Aim only at this, pray for this, desire this, that thou mayest be stript of self-seeking, and thus naked follow thy naked Jesus; that thou mayest die to thyself, and live eternally to me.
Then all vain imaginations shall vanish, all evil disturbances, and superfluous cares.
Then also immoderate fear shall leave thee, and inordinate love shall die.
Chap. XXXVIII.
Of the good government of ourselves in outward things, and of having recourse to God in dangers.
1. Son, thou must diligently make it thy aim, that in every place, and in every action or outward employment, thou be inwardly free, and master of thyself; and that all things be under thee, and not thou under them.
That thou mayest be lord and ruler of thy actions, and not a slave or bondsman:
But rather a freeman, and a true Hebrew transferred to the lot and to the liberty of the children of God;
Who stand above the things present, and contemplate those that are eternal; who look upon transitory things with the left eye, and with the right the things of heaven.
Who suffer not themselves to be drawn away by temporal things to cleave to them; but they rather draw these things to themselves, to make them serviceable to that end, for which they were ordained by God, and appointed by that Sovereign Artist, who has left nothing in all his works but regular and orderly.