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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	believe_v	faith_n	habit_n	3,078	5	10.3510	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B04377	The spiritual guide which disintangles the soul, and brings it by the inward way, to the getting of perfect contemplation, and the rich treasure of internal peace. / Written by Dr. Michael de Molinos, priest : with a short treatise concerning daily communion, by the same author. Translated from the Italian copy, printed at Venice, 1685.	Molinos, Miguel de, 1628-1696.; Molinos, Miguel de, 1628-1696. Brief treatise concerning daily communion.	1685 (1685)	Wing M2387A; ESTC R214007	123,380	287

pray with faith and reverence believing that he is in the divine presence The truth is to take from the Soul the prayer of the senses and of nature is a rigorous martyrdom to it but the Lord rejoyces and is glad in its peace if it be thus quiet and resigned Use not at that time vocal prayer because however it be good and holy in it self yet to use it then is a manifest temptation whereby the enemy pretends that God speaks not to thy heart under pretext that thou hast not sentiments and that thou losest time 78. God hath no regard to the multitude of words but to the purity of the intent His greatest content and glory at that time is to see the Soul in silence desirous humble quiet and resigned Proceed persevere pray and hold thy peace for where thou findest not a sentiment thou 'lt find a door whereby thou mayest en●e● into thine own nothingness knowing thy se●● to be nothing that thou can'st do nothing nay● and that thou hast not so much as a good thought 79. How many have begun this happy practice of Prayer and Internal Recollection and have left it off pretending that they feel no● pleasure that they lose time that their thought trouble them and that that Prayer is not for them whil'st they find not any sentiment of God nor any ability to reason or discourse whereas they might have believed been silent and had patience All this is no more but with ingratitude to hunt after sensible pleasures suffering themselves to be transported with self-love seeking themselves and not God because they cannot suffer a little pain and dryness without reflecting on the infinite loss they sustain whereas by the least act of reverence towards God amidst dryness and sterility they receive an eternal reward 80. The Lord told the venerable Mother Francesca Lopez of Valenza and a religious of the third Order of St. Francis three things of great light and consequence in order to internal recollection In the first place that a quarter of an hour of Prayer with recollection of the senses and faculties and with resignation and humility does more good to the Soul than five days of penitential exercises hair cloaths disciplines fastings and sleeping on bare boards because these are only mortifications of the body and with recollection the Soul is purified 81. Secondly that it is more pleasing to the Divine Majesty to have the Soul in quiet and devote Prayer for the space of an hour than to go in great Pilgrimages because that in Prayer it does good to it self and to those for whom it prays gives delight to God and merits a high degree of glory but in pilgrimage commonly the Soul is distracted and the Senses diverted with a debilitation of vertue besides many other dangers 82. Thirdly that constant Prayer was to keep the heart always right towards God and that a Soul to be internal ought rather to act with the affection of the will than the toyl of the intellect All this is to be read in her Life 83. The more the Soul rejoyces in sensible love the less delight God has in it on the contrary the less the Soul rejoyces in this sensible love the more God delights in it And know that to fix the will on God restraining thoughts and temptations with the greatest tranquillity possible is the highest pitch of praying 84. I 'll conclude this Chapter by undeceiving thee of the vulgar errour of those who say that in this internal recollection or prayer of rest the faculties operate not and that the Soul is idle and wholly unactive This is a manifest fallaey of those who have little experience because although it operate not by means of the memory nor by the second operation of the intellect which is the judgment nor by the third which is discourse or ratiocination yet it operates b● the first and chief operation of the intellect which is simple apprehension enlightened b● holy faith and aided by the divine gifts of th● holy spirit And the will is more apt to continue one act than to multiply many so that a● well the act of the intellect as that of the wi●● are so simple imperceptible and spiritual tha● hardly the Soul knows them and far less reflect upon them CHAP. XIII What the Soul ought to do in Internal Recollection 