elf with
your whole heart to the Lord, and leave this miserable world, and your
soul shall find rest. Learn to despise outward things, and to give
yourself to inward things, and you shall see the kingdom of God rise
within you. For the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
and is not given to the impious. Christ shall come to you showing you
His consolation, if you prepare within you a home fit for Him. All His
glory and beauty are from within, and it is there that He delights
Himself. He often visits the man of inward mind, with sweet colloquy,
pleasant consolation, great peace, and most astounding familiarity.

If you know not how to contemplate high and celestial things, rest in
the passion of Christ, and willingly dwell in His holy wounds. For if
you devoutly have recourse to the wounds of Jesus you will feel great
comfort in trouble, care little for human contempt, and easily bear
detracting words. For Christ, in the world, was despised by men, and in
His greatest need was deserted, among insults, by His friends. Christ
willed to suffer and to be despised, and shall you dare to complain of
anything? Christ had enemies and detractors, and do you wish to have all
friends and benefactors? Whence shall your patience be crowned if you
have suffered no adversity? If you desire to suffer nothing contrary to
you, how shall you be the friend of Christ?

He to whom all things taste as they really are, and not as they are
spoken of or esteemed, is the truly wise man, taught by God rather than
by men. Whoever knows how to walk from within, and to put little value
on things without, needs not to find a place nor wait a time for his
devout prayers. The man of inward mind quickly recollects himself,
because he never spends himself wholly upon outward things.

First hold yourself in peace, and then you will be able to pacify
others. The pacific man is of more service than the learned. But the
passionate man turns even good to evil, easily believing evil. The
peaceful man is good, and turns all things to good. The man who is well
at peace is suspicious of nothing, but the discontented and turbulent is
agitated by divers suspicions. He can neither himself be quiet, nor
leave others in quiet. He often says what he ought not to say, and
leaves undone what he ought to do. He thinks about what others ought to
do, and neglects his own duty.

Man is raised from earthly matters by two wings--namely, simplicity and
purity.