his Faith, in believing that God can grant his request? His hope, that God will hear him? His Charity, in loving him, of whom he expecteth good? His humility, in confessing by the very ask his own in digence? His patience, in expecting that he demandeth? His fortitude, in resisting the difficulties, which occur in prayer? His religion, in professing God the author of his good.  
Moreover by prayer we come to be familiar with God, for mutual conference & often talking, engendereth familiarity, which is a special treasure.  
By prayer also these gifts which we receive of God, are more glorious, & by merit, due unto us, which is a worthier title for us, then if they proceeded of pure liberality: As if a king should give two horses to two captains, who doubteth, but if the one received his for worthy exploits in war, & the other of the kings mere affection, that that were more glorious to the former, than this to the latter. Moreover, as Fathers will have their children, to ask them what they need, that thereby they may know what bond they have to their parents, & so love them the better, and join their hearts more affectually. So god will give us his graces by prayer, that we acknowledge the special dependence we hold of him, that by knowing it, we link our hearts more surely unto him of whom we receive daily so many, so great, and so necessary favours. Finally, that we keep the better, that which we obtained by great labour: for things soon gotten, are commonly contemned: & purchased with difficulty, highly prized.  
For the aforesaid causes, I will prostrate my soul before my blessed Saviour, whom I know of excessive charity, to remain in this blessed Sacrament, expecting continually, that his people resort unto him, and present their supplications. Here as a provident master, he will have us to exercise those virtues that we learn in his school: As a dear friend, increase our familiarity, by often conversinge: As a liberal rewarder, bestow his gifts to our greater glory: As a loving Father, by often asking reveal unto us, how in necessities we aught to have recourse unto him, and consequently lovehim more constantly, of whom, we depend continually: Finally as a careful Pastor, who after he haveth wandered with his flock a long time through vast & barren deserts, entering into a fertile & fruitful meadow, would teach them not to trample the grass, or make small account of that they came to by so great labour. The same reasons move me, in all mine important business & negotiations, not to determine or put in execution, any one, except with the children of Israel, I communicate my matter with God above his ark: that is, by receiving or praying, before the blessed Sacrament thereby represented. Because I doubt not, but he is more ready in this Sacrament, to hear our suits, grant our petitions, and further us in all goodness, than he was to them in the old testament. For there appeared but an Angel, a messenger, an ambassador: Hear resteth God, the sender himself, and the king of glory. It were an injury & disgrace to the King, that any man should think his ambassador more liberal and bountiful, than his own person. Therefore assured that my Saviour will prefer my suit to the supreme court of heaven, where for his cause, I shall be sure of favour, or his divine majesty without any further mediation: will presently grant my petition.  
I mean very often to frequent these places, Chapels, or Churches, where I may freely converse fancy ad faciem, face to face with my Sanioure. And if I seem to suffer at first a repulse, I know that proceedeth not of evil affection towards me, or that he will not hear me: but to make me more fervent, more instant, more diligent; To 'cause me exercise often the multitude of virtues, which concur toeverie godly prayer: To say to me as he said to the woman of Canaan, O 
Mat. 15  mulier, magna est fides tua, O woman great is thy faith: To give me more than I demand, rewarding both the demand, and manner of demanding.  
Many more sorts of coming to the blessed Eucharist, devout souls moved with the inspirations of the holy Ghost, may find out daily, as with Abraham after the victory of his 
Gen. 14  enemies, to encounter with Melchisedech, The figure of our saviour Christ, who offered up in Sacrifice bread & wine: to lie with Elyas in 
3 Reg. 19  any tentation or affliction, under the juniper tree, desirous to be dissolved & walk to the mountain of God. To arm ourselves with David against 
1 Reg. 17  the mountain of flesh Goliath, with the syve pure stones of Chiristes' wounds, to be cast out by the slinge of Faith, woven with the net of Charity.  
To prepare us with judith, with the 
judith 10  ornaments of virtue, with beauty of the soul & provision of victuals: to overthrow Holophernes, and all the host of Nabugodonoser: that is, Satan & all his infernal furies.  
These I say & divers others might be applied to our present purpose: but because I perceive, the Treatise passeth the precincts I intended; therefore I must cut of much of that matter, which might be handled: advertising only the reader, first in all these Discourses, or Meditations, to demand light & grace of our Saviour, to penetrate & understand them perfectly, and to receive some spiritual profit by them.  
2 Not to pray or meditate abstractly, that is, in general alone, but to apply always generalities, to your own particular estate: as for example. If I consider how sin haveth wounded my soul, I will weigh in particular, what sins I am most addicted unto, & how they especially, have cut and mangled my soul.  
3 I will ever apply my meditation to practise to flee vice, follow virtue, serve God, flee temptations, etc. For than our Meditations are efectuall, when good works, accompany good thougtes.  
4 Meditation, & affection: discourse and devotion, in all good prayers go linked together: for those meditations are to small effect, which abide only in the wit, and pass not to the will: and may well be compared to a barren desert, without well, fountain, fludd, or springe: whereas those that extend them, to the effects of the heart; are not unlike fair & fat meadows or fruitful countries, who have their lands wholly interlaced, with rivers of water: or as our bodies are not compacted wholly of flesh or bones, but have in all places & parts the nourishing veins dispersed: even so meditation, interlaced with devotion & discourses of the wit, with affects of the will, fatten the substance of the soul, & cause abundance of virtues, merits, & all goodness.    

THE THIRD PART.  
WHAT WE ought TO DO After receiving of the blessed Sacrament.  
Now we approach near the principal part of all our Discourse, that is, the very moment when we must receive into our bodies & souls, this bread of life, our blessed Saviour God & man: and all that time the curtain clothes of bread & wine, are not torn & consumed, with the natural heat of our bodies. This part we might have adjoined to the second, at least the former part: but because of distinction, & for that it requireth the same disposition that the latter, therefore I thought good to join them both together, as if it were a complete entertainment & conversation with Christ.  
This  importeth more than both the president. For the other two prepared the wood, laid it together, blew the sire: but here the flame must issue forth: The other two scoured the pieces of virtue, charged & put them in a readiness, here must follow a volley of spiritual shot: The other prepared the palace of the Soul, adorned the chambers, ordered the feast Here the King must enter, here he must be met, here interteyned, here the banquet must be served in, here samiliarly, intrinsically, domestically, Christ & the soul must converse.  
Therefore if ever in this life all virtues aught to appear at once, in their most glorious attire, in their most amiable countenances, in their sweetest aspect, especially here, where they must entertain the King of all virtue, the prince of all beauty, the glory of all grace: They must encounter him from whom they proceeded, & to whom they tend.  
Here the soul ought to bend all her faculties to exercise their principal operations, & virtue to execute her principal office. Therefore here I would request of my blessed Saviour, that I had wit, means, & spirit, to deliver in this discourse, such matter & conceits, as I conceive to be necessary, for him that participateth this Sacrament. But being in vetye deed destitute of them, I must recurre unto thee sweet jesus, which will not deny thy favour I know, to so just a petition.  

THE DISPOSITION OF Our Imagination, & apprehension, in receiving the eucharist.  
CAP. 1.  
ALL the affections of our soul, follow the apprehension thereof: & according to the perfections or imperfections of them, these be more or less perfect. Therefore to moveand inflame our affections, we must direct and inform our apprehension: the which the book of causes of the institution, haith largely as I hope, performed. But one point was reserved for this place, as nearest to motion, and most forcible to stir up devotion: that is, to imprint in out minds, a most perfect conceit & image, of the presence of Christ in this Sacrament of his divinity and humanity. For I doubt not, but if we had a lively apprehension of the presence of God: our hearts would be much more moved in receiving, then commonly we find them. And for that we do not only participate our blessed Saviour, as present in the eucharist: but also in regard that the whole Trinity is present, as three beholders, viewing this heroical act, of all others most excellent: Therefore I will exactly consider their presence, that by consideration of God received, & God beholding: mine attention may be more respective, & mine affections more fervent.   

