1. The kingdom of God is within you, says the Lord. Turn you with all your heart to the Lord and forsake this miserable world, and you will find rest to your soul. Learn to despise outward things and to give yourself to things inward, and you will see the kingdom of God come within you. For the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and it is not given to the wicked. Christ will come to you, and show you His consolation, if you prepare a worthy mansion for Him within you. All His glory and beauty is from within, and there it pleass Him to dwell. He often visits the inward man and holds with him sweet discourse, giving him soothing consolation, much peace, friendship exceeding wonderful.

2. Go to, faithful soul, prepare your heart for this bridegroom that he may graciously come to you and dwell within you, for so He says, if any man loves me he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. Give, therefore, place to Christ and refuse entrance to all others. When you have Christ, you are rich, and have sufficient. He shall be your provider and faithful watchman in all things, so that you have no need to trust in men, for men soon change and swiftly pass away, but Christ remains for ever and stands by us firmly even to the end.

3. There is no great trust to be placed in a frail and mortal man, even though he be useful and dear to us, neither should much sorrow arise within us if sometimes he oppose and contradict us. They who are on your side to-day, may to-morrow be against you, and often are they turned round like the wind. Put your whole trust in God and let Him be your fear and your love, He will answer for you Himself, and will do for you what is best. Here have you no continuing city, and wheresoever you are, you are a stranger and a pilgrim, and you will never have rest unless you are closely united to Christ within you.

4. Why do you cast your eyes hither and thither, since this is not the place of your rest? In heaven ought your habitation to be, and all earthly things should be looked upon as it were in the passing by. All things pass away and you equally with them. Look that you cleave not to them for fear you may be taken with them and perish. Let your contemplation be on the Most High, and let your supplication be directed to Christ without ceasing. If you can not behold high and heavenly things, rest you in the passion of Christ and dwell willingly in His sacred wounds. For if you devoutly fly to the wounds of Jesus, and the precious marks of the nails and the spear, you will find great comfort in tribulation, nor will the slights of men trouble you much, and you will easily bear their unkind words.

5. Christ also, when He was in the world, was despised and rejected of men, and in His greatest necessity was left by His acquaintance and friends to bear these reproaches. Christ was willing to suffer and be despised, and darest you complain of any? Christ had adversaries and gainsayers, and do you wish to have all men your friends and benefactors? Whence shall your patience attain her crown if no adversity befall you? If you are unwilling to suffer any adversity, how will you be the friend of Christ? Sustain yourself with Christ and for Christ if you want to reign with Christ.

6. If you had once entered into the mind of Jesus, and had tasted yea even a little of his tender love, then would you care nought for your own convenience or inconvenience, but would rather rejoice at trouble brought upon you, because the love of Jesus maks a man to despise himself. He who loves Jesus, and is inwardly true and free from inordinate affections, is able to turn himself readily to God, and to rise above himself in spirit, and to enjoy fruitful peace.

7. He who knows things as they are and not as they are said or seem to be, he truly is wise, and is taught of God more than of men. He who knows how to walk from within, and to set little value upon outward things, requirs not places nor waits for seasons, for holding his intercourse with God. The inward man quickly recollects himself, because he is never entirely given up to outward things. No outward labour and no necessary occupations stand in his way, but as events fall out, so does he fit himself to them. He who is rightly disposed and ordered within cars not for the strange and perverse conduct of men. A man is hindered and distracted in so far as he is moved by outward things.

8. If it were well with you, and you were purified from evil, all things would work together for your good and profiting. For this cause do many things displease you and often trouble you, that you are not yet perfectly dead to yourself nor separated from all earthly things. Nothing so defils and entangls the heart of man as impure love towards created things. If you rejectest outward comfort you will be able to contemplate heavenly things and frequently to be joyful inwardly.

1. Make no great account who is for you or against you, but mind only the present duty and take care that God be with you in whatsoever you do. Have a good conscience and God will defend you, for he whom God will help no man's perverseness shall be able to hurt. If you know how to hold your peace and to suffer, without doubt you will see the help of the Lord. He knows the time and the way to deliver you, therefore must you resign yourself to Him. To God it belongs to help and to deliver from all confusion. Oftentimes it is very profitable for keeping us in greater humility, that others know and rebuke our faults.

