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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41099	The maxims of the saints explained, concerning the interiour life by the Lord Arch-bishop of Cambray &c. ; to which are added, Thirty-four articles by the Lord Arch-Bishop of Paris, the Bishops of Meaux and Chartres, (that occasioned this book), also their declaration upon it ; together with the French-King's and the Arch-Bishop of Cambray's letters to the Pope upon the same subject.; Explication des maximes des saints sur la vie interieure. English	Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-, 1651-1715.; Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-, 1651-1715. Correspondence.; Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715. Correspondence.; Noailles, Louis-Antoine de, 1651-1729.; Godet des Marais, Paul, 1647-1709.; Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 1627-1704. Instruction sur les estats d'oraison, où sont exposées les erreurs des faux mystiques de nos jours.	1698 (1698)	Wing F675; ESTC R6318	100,920	267

a little less pure and disinterested It 's enough for this State that the Acts of Vertue are performed therein very frequently with that perfection that Charity diffuses there and with which the same are animated All these things are agreeable to our thirty four Articles I shall joyn to the Book which I have published most Holy Father a Collection in Manuscript of the Sentiments of the Fathers and Saints of the last Age concerning the Pure Love of Contemplatives to the end that that which is but plainly set out in the First Book may be proved in the Second by the Testimonies and Opinions of the Saints of all Ages I entirely submit Most Holy Father both the one and the other Pieces to the Judgement of the Holy Roman Catholick Church who is the Mother Church of all and has taught all the rest I devote all that is mine and my self to your Holiness as a Son ought to do that is full of Zeal and Respect towards you But if my Book in French hath been already brought unto your Holiness I most humbly intreat you most Holy Father to decide nothing concerning it 'till such time as you have seen my Latin Version that will be dispatched away with all speed There is nothing now remaining for me save to wish a long Pontificate to the chief of Pastors who Rules the Kingdom of Christ with so disinterested an Heart and who says with so much applause from all the Roman Catholick Nations to his Illustrious Family I know you not In doing thus daily I think I seek the Glory and Consolation of the Church the Re-establishment of its Discipline the propagation of the Faith the Extirpation of Schisms and Heresies and lastly an abundant Harvest in the Field of the Soveraign Father of the Family I shall for ever c. The Lord Arch-Bishop of Cambray 's Letter of August the 3d 1697. SIR BE not concerned for me the business of my Book is gone to Rome if I am under a mistake the Authority of the Holy See will undeceive me and this is that I wait for with a gentle and lowly Mind if I have illy exprest my self they will reform my expressions If the matter appears to require a more large explication that I will readily do by way of Additions If my Book contains nothing in it but what is pure Doctrine I shall have the consolation to know exactly what a Man ought to believe and what to reject I shall not in this Case fail to make all those Additions which without weakning the truth will be conducive to enlighten and edifie such Readers as are most subject to take the allarm But Sir in short if the Pope condemns my Book I shall be the first God willing that will condemn it and put out a Mandate to forbid the reading of it in the Diocess of Cambray I shall only intreat the Pope to do me the favour exactly to note those passages he condemns and the sense whereon he grounds his Condemnation to the end that I may subscribe thereunto without restriction and that I may never run the risque of defending excusing or tolerating the sense it s condemned in Being thus disposed thro' the blessing of God I am at rest and have nothing to do but to wait the disposition of my Superiour in whom I acknowledge the Authority of Jesus Christ to be lodged disinterested Love must not be defended but with a sincere disinterest We have not to do herein with a point of Honour nor with the Opinion of the World nor yet with that profound humiliation wherein Nature may fear to meet with ill success I think I act with integrity I am as much afraid of being presumptuous and possessed with a base shame as to be feeble politick and fearful in the defence of truth If the Pope condemns me I shall be thereby undeceived and the vanquished shall reap all the real fruits of the Victory Victoria scedet victis saith St. Augustine But if on the other side the Pope does not condemn my Doctrine I shall endeavour both by my silence and respect to pacifie those of my Fraternity whose Zeal has animated them against me by laying a sort of Doctrine to my charge which I abhor and always did as much as they do Perhaps they will do me justice when they see my sincerity There are but two things that my Doctrine was intended to comprehend the first whereof is that Charity is a love to God sor his own sake distinct from that motive of blessedness that we find in him Secondly that Charity in the life of the most perfect Souls is that which precedes all other Vertues which animates them and commands the acts so as to make them bear to its end insomuch that the Just thus qualified do then ordinarily exercise hope and all other Vertues with all the disinterest of Charity it self because this same state of the Soul is not without its exception being no other than an habitual one and not immutable God knows I have never intended to teach any thing else that exceeded these limitations And hence it is that I have said in my speaking concerning pure Love which is Charity so far as it animates and commands all other distinct Vertues Whoever allows of nothing beyond that is within the confines of Tradition whoever passeth those bounds is already out of the way I do not think there is any danger that the Holy See should condemn a Doctrine so well grounded upon the Authority of the Fathers of the Schools and of so many great Saints that the Church of Rome has Canoniz'd As for the manner of Expressions contained in my Book if they should be any ways prejudicial to truth for want of being correct I consign them to the judgement of my Superiour and I should be very sorry to trouble the repose of the Church were there no more in it than the interest of my Person and of my Book These are my thoughts of the matter Sir I go for Cambray having Sacrificed unto God with my whole heart all that I could Sacrifice to him thereupon permit me to exhort you to be of the same mind I have introduced nothing that related to Humane Affairs and Temporals into the Doctrine which I was convinced of the truth of neither have I forbore to let the Pope know any of those Reasons that could support this Doctrine This is enough let God do the rest if it be his Cause that I have vindicated let us not be concerned at the intentions of Men or their proceedings it is God alone that is to be looked to in all this let us be the Children of Peace and Peace will rest upon us it will be bitter but the same will be so much the more pure Let us not spoil good intentions by an humour by any Heat by any Humane Industry by any Natural Impression for the justifying of our selves Let us plainly give an account of our Faith let us

