for that which ye see, ye believe not. When ye behold a man dying, and yet dread not death, ye are confused or ruined, for the Lord hath despised you; ye are accursed and made abominable. All holy angels and lovers of Jesus Christ shall be full filled with great joy, when your reprovable company shall all be damned to everlasting fire. Wo be to you rich men! Wo to you proud folk! Wo to you lechers! Wo be to all willing to do sin. For your hire shall be yielded to you-torment of hell, ready for you from the beginning of the world. I know that ye must go down thither, for from your wicked customs neither joy of heaven nor torment of hell can call you. Whereto therefore say ye idly, We shall be saved in Jesus; while ye cease not to hate him, without whom ye cannot have health ?* Who, not loving Jesus, hopeth to be saved-truly, lacking faith, he accuses himself as under condemnation. Verily he loveth health who unweariedly keepeth the name of Jesus in himself.

I wonder not that a man, being tempted, falleth, who hath not the name of Jesus lasting in his mind. Securely hath he chosen to be in oneliness† for God, when he especially chooses this name JESUS. Truly this name cleanses the conscience, makes the heart clear and clean, and drives away fear. It gets a man warmth of love, lifts up the mind to heavenly melody, and chases away the watchful fiends.

Oh thou good name ! Oh thou sweet name! Oh glorious name! Oh healthful name! Oh name to be desired! Wicked spirits may not abide thee, when they behold Jesus, either in mind, or hear him named in mouth. I sought to love Jesus, and ever the more I grew perfect in his love, so much the sweeter his name savoured to me. Therefore blessed be the name of JESUS for ever and ever, and so be it. Amen.

OF THE LOVE OF JESUS.

ONLY Lord be tears to me as loves by day and by night. For unless a man be punished first by weepings and wailings, he may not come to the sweetness of God's love. thou everlasting love, inflame my mind to love God, that it burn not but to his callings. O good Jesus! who shall give to me that I feel thee. Thou must now be felt and not seen. Enter into the inmost recesses of my soul; come + Singleness of heart.

• Salvation.

into mine heart and full fill it with thy most clear sweetness; make my mind to drink deeply of the fervent wine of thy sweet love, that I, forgetting all evils, and all vain visions, and scornful imaginations, thee only embracing, joying I rejoice in my Lord Jesus.

Thou most sweet Lord, from henceforward pass not from me, dwell with me in thy sweetness; for only thy presence is to me solace or comfort, and only thy absence leaves me sorrowful. O thou Holy Ghost, who inspirest where thou wilt, come into me, draw me to thee, that I despise and set at nought in my heart all things of this world. Inflame my heart with thy love which shall without end burn upon thine altar. Come, I beseech thee, thou sweet and true joy; come thou sweetness so to be desired; come thou my beloved, who art all my comfort. True love suffers not a loving soul to dwell in itself, but draws it forth to its beloved.

There are three degrees of Christ's love, in which those that are chosen to God's love go from one to another. The first is called insuperable; the second is inseparable; the third is called singular. Love is insuperable when it cannot be overcome with any other affection or love, no trial or temptation-when it gladly casts down all other hinderances, and all temptations, and quenches fleshly desires. When man suffers gladly and meekly all anguish for Christ, and is not overcome with any delight or flattering, so that whether thou art in ease or in anguish, in sickness or in health, that thou wouldest not, to have all the world, anger God at any time. And blessed is the soul that is in this state; every labour is light to him that loveth truly, neither can any man better overcome travail than by love.

Love is inseparable when man's mind is inflamed with great love, and cleaves to Christ by inseparable thought; not suffering Christ to be any moment out of his mind, but as though he were bound in the heart, him he thinketh upon, to him with great earnestness he draweth his spirit. Therefore, when the love of Christ so groweth in the heart of the lover of God, and the despiser of the world, so that it may not be overcome of any other affection or love, then it is said to be high. When man cleaveth to Christ undepartingly, thinking upon him, forgetting him for no other occasion, then man's love is said to be inseparable and everlasting. And what love can be more or greater than this?

The third degree of love is singular. If thou seekest or receivest any other comfort than of thy God, even though