2. When a man humbls himself for his defects, he then easily pacifiesothers and quickly satisfiesthose that are angered against him. God protects and delivers the humble man, He loves and comforts the humble man, to the humble man He inclins Himself, on the humble He bestows great grace, and when he is cast down He raises him to glory: to the humble He reveals His secrets, and sweetly draws and invits him to Himself. The humble man having received reproach, is yet in sufficient peace, because he rests on God and not on the world. Reckon not yourself to have profited in anywise unless you feel yourself to be inferior to all.

1. First keep yourself in peace, and then will you be able to be a peacemaker towards others. A peaceable man does more good than a well- learned. A passionate man turns even good into evil and easily believes evil; a good, peaceable man converts all things into good. He who dwells in peace is suspicious of none, but he who is discontented and restless is tossed with many suspicions, and is neither quiet himself nor suffers others to be quiet. He often says what he ought not to say, and omits what it were more expedient for him to do. He considers to what duties others are bound, and neglects those to which he is bound himself. Therefore be zealous first over yourself, and then may you righteously be zealous concerning your neighbour.

2. You know well how to excuse and to colour your own deeds, but you will not accept the excuses of others. It would be more just to accuse yourself and excuse your brother. If you will that others bear with you, bear you with others. Behold how far you are as yet from the true charity and humility which knows not how to be angry or indignant against any save self alone. It is no great thing to mingle with the good and the meek, for this is naturally pleasing to all, and every one of us willingly enjoys peace and liks best those who think with us: but to be able to live peaceably with the hard and perverse, or with the disorderly, or those who oppose us, this is a great grace and a thing much to be commended and most worthy of a man.

3. There are who keep themselves in peace and keep peace also with others, and there are who neither have peace nor suffer others to have peace; they are troublesome to others, but always more troublesome to themselves. And there are who hold themselves in peace, and study to bring others to peace; nevertheless, all our peace in this sad life lies in humble suffering rather than in not feeling adversities. He who best knows how to suffer shall possess the most peace; that man is conqueror of himself and lord of the world, the friend of Christ, and the inheritor of heaven.

1. By two wings is man lifted above earthly things, even by simplicity and purity. Simplicity ought to be in the intention, purity in the affection. Simplicity reaches towards God, purity apprehends Him and tastes Him. No good action will be distasteful to you if you be free within from inordinate affection. If you reach after and seek, nothing but the will of God and the benefit of your neighbour, you will entirely enjoy inward liberty. If your heart were right, then should every creature be a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine. There is no creature so small and vile but that it shows us the goodness of God.

2. If you were good and pure within, then would you look upon all things without hurt and understand them aright. A pure heart ses the very depths of heaven and hell. Such as each one is inwardly, so judgs he outwardly. If there is any joy in the world surely the man of pure heart possesses it, and if there is anywhere tribulation and anguish, the evil conscience knows it best. As iron cast into the fire loss rust and is made altogether glowing, so the man who turns himself altogether to God is freed from slothfulness and changed into a new man.

3. When a man beginns to grow lukewarm, then he fears a little labour, and willingly accepts outward consolation; but when he beginns perfectly to conquer himself and to walk manfully in the way of God, then he counts as nothing those things which aforetime seemed to be so grievous to him.

1. We cannot place too little confidence in ourselves, because grace and understanding are often lacking to us. Little light is there within us, and what we have we quickly lose by negligence. Oftentimes we perceive not how great is our inward blindness. We often do ill and excuse it worse. Sometimes we are moved by passion and count it zeal; we blame little faults in others and pass over great faults in ourselves. Quickly enough we feel and reckon up what we bear at the hands of others, but we reflect not how much others are bearing from us. He who would weigh well and rightly his own doings would not be the man to judge severely of another.

2. The spiritually- minded man puts care of himself before all cares; and he who diligently attends to himself easily keeps silence concerning others. You will never be spiritually minded and godly unless you are silent concerning other men's matters and take full heed to yourself. If you think wholly upon yourself and upon God, what you see out of doors shall move you little. Where are you when you are not present to yourself? and when you have overrun all things, what has it profited you, yourself being neglected? If you would have peace and true unity, you must put aside all other things, and gaze only upon yourself.

3. Then you will make great progress if you keep yourself free from all temporal care. You will lamentably fall away if you set a value upon any worldly thing. Let nothing be great, nothing high, nothing pleasing, nothing acceptable to you, save God Himself or the things of God. Reckon as altogether vain whatsoever consolation comes to you from a creature. The soul that loves God looks not to anything that is beneath God. God alone is eternal and incomprehensible, filling all things, the solace of the soul, and the true joy of the heart.