suffer our selves to be Corrected if there be need of it and let us endure Correction when we do not even deserve the same As for you Sir you ought to have no other portion therein than Silence Submission and Prayer Pray for me that am under such pressing difficulty pray for the Church that undergoes these Scandals pray for those who rise up against me to the end that they may be endued with the Spirit of Grace in order to undeceive me if I 'am in the wrong or to do me justice if I am otherwise Lastly pray for the interest of Prayer it self which is in danger and stands in need of being justified Perfection is become very suspicious they are not for removing it so far from lazy Christians and such as are full of self Disinterested Love would appear to be the Spring of Illusions and abominable Wickedness they have accustomed Christians under pretence of safety and precaution to seek after God no other way than by the motive of their blessedness and advantage to themselves Those Souls that have made most proficiency are forbid to serve God by the pure motive whereby hitherto it hath been wished that Sinners themselves would return from their Errors I mean the goodness of the infinitely amiable God I know that pure Love and abandoning ones self is abused I know that Hypocrites overthrow the Gospel under such good names but pure Love is no less a perfection of Christianity and 't is the worst of all Remedies to go about to abolish those things that are perfect to prevent being abused therewith God knows how to make better provision therein than Men. Let us be humble let us hold our peace instead of reasoning concerning Prayer let us be engaged in it in so doing we shall defend our selves our strength will consist in our silence I am c. Paris Aug. 3d 1697. THE DECLARATION Of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Prelates Lewis Antony de Noailles Arch-Bishop of Paris James Benigne Bossuet Bishop of Meaux and Paul Godet Desmarais Bishop of Chartres upon the subject Matter of a Book Intituled An Explication of the Maxims of the Saints concerning the Internal Life AS we have been long since called to bear Witness it 's time at last we should make answer The most Illustrious and most Reverend Arch-bishop of Cambray as well in the very beginning as Preface of his Book called An Explication of the Maxims of the Saints c. hath made mention of two of our number whose Doctrine and Decisions contained in the Thirty Four Articles he hath only taken upon him more fully to explicate and which the third of us by a publick Act hath agreed to and Subscribed The same most Illustrious and most Reverend Arch-bishop hath in the Letter he wrote to our Holy Father the Pope Innocent XII grounded what he says upon the same Articles and Censures of the Bishops against some Books that have been written And we were the only three who have thought it our Duty to Censure those Books or rather according to the Author's words certain places in the said Book Nevertheless they are not some places as the same Author says that we have taken upon us to censure but the greatest part of them nay and we would have the whole Books condemned and the Spirit that runs quite thro' them But as the same Epistle takes notice our Zeal is not raised against certain Mystick Persons in former Ages who laboured under a pardonable ignorance of Theological Dogma's but our Censures and Articles are level'd at the Quietists of our own time who are well known amongst us Neither have we recourse to the obvious and natural sense of things as if there were some more occult meaning couched under them which perhaps might at the same time be tolerated but we have thought it necessary to expose the Poison lying hid in those Books We know nothing of any bodies taking occasion from our Articles and Censures to deride pure Love and Contemplation as the Illusions of a troubled Brain as the said Letter intimates It 's also said in the same Letter That the principal Points which have been treated on in the Book having been anew Explained are found to be conformable to the said Articles This Conclusion and the intention we find there is to have what is contained in the said Book to be thought agreeable to our Sentiments we are necessitated to explain our selves upon this Head tho' it is not without trouble of mind that we are brought to this Extremity having before used all sorts of means to gain the Judgment of our Brother herein 't is pure necessity that constrains us hereunto to the end we may prevent the Belief of our approving this Work and above all out of the Fear we are in lest our Holy Father the Pope whom we perfectly honour and to whom as to our Head we are inviolably united should be perswaded that we favour a Doctrine which the Church condemns We shall begin by shewing the Reasons that occasion'd the Articles which the Book Entituled An Exposition of the Maxims of the Saints c. makes mention of There was a certain Woman living amongst us who having put out a Pamphlet called a Short Method c. and some others also and spread up and down certain Manuscripts of the Quietists seemed to us to be a leader of that Sect she desired she might be allowed three Counsellors with whose Advice she might acquiesce the most illustrious Author of this book was added for a Fourth the design was to consine her and those of her Party within some bounds to remove all the subterfuges they had and to shew them from the undoubted Articles of our Faith the Lord's Prayer the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture Holy Tradition and Saints that their Tenets were condemned to all intents and purposes either from their own Nature or by Councils and the Apostolick See this was the end of the Articles that contained our decisions and Censures our business now is to see whether the said Book did explain and open the same or overthrow them In the first place Theological or Divine Hope is taken away in that Book as well out of the state of Grace as within it among the perfect And when it is said that without the state of Grace before Justification one may love God with the love of Hope in such a manner that self-love that is the love of our own Interest and Happiness be the principal Motive of the said love of Hope and prevalent above the other motive of love to God's Glory it from thence follows that Hope which depends upon a created good and self interest is no Divine or Theological Virtue but a Vice and thence it is that that Axiom of St. Augustine is applyed tho' in a wrong sense That which proceeds not from a principle of Charity proceeds from Concupiscence and from that love which is the root of all Vices and which the Jealous