85. THou oughtest to go to Prayer that th●● mayest deliver thy self wholly up int● the hands of God with perfect resignation exerting an act of faith believing that thou a● in the divine presence afterwards setling i● that holy repose with quietness silence and tranquility and endeavouring for a whole day● a whole year and thy whole life to continue that first act of contemplation by faith and love 86. It is not your businesses to multiply the●● acts nor to repeat sensible affections because they hinder the purity of the spiritual and perfect act of the will whil'st besides that these sweet sentiments are imperfect considering the reflection wherewith they are made the self-content and external consolation wherewith they are sought after the Soul being drawn outwards to the external faculties there is no necessity of renewing them as the mystical Falcon hath excellently expressed it by the following similitude 87. If a Jewel given to a friend were once put into his hands it is not necessary to repeat such a donation already made by daily telling him Sir I give you that Jewel Sir I give you that Jewel but to let him keep it and not take it from him because provided he take it not or design not to take it from him he hath surely given it him 88. In the same manner having once dedicated and lovingly resigned thy self to the will of God there is nothing else for thee to do but to continue the same without repeating new and sensible acts provided thou takest not back the Jewel thou hast once given by committing some notable fault aganist his divine will though thou oughtest still to exercise thy self outwardly in the external works of thy calling and state for in so doing thou do'st the will of God and walkest in continual and virtual oration He always prays said Theophylact who does good works nor does he neglect Prayer but when he leaves off to be just 89. Thou oughtest then to slight all those sensibilities to the end thy Soul may be established and acquire a habit of internal recollection which is so effectual that the resolution only of going to Prayer awakens a lively presence of God which is the preparation to the Prayer that is about to be made or to say better is no other than a more efficacious continuation of continual Prayer wherein the contemplative person ought to be settled 90. O how well did the venerable Mother of Cantal the spiritual daughter of St. Francis of Sales practise this Lesson in whose Life are the following words written to her Master Most dear Father I cannot do any act it seems to

his Duty very well by vertue of that primary actual attention though afterwards he persevere not in keeping his thoughts actually fixed on God. 101. This the Angelical Doctor St. Thomas confirms in the following Words 2.2 quaest 82. art 13. ad 1. That first intention only and thinking on God when one Prays has force and valve enough to make the Prayer during all the rest of the time it continues to be true impetratory and meritorious though all that while there be no actual Contemplation on God. See now if the Saint could speak more clearly to our purpose 102. So that in the Judgement of that Saint the Prayer still continues though the Imagination may ramble upon infinite numbers of thoughts provided one consent not to it shift not Place intermit not the Prayer nor change the first Intention of being with God. And it is certain that he changes it not whil'st he does not leave his Place Hence it follows in sound Doctrine that one may persevere in Prayer though the Imagination be carried about with various and unvoluntary thoughts He prays in Spirit and Truth says the Saint in the fore-cited place whoever goes to Prayer with the Spirit and Intention of Praying though afterwards through Misery and Frailty his Thoughts may straggle Evagatio vero mentis quae fit praeter propositum orationis fructum non tollit 103. But thou'lt say at least art thou not to remember when thou art in the presence of God and often say to him Lord abide within me and I will give my self wholly up to thee I answer that there is no necessity for that seeing thou hast a design to Pray and for that end went'st to that place Faith and Intention are sufficient and these always continue nay the more simple that remembrance be without words or thoughts the more pure spiritual internal and worthy of God it is 104. Would it not be impertinent and disrespectful if being in the Presence of a King thou should'st ever now and then say to him Sir I believe Your Majestie is here It 's the very same thing By the eye of pure Faith the Soul sees God believes in him and is in his Presence and so when the Soul believes it has no need to say My God thou art here but to believe as it does believe seeing when Prayer-time is come● Faith and Intention guide and conduct it to contemplate God by means of pure Faith and perfect