THE PRESENCE OF GOD beholding.  
CAP. 2.  
IT importeth so much the exercise of our spirit, to consider deeply, weigh exactly, imprint lively, & renew often, the presence of God: that among all the Meditations which spiritual 
The effects of considering God's presence.  men frequent, I take it to be one of the most profitable & most necessary. For who attendethe that God presently behouldethe him, and dare be so impudent as to commit any sin, or expose his soul to the 
1 Avoiding of sin.  danger of sinning? What servant durst ever transgress his masters commandment in his presence, & that notoriously with a most heinous injury, his master marking and beholding, but one full of all malice & wickedness? 
2 Observation of his command dementes.  Who will not observe punctually, entirely, & completly, all the commandments of god, if he fix the eyes of his soul as carefully upon the eyes of God, as the diligent maid her eyes upon her Mistress, lest her work should difplcase her? Sicut oculi 
Psa. 122  ancillae in manibus Dominae suae, ita oculi nostri ad Dominum deum nostrum. As the eyes of the handmaid in the hands of her Mistress: so our eyes unto our Lord God, said he that served God cord perfecto, with a 
3 Re. 11 3 Familiarity with God.  perfect heart.  
The often & attentive consideration of God's presence, removethe not only sin from us, by striking in our hearts a terror of his majesty, whom we know so potent & mighty to revenge, & presently to behold. but also engendrethe in the soul, a most sweet conversation, familiarity, & communication in all affairs. For if the child had a Father most loving wise, & able, and always present: what business, what matter of importance, would he let pass, without communication with his Father? what friend if he had the like friend, would not reveal unto him all his secrets? What spouse, if she had the like husband, would not make him partaker of all her affairs? Therefore God being our Father, our friend, & the husband of our souls, oh how happy were we, if daily, hourly, & as often as our frail life suffereth: we did look upon him standing present by us, within us, round about us? But contrariwise how unhappy are we, that having such a treasure so near us, so rarely remember him, yea let whole days pass, & never mark him: that we forgeate him that gave us memory, that we neglect to see him who gave us sight, and without whose help we should not be able to see ourselves? Questionless we aught rather to wonder, why we always remember him not, then so often to forgeate him.  
This familiarity and conversation, 
4 Confidence in God.  will 'cause an admirable trust & coufidence in God. For he that pondereth in his heart that god is present, that he beholdeth what occurreth, in what danger he is plunged, what enemies assaulteth him, what wrongs he suffereth, what crosses he carrieth: such a man (I say) knowing by long experience, & familiarity, that God loveth him: will account little or nothing, all contrary encounters & tribulations, having present his defender. wherefore David said, Providebam 
Psa. 15  Dominum in conspectu meo semper quoniam a dextris est mihi, ne commovear. I did provide, that god should be always in my sight, because he standeth on my right hand, lest I should be troubled. Hereupon ensueth 
5 Peace of conscience.  an admirable peace & tranquillity of mind, & a mirth & iubilye of heart. For who will not rejoice, to have god present, to protect him from all evils, whom he is assured will permit no cross not affliction, to fall upon him, 
1 Cor. 10  but for his profit & ghostly good. And therefore he added, Propter hoc laetatum est cor meum, my heart rejoiced. 
Psal. 15 6 fervour in god's service.  Hencefrom proceedeth diligence & fervour in all our exercises. For as all workmen labour more diligently, when he for whom they work, overseeth, because they still consider how henoteth their diligence, mark ethe their negligence, & with his only presence, by a silent voice, praiseth the one, & reprehendeth the other: Even so those that make the presence of god the often object of their Meditations, by little & little, increasethe feruoure of all their actions, & consequently, effect them more circumspectly, with all their complements, circumstances, & perfections, jest he whose eyes are most pure, should perceive any blot or stain, in them. Where such fervour, peace, & familiarity lodge, 
7 Abundance of merits.  can not but flow abundance of good works, & merits: and by them the works deserve in this life, a rich payment of grace, & in the other, an honourable reward of glory.  
By which discourse appeareth what excellent effects the frequent consideration of god's presence worketh in our souls. For thereby we avoid sin: avoiding sin, we keep exactly his commandments: by keeping exactly his commandments, we grow in familiarity: by growing in familiarity, we conceive an inexpugnable confidence: by Confidence, peace & tranquillity: by peace, fervour and diligence: by diligence, abundance of good works & merits: by merits, increase of grace & glory. So that this chain more precious than gold, or richest stones, ascendethe by links from hell to heaven, from sin, to glory, from abandoning the devil, to the perfect union with God.  
Upon this baise & foundation, well may we build our spiritual edification: the which, as we may easily lay it, so once well laid, hardly it can be overthrown or undermined.  
The great Saints of god and his special friends, as they knew the importance of this point, so they made the presence of god familiar unto them. From whence proceeded these voices, Deus in cuius conspectu, ambulaverunt 
Gen. 48  fratres mei Abraham & Isaac: God in whose sight, have walked my Father's Abraham & Isaac. Domiws, in cuius 
Gen. 24  conspectu ambulo, mittet Augelum suum tecum. Our Lord in whose sight I walk, will sand his Angel with 
Psal. 5  thee. Dirige in conspectu tuo, viam meam. direct my way (that is my 
Psal. 5  works) before thy sight. Ambula coram me, & esto perfectus, Walk before 
Gen. 17  me, & be perfect: With many more such like, which give us to understand, that these servants of god, instructed by god himself, in all their actions considered the presence of god: that they laboured and exercised their virtues before his face. For they were not ignorant, that wicked men little weigh the presence of god, they never remember it, they think he scarce marketh their mischief: Sed circa cardines 
job. 22  caeli ambulat, & nostra non considerate: He walketh about the poles of heaven, & considereth not our affairs: But the godly said, Oculi nostri semper 
Psa. 24  ad Dominum: Our eyes are always fixed upon our Lord. For as he seaceth not to behold & mark us: so we will not seance to mark & behold him.  
Coming then to receive the blessed Sacrament, where the eyes of god are most opened, who pass & pierce with their subtle beams, into all the secrets of my soul. If ever I had need to walk in his sight, consider his presence, observe what there is in me, that may offend him, or in any case dislike his divine majesty: Here I aught especially to note it. Moreover, if ever the presence of god, did cause in one work all these 7 effects, above mentioned: I doubt not but here particularly, to be made partaker of them. Therefore though all my life should be, a continual carrying of myself before god, & a consideration of his presence: yet here principally, the very majesty of this act, enforceth me to represent unto my soul, the most lively picture of gods presence that is possible. But I know that simple people, & some that think themselves wise, can hardly frame their imaginations, to conceive the presence of god in all places: because our corporal organs, or instruments of our soul, minister unto it none but corporal shapes, forms, & similitudes. How then may we guide and direct them to frame a conceit of god's presence? To the wiser sort it were sufficient to say, that God is immensive, and that as by his eternity he comprehendethe all times: so by his immensity, he fillethe all places. They know that where God worketh, there he is present: & therefore working in all places, conserving and cooperating with his creatures: of necessity he must be in all places. This proveth that notable induction of David, Si ascendero 
Psa. 138  in coelum, tu illic es, si descendero in infernum, ades: Si sumpsero pennas meas diluculo, & habitavero in extremis maris, illuc manus tua dedncet me. If I ascend into heaven, there thou art, if I descend into hell, I shall find thee present: If I take my wings in the break of the day, & devil in the extreme coasts of the sea, thither thy hand will guide me: so that by his operation & cooperation with him, he inferreth his presence.  
These theological reasons, would satisfy the more learned sort, but those that have not studied Divinity, will hardly perceive them. Therefore by some real and palpable similitudes, I think good to help them in so necessary a matter.  
First let them take a similitude used 
1 Mean to conceive gods presence.  by S. Augustine, in his confessicns, that all this mighty mass of the world the earth with all thereunto appertaining, as metals, minerals, stones, trees, herbs, beasts, men: the water with all thereunto belonging: the sea, rivers, fountains, lakes, fishes: The air with all birds that inhabit it: the element of fire: the ten heavens, with all the army of stars & planets: the cmperiall heaven, with all Saints & Angels: & then I imagine all these as a sponge, cast into an immens●ue ocean sea, where the water passeth through it on every side, enunoneth it all about, yet the infinite vastness of the sea, remaineth without it: So god entereth into all his creatures, his substance & essence, pierceth the most secret corners of them rewnde about: yet above the highest heaven, the vastness of his immensity, is boundless & unmeasurable without all bounds, limits, or precincts, Quen● coels coelorum capere non possunt, 
2 Par. 6 job. 11  ●xc●ls●or coel● est: Whom the heavens of heavens, can not contain: he is higher than heaven.  
An other similitude we may borrow from many places of the Scripture, that attribute eyes to god: If we conceive his majesty as an infinite clear & penetrating eye, dispersed about the whole world: that what creature soever we look on, we presently conceive therein the understanding of god by the form & shape of an eye to encounter with ours. For really God's understanding seethe us better, & all we do in every creature, than all the eyes that ever he created if he joined them together all in one. Omnia autem nuda & aperta sunt oculis eius. 
Heb. 4 Prou. 15 & 23 Vide job 10 2 Par. 16 Psa 10 jer. 16  In omns loco, oculs Domini contemplantur bonos & malos. In every place, the eyes of our Lord do behold the good & the wicked, Oculi Domins, contemplantur universam terram. The eyes of our Lord do behold the universal earth.  
This example I would wish as familiar 
& 24 23 65 90 138. Eccl. 23 15 17 34. jer. 16 Dan. 10 Amos. 9 Abac. 1 Mich. 7 2  among Christians, as I judge it necessary for them to imprint in their fowls the presence of god in all things.  
And without all doubt, by some small diligence & practice, this godly exercise will become so familiar, that if they would, they can not but consider God almost in every good work they do.  
The words of David the Prophet will open unto us, the way to find out an other mean to consider gods presence: Apperui os meum & attraxi 
Ps. 118  spiritum menm, I opened my mouth & drew in my spirit, that is, as when we breath, we draw into our bodies this vital air, by which our body liveth & is conserved: so let us think that as this air penctrateth, keepeth, refresheth, with the substance & presence our bodies: so god the spirit and life of our souls, with his substance & presence, penetrateth, conserveth, refresheth, & in sign cooperatethe, in all things with us, In ipso vinimus, 
Act. 17  movemur, & sumus: In him we live, we are moved, & consist: which Divines declare in other terms, but to the same effect, that god is in all things secundum essentiam, potentiam, & presentiam: By his essence, power, and presence. By the perfection of his immensity, caelum et terram implet: He 
jer. 15  filleth heaven & earth, & so thereby is present. His power & virtue produceth, conserveth, and woorkethe, with all things. And therefore where he worketh, his power must be.  
And because his power & substance, his omnipotency and essence, are all one: therefore they of necessity must Both lodge in one room. By his immensive presence, we are in him, as birds in the air, & fishes in the sea: By his power & essence, we live and are moved, for without their presence, we could enjoy neither of them, viz. life or motion.  
another mean to consider the presence of God, we may draw from the erroneous opinion of certain blind Philosophers, who as they went ●ameringe in the darkness of nature, so they hit of some truth though corrupted with many errors, the which will serve our purpose, if we take the pure liquor & leave the dregs.  
They said that God was in all parts corners & secrets of this world; that he gave life, motion, operation, and understanding to all his creatures: & informed this world in such sort, as our soul informeth the body. In this they were deceived: but in the formet they hit the mark aright. For god is no form or soul of the world, because the soul needeth the body to make a man, & otherwise it is unperfect: But God of himself consisteth most perfectly & completlye. But if we separate from the soul all imperfections, as to be a part, to stand need of any body, to depend of it in operation, to inform it as a divine substance: then we may conceive the majesty of God, as a complete and most excellent spirit, diffused through the whole world, as a soul through the whole body of a man. 1 For as the soul is a spirit, so God is a spirit.  
2 The soul inhabiteth in every part of the body: & God in every part of the world. 3 The soul giveth life & being to all parts of the body, according to their capacities: & God imparteth life & being to every creature, according to their natures. 4 The soul concurreth with the body to all motions & operations: and God with all the world in every action. 5 The substance of the soul, wholly resydeth in the whole body, & wholly in every part: & God reigneth with his presence, in the whole world, & wholly in every part. 6 The soul separated from the body subfisteth by itself: & god without the world in himself.  
Many more conveniences might be brought, but these I think sufficient to frame a most majestical conceit of Gods presence in the world, as of a most simple, entire, & perfect soul, in so huge & mighty a body.  
When I present myself before the blessed Sacrament, I will conceive the presence of God, under some one of these similitudes: The which as it impoiteth much to stir up devotion: so it will not be hard, if in other of my spiritual Exercises, I was accustomed to put it in practise. Neither will I barely weigh & mark, his presence, as a thing that little concernethe me: but I will note all those reasons & perfections in him, that may strike terror, fear, love, reverence, & devotion, to prepare my soul, the better to participate my blessed Saviour: the which are these. 1 That he seeth most perspicuously, what preparation I was able to make, by the help of his grace. 2 What I aught of necessity, gratitude, & congruence, to have done. 3 What I have performed & what I have neglected. 4 That a small crroure in so weighty a matter, is accounted a great offence. 5 That he standeth armed with the sword of his justice in one hand to punish me, & with the other hand opening the breast of his mercy & love, to cherish me: brandishing the one to terrisy me, & offering the other to animate me. 6 That he desireth most earnestly, that I receive this Sacrament most fervently. 7 That he is most ready to help me, & to furnish my soul with his grace, to enjoy the unvaluable treasures of the Eucharist. 8 I will meditate how he regestreth in the book of life (his eternal memory) how I came prepared or unprepared, what glory I merited, or what torment I deserved.  
Disposed with these Meditations, as one environed, with the presence, power, & substance of God, as Moses 
Exo. 19  with him in the cloud, or as an immensive sea of brightness & light: I will prostrate my soul before the blessed Trinity, acknowledging these three persons & one God, the life of my soul, the light of mine understanding, the force of all my good affections. I will confess myself miserable and unable to prepare me to receive my sweet Saviour, except they indew me with grace, & effect that they command. Here I will request the Father to show his power in me by giving me strength to overcome all temptations & difficulties: The son to impart his wisdom, that I may see all the stratagems of Satan, & how to carry myself in & after receiving: The holy Ghost to inflame me with love, that all the sinews of my soul may be stretched here to the uttermost of their ability, to love him most faithfully, who bought my love so dearly.   

THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST'S HUMA nitie.  
CAP. 3.  
IN the last Chapter was declared, that our Saviour Christ according to his divinity, and all the three persons in Trinity, were present in the eucharist. 1 By the attribute of their immensity, where by they fill all places, & are indistant from all creatures. 2 By the admirable effect of their omnipotency, by inserting the nature of man, into the stock of the seoonde person by incarnation. 3 By the particular work, real presence, & peculiar union of Christ's body, with the forms & accidents of bread & wine, not by Hipostaticall connexion, but by Sacramental conjunction. 4 By the admirable dependence that one person haith of an other, that where one is of necessity. the other two must be with him. All these manners of presence, we comprehended in the precedent Chapter, of God's divine presence: Here only we will consider the presence of Christ's humanity, & what we may note therein as moving to devotion.  
That Christ's humanity, really, sub stantiallye, corporally, livinglye, in sense, flesh, blood, bones, & soul, without extension, or dimention of place, allodgeth in this Sacrament, was proved in the book of causes of the institution. And therefore intending here not to deal with protestants but Catholics: I mean not to pass any further in this point.  
As for the other, the consideration of Christ's humanity, may divers ways stir up our remissness in devotion, & revive the fervour of Charity: because not only as God he seethe & marketh all things done or to be done in this world: but also as man, by the manifest contemplation, of his father's essence, as in a most clear Crystal glass, he beholdeth all the world, in universal, & every member, portion, & part, in particular; & consequently me with all the course of my whole life: The sins committed, repent, pardoned: his graces imparted, accepted, effectually put in execution, my preparation to this Sacrament with all circumstances thereof, as time how long or how short: as place in private or in public: in the Church or my chamber: the manner how, intensively or remissly: with what difficulty or facility: with what helps, or what hindrances: with what intention, for charity, or for vanity: for god's glory or hypocrisy: to increase in devotion, or for some sensible consolation.  
All these he beholdeth, and a thousand times better in god, than I know them myself. Therefore evidently it appeareth, how careful & vigilant, I aught to appear before so exact, so continual, so zealous, so jeleous a behoulder. 2 With the corporal ears of his body, with his corporal eyes, he heareth all I speak, & seethe all my external carriage & demeanour of my body. This opinion I know defended of many excellent dinines: how-beit I am not ignorant, that some hold the contrary: Yet it seemeth to me, most certain & not to be doubted. Because it is possible, (as easily I could declare, & none will deny) it is convenienre for Christ's complete glory in body, it is a perfection including no deformity or indecency: why then shall we imagine him deprived thereof? This I think the Spouse intended, when speaking of Christ her love she said, Enipse stat post pa rietem 
Cant. 2  nostrum respicieus per fenestras, prospiciens per cancellos. Lo he standeth behind our wall, looking forh of the windows, beholding through the grates. The veils of bread & wine, are his windows & grates, & through them, he may well see us, although we can not discern him, but only by Faith believe his presence.  
But oh that it were possible for me, to frame in my mind, a perfect resemblance and purtrate of those chnstail lamps, who for ever would lighten my heart: of those divine flames that S. john see glowing & blazing: They 
Apoc. 1  questionless would inflame my congealed love. O that I might read, in those books of Charity, what divine affections, possess that sacred breast. O that I might pierce with mine eyes those living windows, to view the secret thirst of his heart, of my spiritual perfection. But since my corporal eyes sweet jesus, can not encounter thine, as they did his whom they 
Mat. 26  caused to rain a bitter shower of tears: yet with mine understanding, with my conceit, I will behold them, admire them, read in them, rest in 'em, as cabinetts of love, and regilters of truth. 3 The glorious body of Christ gliteriug with light, & adorned with the most exquisite colours that ever the omnipotent hand of god enriched and beautified his creatures withal that body before mine eyes, as a most gliteringe Sun, shynethe gloriously under the clouds of bread & wine. And if it were not that our faith should merit, quickly he could dissolve them, & show an other sort of blazing light in earth, than all the stars & planets, cast together in heaven. 4 I will fix the eyes of my soul upon those five fountains of grace: those five cataracts of mercy & justice: those five seals of love: those five ensigns of triumph: those five gates of paradise: those five sacred springs of blood, whence from issued the red sea wherein the infernal Pharaoh, with all his troupes, were drowned, and the Children of God defended.  
My saviour beautified with these glorious wounds, with more gorgeous ornaments embrothered, with more rich stones embossed, then ever nature see, now, now will enter into me. O quis mihi dabit pennas sicut 
Psal. 54  columbae, volabo & requiescam. O that I had wings like a dove, I would fly & rest, in caverna macerioe in the 
Cant. 2  holes of this broken wall. All this glory, all this light, all these colours, all these ornaments, all these wounds, all these riches: must pass into my body. O sweet jesus thou alone can prepare me, worthily to receive them. For, Consideravi opera tua et expavi. I have weighed thy works & trembled. Consideraus eum timore 
job. 23  solicitor. Considering him, I am troubled with fear.   

