saying, and worthy to be used in every temptation of the devil and the world, "I will rather endure death, than sin in the sight of God."

The valiant soldier, when in warlike conflict he considereth the eyes of the emperor or captain to be upon him, he fighteth more courageously; for he knoweth that it is in the power of the emperor or captain after the victory obtained to distribute the spoils, and reward the well-deserving. What should not the soldier of Christ do in this daily combat with the devil, the world, and the flesh, seeing the eyes of the Divine Majesty cast upon him, remembering the eternal rewards, while he knoweth, that in the very conflict, Divine assistance will not fail him?

The verity of this, daily experience doth confirm; for if it happen, that some servant of God (occasion being offered of wrath and anger) to be unmindful of the Divine Godhead, neither ordinarily to lift up his heart to God, we see that he doth easily slip, or fall into words of impatience, or at least to have some perverse cogitations in his mind; but if he have his heart erected to God, and refer all his pious desires to Him, he is soon at quiet, neither doth his mind give place to turbulent perturbations.

Palladius visiting his friend Diocles, amongst other documents received from him, being a holy

man, this was one; A man," saith he, "without the contemplation of the Divine Presence, is either a devil, or a beast: a beast, if he give place to the temptations of the flesh, and carnal delights; a devil, if to wrath, arrogancy, and the like." When Palladius asked him by what means a man might have his soul quiet and always fixed upon God, he answered, "So often as the mind is occupied in any godly cogitations which doth direct to God, then it is fixed with God; but when it forgetteth God, then it becomes either a devil or a beast." This he understood to be done not only when a man falleth into any great or capital sin, but also into some lighter sins, whereby he is made like either a devil or a beast. Wherefore the servant of God may in no case neglect at any time the Divine Presence, especially when occasions are offered of wrath, impatience, pride, unlawful desires, and such others. He may not, I say, at any time neglect with watchfulness to lift up his mind to God, to crave by prayer His daily assistance.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

HOW, BY THIS EXERCISE OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE, STABILITY OF HEART, THE PERFECTION OF VIRTUES, AND OUTWARD CLEANNESS, ARE ATTAINED.

AMONGST those excellent good things which are got by this holy exercise, stability of heart is numbered to be one; for first of all it is manifest that man was created for this end, that even in this life he should be firmly joined unto God by contemplation and love, and, in the other, heavenly life by a clear vision. Now, after that he hath separated himself from God by sin, and hath turned unto the creatures, beginning to seek rest in them, (although that he had never found that he was made for them, or that any desire of them could satisfy him,) hence it is that his cogitations and desires do transport him sometimes this way, and sometimes that way, and so he falleth into great instability of heart; which the Prophet Jeremiah bewailed in this manner, "Jerusalem hath sinned a sin, therefore she is made unstable, erring from one place to another!”

And surely the soul vexed with divers desires of

1 Lamentations i. 8.

earthly things, is much troubled; hereof come the divisions of the heart, for so many divisions there are, as thoughts and studies to which it diverteth. Now, in division things are destroyed and consumed, according to that of the Prophet, "Their heart is divided, therefore they shall perish "." Into this woful state do they chiefly fall who commit any capital sin, for they are pulled from the love of God, and are in soul dead by the death of sin into which they fall, that are too much addicted to the love of earthly things. Now these evils can by no more effectual antidote or preservative against evil be turned away, than by the holy exercise of the Divine Presence. For when as our mind doth often elevate her cogitations and desires to God, conversing with Him, and entering, as it were, a familiarity, by little and little, it is settled and confirmed; for that it is drawn from things subject to instability, and united unto Him who is not subject to any shadow of change. When the ship in the sea is tossed hither and thither, there is great danger; that it dash not against a rock, the safest way is to cast some strong anchor so when the mind of man, in the ocean of this world, is tossed with divers and dangerous thoughts, the safest and surest way is to apply it,

m Hosea x. 2.

T

and fasten it, to the anchor of the Divine Presence, that it may come to stability, and that constancy which is acceptable to God. Wherefore, that spoken by the Wise Man doth well befit the servant of God, "The godly man continueth in his wisdom as the sun, but the fool is changed as the moon "."

Now this remembrance of God, or Divine Presence, doth not only compose and order the inward man, but also the outward. For as the servant of some great personage is by no means better contained within the lists and limits of duty, or moved to carry himself soberly, than if he understand he is beheld of his lord and diligently observed in his actions; so the servant of God is by no means more effectually retained within the actions of piety, than if he remember that he is always conversant in the sight of God, as the stars of heaven in presence of the sun, from whom they receive their light. Wherefore the Wise Man said well, "Blessed is the man that continueth in wisdom, and thinketh of the beholding of God."

Ecclesiasticus xxvii. 11.

• Ecclesiasticus xiv. 20.