Resignation 105. so that so long as thou retracte● not that Faith and Intention of being resigned thou walkest always in Faith and Resignation and consequently in Prayer and in virtual and acquired Contemplation although thou perceive it not remember it not neither exerte● new Acts and Reflections thereon after the example of a Christian a Wife and a Monk who though they exert us new Acts and Remembrances the one as to his Profession saying I am a Monk the other as to her Matrimony saying I am a Wife and the third as to his Baptism saying I am a Christian they cease not for all that from being the one Baptized the other Married and the third Professed The Christian shall only be obliged to do good Works in Confirmation of his Faith and to believe more with the Heart than with the Mouth The Wife ought to give demonstrations of the Fidelity which she promised to her Husband And the Monk of the Obedience which he made profession of to his Superiour 106. In the same manner the inward Soul being once resolved to Believe that God is in it and that it will not desire nor act any thing but through God ought to rest satisfied in that Faith and Intention in all its Works and Exercises without forming or repeating new Acts of the same Faith nor of such a Resignation CHAP. XV. A Sequel of the same matter 107. THis true Doctrine serves not only for the time of Prayer but also after it is over by Night and by Day at all Hours and in all the dayly Functions of thy Calling thy Duty and Condition And if thou tell me that many times thou forgettest during a whol● day to renew thy resignation I answer tha● though it seem to thee that thou art diverted from it by attending the dayly occupations o● thy Vocation as Studying Reading Preaching Eating Drinking doing Business and the like thou art mistaken for the one destroy● not the other nor by so doing doest thou neglect to do the Will of God nor to proceed i● virtual Prayer as St. Thomas says 108. Because these occupations are not contrary to his Will nor contrary to thy Resignation it being certain that God would have thee to Eat Study take Pains do Business c. So that to perform these Exercises which are conform'd to his Will and Pleasure thou departe●● not out of his Presence nor from thine own Resignation 109. But if in Prayer or out of it tho● should'st willingly be diverted or distracted suffering thy self deliberately to be transported into any Passion then it will be good for thee to revert to God and return into his Divin● Presence renewing the purest of Faith and Resignation However it is not necessary to exert those Acts when thou findest thy self i● dryness because dryness is good and holy an● cannot how severe soever it be take from th● Soul the Divine Presence which is establishe● in Faith. Thou oughtest never to call dryne● distraction because in beginners it is want 〈◊〉 sensibility and in proficients abstractedness b● means whereof if thou bear it out with constancy resting quiet in thine own emptiness thy Soul will become more and more inward and the Lord will work wonders in it 110. Strive then when thou comest from Prayer to the end thou mayst return to it again not to be distracted nor diverted but to carry thy self with a total resignation to the Divine Will that God may do with thee and all thine according to his heavenly pleasure relying on him as on a kind and loving Father Never recal that Intention and though thou beest taken up about the Affairs of the Condition wherein God hath placed thee yet thou'lt still be in Prayer in the Presence of God and in perpetual Resignation Therefore St. John Chrysostom said A just man leaves not off to Pray Suner 5. ad Thessolon unless he leaves off to be Just. He always prays who always does well the good desire is Prayer and if the Desire be continued so is also the Prayer 111. Thou 'lt understand all that has been said by this clear Example when a man begins a Journey to Rome every step he makes in the Progress is voluntary and nevertheless it is not necessary that at every step he should express his desire or exert a new Act of the Will saying I am going to Rome I go to Rome Because by vertue of that first intention he had of travelling to Rome the same Will still remains in him so that he goes on without saying so