thou lovest highly, then lovest not singularly. This degree is
highest and most wonderful to attain; for it hath no peer.
Singular love is, when all solace and comfort is closed out
of the heart, but the love of Jesus alone. Other delight or
other joy pleases not; for the sweetness of him is so com-
forting and lasting, his love is so burning and gladdening,
that he who is in this degree may well feel the fire of love
burning in his soul. That fire is so pleasant that no man
can tell it but he that feeleth it, and not fully he. Then
the soul is Jesus loving, on Jesus thinking, and Jesus
desiring, only burning in coveting of him; singing in him,
resting on him. Then the thought turns to song and
melody. The soul that is in this degree may boldly say, 1
mourn for love! I languish to come to my loved Jesus.
This degree of love cometh not of man's merit, but God
giveth it freely, to whom he knoweth able thereto, and not
without great grace coming before. Therefore, let no man
presume farther of himself than God hath called him to.
But he that most withdraws his love from the world, and
from unreasonable lusts, shall be most able, and most
speedily increase in these degrees of love. Those that have
liking in any other things than in Jesus, and in the sweet-
ness of his law, come not to this degree of love. In the
first degree are some, in the second but few, in the third
scarcely any.
For the higher the living is, and the more it
profits, the fewer lovers it hath; and the fewer followers.
The apostle Paul saith, Other is the light of the sun,
other of the moon, and other of the stars. And so it is of
the lovers of Jesus Christ. He that is in this degree of
love, desireth to be unbound of the bond of flesh, and to be
in full joy with Jesus, whom he loveth. Therefore such a
one in his mourning for his long abiding, may sing this
song to his loved Jesus," When wilt thou come, my Be-
loved, to comfort me and bring me out of care, and give
thyself to me, that I may see thee and dwell with thee for
evermore? My Beloved, more than any other, when shall
my heart break that I sorrow no more? Thy love hath
wounded my heart, and I am desirous to depart, I stand
still mourning for one lovely to love. His love draweth
me. The bond of His love holdeth me away from vain
places and play, till I may get him-the sight of my
Beloved who never shall go away.”

In wealth be our walkings, without noie* or night;
My love is in thee lasting, and longeth to thy sight.
* Hinderance.

Thus love moveth a soul in which it dwells, to sing of his Beloved, ever having the heart upward to the joys above. And this bringeth out love tears, languishing for joy. But this sentence savoureth not to a fleshly soul. Love is a burning desire to God, with a wonderful delight in soul. Love uniteth the lover and the beloved. Love is the desire of the heart, ever thinking on that which it loveth. Love is a stirring of the soul to love God for himself, and all other things for God. This love putteth out all other love that is against God's will. Love is a right will, turned from all earthly things, and joined to God without departing, accompanied with the fire of the Holy Ghost; far from defouling, far' from corruption, to no vice bowing, high above all fleshly lusts, ever ready to the contemplation of God; the sun of all good affections, the health of good manners, and of the commandments of God, the death of sins, life of virtues, crown of overcomers, the arms of holy thoughts. Without love no man can please God, with it no man sinneth to death. True love clotheth the soul, and delivereth it from the pains of hell, and of foul service to sin, and from the fearful fellowship of devils. The child of the fiend it maketh the son of God, and partaker of the heritage of heaven. Therefore close thee in love as the iron closes in the redness of fire, as air doth in the sun, as the wool in the dye. The coal closes the iron so in the fire that it is all fire; the air so in the sun that it is all light; wool so takes the hue that it changes all to the colour. In this manner shall a lover of Jesus Christ do. He shall so burn in love that he shall be wholly turned into the fire of love; he shall so shine in virtues that no part of him be dark in vices.

OF MEEKNESS.

To any degree of true love to Jesus, no soul can attain unless he is truly meek. For a proud soul seeks to have his own will, and so shall he never come to any degree of God's love. Ever the lower that a soul sitteth in the valley of meekness, so many the more streams of grace and love come thereto. And if the soul be high in the hills of pride, the wind of the fiend bloweth away all manner of goodness therefrom. Therefore as St. Augustine biddeth, Whoso will attain to the bliss that is in heaven above, let him set

the ground of his foundation here low in meekness. Nothing more overcometh the fiend than meekness, and therefore he hateth it so much. For he may fast, he may wake, and suffer more pain than any other creature, but meekness and love he may not have, neither any of his disciples.

By two things principally, may a man know whether he is meek. If his heart be not moved, though his own will be contraried and gainsaid-and when he is despised, falsely accused, and slandered; if his will stand unmoved to desiring of revenge, and his mouth be shut from unmeek answer. For whoso is entered verily into God's love, it grieves him not, whatsoever slander, shame, or reproof he suffereth for the love of his Lord; but he coveteth and is glad that he is worthy to suffer pain for Christ's love.

Thus Christ's disciples went joying from the council of the Jews, that they were worthy to suffer despites and wrongs for the name of Jesus. For the apostle saith, All that will live meekly, and please Jesus Christ, shall suffer persecutions, and by many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. For it is given to such, not only that they believe in Christ, but also that they suffer for him. Therefore the meek lover of Christ is to be as a dead body, which, whatsoever I do or say thereto, answereth not. The prophet of God affirms that he did thus, saying, Those that sought to do me evil spake vanities and thought guiles all day; but I as deaf heard not, and was as a dumb man not opening his mouth.

By seven tokens a man may suppose that he hath the love of Christ. The first is, when all coveting of earthly things, and fleshly lusts, is slacked in him. For where coveting is, there is not the love of Christ. Then if a man have not coveting it is a sign that he hath love. The second is, burning desire of heaven. For when he hath felt aught of that savour, the more he feeleth the more he coveteth, and he that hath felt nought, desireth nought. The third token is, if his tongue be changed. That which was wont to speak of earth now speaketh of heaven. The fourth is, exercise or practising what is for spiritual good. As when a man, leaving all other things, hath good will and devotion to prayer, and findeth sweetness therein. The fifth is, when things which are hard in themselves, through love seem light to be done. The sixth is, hardiness of soul to suffer all anguishes and troubles that befall. All the other tokens suffice not without this; for he that is righteous