the King and at the same time to importune him to commit the said Work to Examination The Arch-Bishops of Rheims and Paris with the Bishop of Meaux an implacable Enemy to Cambray were the persons appointed for it the effect whereof was the putting out of their Declaration upon the same Subject wherein they fully set forth their sentiments in relation to it And as these Prelates distinguished their Zeal in this manner against this Semi-Quietism the Bishop of Noyon about the same time in his Pastoral Letter written in the Form of a Preservative to keep the Clergy and Faithful of his Diocess in the holy Exercise of a solid and real Piety against the pernicions Maxims of Quietism sets himself against Quietism in all the Branches of it But tho' he would have the Quietism he darts his Thunder at to be not that of Molinos but this new sort of Semi-Quietism yet when he comes to a kind of an Explanation of it he confounds the new Quietism with the old seeing that in respect to the Opinions which he looks upon to be most monstrous he imputes what Molinos taught to those against whom he writes of which take this one tast What an Abomination is it says the Bishop to set up Vices in the place of Vertues and to pretend that shameful Falls are the Steps by which to ascend to the Glory of a perfect Union with God Now this is Molinos himself that has occasioned this Exclamation who says in direct Terms That we ought not to afflict or disturb our selves when we fall into any Defect but to rise up and go on and set our selves to Exercises of Piety as if we had never fallen Would you not take him to be a Fool says he who contending for the Prize of a Race and hapning to stumble in the midst of his Carier should lie upon the Ground to no other end than to bewail his Fall You would rather say to him Rise Friend and without loss of time set thy self a running again for he that gets up quickly and pursues his Race is like one that never fell So that it 's manifest from hence in short that the French Prelates do not well understand what they write against but that there is something in it tending to invalidate Penances and put Auricular Confessions out of Fashion which has brought so much Grist to the Romish Mill is what they seem to be very apprehensive of But the Clergy notwithstanding all their ' fore-mention'd Endeavours for the Suppression of this new Doctrine finding it to spread itself more and more among all Ranks and Orders of Men as well Ecclesiasticks as Laicks they thought it high time to transfer the Accusation to the Court of Rome with all the aggravation of the Arch-Bishop's of Cambray's Crime and Heresie imaginable and because they would not fail to make sure work of it they engag'd the French King so far on their side also as to get him to write to the Pope to induce him in Confirmation of the Censures of the Clergy of France to condemn the Arch-Bishop's Book who on his own part also being not ignorant of these Proceedings against him and not to be wanting to his own Defence thought it no less proper to write to his Holiness upon the same Subject But tho' the Bishop has used as much Caution as Submission in that he wrote to the Pope yet you will find in another of his Letters to a Friend that he is the same Man still But how violent soever the Arch-Bishops accusers appear'd against him both in France and Rome the Pope kept a soft pace till such time as having received the Arch-Bishops said Letter he was pleased to appoint seven Commissioners to Examine his Book viz. the Master of the Sacred Pallace His Holiness his Confessor and a Jaccbin Father Marsouiller a French-Man of the same Order the Proctor-General of St. Augustine-Friars Father Gabriel of the Mendicant Order Father Miri a Benedictine Father Grenelli a Franciscan and Father Alfaro Jesuit These were to make their Report to the Congregation of the holy Office in order to their farther proceedings thereupon But whither it were that these Gentlemen could not understand the Bishops Gallimaufry of notional speculations or what shall I call it or what ever else was in the wind they did nothing in it and the matter at last came before old Infallibility himself and his Sacred College of Cardinals But after all this and the continual Sollicitations of the Jesuits and some great Prelates there are some months now elapsed and nothing done in it and by any thing that hitherto has appear'd to the contrary they are so far from coming to a final decision either in favour or against the said Book as when they first began To enter upon an inquiry into the Doctrine and notions contained in this Treatise will not be proper for me in this place that being entirely left to the judgment of every one that has an inclination to peruse it It remains for me therefore to say that as it as stirred up the Curiosity of all sorts of persons abroad to make an inspection into these tenets so it has done mine to engage me in a more particular inquiry into the rise and progress as well as the dislike of and opposition made against them AN EXPLANATION Of the Diverse Loves Which may be had for GOD. 1. WE may love God not for the sake of himself but for some other good things depending on his Almighty power which we hope to obtain from him Such Love as this had the Carnal Jews who observed the Law in hopes only of being recompenc'd with the dew of Heaven and the fertility of the Earth This love is neither Chast nor Filial but meerly Servile or rather to speak properly who loveth so does not love God but his own dear Self and seeks entirely for himself not God but what comes from him 2. We may have Faith and not one degree of Charity with it We know God to be our only happiness that is to say the only Object the sight whereof can render us happy Now should we in this slate love God as the only instrument to be made use of for to work our happiness and because we are not able to find our happiness in any other object should we look upon God as a means of felicity and refer it purely to our selves as to its ultimate end this would be rather a self-love than a love of God at least it would be contrary to order as respecting God as an object or instrument of our felicity both to our selves and our own happiness And though by this love we should seek for no other reward but God alone yet would it prove wholly mercenary and of meer concupiscency That Soul as saith S. Francis of Sales in his Book of the love of God Lib. 2. c. 17. which should love God only out of love to her self by establishing the end of that love

to be Examined by my Bishops a great number of Doctors and learned Religionaries of several Orders They have all as well Bishops as Doctors unanimously reported that it was a very ill and dangerous Book and that the Explanation published by the said Archbishop was unwarrantable He declared in his Preface that his intention only was to Explicate the Doctrine of his Brethren who after they had attempted by all gentle ways to reclaim him they found themselves obliged in Conscience to put out their Declaration concerning his Book and to consign the same into the Hands of the Archbishop of Damas your Holiness's Nuncio at my Court to the end that your Holiness might put an end to an Affair that may have pernicious Consequences if it be not nipt in the very Bud. I humbly intreat you to pass sentence upon the same Book and Doctrine contained therein as soon as possible and assure your Holiness at the same time that I shall make use of all my Authority to put the Decision you shall make in Execution and that I am Most Holy Father Your very affectionate Servant LOUIS Meudon Aug. 26. 1697. THE TABLE SEveral sorts of Love wherewith we may love God The First Love 1 The Second 1 The Third 2 The Fourth 3 The Fifth 5 The Names of these Five sorts of Love 1. Of the Carnal Love of the Jews 7 2. The love of Concupiscence ibid. 3. The love of Hope 8 4. Interested Love ibid. 5. Pure Love ibid. ARTICLES 1. Of the love of Concupiscence 9 2. Three different Degrees of Just Persons upon Earth 12   How Fear and Hope purify themselves 13   The effects of pure Love 15 3. Of interested love It makes a great many Saints 18 4. How Hope perfects her self and keeps her distinction from Charity 21   How an interested Soul can Will or seek God as he is her Good 24 5. The two states of the Just of Resignation and Indifference 26   What holy Indifference is 27   Passages out of St. Francis de Sales concerning it 29 6. Holy indifference is the real Principle of the interested desires of the Law and of Grace 33 7. There is no state that gives Souls a miraculous Inspiration wherein consists the perfection of the internal Life 35 8. What abandoning ones self is 39   The extream Tryals of abandoning 40   The Souls resistance makes these Tryals long and painful 40   The diffeeence between common Temptations and the Tryals of an entire purification 41 9. The state of the Soul that abandons her self to God in these extream Tryals 43   The Edge of the Spirit or Top of the Soul 44 10. The Souls absolute Sacrifice of its own Interest to God 46 11. The difference between the New and the Old Law 51   The Soul ought to follow Grace without being willing to prevent it 52   A cooperation with Grace ibid.   