1. The testimony of a good conscience is the glory of a good man. Have a good conscience and you will ever have joy. A good conscience is able to bear exceeding much, and is exceeding joyful in the midst of adversities; an evil conscience is ever fearful and unquiet. You will rest sweetly if your heart condemn you not. Never rejoice unless when you have done well. The wicked have never true joy, nor feel internal peace, for there is no peace, says my God, to the wicked. And if they say "we are in peace, there shall no harm happen to us, and who shall dare to do us hurt?" believe them not, for suddenly shall the wrath of God rise up against them, and their deeds shall be brought to nought, and their thoughts shall perish.

2. To glory in tribulation is not grievous to him who loves; for such glorying is glorying in the Cross of Christ. Brief is the glory which is given and received of men. Sadness always goes hand in hand with the glory of the world. The glory of the good is in their conscience, and not in the report of men. The joy of the upright is from God and in God, and their joy is in the truth. He who desirs true and eternal glory cars not for that which is temporal; and he who seeks temporal glory, or who despiss it from his heart, is proved to bear little love for that which is heavenly. He who cars for neither praises nor reproaches has great tranquillity of heart.

3. He will easily be contented and filled with peace, whose conscience is pure. You are none the holier if you are praised, nor the viler if you are reproached. You are what you are; and you can not be better than God pronouncs you to be. If you considerest well what you are inwardly, you will not care what men will say to you. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart: man looks on the deed, but God considers the intent. It is the token of a humble spirit always to do well, and to set little by oneself. Not to look for consolation from any created thing is a sign of great purity and inward faithfulness.

4. He that seeks no outward witness on his own behalf, shows plainly that he has committed himself wholly to God. For not he that commends himself is approved, as St. Paul says, but whom the Lord commends. To walk inwardly with God, and not to be held by any outer affections, is the state of a spiritual man.

Isaiah lvii. 21. 1 Samuel xvi. 7. 2 Corinthians x. 18.

1. Blessed is he who understands what it is to love Jesus, and to despise himself for Jesus' sake. He must give up all that he loves for his Beloved, for Jesus will be loved alone above all things. The love of created things is deceiving and unstable, but the love of Jesus is faithful and lasting. He who cleavs to created things will fall with their slipperiness; but he who embracs Jesus will stand upright for ever. Love Him and hold Him for your friend, for He will not forsake you when all depart from you, nor will he suffer you to perish at the last. You must one day be separated from all, whether you will or will not.

2. Cleave you to Jesus in life and death, and commit yourself to His faithfulness, who, when all men fail you, is alone able to help you. Your Beloved is such, by nature, that He will suffer no rival, but alone will possess your heart, and as a king will sit upon His own throne. If you would learn to put away from you every created thing, Jesus would freely take up His abode with you. You will find all trust little better than lost which you have placed in men, and not in Jesus. Trust not nor lean upon a reed shaken with the wind, because all flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof falls as the flower of the field.

3. You will be quickly deceived if you look only upon the outward appearance of men, for if you seek your comfort and profit in others, you will too often experience loss. If you seek Jesus in all things you will truly find Jesus, but if you seek yourself you will also find yourself, but to your own hurt. For if a man seeks not Jesus he is more hurtful to himself than all the world and all his adversaries.

Isaiah xl. 6.

1. When Jesus is present all is well and nothing seems hard, but when Jesus is not present everything is hard. When Jesus speaks not within, our comfort is nothing worth, but if Jesus speaks but a single word great is the comfort we experience. Did not Mary Magdalene rise up quickly from the place where she wept when Martha said to her, The Master is come and calls for you? Happy hour when Jesus calls you from tears to the joy of the spirit! How dry and hard are you without Jesus! How senseless and vain if you desire anything beyond Jesus! Is not this greater loss than if you should lose the whole world?

2. What can the world profit you without Jesus? To be without Jesus is the nethermost hell, and to be with Jesus is sweet paradise. If Jesus were with you no enemy could hurt you. He who finds Jesus finds a good treasure, yea, good above all good; and he who loss Jesus loss exceeding much, yea, more than the whole world. Most poor is he who livs without Jesus, and most rich is he who is much with Jesus.