THE PRESENCE OF ANGELS.  
CAP. 4.  
IF thousands of thousands Angels 
Dan. 7  serve him: if ten times a hundteth thousand minister unto him: if non 
job. 25  sit numerus militum eius, there be no number, that is, his soldiers are without number: no doubt but all being administratorii spiritus, serving spirits 
Heb. 1  that in what place soever their Lord remaineth, they resort thither to honour him with their presence: They attend upon their king, to glorify his majesty: They wait upon their Captain, to fight against his enomies. For although the number of Angels can not precisely be known which god created in the beginning: yet most certain it is by the above cited scriptures, that he produced them in an exceeding great number, & according to the more received opinion of Divines, the blessed Angels, who still continue in their native purity, and never stained their natures with sin, now vewinge the face of God, are more in number, than all men, women, & children, that ever were created from the beginning of the world, or shall be to the latter end.  
This I could prove sufficiently, if I intended not to avoid prolixity.  
But supposing it as certain, no doubt but many of so infinite a multitude attend, in all places, that their Lord will vouch saife to bless, with his divine presence, to accempanie him, to praise him, to glorify him: Less may we doubt of all the good Angels, to whose custody are committed, those persons that communicate: because if ever they show themselves vigilant about us, if ever their prescnce be necessary, if god, mittet angelos suos in 
Psal. 33  circuitu timentium cum: Will send his Angels to be in the circuit of them that fear him: qnestionlesse at this time, we need most their helping hands, their protections & inspirations. Therefore before I receive my Saviour, I will reverence them & humbly crave their help, to praise God for me, & particularly I will require my guardian Angel, to defend the gate of mine imagination, that none unclean or impure thought, pass that way, by which my god must walk.  
Than I will consider such points in the Angels, as may stir up my devotion. 1 That if they attend so diligently & reverently upon god, in regard of his majesty & excellency: what aught I to do, who am to eat him, to harbour him in my heart.  
2 By seeing them so pure in nature, so unspotted with any sin or imperfection, remaining in their original integrity: I will take occasion to debase myself even to the abyss of nothing: considering how heynouslye, how often, I have offended this their sovereigning Lord. 3 The great desire that Angels have of my fervent devotion in receiving this Sacrameut. because, if they rejoice so much in the conversion of a sinner to god: what 
Luc. 15  will they do in the marriage day? If the first writing of my name, in the Book, of the City of jerusalem, gave them an occasion of an extra ordinary joy: O what will mine advancement in grace, preferment in glory, mine internal union with god yield unto them? 4 The love of Christ, so boileth in those spiritual breasts, that as they bend all the forces of their minds & hearts, to unite them selves with him: so they would draw all men in the world to the like union. And for this cause, we see how vigilantly they attend upon us, bringing us every morning, an universal torch, to call us up to the sight & love of him, who created both sun & moon.  
Peruse the scriptures, & you shall find, what diligence they used, inwaiting of Abraham, defending of jacob, 
Gen. 18 Gen. 32 Exo. 14 Tob. 5 judith. 13 Gen. 16  protecting the children of Israel, conducting young Toby, assisting of judith, comforting of Agar, & in fine, how continually they endeavour, to induce all men to vettue, & to withdraw them from vice. Therefore to increase their love to me: I know no better mean than to increase my love to Christ. 5 How beit they confess 
Apoc. 15  themselves fellow-seruantes to all them that serve god, and suffer for his faith: yet I will acknowledge, myself but a base unworthy drudge, in the princely palace of Gods Church, & therefore request them as chief courtiers, attending always upon the Kings own person, always before his face, in high favour & authority, in his heavenly court, to favour my suit unto their Lord. I ask nothing el●, but that he will vouchsayfe to give me grace to love & serve him, with that perfection & integrity, he wishethe that I should love & serve him, and that they will help me to receive him worthily, & keep his holy spirit diligently, at this present communion.   

WHAT JOUGHT TO DOO When I receive the blessed Sacrament in my mouth.  
CAP. 5.  
ALthough in receiving my Saviour in my mouth, my tongue keep silence, yet my heart shall cry, & revive all those fervent thoughts that kindle the flame of mine affects.  
Sometime I will conceive the Eucharist, as a most precious and Sovereign medicine, prepared, tempered, & qualified, with the infinite wisdom, love, & power of God, to cure all my sores of sins, inordinate passions, concupiscences, vices of nature, defects & imperfections.  
Sometime as a ball of heavenly sire brought down by Christ, to inflame the hearts of all men to love God. Ignem veni mittere in terram, & quid 
Luc. 12  volo nisi ut accendatur, I came to cast sire on the earth, & what will I, but that it be kindled? For most truly deus noster ignis consumens est. Our God 
Deut. 4 Heb. 12  is a consuming sire. Sometime as a most glistering sun, much more beautiful & shining, more pure and bright, than this we daily view to illuminate my soul & shake of all fogs & mists, that sin & Satan had darkened it withal: And though it be veiled with a corporal cloud, yet that impeacheth nothing the spiritual glory & brightness thereof. Sometime as a tender infant in body, wrapped in bread and wine, yet perfect god and man, to endue my soul with simplicity, and stir up a most tender and silial affection unto him, as my father.  
Sometime as a fountain of life, to cool the furious flames of my rebellious flesh: to water the fields of virtue, that God haveth sown in my soul: To wash the stains & spots of my heart: To quench the burning thirst of my breast. Sometime I will lay my mouth to the side of my Saviour, & suck out the purisyed spirit, of Charity & love, most perfectly digested in the furnace of his heart. Sometime I will invite him to come, by saying in my soul, Veniat dilectus meus in hortum 
Can. 5  suum. Let my love come into his own garden. Veni Domine & nolitardare. Come my Lord, linger not, Relaxa facinora plebi tue, Remit thy people their offences. Veniat desideratus 
Agg. 2  cunctis gentibus, Come thou desired of all nations. Sometime I will humble myself with Abraham and say, Loquar ego ad Dominum, cumsim pulvis 
Gen. 18  & cinis. I shall speak to God being but dust & ashes. Domine non sum 
Mat. 8  dignus ut tntres sub iectum monm, sed tantum dic verbo, & sanabitur anima mea. Lord I am not worthy that thou enter into my house, but say the word, & my soul shall be saved. If the heavens 
job. 15  sweet jesus, be unpure in thy sight alas how shall I appear before thee? 
job. 26 & 41  If thy ne Angels do tremble: why shall not I consume and vanish to nothing? Vere non est natiotam grandis 
Deu. 4  quae habeat deos appropinquantes sibi, sicut tu Deus noster. There is no nation haveth their Gods so near them, as the catholic Church, sweet jesus, haith thee.   

AFFECTS.  
CAP. 6.  
AFter I have swallowed all the riches of heaven & earth Christ jesus, in the blessed eucharist, because he remaineth so long with me, as the veils of bread & wine are not dissolved with the natural heat of my stomach. Therefore I will procure to give him that interteynement that my spiritual poverty can afford: for herein I know consisteth the principal good that I must receive by this Sacrament, next after the grace imparted, ex opere operato, that is, sor the only work of receiving.  
I knew some godly and religious men, who all this while did nothing else, but cry both with tongue & heart Diligo te jesu, I love thee oh my jesus, I love thee oh my jesus. And this above a hundredth times they reiterated: and truly they told me that they found singular comfort & consolation. And certainly in those who love God affec tually, & tenderly: I doubt not but as these acts or affects of Charity pass all other in worth & merit: so they pass in causing spiritual joy & consolation. Others I knew, who would only attend to keep their souls from all thoughts, impertinent cogitations and affections, that they might hear the voice of Christ within them. For doubtless he that vouchsafed to be eaten, will not disdain to speak unto them who desire to hear his voice, to execute his william. This devotion can not but yield great contentation and delight to all those persons that live retyted, from the world, & have not their souls pestered with terrene cares and negotiations: for such men can best discern, the origen of intetnall thoughts & inspirations, but the common sort or weak capacities, can hardly attain to such perfections.  
The manner which I practise and I know many more daily to exercise, I was taugdt of a most godly & learned religious man, who as he loved me well, so he was content to deliver me this treasure, the which he for humility, would not divulgate to others, yet with gods grace for charity I will deliver it.  
For a quarter of an hour after he had received, he did meditate nothing but only break forth into sundry affects exhaling from his heart to heaven, the sweetest incense of virtue, that his fervour could raise, or such a guest would inflame: The which for memory sake he comprehended in this one word, Agape. By A, the first letter, he undeistoode Amor, & with it, Faith, & Hope. By G. gratiarum actio, thanks giving. By A, Animus, courage, boldness, resolution. By P, Petitio, demanding or requesting any thing at God's hand. By E, Exinanitio, Abasing & exinanitinge himself to nothing.  
These noble acts of most excellent virtues, he practised after this manner. O jesus I believe in thee, I hope in thee, I love thee. I believe in thee sweet jesus, but augment my Faith. I trust in thee, but confirm my hope. I love thee, but inflame my Charity.  
O my jesus, I believe thou art present now within me; Ah, now I hope thou wilt help me. O my jesus, for this thy coming, I would gladly love thee. He gave thanks in manner declared, in the last Chapter of the secoude discourse. O jesus I give thee infinite thanks, for thy singular favours & benefits, & this especially in vouch saifing to visit me thine unworthy servant. O you Angels give thanks for me. O all you creatures of God, supply my defect. O jesus, thank thou thyself, for I am not sufficient. His courage & resolution he exercised thus: O jesus I know I can not do any thing for thee, without thy help: but power thy grace upon me, & what would I not do for thee? What temptations soever assault me, with thy grace I will resist valiantly: What adversity soever befall me with thy grace I will bear it patiently: what crosses soever thou wilt impose upon me, with thy grace I will carry them with alacrity. O that I might have that supreme favour of thee, to suffer imprisonment, to be buried in a close hole alive: to be cheaned, fettered, & at last executed for thy faith & religion. Ah my jesus with thy favour, I will never hide my face, I will never be ashamed to profess thee: Si consistant adver me castra: non timebit 
Ps. 26  cor meum. If forts assault me, my heart shall not fear. If all the furies of hell invade me, if all the troupes of heretics persecute me: yet with thy grace, I intend to resist them, all they shall not quail my courage. I will become like an Oliphante, who looking on blood, is more incensed: So I by participating this thy blood, will be more courageous against thine & mine enemies. His Petition was either univershall, or particular: as O sweet jesus, convert all infidils & heretic, that they may glorify thee & participate this Sacrament. Grant me grace, that I may carry myself conformable to thy william. Sometimes according to his Meditations before the communion, he demanded some particular virtue, that he than most of all stood in need of, or was necessary for his present state: His debasing & abiectinge himself, proceeded from reverence to the Majesty of Christ, whereby he broke forth into these affects. O my jelu, what am I, & what art thou? I am a miserable sinner, & thou a most merciful God: I dust & ashes, thou life and immortality: I by my wickedness less than nothing, thou by thine infinite perfections, all things. Yet oh abyss of all bounty, thou wouldst not disdain my miserable, corruptible, sinful & contemptible body, for thy temple, thy palace, thy throne, thy habitation of rest. O my God, what am I able to do to please thee? All is nothing: Here before thy heavenly court, I confess my weakness & impotency, but thou oh Lord, Suscipe a terra 
1 Re. 2 Psa. 112  ivopem, & destercore erige pauperem, Take up from earth the needy & raise from the dung hill the poor. This humiliation and abjection, he ●oulde me, engendered in his soul, a number of most godly respects, or motions of humiliation, of reverence, offeare, of woorshipp, of carefulness, & vigilancy, in all matters that concerned god. And these effects, he often repeated & reiterated, yet staying there most, where he felt the holy Ghost especially to concur. Moreover, now he would bow down his body in sign of reverence, adoring Christ in his heart: Now extend his arms abroad in sign of love & desire to embrace him: Now he crossed them to fold him: Now he would speak to the Father, now to son, now to the holy Ghost: And so with variety of his spiritual repast, he fed his Soul abundantly. This godly Exercise, as I know it to be most forcible to stir up devotion, cause consolation, effect peace & tranquillity of conscience: So I am not ignorant, of how great merit it is before God, & how sufficient to reform a man's whole life. Therefore because all can not understand the latin word Agape, & the others signified by the letters, I thought it not amiss, to set down an english word to help all those to whom this Treatise may be serviceable, & that is Faith: By F, I remember, Faith, hope, & Charity. By A, Abjection, Abasing, Annihilation of myself before God. By T Thanks, giving. By H, heart & hardness, courage & Fortitude, resolution & boldness in all affairs, concerning the glory of God & salvation of my soul. E, representeth unto me, elevation or erection of my soul to god, the which I may compass, by these three effects, Praieror petition, Oblation, & resignation. Of prayer we spoke of before, the other two, be reserved for the next Chapter.   

