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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

Poyson XVIII False WE ought to conform our selves to all the Wills of God and to his permissions as to all his other Wills We ought therefore to permit Sin in our selves when we know God is about to permit it We ought to love our Sin though contrary to God by reason of its abjection which purifies our love and takes from us all pretence and desert of a reward Lastly the attraction or inspiration of Grace requires from Souls in order to render them more disinterested for the Eternal reward the breaking of the Written Law To Speak at this rate is to Teach Apostacy and to put the Abomination of Desolation in the most holy place it is not the Voice of the Lamb but of the Dragon XIX ARTICLE True VOcal without Mental Prayer that 's to say without the attention of the Mind and the Affection of the Heart is a Superstitious Worship which honoureth God with the Lips while the Heart is far from him Vocal Prayer is not good and meritorious but in as much as it is directed and animated by that of the Heart It is much better to recite but a few Words with great recollection and Love than long Prayers with little or no recollection when they are not Commanded To Pray both without attention and Love is to Pray as the Heathens did who thought to be heard for the Multitude of their Words One Prays no further than one desires and one doth not desire but by how much one loveth at least with an interested Love Nevertheless Vocal Prayer ought to be respected and consulted as being good to awake the Thoughts and the Affections which it expresses as having been taught by the Son of God to his Apostles and practised by the whole Church in all Ages To make light of this Sacrifice of Praises this fruit of the Lips that does confess the Name of the Lord would be an impiety Vocal Prayer may be troublesome for a while to those Contemplative Souls who are yet in the imperfect beginnings of their Contemplation because their Contemplation is more sensible and affecting than pure and quiet It may be also burthensome to Souls who are in the last Tryals because every thing in that state disturbs them But one ought never to give them for a rule to forsake without the permission of the Church and without a true impotency known to be so by their Superiours any Vocal Prayer which is obligatory Vocal Prayer taken with simplicity and without scruple when it is according to the Command may well be troublesome to a Soul in relation to those things we have already noted But it is never contrary to the highest Contemplation Experience even shews that the most Eminent Souls in the midst of their most sublime Communications have familiar Communications with God and that they read or recite with a loud Voice and in a kind of Transport some inflamed Words of the Apostles and Prophets To Speak so is to explain the soundest Doctrine with the most correct Words XIX False VOcal Prayer is nothing but the gross and imperfect Doctrine of beginners It is intirely unprofitable to Contemplative Souls They are by the eminency of their state dispensed with as to the reciting of Vocal Prayers Commanded them by the Church because their Contemplation eminently comprehends what is more edifying in the different parts of Divine Worship To Speak at this rate is to despise the Reading of the Scriptures it is to forget that Christ hath Taught us Vocal Prayer which contains the perfection of the highest Contemplation It is to be ignorant that pure Contemplation is never perpetual in this Life and that in its intervals one may and ought to recite faithfully the Office which is Commanded and which of it self is so apt to nourish in our Souls the Spirit of Contemplation XX. ARTICLE True REading ought not to be done either out of Curiosity or desire of judging of our State or deciding it according to what we Read nor out of a certain relish of what we call Witty and sublime We ought not to read the most holy Books nor even the Scriptures but with dependency upon the Pastors and Directors who are in their stead 'T is they who are to judge whither each faithful Christian is prepared enough if his Heart is sufficiently purified and Docible for each different Reading They ought to distinguish the Food that is agreeable to every one of us in particular Nothing causeth so much illusion in the interiour Life as the indiscreet choosing of Books 'T is best to Read little and make long interruptions by way of recollection that we may let Love more deeply to imprint in us the Christian truths When recollection causeth our Book to drop out of our hands we must let it fall without scruple We shall take it up again time enough afterwards to renew in its turn our recollection Love Teaching by its Unction surpasses all the rational discourse we can make upon Books The most powerful of all perswasions is that of Love Nevertheless we must take in hand again the outward Book when the inward Book ceaseth to be open Otherwise the empty Spirit would fall into a rambling and imaginary Prayer which would be a real and pernicious idleness This would bring a Man to neglect his own instruction about necessary truths and forsake the Word of God and never to lay solid foundations both of the exact understanding of the Law and of revealed Mysteries To Speak thus is to Speak according to Tradition and to the Experience of holy Souls XX. False THe Reading of the most holy Books is unprofitable to those whom God teacheth entirely and immediately by himself 'T is not necessary that such persons as these should have laid the foundation of common instruction They need only to wait for all the light of truth that doth arise from their Prayer As for their Readings when they are moved to any they may choose without consulting with their Superiours such Books which Speak of the most advanced states They may Read the Books that are suspected or censured by their Pastors To Speak at this rate is to destroy instruction which is the food of Faith It is to substitute instead of the pure Word of God an interiour Fanatical inspiration On the other side it is to permit Souls to Poyson themselves with contagious Readings or at least such as are disproportionate to their true needs It is to teach them dissimulation and disobedience XXI ARTICLE True WE ought to distinguish between Meditation and Contemplation Meditation consists in discursive acts that can be easily distinguished the one from the other because they are distinguished by a kind of a noted motion because they are varied by the diversity of Objects they are applied to because they draw a conviction concerning the truth of the conviction of another truth already known because they draw an affection from several Motives methodically assembled Lastly because they are done and reiterated with