not to be done without great fatigue to the Intellect nor does it stand in need of such ratiocinations since these serve only as a means to attain to believing that which it hath already got the possession of 123. The most noble spiritual and proper way for Souls that are Proficients in internal recollection to enter by the Humanity of Christ our Lord and entertain a remembrance of him is the second way eying that Humanity and the Passion thereof by a simple Act of Faith loving and reflecting on the same as the Tabernacle of the Divinity the beginning and end of our Salvation Jesus Christ having been Born Suffered and Died a shameful Death for our sakes 124. This is the way that makes internal Souls profit and this holy pious swift and instantaneous remembrance of the Humanity can be no obstacle to them in the course of internal recollection unless if when the Soul enters into Prayer it finds it self drawn back for then it will be better to continue recollection and mental excess But not finding it self drawn back the simple and swift remembrance of the Humanity of the Divine Word gives no impediment to the highest and most elevated the most abstracted and transformed Soul. 125. This is the way that Santa Teresa recommends to the contemplative rejecting the tumultuary opinions of some School-men This is the streight and safe way free from Dangers which the Lord hath taught to many Souls for attaining to repose and the holy tranquility of Contemplation 126. Let the Soul then when it enters into recollection place it self at the Gate of Divine Mercy which is the amiable and sweet remembrance of the Cross and Passion of the Word that was made Man and Died for Love let it stand there with Humilitie resigned to the Will of God in whatsoever it pleases the Divine Majesty to do with it and if from that holy and sweet remembrance it soon fall into forgetfulness there is no necessity of making a new repetition but to continue silent and quiet in the presence of the Lord. 127. Wonderfully does St. Paul favour this our Doctrine in the Epistle which he wrote to the Colossians wherein he exhorts them and us that whether we Eat Drink or do any thing else we should do it in the Name and for the Sake of Jesus Christ Omne quod cumque farit is in verbo aut in opere omnia in nomine Jesu Christi facite gratias agentes Deo Patri per ipsum God grant that we may all begin by Jesus Christ and that in him and by him alone we may arrive at perfection CHAP. XVII Of Internal and Mystical Silence 128. THere are three kinds of Silence the first is of Words the second of Desires and the third of Thoughts The first is perfect the second more perfect and the third most perfect In the first that is o● Words Virtue is acquired in the second to wit of Desires quietness is attained to in the third of Thoughts Internal Recollection is gained By not speaking not desiring and not thinking one arrives at the true and perfect Mystical Silence wherein God speaks with the Soul communicates himself to it and in the Abyss of it's own Depth teaches it the most perfect and exalted Wisdom 129. He calls and guides it to this inward Solitude and mystical Silence when he says That he will speak to it alone in the most secret and hidden part of the Heart Thou art to keep thy self in this mystical Silence if thou wouldest hear the sweet and divine Voice It is not enough for gaining this Treasure to forsake the World nor to renounce thine own Desires and all things created if thou wean not thy self from all Desires and Thoughts Rest in this mystical Silence and open the Door that so God may communicate himself unto thee unite with thee and transform thee into himself 130. The perfection of the Soul consists not in speaking nor in thinking much on God but in loving him sufficiently This Love is attained to by means of perfect Resignation and internal Silence all consists in Works The Love of God has but few Words Thus St. John the Evangelist confirms and inculcates it My little Children Epist 1. Chap. 3. v. 18. let us not Love in Word neither in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth 131. Thou art clearly convinced now that perfect Love consists not in amorous Acts nor tender Ejaculations nor yet in the internal Acts wherein thou tellest God that thou hast an infinite love for him and thou lovest him more than thy self It may be that at that time thou seekest more thy self and the love of thy self than the true Love of God Because Love consists in Works and not in fair Discourses 132. That a rational Creature may understand the secret desire and intention of thy Heart there is a necessity that thou shouldest express it to him in Words But God who searches the Hearts standeth not in need that thou shouldest make profession and assure him of it nor does he rest satisfied as the Evangelist says with Love in Word nor in Tongue but with that which is true and indeed What avails it to tell him with great zeal and fervour that thou tenderly and perfectly lovest him above all things if at one bitter word or slight injury thou doest not resign thy self nor art mortified for the love of him A manifest proof that thy love was a love in Tongue and not in Deed. 133. Strive to be resigned in all things with Silence and in so doing without saying that thou lovest him thou wilt attain to the most perfect quiet effectual and true love St. Peter most affectionately told the Lord that for his