Of Activity 53 12. Of disinterested Souls 57   An abnegation and hatred of ones self ib.   One ought always to watch over himself 58   The difference between the Vigilancy of pure and interested love 60 13. Simple and direct Acts and reflex Acts an inward certainty 62 14. The separation of the upper part of the Soul from the lower in extream Tryals 65   How this separation is made ibid. 15. Vniversal Sobriety Mortification 68   A temperature of Austerities 69   The effects of Austerities ibid. 16. Two sorts of Proprieties 71   Resignation 72   What mystical Men call Propriety 73   Disappropriation ibid. 17. Common and extraordinary temptations and the difference between them 77 18. Divers sorts of Wills in God 81   The permissive Will of God 82 19. Vocal and mental Prayer 84 20. Of Reading 87   A persuasion of the most powerful love of all 88 21. The difference between Meditation and Contemplation 89 22. When Meditation may be quitted in order to enter upon Contemplation 93 23. For what Souls contemplation is not convenient 95 24. Habitual Contemplation 96 25. Perpetual Prayer 98 26. Interruptions of direct Contemplation 101 27. Direct Contemplation is negative 102 28. How centemplative Souls are deprived of the distinct views of Christ 106 29. Of passive Contemplation 109   Why they call it the Prayer of Silence or quietude 111 30. Of the passive state 114 31. The simplicity of the passive state 117 32. The liberty that is in the passive state 120 33. The Reunion of all the Virtues in Love 122 34. Of Spiritual Death 125 35. Of the state of Transformation 126 36. Of the Internal Exercises of transformed Souls 128 37. Transformed Souls may sin 130 38. And consequently they ought to come to Confession 132 39. The imperfections of the Soul 135 40. How a Transformed Soul is united to God 138 41. Of spiritual Marriages 139 42. Of substantial Vnion 140 43. The submission of the Spiritual Man 141 44. The Oeconomy and Secret of the sublimest Exercise of pure love 143 45. All the Internal ways are but the means to arrive at pure Love 145   The Conclusion of all the Articles 149 ADDITIONS THE Lord Archbishop of Cambray's Letter to the Pope 151 A Letter of the same Person dated August 3. 1697. 160 A Declaration of Three Prelates viz. of the Archbishop of Paris the Bishop of Meaux and Chartres upon the Book Entituled An Explanation of the Maxims of the Saints concerning the Internal Life 166 The Thirty Four Articles of the 16 and 26th of April 1695. 216 The French King's Letter to the Pope 227 FINIS Some BOOKS Printed for Henry Rhodes in Fleet-street MOnasticon Anglicanum or the History of the Abbies Monasteries Hospitals Cathedrals and Collegiate Churchies in England and Wales made English from Sir Will. Dugdale with Sculptures Folio price 10 s. The New World of Words or an Universal English Dictionary containing the proper significations of all Words from other Languages together with the Explanations of all those Terms that conduce to the Understanding of any of the Arts and Sciences viz. Divinity Philosophy Law Physick Mathematicks Husbandry Published by E.P. The Fifth Edition enlarged from the best English and Foreign Authors A Work very necessary for Strangers and our own Country-men for the right understanding of what they Discourse Write or Read Fol. Price 14 s. Memoirs for the Ingenious Containing several Curious Observations in Philosophy Mathematicks Physick Philology and other Arts and Sciences By M. de la Crose Miscellaneous Letters giving an Account of the Works of the Learned both at home and abroad in which there is a Catalogue and Idea of all valuable Books The New Politicks of the Court of France under the Reign of Lewis XIV wherein are to be seen all his Intrigues in respect to the Potentates of Europe Letters writ by a Turkish Spy who lived Forty Five Years undiscover'd at Paris giving an Account to the Divan of Constantinople of the Remarkable Transactions in the Christian Courts

of my Articles will shew all the Consequence of false Principles that tend to create the most dangerous Illusion against the Rule of Faith and good Manners and that under a shew of Perfection I shall endeavour in each Article to point at the Place where the Equivocation begins and to censure all that is ill without in the least diminishing the Authority of the Saints Experiences If our Mystical Men would give me Ear without prejudice they would quickly apprehend what my Meaning is and that I take their Expressions in a just extent of the true Sence of them I 'll even refer it to their own Judgment if I do not explain their Maxims with much more Exactness than most of them have hitherto done because I have made it my principal Business to give their Expressions clear and exact Ideas and such as are Authorised by Tradition without weakning the Foundations of the Things themselves All good Mystical Men who love nothing but Truth and the Edification of the Church ought to be satisfied with this Plan I could have added hereunto a great many formal Passages out of the Ancient Fathers as well as School-Doctors and Mystical Saints but this Vndertaking would engage me into such Lengths and innumerable Repetitions as frightned me from it for the Reader 's sake this is that which hath caused me to suppress the Collection of those Passages which I had already digested and set in Order I do suppose without any more ado this Tradition to be constant and decisive and I have confined my self to set forth here a clear System and such as is agreeable to Theological Definitions Tho' the Driness of this Method looks like a great Inconvenience yet it is less than that of a tiresome Length I have no more to do than to practise this Plan that I have given an Explanation of I look up unto God and not my self for Strength to do it who is pleased to make use of the vilest and unworthiest Instruments My Doctrine ought not to be mine but that of Christ who sends forth Pastors be it far from me to say any thing of my self may I not prosper if while I am engaged in instructing others I be not my self the most teachable and most submissive Child of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church I shall begin my Work with making a plain Exposition of the different Sences that may be given to that we call The Love of God in order to give a clear and distinct Vnderstanding of the State of the Questions belonging to this Matter then will the Reader meet with my Articles which approves of what is true and condemns every thing that is false in each particular relating to the Internal Life The INTRODUCTION WHen I consider the many Differences that have hapned from Time to Time between not only particular Persons of the Roman Communion but even whole Societies particucularly between the Dominicans and Franciscans and the Jesuites and almost all Others about Matters of Faith and other Religious Tenets I cannot but admire at the Boldness of some of those Gentlemen who