Of Reading. Chap. VI

AFTER the preparation is ended, there foloweth Reading of that thing, where vppon thow art to meditate in time of praier. Which Reading ought not be donne lightlie & hastilie, but with deliberation and attention, applying thereunto not onlie thy vnderstanding, to conceiue such things as thou readest, but much more thy wil, to tast those things that thou vnderstandest. And when thou f[…]ndest anie deuout passage, staie somwhat longer vppon it, thereby to haue som greaterfeeling of that, which thou hast read.

Let not the Reading be ouer-long, that so thou maist haue more time for meditation, which is of so much more profit, by how much more it waigheth, and entreth into the cōsideration of things, with more leasure and affection. Neuertheles, when thou findest thy hart so distracted, that it cannot enter into praier, then thou maist staie somwhat the longer in Reading, or ioine Reading and meditation together, by reading first one point, & meditating vppon it, and then an other, and an other in like sort. For in so dooing, when the vnderstanding is once bound to the woords of the reading, it hath not occasion to wander abrede so easilie, into diuers thoughts and imaginations, as when it goeth free and at libertie. And yet better it were to striue in casting of such thoughtes, and to perseuer and wrastle against them (as the Patriarche Iacob did all the night long) continuing in the work of praier: that in the end, when the wrastling is donne, we maie obtaine the victorie, our lord giuing vs deuotion, or som other greater grace, which is neuer denied to those, that labour and fight faithfullie.