in a plain and simple style; but if we regard what it contains within, it is effectual in virtue, ardent in affections, lofty in sense, large in discourse, and ample in the several manners of prayer and contemplation; insomuch that upon the branches of it they may find rest and spiritual food who, like the fowls of the air, soar aloft in contemplation, having (as St. Paul says) their conversation and interest in heaven. [1] And this will be clearly made manifest by that which we shall point at in this brief introduction, and shall more amply discourse of in the six parts of this book; which are, as it were, six branches of the tree of these sovereign exercises, whose shadow [2] will be the refuge of such as are tempted and afflicted — its leaves [3] will be the health of such as are soul-sick — its odoriferous flowers [4] will comfort such as are young beginners in virtue — its sweet fruits will fortify such as are proficients and go forward in it — and whose round cup will be the resting-place of such as are perfect. For all will find meditations and forms of praying accommodated to their states, as soon after will be seen.
iii. And that it may appear how the piety and sovereignty of mystical theology is founded upon the rigorous verity of scholastic divinity, the third source of what I shall say will be the school-doctors, of whom I will only allege the angelical doctor St. Thomas, for that he alone is fully available for ten thousand witnesses; whose doctrine is sound, secure, and well approved; and with the verities of scholastic divinity he points at the profoundest conceptions and highest sense of mystical theology; for both of them are sisters, and in both of them this glorious doctor is surpassingly excellent, as was his master St. Augustine, and his companion St. Bonaventure, of whose doctrine I shall likewise make use. And since, notwithstanding I have had so good guides, yet as a man I may err in what I shall write, my