make their Unity to be a token of their Infallibility and the divided Opinions of the Protestants an evident Mark of the Falsity of their Belief But surely it is now high time they should give over that fantastick Argument since these sort of Dissentions are more rife among themselves than any other Community in the World and they may have Work enough to do to turn their Pens that way especially since Quietism and some other Opinions in Consequence of it hath taken such Root amongst them that even some of those who are reckon'd the Pillars of the Church seem to be as good as open Favourers of it and would draw if it were possible his Holiness himself to be of the same Sentiments and so to turn all at once Heretick But among all those who have more openly espoused these new Opinions is the Lord Arch-Bishop of Cambray a Person of that Learning and Consideration in his Countrey as to have been intrusted by the French King his Master with the Education of the young Princes the Dauphine's Sons But how this Eminent Person came thus to expose himself will be somewhat worthy of our enquiry before we proceed to give an Account of the opposition he hath met with and other consequences that have attended the Publishing of his Book which is now presented to the English Readers View that he may pass his Censure also thereupon There are but a few people that have not heard of Molinos and his Doctrine of Quietism some years since broached at Rome and what industry was used by the holy Fathers Inquisitors to ruine both him and it But how rigorous soever they shewed themselves against the Author they have not yet been able to suppress his Opinions which not only have still a being and considerable Fautors amongst them in Italy but the same or something very like it which we may call Semi-Quietism upon the same account as some Ancient Hereticks were distinguished with the name of Semipelagians hath been able to make its way through the snowy Alps and enter into the Kingdom of France and agreed so well since with the Soyl of that Countrey that it will not be quickly rooted out The Rulers of the Gallican Church began to be sensible pretty early of this supposed growing Evil but the occasion of their taking a more publick notice of it was a certain Womans putting out a Pamphlet called A Short Method c. and dispersing some other Papers savouring very much of Quietism whom to reclaim from her error they took care to appoint three Counsellours to admonish and instruct her and to them the Arch-Bishop of Cambray was added for a fourth But which way things came to pass and what success soever the first three might think they had upon the Woman its likely she brought over the fourth to the Opinion or somewhat that was near it if he were not so before She was accused of being guilty of But this did not appear at present However some of the Clergy thought it high time to bestir themselves in the matter and particularly the Arch-Bishop of Paris the Bishops of Meaux and Chartres did believe the foundation of their Church to have been so far struck at by such proceedings that they framed thirty four Articles on the 16th and 26th of April 1695. wherein they set forth what every Christian ought to believe and act and what to reject as erroneous and noxious to the Souls of Men Hereupon the Arch-Bishop of Cambray led by what fate I know not took upon him to compile this Work Entituled The Maxims of the Saints Explained and therein to give a more full Explication of the said thirty four Articles but did it in such a manner as allarmed the whole body of the French Clergy but more particularly the Authors of the said Articles who with divers others failed not to make Complaints thereof to

high and so perfect that it becomes habitual insomuch that at any time when a Soul puts herself to actual Prayer her Prayer is contemplative and not discursive Then she hath no need to return to Meditation nor to her Methodical Acts. Nevertheless if it should happen against both the ordinary Course of Grace and the common Experience of Saints that this habitual Contemplation should absolutely cease one ought always to supply the deficiency of it by the Acts of discursive Meditation because a Christian Soul ought never to remain really in Emptiness and Idleness One ought even to suppose that a Soul that should fall from so high a Contemplation could not do so but by some secret Infidelity For the Gifts of God on his part are never repented of he forsakes none but those by whom he is forsaken and never diminishes his Graces but to those who diminish their Co-operation 'T is our only Business to perswade that Soul that it is not God who fails her but that it must needs be she herself that hath fail'd God A Soul of this Rank might also be put again into Meditation by the Order of a Director who was minded to try her but then she ought by the Rule both of holy Indifferencè and of Obedience to be as contented to mediate as Beginners do as to contemplate with the Cherubims To speak so is to follow the Spirit of the Church and to prevent all Dangers of Illusion 'T is to speak as the greatest Saints whose Books have been I may say so as well Canonised as their Persons XXIV False 'T IS better to remain in an absolute Unaction than to take that which is less perfect for that which is more perfect The habitual State of Contemplation is so invariable that it ought never to be supposed that one can fall from it by a secret Infidelity To speak at this rate is to inspire Men with a rash Assurance it is to cast Souls into a manifest danger of going astray XXV ARTICLE True THere is in this Life an habitual State but not wholly invariable in which the most perfect Souls do all their free Actions in the Presence God and for his sake according to the Words of the Apostle Let all your Works be done in Charity And again Whether you eat or drink or do any thing else let it be done for the Glory of God This referring all our free Actions to our only End is that perpetual Prayer recommended by Christ when he will have our Prayer to be without ceasing and by S. Paul when he saith Pray without intermission But this Prayer ought never to be confounded with pure and direct Contemplation or taken as S. Thomas speaks in the most perfect Acts. That Prayer which consists in a referring to God all our Actions may be perpetual in one Sence that 's to say it may last as long as our free Acts. In this Case it is never interrupted but by Sleep and the other Deficiencies of Nature which make all free and meritorious Acts to cease But pure and direct Contemplation hath not even this kind of Perpetuity because it is often interrupted by the Acts of distinct Vertues necessary to all Christians and which are not Acts of pure and direct Contemplation To speak so is to take off all Equivocation in a matter where it is so dangerous to make any 't is to hinder Mystical People not well instructed in the Doctrine of Faith from representing their State as if they were no more in the Pilgrimage of this Life Finally it is to speak as Cassian who saith in his first Conference That pure Contemplation is never absolutely perpetual in this Life XXV False PUre and direct Contemplation is in some Souls absolutely perpetual Sleep itself does not interrupt it it consisteth in a simple and singular Act which is permanent which hath no need of ever being reiterated and subsists always by itself unless recalled by a contrary Act. To speak at this rate is to deny the Pilgrimage of this Life the natural Swoundings of the Soul and the State of Sleep wherein the Acts are no longer either free or