the Land of Promise told them it was a country which destroyed its inhabitants, that is, that it had an air so contagious, that it was impossible to live long there and further, that the natives were such monsters that they ate up other men like locusts. So the world, Philothea, defames holy Devotion, representing devout persons with angry, sad, and grim countenances; pretending that Devotion engenders melancholy and unsociableness. But as Josue and Caleb protested that the Promised Land was not only good and fair, but also that the acquisition and possession of it would be easy and pleasant, so the Holy Ghost, by the mouths of all the saints, and our Saviour, by his own, assure us that a devout life is pleasant, happy, and amiable.
The world sees that devout people pray often, suffer injuries, serve the sick, give to the poor, watch, moderate their hunger, restrain their passions, deprive themselves of sensual pleasures, and such other acts as are in themselves severe and rigorous; but the world does not see the inward cordial devotion which render all these actions agreeable, pleasant, and easy. Consider the bees upon the thyme they find there very bitter juice, yet in sucking it they turn it into honey. O worldlings! it is true devout souls find much bitterness in these exercises of mortification, but, in performing them they convert them into sweetness and delight. The fire, the flames, the racks, the swords, seemed flowers and perfumes to the martyrs, because they were devout. If, then, Devotion can give a sweetness to the cruellest torments, and even to death itself, what will it not do to the actions of virtue? Sugar sweetens green fruits, and tempers the crudity and unwholesomeness of those which are ripe. Now, devotion is the spiritual sugar, which takes away bitterness from mortification, and offensiveness from consolation; it