sake he was ready willingly to lay down his Life but at the word of a young Damsel he denied him and there was an end of his Zeal Mary Magdalen said not a word and yet the Lord himself taken with her perfect Love became her Panagyrist saying that she had loved much It is internally then that with dumb Silence the most perfect Virtues of Faith Hope and Charity are practised without any necessity of telling God that thou lovest him hopest and believest in him because the Lord knows better than thou do'st what the internal Motions of thy Heart are 134. How well was that pure act of Love understood and practised by that profound and great Mistick the Venerable Gregory Lopez whose whole Life was a continual Prayer and a continued Act of Contemplation and of so pure and spiritual Love of God that it never gave way to Affections and sensible Sentiments 135. Having for the space of three Years continued that Ejaculation Thy Will be done in Time and in Eternity repeating it as often as he breathed God Almighty discovered to him that infinite Treasure of the pure and continued Act of Faith and Love with Silence and Resignation so that he came to say That during the thirty six Years he lived after

Recollection or Acquir'd Contemplation The first is of beginners the second of Proficients The first is sensible and material the second more naked pure and internal 2. When the Soul is already accustomed to discourse of Mysteries by the help of imagition and the use of corporal Images being carried from Creature to Cteature and from Knowledge to Knowledge though with very little of that which it wants and from these to the Creator Then God is wont to take that Soul by the hand if rather he calls it not in the very beginnings and leads it without ratiocination by the way of pure Faith making the intellect pass by all considerations and reasonings draws it forward and raises it out of this material and sensible state making it under a simple and obscure knowledge of Faith wholly aspire to its Bridegroom upon the wings of Love without any farther necessity of the perswasions and informations of the Intellect to make it love him because in that manner the Soul's love would be very scanty much dependent on Creatures stinted to drops and these too but falling with pauses and intervals 3. By how much less it depends on Creatures and the more it relies on God alone and his secret documents by the mediation of pure Faith the more durable firm and strong will that Love be After the Soul hath already acquired the knowledge which all the meditations and corporal images of Creatures can give her if now the Lord raise her out of that state by stripping her of ratiocination and leaving her in divine darkness to the end she may march in the streight Way and by pure Faith ●et her be guided and not love with the scantiness and tenuity that these direct but let her suppose that the whole World and all that the most refined conceptions of the wisest understandings can tell her are nothing and that the goodness and beauty of her beloved infinitely surpasses all their knowledge being perswaded that all Creatures are too rude to inform her and to conduct her to the true knowledge of God. 4. She ought then to advance forward with her love leaving all her understanding behind Let her love God as he is in himself and not as her imagination says he is and frames him to her And if she cannot know him as he is in himself let her love him without knowing him under the obscure veils of Faith in the same manner as a Son who hath never seen his Father but fully believing those who have given him information of him loves him as if he had already seen him 5. The Soul from which Mental Discourse is taken ought not to strain her self nor sollicitously seek for more clear and particular knowledge but even without the supports of sensible consolations or notices with poverty of spirit and deprived of all that the natural appetite requires continue quiet firm and constant letting the Lord work his work though she may seem to be alone exhausted and full of darkness and though this appear to her to be idleness it is only of her own sensible and material activity not of God's who is working true knowledge in her 6. Finally the more the Spirit ascends the more it is taken off of sensible objects Many are the souls who have arrived and do arrive at this gate but few have passed or do pass it for want of the experimental guide and those who have had and actually have it for want of a true subjection and entire submission 7. They 'll say that the Will will not love but be unactive if the Intellect understand not clearly and distinctly it being a received Maxim that that which is not known cannot be loved To this it is answered that tho' the Intellect understand not distinctly by ratiocination Images and Considerations yet it understands