meritorious 'T is at the same time to give way to a contemplative Soul to dispense with those necessary Vertues of her State which are not Acts of pure and direct Contemplation It is to be ignorant that every Act both of the Understanding and of the Will is essentially transitory this is to oblige Men in loving God during ten Moments to make ten successive Acts of Love one of which is not the other one whereof should never follow the other one of which is so past that nothing remains of it when the other that was not begins to be Lastly It is to speak after a manner as extravagant according to the first Principles of Philosophy as monstruous according to the Rules of Religion XXVI ARTICLE True DUring the Intervals which interrupt pure and direct Contemplation a very perfect Soul may exercise distinct Vertues in all her free Acts with the same Peace and Purity or Disinterest of Love whereby she contemplates while the Attraction of Contemplation is actual The same Exercise of Love which is called Contemplation or Quietness where it remains in its general Scope and is not applied to any particular Function becometh each distinct vertue according as it is applied to particular Occasions For it is the Object as S. Thomas speaks which specifieth all Vertues But pure and peaceable Love remains always the same as to the Motive in all these different Specifications To speak thus is to speak as the most exact and cautious Schools have done XXIV False PUre and direct Contemplation is without any Interruption so that it leaves no Interval in the Exercise of those distinct Vertues that are necessary to all States All the free Acts of the Life of a contemplative Person are concerned in Divine Things which are the exact Object of pure Contemplation and this State does not admit on the side of the Objects to whom Love is applied any Distinction or Specification of Vertues To speak at this rate is to destroy all the most interiour Vertues it is to contradict not only all the Tradition of holy Doctors but also the most experienced mystical Men it is to oppose S. Bernard S. Theresa and the blessed John of the Cross who by their particular Experiences do limit pure Contemplation to half an Hour thereby giving us to understand that it is confin'd to some Bounds XXVII ARTICLE True PUre and direct Contemplation is negative because it is never voluntarily conversant about any sensible Image any distinct and namable Idea as S. Dionisius speaks that 's to say about any particular and limited Idea relating to the Divine Nature but that it passeth over all that is sensible and distinct that 's to say comprehensible and limited to stop only in the Idea that is purely intellectual and abstracted from the Being which is without limits and restriction

God is so much set against After Justification in a perfect state of pure and dis-interested love he admits of Hope that resides in the Mind but doth not move it because that the love which is contained in this Hope is pure without any mixture of interest in respect to fear or hope and being as it were perfect Charity it excludes Hope as well as Fear so that the Soul is not at all excited from any motive or upon the account of self-interest and so those incentatives or motives of self-advantage so often inculcated in the Scripture Tradition and the Prayers of the Church are utterly excluded from perfect Minds As for the motives of Self-interest the same is explained in all the passages of the Book in such a manner that the Soul is to retain no mercenary desire and not to love God neither for his desert perfection nor the good that is to be found in loving him nor yet for everlasting Rewards and it would be insinuated that it is the common sentiments of all the Saints both Ancient and Modern From whence this general Conclusion is made That this interested Motive is formally excluded from all the Virtues of perfect minds an Opinion which is also attributed to St. Francis de Sales without using the place where it is to be met with tho' in contrariety to this there are divers passages in his Writings that are quite opposite thereunto To the same end tends also what is further said that we will or love God as he is our good happiness and reward that we love him formally under this precision or restriction but not because of this restriction and that the formal Object of our hope is our interest to wit God our Good but that we have no mercenary motive thereunto but this is perfect contrariety to make that a motive which is no motive to cut off that hope which being destitute of power to move the Soul has no more in it than the bare name of hope By these Propositions and others also whereby in retaining the name of hope the thing it self is precluded the sense of our First and Thirtieth Article concerning the retaining of the Exercise of hope in every condition is eluded It will signify nothing for a Man to say that there are other propositions opposite hereunto to be found in some places of the said Book For to be plain in the matter the said Book contains things that evidently contradict one another for Example God wills that I should love him as he is my Good Happiness and Reward very well but the contrary is repeated again and again in these words It 's certain we do not will the love of God or our Salvation as he is the reward of our merits our salvation our eternal deliverance our good our interest and the greatest of them So manifest a Contradiction of Propositions and Terms is sufficient to prove there is Error in that case and cannot serve for an Excuse for the same Moreover the style of this Book is so perplext and the manner of reasoning used in it so subtile that they are quite lost there being many places therein where the sense cannot be found out without great trouble and vexation of mind and this must be the Character of an ill-contriv'd System and of an Author that seeks not so much a good temperament of things as subterfuges and subtilties As for what concerns the desire of Eternal Salvation the said Author thus expresses himself The desire of Eternal Salvation is good but nothing ought to be desired saving the Will of God a Proposition which he attributes to St. Francis de Sales tho' it be not to be met with in any of his Writings In the same Book it is also said that there are two different states of the Just one of resignation wherein mercenary or self-desires are subjected to the Will of God another of Holy indifference wherein the Soul has no mercenary desire at all except it be upon such occasions as when it is wanting to its own grace and is not fully correspondent thereunto to which proposition the forementioned Heads are referred that Salvation is not to be desired as it is our good our reward c. All these Propositions as well as those that exclude the desires of Eternal Salvation conceived from motives of Hope as also those others that regard the indifference of Salvation are rejected in the foresaid Articles pursuant to the Authority of the Holy Scriptures not only as false but also as erroneous Those same Articles particularly condemn that which is affirmed in the said Book that holy indifference admits of general desires for the accomplishment of all the hidden will of God and though the Decrees of ones own and others reprobation were contained in this Will yet his desires are to be so far extended as to wish the accomplishment of the same Neither is there as the said Book would insinuate any room left for Equivocation seeing all manner of Equivocation is taken away in the said Articles concerning the indifference of Salvation by a clear