OBLATION AND RESIG NATION.  
CAP. 7.  
ALL I am & all I can, by better right & dominion, do belong unto God, then to me: and for many titles, I must acknowledge them due unto him. Therefore after I have received my Saviour, I will offer myself wholly unto him: for in all my life I could never perform this oblation at any better time, because the presence of Christ will enrich & ennoble this empty vessel. And since my God would Sacrifice himself for me: here I will sacrifice my soul to him, for so I know he intendeth I should do, & signified it to S. Peter when he let fall that 
Act. 10  mysterious sheet with four corners full of unclean beasts, & willed him to kill & care, thereby signifying the church of gentiles comprehended in the four parts of the world, wherein were to be killed, by gods word, & efficacy of his grace, all unclean beasts & made meat apt for the table of god. For as by death, the soul is separated from the body: so by mortification, sensuality from the soul: concupiscences, from charity: sense, from reason: and old Adam, from new Christ. The manner of this oblation & consumed Sacrifice, may be in this sort.  
O most bountiful maker to whom all things are dew, to whom nothing can be presented, correspondente in dignity: yet because I am thine by right, & own unto thee all Homage: here before the court of heaven, the Angels & Archangels: Cherubins & Seraphins, thy devout Confessoures', unspotted virgins, holy Doctors, valiant Martyrs, glorious Apostles, & above all, the blessed Virgin: I offer solemnly my body & soul, my wit & will, what habilities of nature or favours offortune thou hast bestowed upon me: all I consecrated to thy glory: I will use orrefuse them, as it shall please thee: accept good Lord, this Sacrifice of thy poor servant, for if I had better, better would I offer: but he that giveth himself, giveth all. And as thou hast vouchsaifed to impart thy grace unto me to desire thee, & to offer myself unto thee: so good Lord deny me not thy grace to perform my desyro & therein to persever till death: O sweet jesus say Amen.  
My resignation followeth consequently to my Oblation, sor by this I will put myself in the hands of god like unto soft wax, & request him to form me after his fashion, as clay in the potrersshopp, to be cast according to his pleasure: As a table without any letter, desiring him to writ in the forefront there of, that I may in all things, do his william. This in speculation, seemeth very sweet & easyo to be performed, but the execution carriethe with it extreme difficultio. For the conformity of our will with gods will, is the main point of all Christian perfection: yet by his grace, the violence of our perverse nature, may be broken if we understand well in practice that Regnum coelorum vim patitur, & violenti, 
Mat. 11  rapiunt illud. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the forcible do enter it. For in very deed as water can not be removed out of the sea, & lifted upward without violence so our heavy and terrestrial flesh, can not be elevated to heaven, without some force & violence. wherefore gods servants, now with meditations, now with mortifications, now with frequenting the holy Sacraments, now with spiritual books, now with exhortations, now with one godly Exercise, now with an other: revive their souls, renew their forces, enable themselves to resist temptations & other encounters daily & hourly offered them by their ghostly enemies.   

CIRCUMSPECTION OR CAUTION.  
CAP. 8  
AFter so many fervent desires, affects, oblations, resignations, & good purposes (lest they should seem rather compliments & courtly ceremonies, then sincere devotions, & real resolutions) either immediately after my resignation, or atsome other more convenient time that day I will make an anotomye of my soul, & search out evety corner thereof, to employ it wholly and fully, in the service of God, and attehivement of Christian perfection, the which I am assured God will accept most willingly, because he haveth exhorted us thereunto in the scriptures, so often and so earnestly.  
Three things for this intent I will provide for most diligently.  
First to avoid all sorts of sin most carefully.  
To procure the honour & glory of God most seruently.  
To keep an internal peace in my soul most exactly.  
Theb. Sacrament affordeth grace to accomplish these effects: & no doubt but my saviour will exact them of me, therefore I will endeavour to practise them so near as I can: the which I shall be able to perform the better if I follow these rules or considerations.  
For the performance of the first point, to avoid all sorts of sin, 1 I will examine my soul, to what wce or sin I prove by experience, & daily feel myself most inclined: for few men the world did ever see, that bended not more to one sin, than an other; some to pride, some to choler some to gluttony, some to avarice etc. 2 Whether I perceive the vice whereunto I am inclined, to whither & fade away, or to grow and enlarge the branches. 3 If I find it either growing, or as it were hovering still in the same manner, I will examine & search out the causes: as if company, exercise, or some other occasion hinder me from virtue, than I know the same may consequently bring me to sin. 4 I will meditate what means or remedies, I may use to avoy de such evil neighbours with intention to put them in execution effectually. 5 I will ask some spiritual men & especially my ghostly father, how I may overcome such an evil inclination, & according to their directions, help myself as well as I can.  
Much here might be handled in general, how we should extirpate any vice, or plant any virtue, but it were not so convenient for this place.  
The second point & of no less importancethens the first, we may put in practice by observing these rules, 1 If we glorify God in ourselves, by prayer. 2 By receiving his Sacraments devoutly. 3 By mottifyinge our bodies for his honour. 4 By effecting all things we can conveniently with fervour & devotion, offering every Exercise we do, to his glory. In others. 1 By our modesty & external government, without pride or vanity in our attire, gestures, or any actions. 2 By words os edification prudence, and discretion, that they smell of devotion & piety, & carry the colour of that heart wherein they were died. 3 Because I understand God's glory to consist, in true and humble subjection of my soul, to his divine majesty, in a severe judgement & rigour to myself, & in bowels of mercy and compassion, towards my neighbours: Therefore about these three objects, my discourse shall be occupied: how I may increase in every one of these, the honour of god by endeavouring to convert heretics, confirm catholics, correct sinners, reduce offenders to a better life, induce the virtuous to more perfection. 4 With the most sincere affection of my soul, I will demand of my blessed Saviour, that he will teach me wherein I may glorify him most: and by experience I find this petition, by a common effect of great consolation, to be most aceptable unto God. For in very deed, how can such a prayer be but grateful, wherein a man venteth the very centre of his heart, to exhale out such heavenly desires, so reasonable, so affectious, so pure, so worthy of man, so suitable to god?  
5 The nature of love, will find out twenty new inventions how to glorify god, & by sealing every one with the Image of Charity, relatethe them all to his honour & glory. Therefore he that loveth, lacketh not means to glorify god.  
The third point of tranquillity & peace of conscience, as it resembleth the life of the just, to a certain state of blessedness: so it helpeth them exceedingly, to make progress in all sorts of virtue. For as delight is the whetstone that sharpeneth all our actions: so peace of conscience, reviveth & giveth a new edge, to all religious operations. Wherhfore he that intendeth a paradise in earth, let him procure this internal peace: He that would avoid many difficulties that a good life carrieth incident unto it, let him enjoy this peace. These means may serve them that desire it. first all men try by experience, that there be two sorts of cogitations, some of virtue, some of vice. Virtuous thoughts leave after their departure, a sugared taste & sweet contentation: Vicious thoughts thrust in their sting, and afterward the soul feeleth the pain of poison by temorse of conscience & unquietness of mind.  
He than that intendeth peace must of necessity avoid all vicious cogitations so near as he can, & especially those of flesh & blood, the which as they molest us oftenest, so their sting is most sensible: yet if we fall into any of these, the remedy of present repentance, presenteth itself: ask pardon of God, & this pain will be released.  
2 After the holy eucharist is received: a man must be very circumspect in his words, & in all other actions as eating, drinking, conversing, etc. That he do not spill & power out, that water of life, which by communicating he received. For devotion, and peace of mind, as in an instant, God distilleth them into the soul: so in an instant they vanish away. And let him by little & little withdraw himself from sensible delights which nature affordeth, & sensuality earnestly affecteth: For internal delight & sensual pleasure, though honest & lawful hardly consort together. Therefore learned men counsel those that would make progress in spirit, to use pleasure & play, as medicines: not to satiate, but for necessity: not as men that live for pleasure, but as they that take pleasure to live. 3 A man must often renew his purposes, & reserve in the treasury of his memory, some affectual iaculatorye prayer, or elevation of his mind to god, which was distilled in the heat of his fervor, when he received the Eucharist, as, Inflame me sweet jesus with thy love. O my Saviour, fortify me against all temptations. When shall I see thee O Lord? When shall I freely possess thee? By 
Effects of darting prayers.  experience I find, these prayers most forcible, to collect & unite the soul with God, to engender great peace, to be of great efficacy, to make us to consider the presence of God, to prepare us to prayer, at what time soever. They are bellows that blow away the ashes from the coals of virtue, & so revive them. They carry away the defects & imperfections, the distractions and inordinate passions, which cover the bright colour of god's grace. They are darts launshed from the heart of man's love, to the heart of gods love. By them we may keep our fervour from one sunday we communicate, to another. By them finally we seem to fly to god, to enjoy in this life, the sweet communication of his heavenly delights & familiar conversation in love, the which they only understand who have proved: howbeit for all men god haveth prepared it: The which I befeche him grant to all those that desire to taste it in this life, & possess it in the other. Sweet jesus say, Amen.   
LAUS DEO.   

