MY SON, my grace is precious, it suffereth not itself to be mingled with external things, nor with earthly consolations.
Thou oughtest therefore to cast away all obstacles to grace, if thou desire to receive the infusion thereof.
Choose therefore a secret place to thyself, love to dwell alone with thyself, desire the conversation of none, but rather pour out devout prayer unto God, that thou mayest keep thy mind in compunction, and thy conscience pure.
Esteem thou the whole world as nothing; prefer attendance upon God before all outward things.
For thou wilt not be able to attend upon me, and at the same time to take delight in things transitory.
Thou oughtest to remove thyself from thy acquaintance and friends,1 and to keep thy mind void of all temporal comfort.
So the blessed apostle Peter beseecheth, that the faithful of Christ would keep themselves in the world as strangers and pilgrims.2
2. Oh, how great a confidence shall he have at the hour of death, whom no affection to any earthly thing detaineth in the world.
But the having a heart so retired from all, the sickly mind doth not as yet comprehend; nor doth the carnal man know the liberty of the spiritual man.
Notwithstanding, if he will be truly spiritual, he ought to renounce as well those who are far off, as those who are near unto him, and to beware of no man more than of himself.
If thou perfectly overcome thyself, thou shalt very easily bring all else under the yoke.
The perfect victory is to triumph over ourselves.
For he that keepeth himself subject in such sort that his sensual affections be obedient to reason, and his reason in all things obedient to me; that person is truly conqueror of himself, and lord of the world.
3. If thou desire to mount unto this height, thou must set out courageously, and lay the axe to the root, that thou mayest pluck up and destroy both that hidden inordinate inclination to self, and all [love of] private and earthly good.
On this sin that man too inordinately loveth himself almost all dependeth, whatsoever is thoroughly to be overcome; which evil being once vanquished and subdued, there will presently ensue great peace and tranquillity.
But because few endeavor perfectly to die unto themselves, and altogether to go out of themselves, therefore they remain entangled in themselves, and can not be elevated in spirit above themselves.
But he that desireth to walk freely with me, it is necessary that he mortify all perverse and inordinate affections, and that he should not earnestly adhere unto any creature with particular love.
1. Matt. 19:29
2. 1 Pet. 2:11