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

with all interessed motives of hope and fear Fear is brought to perfection by purifying it self it becomes a delicacy of love and a filial reverence in peace And it is then that chast fear which remains for ever and ever Likewise hope far from being lost is perfected by the purity of love and then it is a real desire and a sincere expectation of the fulfilling of the promises not only in general and in an absolute manner but also of the accomplishment of the promises in us and for us according to the good pleasure and will of God nay by the only motive of his good pleasure without any intermixture of our own interest This pure love is not yet satisfied with desiring no other recompence but God himself A slave entirely mercenary who should have a distinct faith of revealed truths might be willing to have no other reward but God alone because he would know him clearly as an infinite good and as being himself his true recompence or the only instrument of his felicity This mercenary Man in the life to come would have nothing but God alone but he would have God as Beatitude objective or the object of his Beatitude to refer it to his formal Beatitude namely to himself whom he would make happy and constitute himself as his ultimate end On the contrary whosoever loveth with a pure love without any mixture of self-interest is acted no more by the motive of his interest He wishes Beatitude to himself only because he knows that God will have it so and will have every one of us to desire it for his own glory If by an impossible supposition by reason of the promises which are meerly free God would annihilate the Souls of Just Men at the moment of their separation from the body or deprive them of the fruition of himself and keep them eternally under the temptations and miseries of this life as S. Austin supposes it or even make them to suffer far from him all the pains of Hell during all eternity as it is suppos'd by S. Chrysostom after S. Clement the Souls of this third state of pure love would not love or serve him with less fidelity Once more 't is true that this supposition is impossible upon the account of the promises because God hath given himself to us as a rewarder We cannot any more separate our happiness from God beloved with final perseverance but those things which cannot be separated in respect of the object may happen really to be so in respect of the motives God cannot fail of being the felicity of the faithful Soul but she may love him with so much impartiality that the enjoyment of a beatifying God increaseth not in the least the love she hath sor him without minding her self and that she would love as much though he were never to be the cause of her happiness Now to say that this abstraction of motives is but a vain subtilty is to be ignorant both of God's jealousie and of that of the Saints against themselves It is to give the name of subtilty to the nicety and perfection of Pure Love which the tradition of all Ages hath put in this abstraction of the motives This way of Speaking is precisely conformable to the whole general tradition of Christianity from the most Ancient Fathers to S. Bernard to all the most famous Scholastick Doctors from S. Thomas to those of our Age lastly to all those Mystical Men who have been Canoniz'd or approved by the whole Church in spight of all the contradictions they have suffered Nothing in the Church is more evident than this tradition and nothing would be more rash than to oppose it or to endeavour to shift it off This supposition of the impossible case here mentioned far from being an indiscreet and dangerous supposition of the Mysticks is on the contrary formally in S. Clement of Alexandria in Cassian in S. Chrysostom in S. Gregory of Nazianzen in S. Anselm and in S. Austin who have been followed by a great number of Saints II. False THere is a love so pure that it rejects that recompence which is God himself so that a Man will not have it any more in himself and for himself though we are taught by faith that God will have it in us and for us and commands us to will it as he doth for his own glory This love doth carry its impartiality so far even as to consent to hate God eternally or to cease from loving of him or else it tends to the destruction of filial fear which is nothing else but the niceness and delicacy of a Jealous love or it aims to the exstinguishing in us all hope forasmuch as the purest hope is a peaceable desire to receive in us and for us the effect of the promises in conformity to the good pleasure of God and for his pure glory without any mixture of self-interest or else it tends to the hating of our selves with a real hatred so that we cease from loving in our selves for God's sake his worth and his image as we love it out of charity in our Neighbour The speaking at this rate is to give with a horrid Blasphemy the name of pure love to a brutish and impious despair and to the hatred of the work of our Creator It is by a monstrous extravagance to affirm That the principle of conformity with God makes us contrary to himself It is a going about by a chimerical love to destroy love it self It is to put Christianity out of the hearts of Men. III. ARTICLE True SOuls must be left in the exercise of love that 4. Love See pag. 8. which is yet mixt with the motive of interest as long as the power of grace shall leave them in it One ought also to reverence these motives scattered through all the Books of holy Scripture in all the most precious monuments of Tradition and in all the Prayers of the Church We ought to make use of these motives to repress passions to consolidate virtues and to disintangle our Souls from all things of this present life However this love though less perfect than that which is fully disinteress'd hath nursed up in all ages a great number of Saints and greatest part of holy Souls do never attain in this life the perfect impartiality of love you disturb and cast them into temptation if you take from them the motives of self-interest which being subordinate to love serve to hold them up and to animate them in dangerous occasions It would be to no purpose and indiscretion to propose them a more elevated love which is out of their reach as having neither internal light nor the power of grace for it Nay those who begin to have some knowledge and foretaste of it are yet very far from having the reality of it Finally those who have attained its imperfect reality are very far yet from having the uniform exercise of it turned into an habitual state What is