3. It is great skill to know how to live with Jesus, and to know how to hold Jesus is great wisdom. Be you humble and peaceable and Jesus shall be with you. Be godly and quiet, and Jesus will remain with you. You can quickly drive away Jesus and lose His favour if you will turn away to the outer things. And if you have put Him to flight and lost Him, to whom will you flee, and whom then will you seek for a friend? Without a friend you can not live long, and if Jesus be not your friend above all you will be very sad and desolate. Madly therefore do you if you trusts or find joy in any other. It is preferable to have the whole world against you, than Jesus offended with you. Therefore of all that are dear to you, let Jesus be specially loved.

4. Let all be loved for Jesus' sake, but Jesus for His own. Jesus Christ alone is to be specially loved, for He alone is found good and faithful above all friends. For His sake and in Him let both enemies and friends be dear to you, and pray for them all that they may all know and love Him. Never desire to be specially praised or loved, because this belongs to God alone, who has none like to Himself. Nor wish you that any one set his heart on you, nor do you give yourself up to the love of any, but let Jesus be in you and in every good man.

5. Be pure and free within yourself, and be not entangled by any created thing. You ought to bring a bare and clean heart to God, if you desire to be ready to see how gracious the Lord is. And in truth, unless you be prevented and drawn on by His grace, you will not attain to this, that having cast out and dismissed all else, you alone are united to God. For when the grace of God comes to a man, then he becomes able to do all things, and when it departs then he will be poor and weak and given up to troubles. In these you are not to be cast down nor to despair, but to rest with calm mind on the will of God, and to bear all things which come upon you to the praise of Jesus Christ; for after winter comes summer, after night returns day, after the tempest a great calm.

John xi. 28.

1. It is no hard thing to despise human comfort when divine is present. It is a great thing, yea very great, to be able to bear the loss both of human and divine comfort; and for the love of God willingly to bear exile of heart, and in nought to seek oneself, nor to look to one's own merit. What great matter is it, if you be cheerful of heart and devout when favour comes to you? That is an hour wherein all rejoice. Pleasantly enough does he ride whom the grace of God carries. And what marvel, if he feels no burden who is carried by the Almighty, and is led onwards by the Guide from on high?

2. We are willing to accept anything for comfort, and it is difficult for a man to be freed from himself. The holy martyr Laurence overcame the love of the world and even of his priestly master, because he despised everything in the world which seemed to be pleasant; and for the love of Christ he calmly suffered even God's chief priest, Sixtus, whom he dearly loved, to be taken from him. Thus by the love of the Creator he overcame the love of man, and instead of human comfort he chose rather God's good pleasure. So also learn you to resign any near and beloved friend for the love of God. Nor take it amiss when you have been deserted by a friend, knowing that we must all be parted from one another at last.

3. Mightily and long must a man strive within himself before he learn altogether to overcome himself, and to draw his whole affection towards God. When a man rests upon himself, he easily slips away to human comforts. But a true lover of Christ, and a diligent seeker after virtue, falls not back upon those comforts, nor seeks such sweetness as may be tasted and handled, but desirs rather hard exercises, and to undertake severe labours for Christ.

4. When, therefore, spiritual comfort is given by God, receive it with giving of thanks, and know that it is the gift of God, not your desert. Be not lifted up, rejoice not overmuch nor foolishly presume, but rather be more humble for the gift, more wary and more careful in all your doings; for that hour will pass away, and temptation will follow. When comfort is taken from you, do not immediately despair, but wait for the heavenly visitation with humility and patience, for God is able to give you back greater favour and consolation. This is not new nor strange to those who have made trial of the way of God, for with the great saints and the ancient prophets there was often this manner of change.

5. Wherefore one said when the favour of God was present with him, I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved, but he goes on to say what he felt within himself when the favour departed: You did turn Your face from me, and I was troubled. In spite whereof he in no wise despairs, but the more instantly entreats God, and says, To You, O Lord, will I cry, and will pray to my God; and then he receivs the fruit of his prayer, and testifieshow he has been heard, saying, The Lord heard me and had mercy upon me, the Lord was my helper. But wherein? You have turned my heaviness into joy, You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. If it was so with the great saints, we who are poor and needy ought not to despair if we are sometimes in the warmth and sometimes in the cold, for the Spirit comes and goes according to the good pleasure of His will. Wherefore holy Job says, You do visit him in the morning, and suddenly You do prove him.