definition of indifference which may appertain to the events of this Life and sensible Comforts but never to salvation and the means that are conducive thereunto The Author in order to make the Articles to be equivocal grounds himself upon this Position that Salvation is to be desired and wished for as a thing that God would have which is right enough and taken from the very end of Salvation But in his Book he expresses himself in an exclusive manner saying that the Soul wills not happiness for it self but because it knows God wills it whereby the immediate and specific motives of hope are cut off and a way opened to the pernicious Opinion of indifference as if salvation was in it self a thing indifferent and as if the good that was commanded was not in it self desirable but only upon the account of its being commanded and enjoined In the mean time the difference that lies between desirable things because of the will of God and those things that are not desirable but by reason of the will of God is set forth by the Author himself from the very beginning of his Treatise in a passage he cites out of St. Francis de Sales There is a great deal of difference between these words I love God for the good I expect from him and those I do not love God but upon account of that good which shews what diversity there is often between things that seem to be exprest in very near the same words This indifference to Salvation which is asserted throughout the whole Book gives way to these consequences that a Soul in the greatest tryals may be invincibly perswaded that it is reprobated by God whereby the Sacrifice of Salvation which is ordinarily conditional becomes absolute an impossible case appearing not only as possible but even as real or actual And then a director of ones Conscience may suffer a

both in his Treatise and in his Letter Nevertheless he falls into the same absurdity by allowing of such still peaceable Acts that they have nothing whereby the Soul may be able to make a true distinction of them they being such as are disturbed with no manner of joltings so uniform and so even that they seem as much to be no acts at all as one continued Act during the whole course of ones Life Lastly we have more particularly taken care in our Articles lest Christian Perfection holiness or purity or the internal Life should be placed in passive Prayer or in other quiet and extraordinary ones of that kind wherein all contemplative and formal persons are with us but on the contrary the said Book doth assert that the same Prayer and Contemplation do consist in pure love which doth not only justify and purify of it self but consummate accomplish and make perfect and is consequently the last degree of Christian perfection Wherein the Author doth extreamly err and not only differs from spiritual men but even from himself He differs from spiritual Persons or Mysticks who in persuance to the Authority of St. Theresia the Expositions of John de Jesus and the sentiments of James Alvarez de Paz who was a follower of them and that of St. Francis de Sales and several others have taught that either a person may arrive at a state of perfection without quiet prayer or that this Prayer is in the number of such blessings as seem very much to appertain to those graces that are purely free that it is neither of a perfecting nature and justifies no man yea and that the same may consist with mortal sin He differs from himself in that he asserts every where That Christian perfection consists in this sort of Prayer which is nothing else but a love that is very pure and teaches at the same time the greatest part of holy Souls and those who by a peculiar Title are called Saints could never attain to this sort of Prayer nor consequently to perfection because they had not the inward light nor the advantages of attractive Grace From hence he conludes that the Doctrine of pure love wherein all Evangelick perfection doth consist and to which all Tradition beareth a Testimony is yet a mystery which is concealed not only from Christians in general but even from the greatest part of Saints and that 't is the business of a director of Mens Consciences to leave the same unto God and to wait for his opening the Heart by his internal Unction as if the word of the Gospel would be of no use to those who ought to be endued with pure love as if Unction should exclude and shut out the good word of Salvation From whence it follows that that command of Christ Be ye perfect doth not appertain to the Saints nor that neither thou shalt love c. which derogate from the perfection of Christian calling There is also as much contradiction between these Propositions That the gift of pure Love and Contemplation depends upon grace or divine inspiration which is common to all that are justifyed and that yet there are many Saints to whom the same is not communicated and which would be but a trouble and offence to them were the same proposed to them These things therefore and those other before mention'd which run through the whole Book are contrary to our Censures and the Thirty Four Articles so often mentioned neither are those that follow less opposite to the same Doctrine or any more consonant to Truth In the first place altho' the said Book doth in the beginning and in divers other places onwards make an enumeration of false spirituallizers If I may so call them whereof he makes the Gnosticks of old the Beguardians in the middle age and the late Illuminates of Spain to be of the number yet he makes no manner of mention of Molinos and his followers nor more particularly of that Woman upon whose account the Articles were framed whereas in the mean time it must be said that they should have been chiefly spoken of seeing the whole Church is filled with the noise their Writings have made and the Censures past upon them by the Pope's authority To which these Positions must in like manner be added that the love of pure Concupiscence how impious and sacrilegious soever it be doth yet prepare Sinners for to be justifyed and converted tho' this preparation proceeds from no other motions than such as are excited by the Spirit or at least the impulse thereof That justifying love whereby a person seeks not its own happiness but as a means that doth refer unto and subordinates it self to the last end which is God's glory is in this Book called mercenary which is contrary to the judgment of the Schools and that Axiom of St. Augustin so well known among Divines That we are to deliver our selves according to a known Rule That an impossible case to wit that a just Soul who loves God even to the end should yet be condemned to eternal punishments is rendred possible and that St Francis de Sales seems to have found himself to be in the same state tho neither he himself nor any of those that have writ his Life say any thing of it and that no just Soul can be brought to believe it That direct Acts and such as escape the reflections of the Soul are the very same operation of the Soul which by St. Francis de Sales are called the top of the Soul tho' he says nothing of it in all his Writings That in these Acts there is a strange and unheard of division of the Soul in it self to be found since perfect Hope subsists in the upper part as the lower is abandon'd to despair and which is worse the former is in direct Acts and the other in reflex ones which are in themselves the most deliberate and efficacious especially if allowed by the director of the Conscience insomuch that Hope being expelled by reflex Acts subsists in those that are direct That in this division of the Soul labouring under an unvoluntary impression of despair and making an absolute Sacrifice of its own interest for that of Eternity it doth die on the Cross with Christ saying my God my God why hast thou forsaken me as if despairing Souls could expire with Christ and yet bewail their state in being forsaken by him That in these last Tryals or Experiments he makes a separation between the Soul and it self according to the Example of Christ who is our pattern wherein the inferior part had no Communication with the superior neither in its unvoluntary troubles nor faintings that in this separation the motions of our inferior part are blind and full of unvoluntary Trouble As if there had been such perturbations in Christ as there are in us which is an abominable Opinion and which the fam'd Sophronius hath condemned as such with the approbation of the sixth Council As