and knows by an obscure general and confused Faith which knowledge tho' so obscure indistinct and general as being supernatural hath nevertheless a more clear and perfect cognition of God than any sensible and particular notice that can be formed in this life because all corporal and sensible representation is infinitely distant from God. 8. We know God more perfectly says St. Denis by Negatives Myst ●● Theol. c. 1. ● 2. than by Affirmatives We think more highly of God by knowing that he is incomprehensible and above all our capacity than by conceiving him under any image or created beauty according to our rude understanding A greater esteem and love then will flow from this confused obscure and negative than from any other sensible and distinct way because that is more proper to God and abstracted from creatures and this on the contrary the more it depends on creatures the less it hath of God. Second Advertisement Declaring what Meditation and Contemplation are and the difference that is betwixt them 9. Lib. 3. de fide c. 24. ST John Damascene and other Saints say that Prayer is a sallying out or elevation of the mind to God. God is above all Creatures and the Soul cannot see him nor converse with him if it raise not it self above them all This friendly conversation which the Soul hath with God that 's to say in Prayer is divided into Meditation and Contemplation 10. When the Mind considers the Mysteries of our holy Faith with attention to know the truth of them reasoning upon the particulars and weighing the circumstances of the same for exciting the affections in the will This mental Discourse and pious Act is properly called Meditation 11. When the Soul already knows the truth either by a habit acquired through reasoning or because the Lord hath given it particular light and fixes the eyes of the mind on the demonstrated truth beholding it sincerely with quietness and silence without any necessity of considerations ratiocinations or other proofs of conviction and the will loves it admiring and delighting it self therein This properly is called the Prayer of Faith the Prayer of Rest Internal Recognition or Contemplation Which St. Thomas with all the mystical Masters says is a sincere 2. 2. q. 180. Art. 3. p. 4. sweet and still view of the eternal truth without ratiocination or reflexion But if the Soul rejoyces in or eyes the effects of God in the creatures and amongst them in the humanity of our Lord Christ as the most perfect of all this is not perfect Contemplation as St. Thomas affirms ibidem● since all these are means for knowing of God as he is in himself And although the humanity of Christ be the most holy and perfect means for going to God the chief instrument of our salvation and the channel through which we receive all the good we hope for nevertheless the humanity is not the chief good which consists in seeing God but as Jesus Christ is more by his divinity than his humanity so he that thinks and fixes his contemplation always on God because the divinity is united to the humanity always thinks on and heholds

me always that this is the most firm and secure disposition my spirit in the upper part is in a most simple unity it is not united because when it would perform acts of union which it often sets about it finds difficulty and clearly perceives that it cannot unite but be united The Soul would make use of this union for the service of Mattins the holy Mass preparation for the Communion and Thanksgiving and in a word it would for all things be always in that most simple unity of spirit without reflecting on any thing else To all this the holy Father answered with approbation perswading her to persist and putting her in mind that the repose of God is in peace 91. Another time she wrote to the same Saint these words Endeavouring to do some more special acts of my simple intuition total resignation and annihilation in God his divine goodness rebuked me and gave me to understand that that proceeded only from the love of my self and that thereby I offended my Soul. 92. By this thou wilt be undeceived and know what is the perfect and spiritual way of Praying and be advised what is to be done in Internal recollection Thou 'lt know that to the end Love may be perfect and pure it is expedient to retrench the multiplication of sensible and fervent Acts the Soul continuing quiet and resting in that inward Silence Because tenderness delight and sweet sentiments which the Soul experiences in the Will are not pure Spirits but Acts blended with the sensibilitie of Nature Nor is it perfect Love but sensible Pleasure which distracts and hurts the Soul as the Lord told the venerable Mother of Cantal 93. How happy and how well applied will thy Soul be if retreating within it self it there shrink into its own nothing both in its Center and superiour Part without minding what it does whether it recollect or not whether it walk well or ill if it operate or not without heeding thinking or minding any sensible thing At that time the Intellect believes with a pure Act and the Will loves with perfect Love without any kind of impediment imitating that pure and continued Act of Intuition and Love which the Saints say the Blessed in Heaven have with no other difference than that they see one another there Face to Face and the Soul here through the Veil of an obscure Faith. 