6. Whereupon then can I hope, or wherein may I trust, save only in the great mercy of God, and the hope of heavenly grace? For whether good men are with me, godly brethren or faithful friends, whether holy books or beautiful discourses, whether sweet hymns and songs, all these help but little, and have but little savour when I am deserted by God's favour and left to mine own poverty. There is no better remedy, then, than patience and denial of self, and an abiding in the will of God.

7. I have never found any man so religious and godly, but that he felt sometimes a withdrawal of the divine favour, and lack of fervour. No saint was ever so filled with rapture, so enlightened, but that sooner or later he was tempted. For he is not worthy of the great vision of God, who, for God's sake, has not been exercised by some temptation. For temptation is wont to go before as a sign of the comfort which shall follow, and heavenly comfort is promised to those who are proved by temptation. As it is written, To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life.

8. Divine comfort is given that a man may be stronger to bear adversities. And temptation follows, in case he be lifted up because of the benefit. The devil sleeps not; your flesh is not yet dead; therefore, cease you not to make yourself ready to the battle, for enemies stand on your right hand and on your left, and they are never at rest.

Psalm xxx. 6. Job vii. 18. Revelation ii. 7.

1. Why seek you rest when you are born to labour? Prepare yourself for patience more than for comforts, and for bearing the cross more than for joy. For who among the men of this world would not gladly receive consolation and spiritual joy if he might always have it? For spiritual comforts exceed all the delights of the world, and all the pleasures of the flesh. For all worldly delights are either empty or unclean, whilst spiritual delights alone are pleasant and honourable, the offspring of virtue, and poured forth by God into pure minds. But no man can always enjoy these divine comforts at his own will, because the season of temptation ceass not for long.

2. Great is the difference between a visitation from above and false liberty of spirit and great confidence in self. God does well in giving us the grace of comfort, but man does ill in not immediately giving God thanks thereof. And so the gifts of grace are not able to flow to us, because we are ungrateful to the Author of them, and return them not wholly to the Fountain whence they flow. For grace ever becomes the portion of him who is grateful and that is taken away from the proud, which is wont to be given to the humble.

3. I desire no consolation which taks away from me compunction, I love no contemplation which leads to pride. For all that is high is not holy, nor is everything that is sweet good; every desire is not pure; nor is everything that is dear to us pleasing to God. Willingly do I accept that grace whereby I am made humbler and more wary and more ready to renounce myself. He who is made learned by the gift of grace and taught wisdom by the stroke of the withdrawal thereof, will not dare to claim any good thing for himself, but will rather confess that he is poor and needy. Give to God the thing which is God's, and ascribe to yourself that which is your; that is, give thanks to God for His grace, but for yourself alone confess your fault, and that your punishment is deserved for your fault.

4. Sit you down always in the lowest room and you will be given the highest place. For the highest cannot be without the lowest. For the highest saints of God are least in their own sight, and the more glorious they are, so much the lowlier are they in themselves; full of grace and heavenly glory, they are not desirous of vain-glory; resting on God and strong in His might, they cannot be lifted up in any wise. And they who ascribe to God all the good which they have received, "seek not glory one of another, but the glory which comes from God only," and they desire that God shall be praised in Himself and in all His Saints above all things, and they are always striving for this very thing.

5. Be thankful, therefore, for the least benefit and you will be worthy to receive greater. Let the least be to you even as the greatest, and let that which is of little account be to you as a special gift. If the majesty of the Giver be considered, nothing that is given shall seem small and of no worth, for that is not a small thing which is given by the Most High God. Yea, though He gave punishment and stripes, we ought to be thankful, because He ever does for our profit whatever He suffers to come upon us. He who seeks to retain the favour of God, let him be thankful for the favour which is given, and patient in respect of that which is taken away. Let him pray that it may return; let him be wary and humble that he lose it not.

Matthew xxii. 21. Luke xiv. 10.

1. Jesus has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His Cross. He has many seekers of comfort, but few of tribulation. He finds many companions of His table, but few of His fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, few are willing to undergo anything for His sake. Many follow Jesus that they may eat of His loaves, but few that they may drink of the cup of His passion. Many are astonished at His Miracles, few follow after the shame of His Cross. Many love Jesus so long as no adversities happen to them. Many praise Him and bless Him, so long as they receive any comforts from Him. But if Jesus hide Himself and withdraw from them a little while, they fall either into complaining or into too great dejection of mind.