review of his actions and the Gifts he hath received in order to feed self-love to seek out a common support or to take up too much with himself 18. Mortifications are agreeable to a Christian in every state and are often necessary and to make the same separate from the duty of Believers under a pretence of perfection is openly to condemn St. Paul and to presuppose an Erroneous and Heretical Doctrine 29. Continual Prayer consists not in one perpetual act which is supposed to be without interruption and which also ought never to be repeated but in a disposition and habitual and perpetual preparation to do nothing that is displeasing unto God and to do every thing that is pleasing to him The contrary Proposition that would exclude in any condition whatsoever yea in a state which is perfect all pluralities and succession of acts is erroneous and opposite to the Tradition of all the Saints 20. There are no Apostolick Traditions but those that are acknowledged for such by the whole Church and the Authority whereof is decided by the Councils of Trent the contrary proposition is Erroneous and pretendedly secret Apostolical Traditions would be a Snare to the Faithful and a way to introduce all manner of evil Doctrines 21. Dilatory and quiet Prayer or such as is attended with the simple presence of God and all other extraordinary Prayers not excluding passive ones approved of by St. Francis de Sales and other spiritual ones received by the whole Church are not to be rejected nor suspected without great rashness and they do not hinder a man from being always disposed to produce all the forementioned acts in convenient time but to reduce them to implicit or apparent acts in favour of the most perfect under pretence that the love of God ties them all up to a certain method is to elude the obligation and to destroy that distinction which is revealed by God 22. Without these extraordinary Prayers one may become a very great Saint and attain to Christian Perfection 23. To reduce the inward state and purification of the Soul to these extraordinary Prayers is a manifest Error 24. It 's alike dangerous to exclude the state of Contemplation the Attributes the three Divine Persons in the Trinity and the Mysteries of the Incarnation of the Son of God and more especially that of the Cross and of the Resurrection and all those things that are seen no otherwise than by Faith are the Object of a Christians Contemplation 25. It s not allowable for a Christian under pretence of passive or other extraordinary Prayer to expect that God in the Conduct as well of the Spiritual as temporal Life should determin him to every action by way of particular inspiration and the contrary leads men to Illusions carelesness and the tempting of God 26. Laying aside the circumstance and moments of Prophetical or extraordinary inspiration the true submission which every Christian Soul tho' perfect owes to God consists in serving him with the natural and supernatural Light as he received the same and according to the Rules of Christian prudence in presupposing always that God directs all things in the Course of his Providence and that he is the Author of every good Counsel 27. We ought not to tye up the gift of Prophecy and much less the Apostolical state to a certain state of perfection and Prayer and to do so is to bring in an Illusion rashness and Error 28. The extraordinary ways and marks which those that have been approved Spiritualists have given concerning themselves are very rare and subject to the Examination of Bishops Ecclesiastical Superiors and Doctors who are to judge of the same not so much according to Experiences as according to the immutable Rules of the Scriptures and of Tradition and to teach and practice the contrary is to shake off the Yoke of Obedience that is due to the Church 29. If there is or if there has been in any part of the World a small number of chosen ones whom God by an extraordinary and particular way of prevention best known to himself stirs up every moment in such a manner to all those actions that are essential to Christianity and to other good works whereof there was no necessity of giving them any prescriptions to excite them thereunto we will leave them to the judgment of the Almighty and without avowing the like states we do only make this practical Observation that there is nothing so dangerous nor so subject to Illusion as to guide Souls in such a manner as if they had already attained thereto and that however it is not in these sort of preventions that Christian perfection doth consist 30. In all the above named Articles as to what regards Concupiscence imperfections and principally sin our meaning is not for the honour of our Lord to take in the Holy Virgin his Mother 31. As for those Souls whom God is pleased to exercise with Tryals Job who is a pattern for such teaches them to benefit themselves by lucid intervals in order to produce the most excellent acts of Faith Hope and Love The Spiritualists teach them to find these in the top or highest part of the Soul They are not therefore to be allowed to acquiesce in their apparent damnation but their directors with St. Francis de Sales are to assure them that God will never forsake them 32. It 's well in every condition and especially in this same to adore the vindictive Justice of God never to wish the exercise of the same upon our selves in all its rigour seeing that even one of the effects of this rigour is to deprive us of Love Christian Abandoning is to cast all our Cares upon God to hope in his goodness for our salvation and as St. Augustine after St. Cyprian teaches us to attribute all to him ut totum detur Deo 33. Troubled and truly humbled Souls may also be inspired with a submission and agreement to the Will of God tho' even by a very false supposition instead of the eternal good which he hath promised the Just he would detain them by virtue of his own good pleasure in eternal torments and this without being deprived at the same time of his Grace and Love which is an act of perfect resignation or self-abandoning and of a pure love practised by the Saints and which may be useful with that particular grace of God to Souls truly perfect without derogating from the Obligation of the other fore-mentioned Acts which are essential to Christianity 34. Over and above which it is certain that the Perfect and such as are Novices or beginners ought to be conducted respectively by different ways and that the former have a more full and deeper insight into Christian Truths than the other THE French King's LETTER TO THE POPE Most Holy Father THE Book written by the Archbishop of Cambray having for some Months past made much noise in the Church within my Kingdom I caused the same