A BRIEF TABLE OF ALL the principal matters, contained in this treatise, necessary to be committed to memory.  
THE Disposition of the Soul, to receive worthily the blessed Sacrament, consisteth in, 

1 Preparation by these acts of virtue. 

1 Humility, in acknowledging all preparation too little.  
2 Fear, which is either 

servile  
Filial  
Angelical    
3 Faith in believing 

1 what was necessary to be believed in all ages.  
2 The articles of Faith.  
3 All that the Catholic Church believeth.    
4 Hope, the which consisteth in 

1 Expecting our last end of God, & the means to attcheeve it  
2 Loving God as beneficial unto us.    
5 Charity by 

1 Union with God in william.  
2 Union in affection.  
3 Zeal.  
4 Ecstasy.  
5 Benevolence.    
6 Grief for sins passed.  
7 Resolution to observe entirely gods commandments.    
Presentation before Christ, as 

1 A Beggar naked.  
2 A Man wounded.  
3 A son to his father.  
4 A friend to his friend.  
5 A Sonldier to his Captain.  
6 A Scholar to his maiseter.  
7 A Creature to his Creator.  
8 A prisoner to his read merchant  
9 A Garden for him to enter in.  
10 An infant to his mother's dug.  
11 Hungry & needy.  
12 The three kings who came to honour Christ.  
13 A ship tossed.  
14 A prodigal son.  
15 One coming to honour gods Saints.  
16 A heart thirsting the fountain.  
17 A Pilgrim.  
18 A faithless spwose to her husband.  
19 A propitiation for the dead.  
20 To offer a grateful obsequy for all his Sainots.  
21 A motion to prayer.    
3 Entertainment, which consisteth in, 

Consideration of 

The presence of God beholding.  
The presence of Christ's humanity.  
The presence of Angels.  
The manner how Christ cometh, as A 

1 Medicine to cure all maladies.  
2 Sun veiled with clouds.  
3 A flame of fire.  
4 With his wounds open, to fill my soul with grace.      
2 Practice of affects. 

1 Faith.  
2 Hope.  
3 Charity.  
4 Fortitude.  
5 Thanksgevinge?  
6 Demanding some favour.  
7 Exinanition and debasinge.  
8 Oblation.  
9 Resignation.  
10 Caution. In 