2. But they who love Jesus for Jesus' sake, and not for any consolation of their own, bless Him in all tribulation and anguish of heart as in the highest consolation. And if He should never give them consolation, nevertheless they would always praise Him and always give Him thanks.

3. Oh what power has the pure love of Jesus, unmixed with any gain or love of self! Should not all they be called mercenary who are always seeking consolations? Do they not prove themselves lovers of self more than of Christ who are always seeking their own gain and advantage? Where shall be found one who is willing to serve God altogether for nought?

4. Rarely is any one found so spiritual as to be stripped of all selfish thoughts, for who shall find a man truly poor in spirit and free of all created things? "His value is from afar, yea from the ends of the earth." A man may give away all his goods, yet that is nothing; and if he do many deeds of penitence, yet that is a small thing; and though he understand all knowledge, yet that is afar off; and if he have great virtue and zealous devotion, yet much is lacking to him, yea, one thing which is the most necessary to him of all. What is it then? That having given up all things besides, he give up himself and go forth from himself utterly, and retain nothing of self-love; and having done all things which he knows to be his duty to do, that he feel that he has done nothing. Let him not reckon that much which might be much esteemed, but let him pronounce himself to be in truth an unprofitable servant, as the Truth Himself says, When ye have done all things that are commanded you, say, we are unprofitabe servants. Then may he be truly poor and naked in spirit, and be able to say with the Prophet, As for me, I am poor and needy. Nevertheless, no man is richer than he, no man stronger, no man freer. For he knows both how to give up himself and all things, and how to be lowly in his own eyes.

Luke xvii. 10. Psalm xxv. 16.

1. That seems a hard saying to many, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Me. But it will be much harder to hear that last sentence, Depart from me, ye wicked, into eternal fire. For they who now willingly hear the word of the Cross and follow it, shall not then fear the hearing of eternal damnation. This sign of the Cross shall be in heaven when the Lord comes to Judgment. Then all servants of the Cross, who in life have conformed themselves to the Crucified, shall draw nigh to Christ the Judge with great boldness.

2. Why fearest you then to take up the cross which leads to a kingdom? In the Cross is health, in the Cross is life, in the Cross is protection from enemies, in the Cross is heavenly sweetness, in the Cross strength of mind, in the Cross joy of the spirit, in the Cross the height of virtue, in the Cross perfection of holiness. There is no health of the soul, no hope of eternal life, save in the Cross. Take up therefore, your cross and follow Jesus and you will go into eternal life. He went before you bearing His Cross and died for you upon the Cross, that you also may bear your cross and may love to be crucified upon it. For if you be dead with Him, you will also live with Him, and if you be a partaker of His sufferings you will be also of His glory.

3. Behold everything depends upon the Cross, and everything lies in dying; and there is none other way to life and to true inward peace, except the way of the Holy Cross and of daily mortification. Go where you will, seek whatsoever you will, and you will find no higher way above nor safer way below, than the way of the Holy Cross. Dispose and order all things according to your own will and judgment, and you will ever find something to suffer either willingly or unwillingly, and so you will ever find your cross. For you will either feel pain of body, or tribulation of spirit within your soul.

4. Sometimes you will be forsaken of God, sometimes you will be tried by your neighbour, and which is more, you will often be wearisome to yourself. And still you can not be delivered nor eased by any remedy or consolation, but must bear so long as God will. For God will have you learn to suffer tribulation without consolation, and to submit yourself fully to it, and by tribulation be made more humble. No man understands the Passion of Christ in his heart so well as he who has had somewhat of the like suffering himself. The Cross therefore is always ready, and every where waits for you. You can not flee from it whithersoever you hurry, for whithersoever you come, you bear yourself with you, and will ever find yourself. Turn you above, turn you below, turn you without, turn you within, and in them all you will find the Cross; and needful is it that you everywhere possess patience if you want to have internal peace and gain the everlasting crown.

5. If you willingly bear the Cross, it will bear you, and will bring you to the end which you seek, even where there shall be the end of suffering; though it shall not be here. If you bear it unwillingly, you make a burden for yourself and greatly increass your load, and yet you must bear it. If you cast away one cross, without doubt you will find another and perchance a heavier.