94. O how few are the Souls that attain to this perfect Way of Praying because they penetrate not enough into this internal recollection and Mystical Silence and because they strip not themselves of imperfect reflection and sensible pleasure O that thy Soul without thoughtful advertency even of it self might give it self in Prey to that holy and spiritual Tranquility In bis Confess lib. 9. cap. 10. and say with St. Austin Sileat anima mea transeat se non se cogitando Let it be silent and do nothing forget it self and plung into that obscure Faith How secure and safe would it be though it might seem to it that thus unactive and doing nothing it were undone 95. I 'll sum up this Doctrine with a Letter that the illuminated Mother of Cantal wrote to a Sister and great Servant of God Divi●● Bounty said she granted me this way of Prayer that with a single View of God I felt my self wholy dedicated to him absorpt and reposed in him he still continued to me that Grace though I oppos●● it by my Infidelity giving way to fear and thinking my self unprofitable in that state for which cause being willing to do something on my part 〈◊〉 quite spoil all and to this present I find my se●● sometimes assaulted by the same Fear though 〈◊〉 in Prayer but in other Exercises wherein I am always willing to employ my self a little though I know very well that in doing such acts I come o●● of my Center and see particularly that that simp●● View of God is my onely remedy and help still 〈◊〉 all troubles temptations and the events of th●● Life 96. And certainly would I have followed my internal Impulse I should have made use of no other means in any thing whatsoever without exception because when I think to fortifie my Soul with Arts Reasonings and Resignations then do I expose my self to new temptations and straights Besides that I cannot do it without great violence which leaves me exhausted and dry so that it behoves me speedily to return to this simple Resignation knowing that God in this manner lets me see that it is his Will and Pleasure that a total stop should be put to the operations of my Soul because he would have all things done by his own divine Activity and happily he expects no more of me but this onely View in all spiritual Exercises and in all the pains temptations and afflictions that may befal me in this life And the truth is the quieter I keep my Spirit by this means the better all things succeed with me and my crosses and afflictions suddenly vanish Many times hath my blessed Father St Francis of Sales assured me of this 97. Our late Mother Superiour encouraged me firmly to persist in that way and not to fear any thing in this simple View of God She told me That that was enough and that the greater the nakedness and quietness in God are the greater sweetness and strength receiveth the Soul which ought to endeavour to become so pure and simple that it should have no other support but in God alone 98. To this purpose I remember that a few days since God communicated to me an Illumination which made such an impression upon me as if I had clearly seen him and this it is That I should never look upon my self but walk with eyes shut leaning on my Beloved without striving to see nor know the Way by which he guides me neither fix my thoughts on any thing nor yet beg Favours of him but as undone in my self rest wholly and sincerely on him Hitherto that Illuminated and Mistical Mistress whose Words do Credit and Authorize our Doctrine CHAP. XIV Declaring how the Soul putting it self in the Presence of God with perfect Resignation by the pure Act of Faith walks always in virtual and acquired Contemplation 99. THou wilt tell me as many Souls have told me that though by a perfect Resignation thou hast put thy self in the Presence of God by means of pure Faith as hath been already hinted yet thou doest not merit nor emprove because thy thoughts are so distracted that thou canst not be fixed upon God. 100. Be not disconsolate for thou do'st not lose time nor merit neither desist thou from Prayer because it is not necessary that during that whole time of recollection thou should'st actually think on God it is enough that thou hast been attentive in the beginning provided thou discontinue not thy purpose nor revoke the actual attention which thou hadst As he who hears Mass and says the Divine Office performs