1 Avoiding sins.  
2 Glorifyinge God.  
3 Conserving of peace.           

¶ A Conclusion, Containing an Admonition to all the reverend and religious Priests in England.  
AT last, the zeal of my affection converts my pen to you (my beloved brethren) are whose perfection this Treatise leveleth especially, as them whom fervent preparation to the sacred tucharist concerneth principally. For God hath appointed you his connatural instruments, and supernatural workers of these admirable wonders, you consecrated these heavenly hosts, you offer this immaculate sacrifice, you separate the soul of Christ from his body after a divine manner, you draw in crueotly Christ's blood out of his veins, you consume this sole christian holocaust, you divide it, you distribute it, you communicate the people. To you belongeth to admit or reject all those who present themlelues before this sacred Altar: you procure that others ascend prepared, you shut these conduits of God's grace to all them that bring not golden vessels of charity, to carry away this divine liquor. O what preparation requires the majesty of God, the principal agent of this sacrifice of you his selected instruments? ● stote sancti, quia ego sanctus sum, be 
Leu. 11, & 19, & 20.  you holy (saith he) because I am holy, for which cause he commanded, that in the high priests forehead should be graven in a plate of gold, 
Exod. 28.  Sanctum Demino, holy to our Lord, that all might read how holiness & sanctity especially concerned the priests of God. For what is holiness and san●●nie but an abstraction and separation of the soul from earth and all terrene delights? but an elevation to God and all heavenly exercises? and who aught to be more void of the former, & endued with the latter than they who are the peculiar possession of God, who by the sacrament of order have wholly dedicated themselves to his service, than they that cry, Dominus pars hereditatis me, God is a part, or rather, 
Psal. 15.  the portion os my inheritance, than they that concur with God as sanctified instruments to so holy a function: you than whom God hath instituted as second causes in spiritual affairs, aught to conform yourselves as beams in brightness to their orient sun, as crystal streams in purity to the fountain of life, as the hands of Christ to so precious a body, as a faculty of God to so divine a spirit, as secondary priests to our Saviour Christ lesus the Pastor and universal Bishop of our souls. O sacerdotium 
1 Pet. 2.  regal, gens sancts, popul●● acquisitionis: you hath God peculiarly elected as spiritual kings over the souls of his people, in your hands hath he put the kingdom of heaven, for you keep the keys, you o 
Math 18.  pen and shut the gates, you exalt the miserable to kingdoms by losing their sins, and you cast into perpetual thraldom, by retaining their crimes, you manage the body & soul of Christ the king of glory, you with your words set a K. in his throne upon the altar before you, a king is your offering, a king your sacrifice, a king you eat, a king you dispense unto the people, you represent the person of a king, you offer your sacrifice unto a king, therefore most aptly the Apostle calleth your vocation particularly, Kingly. therefore degenerate not from your royal estate, but with courageous victory of your passions and inordinate affections become kings of yourselves. Be not like many base Princes of the world, who reign over countries & serve their own concupiscences, who command their vassals, and are overruled by their own vices, all stories are full, all ●●tions confesle it, daily experience in many co●●●●meth it. As you are chosen by God from amongst men populus acquisition is, so by sanctity and holy ne●●e separate yourselves from men. You should shine in this dark night of heresy, in this firmament of Albion, like so many stars, like so many Abrahams in 
Gen. 11.  Vr of Caldie, like so many Lots in those five infanous Cities, like so many jobes in terra itus, in that 
Gen. 19  ungodly country, like the appletree among so many barren plants in the desert, or like our master 
Can. c. 2.  Christ as lilies among so many thorns, your sunctions are many, and of the worthiest in dignity, & chiefest in sanctity, all which the Eucharist perfiteth and enobleth, if your preparation be correspondent to your vocation: wherefore as the sea sendeth her abundance of water, venting her veins by fertelling streams to fatten the land, and the earth returneth them again, that after they may flow with greater excel, so aught the Priests like the land, open the concavities of their hearts, and receive the lacred influence of the Eucharist, and afterward with the fervent course of a continual and infatigable preparation, return all their graces and favours received from heaven, as answerable dispositions to the blessed sacrament, that afterwards they may flow into the soul, & fertile the faculties thereof with new virtues & spiritual increase. God hath ordained you as mediators betwixt the people and him, that your prayers ascend like incense to please 
Ad Heb. c. 5  his majesty, not only for your own sins, but also for the sins of the people: therefore you must border on both extremes, participating flesh and 
Ad Heb. 2  blood with the people, but spirit and virtue with God: and well remember that the twelve tribes of I●●●rael were graven in precious stones, embossed in gold, and by God's appointment carried upon A aaron's breast, upon the nearest part to his heart. So dear brethren, aught you to conceive of the souls committed to your charge, that they are precious stones, embossed in bodies that once shall stune more 
〈◊〉 15.  glistetingly than gold, Quando mortale hoe iuduet imm●rtalitatem; When this mortality shallbe clothed with immortality. For what can be more prevous, then that which Christ thought prizable of his own blood? at what rate aught you estimate those souls whom God hath endued with his grace, Christ dived in his blood, ransomed with his death. I he dea rest jewels that our Saviour possesseth under the cope of heaven, be hath committed to your custody. for this cause he gave you grace in your orderu for this cause the holy ghost anointed your hearts with his gifts, when the Bishop anointed your hands: for this cause at your discretion, he hath left the disposition of his body and blood, that you as good pastors might feed his flock in convenient time and season. Ah but you must consider that the high Priest carried, not only the names of the children of Israel upon his breast, but also upon both his shoulders, to signify that they were a burden to 
Luc. 15.  him: You know the pastor of all pastors, after he had wandered long to reclaim the straying sheep unto her fold, he would not lead her in his hand, but cast her upon his shoulders, to teach all pastors what pain & diligence they aught to use for the preservation & conservation of their flock. But by what means shall this burden, even heavy for the shoulders of Angels, be supported by a fragile and weak man, who at every let fainteth, and daily falleth? What remedy presently restoreth lost forces? ●●ely nothing more quickly than wine, than the blessed Sacrament: for I know not how by a most secret manner, the vapours of wine almost as soon as it entereth into the mouth, comforteth the brain, and the heat thereof, almost in a moment disperseth itself thorough the whole body. O what inflamed prayers, what cordial sighs, what effectual supplications should every Priest present before the majesty of God, when he offereth up this sacred ●oast? How with Moses hold up his hands to hea●en, 
Exo. 17.  till his people were in fight below against the infernal and worldly enemies of their souls? How with Elias by force of prayer open the cararacts 
3 Reg. 18.  of God's grace, that he would power down upon the hearts of their flock that plwiam voluntari●m, 
Psal. 67.  that voluntary rain (proceeding from a good will, and causing a goodwill) to refresh and restore them, which effecteth all goodness in the spiritual sieldes of Christ's church? O how acceptable will those prayers sound in Christ's cares, which the Priest offereth to him laid upon the altar (as a lamb killed for the sins of the world) for the sins and offences of his people? O that every Priest now in England, from the bottom of his heart, at the presence of Christ in the holy Mass with tears of compassion and incensed desires of fervent cha●●●ie would imitate our high Priest Christ jesus upon the cross, in offering up their supplications for the sins of the people, to the holy Trinity: soon we should exterminate heresy out of the hearts of our poor brethren, soon we should banish the troops of sins that now swarm in England, soon with this barley loaf rolling upon their souls, we should o●erthrow 
judic. 7.  the tents of Madian.  
Truly, if these prayers be not heard, I know not, ●●eet lefu, what prayers thou wilt hear, for they are offered by thy minister, at thy altar, before thy preseace, by thy commandemet, to thy glory, for the salvation of many. No man can deny but that the precept of prayer and devotion toucheth all sorts of persons. yet more particularly the Clergy, for their state and vocation, as the bond of justice and equity appertaineth to all men, yet especially to Magistrates, in regard of their office and public authority. For which cause devout Priests stint their hours daily for their prayers, meditations, and spiritual exercises, spending their time in devotion, that others either consume frivolously in transitory pleasures, or anxiously in heaping up worldly trash, or idly in impertinent affairs. O what comfort is it to the labouring husbandman, while he soweth his seed with toil, and sweat, to see his Curate praying with tears for a plentiful Harvest? How rejoiceth the Merchant while his ship rangeth in the wild Ocean, to behold the pastor of his soul by prayer, pacifying the wrath of God, and calming the tempestuous seas? How boldly marcheth the soldier to the field, grounded upon a just cause of water, knowing that while he fighteth against his enemies in body, his ghostly father oppugneth them with his soul finally, all the lay people put great trust and confidence in all their negotiations, in the devout prayers of godly Priests.  
Your second function not much inferior to the precedent, yet most necessary for your flock, and greatly furthered by your diligent preparation to the Eucharist, is to teach the people and instruct them: Labia sace●dotis custodient scientiam, & leg●m 
Mal. ●.  requirent, ex are eius, quia angelus domini exercitumn est. The Priest's lips shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth, because he 
Luke ●●.  is the Angel of our Lord of Hosts. Your mouth must be the treasury of the seculars knowledge, they must have recourse to you in all their difficulties, you must expound the scriptures unto them, you must resolve their doubts, either belonging to faith or good life. This cannot be well performed without true doctrine, and virtuous examples, by teaching by word and deed: good it is to teach well, laudable to preach well, but if good life be not annexed, the preacher destroyeth with one hand, that he built with the other: and as our eyes certify us better of that they see, than the cares of that they hear, and printeth a deeper impression in the mind, so an ill example dissuadeth more, than a good sermon persuadeth, such corruptness carrieth our vicious nature. Wherhfore God commanded that Moses should 'cause to be graven in a plate of gold tied to Aaron's breast, Doctrina and Veritas, 
Exod. 28.  Doctrine and Truth, or as the Hebrew text hath, light & perfection: because the priest aught to teach the people, illuminating their minds with the light of doctrine, and persuade it effectually by virtue and perfection. I remember that in the life of Saint Francis is registered, that once he called one of his brethren to go with him a preaching, the good and obedient religious man went with him: S Francis passed from one side of the City to another, and almost compassed the whole, ever observing to go through those streets, where the multitude was most frequent, yet always inclining his eyes to the ground, never speaking to his brother who did toe like: when they came home, O father quoth the good simple brother, when will you preach? Saint Francis answered, brother, dost thou think we have not preached all this while, our modest behaviour, silent tongues, mortified countenances austere attire, retired eyes from worldly vanities, this day havo made a good and real sermon; & so in very deed they did: for I doubt not but many of his brethren preached and proficed not so much by their sermons, as he did by this example. Therefore Christ called his Disciples Lux mundi, 
Math. 5.  the light of the world, the which illuminateth, not only our eyes, but also heateth our bodies. I know dear brethren, that the state of priests in England, incurreth daily many dangers, and in hazarding their lives for Gods true Religion, their merit cannot be but great: yet you must think, that having opposed yourselves against the Devil, he will not permit you to be quiet, and if he found you disarmed in soul with prayer and meditation, and unclothed with the garments of gravity and ecclesiastical modesty, and as secular in soul as in apparel, doubt not but his darts will wound deeply, therefore vie this external liberty, which necessity ofter ensorceth you, to disguise yourselves withal, rather as a thing counterfeited for a stage, then to take any pleasure or delight therein. And when you come to the holy Altar, there excuse yourselves with tears, ask of the Father of light, that he power down from heaven, the beams of his favours: light your lamps at his link, expel all clouds, that this sun may communicate his rays to you so many earthly planets, demand of him who teacheth all men, that he teach you, to whom he hath committed the charge to teach others. He illu●inateth 
Io. 1.  all men that come into this world: he is lux mundi, the universal light, he imparteth wisdom to 
Io. 9  all without expostulation: he makes the tongues of 
Sap. 10.  infants eloquent: he endueth youngmen that keep his law, with profounder piudence than hoary 
Psal. 118.  hairs. Ah dear souls, be not obscured with misty thoughts, having before you the fountain of eternal light, let not worldly fancies inveigle your wits, whom Gods verive feeds, let not sensual delight dazzle those eyes which have beheld so often the life of all purity.  
The administration of five sacraments, Baptism, Penance, matrimony, extreme unction, and the Eucharist, is the third flower that adorneth your gatland: this function comprehendeth five faculues or abilities, like so many diamonds, pearls & rubies, that deck your spiritual crown. All these you are bound for two causes to administer in grace without blot or slain of mortal sin, otherwise you commit a most heinous crime & horrible sacrilege. The first reason is, because the instruments of god must have due proportion & conformity in holiness & sanctity with their principal agent: E. 
Leu. 11. & 19 & 20. & 1. Pet. 1.  stote sancti, quia ego sanctus sum: be you holy, for I am holy, that is an universal precept given to all those that as instruments attend upon the majesty of God The second reason, natural reason itself yieldeth, for why did he endue you with grace in your order, but that you should keep it, and administer his sacraments worthily? therefore universally he that abuseth God's sacraments for these two causes, in curreth a most heinous offence. But he that celebrateth in a mortal sin, committeth divers and most intolerable sacrileges. I trust in God that none of the zealous priests in England, so well instructed, so nigh their death, so fortified with gods grace in this tempestuousdea of persecution, will forget their duty so far, that they dare but once think deliberately to presume to ascend to his sacred Altar contaminated with a deadly crime. Yet in all multitudes generally, hath been, is, and will bosom defections, the Angels were not so pure, but among them there remained some dregs, Lucifer and his complices to be cast to the channel of hell. The Apostles trained up by Christ in all virtue and justice, lacked not a these: the seven Deacons instructed by the Apostles themselves, 
Math. 25.  continued not long without an heretic: if the Church have five wise Virgins, five foolish will thrust into their company: if like a net it be cast 
Math. 13.  into the sea, it taketh all sorts of fish, the good and the bad enter both together: if like a Barn 
Math. 3  it receive the Corn, the chaff must not be left behind: If like a fold it contain the flock 
Io. 10.  of Christ's Sheep, the Herd of stinking Goats will crowd among them: and finally, cockle and corn in nature's fields, and Christ's Church, must alwyed grow together. Therefore if among Priests some live not so orderly as their vocation requireth, let not the world wonder, because in all multitudes it hath been usual, 
Math. 8.  Necesse est ut scandala vinian●, ve tamen homini illi per quem scandalum venit.  
Howbeit, I trust in God never such a judas shall appear among you, yet let us imagine that such a monster should rise up: and without regard of his duty to the majesty of God, without consideration of his own vocation, without respect of this venerable sacrifice to be offered, without weighing how he iniurieth the church which admitted him to this dignity, should presume with a defiled mouth, a stained soul, a polluted tongue, to ascend to God's sacred Altar to consecrated this dreadful Sacrament. O into how many & how horrible sacrileges this impious wretch plungeth his miserable soul? How dare this member of sathan join himself as a member of god, with god to effect so divine a mystery? Qua 
●. Cor. 6.  societas luci ad tenobras, qua conventio Christi ad Belial? What consort can there be betwixt light and darkness, God & Belial? With what face can he appear before God, to celebrated this sacrifice flowing with floods of love and charity, who hath renounced God's friendship, and proclaimed open wars against him? How can that hellish breath exhale those words of infinite value in person of Christ, whom al●ttle before he crucified in himself with the nails of sin upon the wood of his heart? If Saul 
1 Reg. 15.  lost his kingdom, because he presumed to sacrifice, which appertained not to him: If Oza fell down dead for upholding the Ark, which was not his office: 
2. Reg. 6.  If king Ozias was c●st in a leprosy for offering 
2. Para. 26.  incense, which belonged to the sons of Aaron, shall not this unworthy wretch persuade himself, that an other sort of revenge is reserved for him, whose sin so far exceedeth theirs in enormity and wickedness as the lakes of dodoma in filth, the clearest streams of Iorden? How many circumstances here concur, all aggravating his offence, and rendering it more heinous? The person elected of God. and chosen to so high a dignity, whose ingratitude doubleth the crime, Dilectus mens in domo mea fecit scelera multa, my once beloved (but now accursed 
Hier. 11. ) in my house committed many crimes, he that did eat bread with me did lift up his heel against me, he that was bound for so many reasons to love 
Psal. 14 & Io. 13.  me, he thus ungratefully doth abuse me.  
The circumstance of the sacrifice offered increaseth the offence, for the principal function of Priesthood, and most essentially thereunto annexed, is the act of sacrificing, all other whatsoever give place thereunto: Yet herein this caitiff in the chiefest funtion most vildly transgresseth: and specially in offering so precious a treasure for the sins of all the faithful, he himself sinneth therein most unfaithfully all his touching, crossing, dividing, augment & amplify the defor mitie of his delict. The consecration was sufficient to damn him to hell, but the consumption will drown him deeper, there he was an unworthy agent, here an unworthy patient, there he offended in producing God irreverently, here he sinneth in not being deified for his demerit: for if the Apple Adam ate poisoned him 
Oen. 3.  and all his posterity, if that poor Prophet seduced by another Prophet for taking a small repast 
3. Reg. 13.  was devoured of a lion, who will not judge but he that eateth Christ's body unworthily, iuditium sibi 
a Cor. 11.  mandueat, eateth that b●dy and soul of him that both shallbe his judge, and the cause of his condemnation? O what indignity is this, that God for love should lay his son, his only son, his wisdom, his life, all his treasure in thy hand, to ofter, to eat, to distribute, and thou to cast it into a body, a den more sit for devils than a temple for Christ? Art thou not afraid, that while he entereth into thy mouth he put not forth one of his hands and root out that accursed tongue that was so presumptuous to breath upon his body, to utter the words of consecration, to touch so unspotted an host? the plague of the Bethsamites 
1. Reg. 6.  one day shall condemn thee to death, because thou wouldst not learn by their harms how to behave thyself in the handling of this sacrifice, for they being punished so horribly for looking but upon an ark of wood, cry aloud & say, what shall become of thee in treading Christ's body under thy foot?  
The third sacrilege, or rather deilege this ingrateful miser incurreth, consisteth in the irreverent administration of this sacrament, for if he only come but to the altar, to communicate others, without celebrating, yet by touching and dispensing the Eucharist in a mortal sin, he sinneth mortally, and committeth a sacrilege: this we learn by Oza, 
a Reg. 6.  who unworthily touching the Ark against the precept of God, was punished by death of the body, a figure, to declare how he that handleth this sacrament irreverently, incurreth the death of his soul: for the same reason those that touched any dead body, 
Leu. 11.  were unclean among the Jews, and could not be admitted among the faithful, till by washing and other ceremonies their uncleanness was taken away, and what could this type more lively represent then a stained body made unclean, by touching a soul dead in mortal sin, the which aught not to touch the body of Christ, or any holy sacrament, without expiation and sacramental washing? For he that handleth the Eucharist with hands bedawbed in dust and mire, sinneth mortally for his irreverence to so sovereign a majesty, without doubt he sinneth more heinously, that handleth it with hands polluted and defiled with sin. Besides, the dispensation of the Eucharist, ex officio, and publicly belongeth to holy orders, and therefore he that dispenseth it, in deadly sin offendeth mortally, because to that effect among the rest god imparteth his grace unto his ministers. Let us now after Mass, consider with the internal eyes of our souls, the lamentable state of this miserable & detestable wretch, he that was elected of God, chosen his peculiar & dear servant, admitted to the chiefest functions in earth, endued with grace, made a mediator betwixt god & man, now is become a reprobate, a servant of sathan, a slave of sin, stained with sacrileges, made abominable to god, & almost unprositable to his people. Oquomodo obscuratum est aurum, mutatus 
Ier: 4.  est co●●r dispersi sunt lapides santuarii in capite 〈◊〉 platearij. O how is his gold become dark, the finest colour changed (the image of God into the shape of the devil) the stones of the sanctuary dispersed in the head of every street, the jewels of all virtues trodden under foot, his functions despised, for doubt not but he that useth this trade, shortly will become, not only disgraced in the sight of God, but also contemptible to men. Some Priests of the meaner sort I have known relapse into heresy, & afterward to reclaim their error, yet they confessed that the cause of their ruin came not by any persuasion of diffidence in the Catholic religion, or truth of protestancy, but in regard of the lewd behaviour in life, and irreverent exercising of their functions, whereby they daily wallowed from one sin to another, and so at last to warrant their pleasures the better, they plunged into the abyss of heresy and infidelity: this I could show, if need were, under their own haudwriting, diwlgated among their friends, and at this present divers hue now in England, in external show, Protestants, who suffered I know, first shipwreck in life, then in religion, they passed thorough the gates of sensuality, before they entered the hell of heresy. Therefore dear brethren, learn by their losses betimes, to corred your own lives, for we carry this precious treasure of the Eucharist, as we daily prove, in vasis fiotilibus, 
2. Cor. 4.  in earthen vessels that quickly are broken. Beware of emulation and dissension in agible matters, take heed of gluttony and superfluities in eating and drinking, but above all, eschew dishonesty & impurity, for as this vice impugneth often, and vehemently, so without mortification, fasting, and praying, and a divine influence from heaven, it can not be overruled, continua pugna rara victoria saith saint Augustine, the temptation of lust is a continual fight, yet rarely men win the victory, here many servants of God most miserably have miscarried, here they who soared above the skies were caused to stoop, here I see God's Priests extremely honoured, or extremely contemned: for those that are known so lead their lives irreprehensibly in purity and chastity, they are accounted consequently good and religious men, and the reason is manifest, for that a man cannot observe chastity, except he live in God's grace and favour, wherein consisteth true holiness and sanctity: and if he overcome the greatest enemy, the lesser will easily be vanquished. Contrariwise, those Priests that give but any sign of impurity, I know not how, but all men abhor them, they dare not commit any secrets unto them, they resemble persons that the devil ruleth and possesseth, those that see them at the altar, tremble at such a spectacle. Therefore in gestures words, deeds, and all occasions, let us avoid all things that may insinuate or give any light show of propension or inclination of our souls to such a filthy sin, let not any conceir or imagination thereof make deep impression in our minds, but let us fly from them as serpents, and poisoned Coccatrices, which infect, only with looking on us.  
And since you are the true Nazarites, elected peculiarly 
Numb. 6.  of God, severed from the rest, sanctified by him, and consecrated unto him, let that be verified in you that Hieremie pronounced of them, Candidiores 
Lam. Hie●. 4.  nive, nitidiores lact, iubicundiores ebore autiquo, sapphire pulchriores: whiter than snow, cleaner than 
Psal. 50  milk, redder than old ivory, more beautiful than sapphires. Whiter than snow, by the washing of your fins with the tears of repentance. Lavabis me, & super nive dealbabor, thou wilt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow, clearer or purer than milk, for infantlike simplieitie, sincerity and purity, redder than red yvotie, coloured with the grain of Christ's vermilion blood, by receiving the Eucharist, more beautiful than sapphires, adorned with all sorts of virtues, by internal grace and external gravity. Ah take heed that he soretel not you that lamentable theme, which he prophesied of them. 
Ibidem.  Denigrate est super carbones facies corum, non sunt cogniti in plateys, adhasit cutis corum ossibus. I heir face is become blacker than coals, they are not known in the streets, their skin oid cleave to their bones. For the soul losing the beauty of God's grace, becometh as black as the Devil: when the priest lacketh the show and colour of godliness, the people neither reverence him as they aught, nor acknowledge his dignity, because the flesh and fat of virtue is gone, there remaineth no more but skin and bone, that is, external attire, and the internal character, and therefore no marvel if he be deformed. L●t this disgrace befall them that cannot live continent, but must lead a sister, and so immediately leap out of their unchaste beds into their unholy communion, let them come presently from clipping and embracing their minions to feed upon their faithless bread: Such ministers are suitable to such a sacrifice, and such preparation to like oblation. But come you with fasting and praying, with shirts of hair, and loins gided, with fervent faith, strong hope, and inflamed charity, bathe your eyes with tear, inconse your breasts with sighs, adorn your hearts with love. Let him find your souls a garden with fragrant flowers of virtue, beset with lilies of chastity: a Temple with prayer, levotion, and Religion, a heavenly paradise, with peace of conscience and tranquillity.  
FINIS.   