6. Thinks you to escape what no mortal has been able to avoid? Which of the saints in the world has been without the cross and tribulation? For not even Jesus Christ our Lord was one hour without the anguish of His Passion, so long as He lived. It behooved, He said, Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and so enter into his glory. And how do you seek another way than this royal way, which is the way of the Holy Cross?

7. The whole life of Christ was a cross and martyrdom, and do you seek for yourself rest and joy? You are wrong, you are wrong, if you seek anything but to suffer tribulations, for this whole mortal life is full of miseries, and set round with crosses. And the higher a man has advanced in the spirit, the heavier crosses he will often find, because the sorrow of his banishment increass with the strength of his love.

8. But yet the man who is so in so many wise afflicted, is not without refreshment of consolation, because he feels abundant fruit to be growing within him out of the bearing of his cross. For whilst he willingly submits himself to it, every burden of tribulation is turned into an assurance of divine comfort, and the more the flesh is wasted by affliction, the more is the spirit strengthened mightily by inward grace. And often so greatly is he comforted by the desire for tribulation and adversity, through love of conformity to the Cross of Christ, that he would not be without sorrow and tribulation; for he believes that he shall be the more acceptable to God, the more and the heavier burdens he is able to bear for His sake. This is not the virtue of man, but the grace of Christ which has such power and energy in the weak flesh, that what it naturally hats and fles from, this it draws to and loves through fervour of spirit.

9. It is not in the nature of man to bear the cross, to love the cross, to keep under the body and to bring it into subjection, to fly from honours, to bear reproaches meekly, to despise self and desire to be despised, to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world. If you look to yourself, you will of yourself be able to do none of this; but if you trustest in the Lord, endurance shall be given you from heaven, and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to your command. Yea, you will not even fear your adversary the devil, if you be armed with faith and signed with the Cross of Christ.

10. Set yourself, therefore, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to the manful bearing of the Cross of your Lord, who out of love was crucified for you. Prepare yourself for the bearing many adversities and manifold troubles in this wretched life; because so it shall be with you wheresoever you are, and so in very deed you will find it, wherever you hide yourself. This it must be; and there is no means of escaping from tribulation and sorrow, except to bear them patiently. Drink you lovingly your Lord's cup if you desire to be His friend and to have your lot with Him. Leave consolations to God, let Him do as seems best to Him concerning them. But do you set yourself to endure tribulations, and reckon them the best consolations; for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, nor would they be even if you were to endure them all.

11. When you have come to this, that tribulation is sweet and pleasant to you for Christ's sake, then reckon that it is well with you, because you have found paradise on earth. So long as it is hard to you to suffer and you desire to escape, so long it will not be well with you, and tribulations will follow you everywhere.

12. If you set yourself to that you ought, namely, to suffer and to die, it shall soon go better with you, and you will find peace. Though you should be caught up with Paul to the third heaven, you are not on that account secure from suffering evil. I will show him, says Jesus, what great things he must suffer for My Name's sake. It remains, therefore, to you to suffer, if you will love Jesus and serve Him continually.

13. Oh that you were worthy to suffer something for the name of Jesus, how great glory should await you, what rejoicing among all the saints of God, what bright example also to your neighbour! For all men commend patience, although few be willing to practise it. You ought surely to suffer a little for Christ when many suffer heavier things for the world.

14. Know you surely that you ought to lead the life of a dying man. And the more a man dis to himself, the more he beginns to live towards God. None is fit for the understanding of heavenly things, unless he has submitted himself to bearing adversities for Christ. Nothing more acceptable to God, nothing more healthful for yourself in this world, than to suffer willingly for Christ. And if it were your to choose, you ought rather to wish to suffer adversities for Christ, than to be refreshed with manifold consolations, for you would be more like Christ and more conformed to all saints. For our worthyss and growth in grace lies not in many delights and consolations, but rather in bearing many troubles and adversities.

15. If indeed there had been anything better and more profitable to the health of men than to suffer, Christ would surely have shown it by word and example. For both the disciples who followed Him, and all who desire to follow Him, He plainly exhorts to bear their cross, and says, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me. So now that we have thoroughly read and studied all things, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Matthew xvi. 24. Matthew xxv. 41. Luke xxiv. 46. Romans viii. 18. 2 Corinthians xii. 2. Acts ix. 16. Luke ix. 23. Acts xiv. 21.