CHAPTER I.
_Of the inward life._
THE kingdom of God is within you, saith the Lord. Turn thee with thy whole heart unto the Lord, and forsake this wretched world, and thy soul shall find rest.
Learn to despise exterior things, and to give thyself to the interior, and thou shalt perceive the kingdom of God to come into thee.
For the kingdom of God, is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
2. O faithful soul, make ready thy heart for the Bridegroom, that he may vouchsafe to come unto thee, and dwell within thee!
For he saith, If any man love me, he will keep my words, and we will come unto him, and will make our abode with him.
Give therefore admittance unto Christ, and deny entrance to all others.
When thou hast Christ thou art rich, and he will suffice thee. He will be thy faithful helper in all things, so as thou shalt not need to trust in men.
*For men are soon changed, and quickly fail; but Christ remaineth for ever, and is with us even unto the end.
3. We ought not to put trust in man, frail and mortal as he is, though he be friendly and serviceable: nor should we be grieved, although he cross and oppose us.
*They, that to-day take thy part, to-morrow may be against thee, and so on the contrary; they often turn like the wind.
*Put thy whole trust in God, let him be thy fear and thy love: he will answer for thee, and do in all things what is best.
Thou hast not here an abiding city; and wheresoever thou be, thou art a stranger and pilgrim; neither shalt thou ever have rest, unless thou be intimately united unto Christ.
*4. Why dost thou here gaze about, since this is not the place of thy rest? In heaven ought to be thy dwelling, and all earthly things are to be looked upon as they forward thy journey thither.
*All things pass away, and thou together with them.
*Beware thou cleave not unto them, lest thou be entangled and perish.
Let thy thoughts be on the highest, and thy prayer directed unto Christ, without ceasing.
If thou canst not contemplate on high and heavenly things; rest thyself in the passion of Christ, and dwell willingly in his holy wounds.
For if thou fly devoutly unto the Lord Jesus, thou shalt feel great comfort in tribulation, neither wilt thou regard being despised of men, but wilt easily bear words of detraction.
5. Christ was also despised of men and in his greatest necessity forsaken by his acquaintance and friends.
*Christ chose to suffer and be despised; and darest thou complain of any thing?
Christ had adversaries and slanderers; and wilt thou have all men thy friends and benefactors?
How shall thy patience be crowned, if no adversity happen unto thee?
*If thou wilt suffer nothing, how wilt thou be the friend of Christ?
Suffer with Christ, and for Christ, if thou desirest to reign with Christ.
*6. If thou hadst but once entered into Jesus, then wouldest thou not be careful about thine own advantage or disadvantage; but wouldst rather rejoice at slanders cast upon thee; for the love of Jesus maketh a man despise himself.
A lover of Jesus, a true inward Christian, free from inordinate affections, can freely turn himself to God, and lift himself above himself.
7. He that relishes all things as they are, and not as they are esteemed, is truly wise, and taught by God.
He that can live inwardly, and make small reckoning of outward things, neither requireth places, nor attendeth times, for the exercise of his devotion.
*An interior man soon recollecteth himself, because he is never wholly intent upon outward things.
He is not hindered by outward labour or business; but as things fall out, so he suiteth himself unto them.
He that hath well ordered and disposed all things within, careth not for the perverse carriage of men.
*So much is a man hindered and distracted, by how much he cleaveth to outward things.
8. If all went well with thee, and if thou wert well purified, all things would tend to thy good.
But therefore many things displease and trouble thee, because thou art not yet dead unto thyself, nor separated from all earthly things.
*Nothing so defileth and entangleth the heart of man, as the impure love of creatures.