A TABLE OF THE CONtents of this treatise.  

That no man can prepare himself worthily to receive the B. Sacrament. 1  
That God requireth a certain preparation of them that receive. 7  
Two sorts of preparation. 17  
Preparation before we communicate. 25  
Of Fear. 32  
Of Faith. 37  
Of Hope. 40  
Of charity. 45  
How to unite our souls to God, in preparing them to receive him. 51  
Union in Affection. 55  
Of Zeal. 62  
Of ecstasy. 63  
Of Benevolence. 67  
grief for sins past. 69  
Of purpose to observe intierely the commandments of God. 74   

THE second part.  
Of Preparation, when we communicate Naked. 84  
Wounded. 96  
As a Son to his Father. 101  
As a Friends to his friend. 107  
As a Soldier to his Captain. 124  
As a Scholar to his Master. 1●8  
As the Creature to glorify his Creator. 163  
As one chained by enemies. 173  
As a Garden. 178  
As an infant to his Mother's dug. 188  
As hungry & needy. 197  
As the three Kings. 201  
As a ship cossed. 209  
As the prodigal Son. 214  
To honour Gods Saints 217  
As a heart thirsting the fountain of life. 219  
As a pilgrim. 220  
As a faithless Spouse the her husband. 222  
As a propitiation for the dead. 224  
As a grateful obsequy unto god for all his Saints 227  
As moving to prayer. 230   

THE THIRD PART.  
What we aught to do after receiving of the blessed Sacrament. 239  
The disposition of our Imagination, in receiving the holy Eucharist. 241  
The presence of god beholding. 243  
The presence of Christ's humanity. 260  
The presence of Angels. 266  
What we ought to do, when we receive the blessed Sacrament in mouth. 271  
Affects. 274  
Oblation & resignation 282  
Circumspection or caution. 286   

Faults esecaped in the prinringe.  
Pol 147 Lin. 9 Offinde god.  
(Add) & porish.  
151 Liu. 4. it natural wit.  
(Add) or divine Faith.  
210 Lin. 10. delights of the world.  
(Add) What Siren more crafty, than our flesh & senses?  
253. Lin. 17. then all the eyes, (Add) and wits.