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

overjoy'd at it believes himself to be already at the very gates of that City and that there is nothing now remaining but a little way and that very good for him but as he moves forwards the lengths and difficulties which he had not foreseen at first sight do proportionably increase he must be obliged to descend by Precipices into deep Vallies where he loses the sight of that City which he thought he could almost touch He must be forc'd oftentimes to creep up over sharp Rocks and 't is not without great trouble and dangers that he arrives at last at that City which he thought at first to have been so near him and so easie to come at It 's the very same thing with that Love which is entirely disinterested the first cast of the Eye discovers it in a wonderful perspective one thinks he has hold of it he supposes with himself that he is already confirmed therein or at least that there is between him and it but a short and even space but the more he advances towards it the more tedious and painful he finds the way There is nothing so dangerous for a Man as to flatter himself with this pretty Idea or Conceit and to believe that he lives in the practice of the same when it is not really so He that makes this Love to be speculative would fret himself to a Skeleton if God should put him to prove how this Love doth purifie and realize it self in the Soul In short he must have a care of believing that he hath the same in reality when he only has a view of it and is charmed with it That Soul which dares presume by a decisive reflection that he is arrived to it shews by his presumption how remote he is from it the small number of those that have reached it do not know whether they are really so and as often as they do reflect upon themselves in relation to it they are ready to believe it is not so with them when their Superiours declare the same unto them They speak of themselves as of another person in a dis-interested manner and without reflection and act with simplicity by a pure obedience according to true necessity without ever voluntarily judging or reasoning concerning their state In short tho' it be true to say that no man can set exact bounds to the operations of God in the Soul and that there is none but the Spirit of God that can sound the depths of this same Spirit yet it is also true to say that no internal perfection can allow a Christian to dispence with those real acts that are essential to the accomplishment of the whole Law and that all perfection reduces it self to this habitual state of sole and pure love which effects in these Souls with a dis-interested Peace all that which a mixt love does in others with some remains of an interested eagerness In a word there is nothing but a peculiar interest that cannot and which ought not at all to be found in the exercise of dis-interested Love but all the rest is there still in a more abundant manner than ordinarily in just Persons For us to speak with this precaution is to confine our selves within the bounds set us by our Fathers this is a Religious observance of Tradition and hereby is a relation given without any mixture of innovation of the Experiences of the Saints and the Language they have used in speaking sometimes of themselves with simplicity and pure Obedience XLV False TRansformed Souls are capable of judging themselves and others or to be assured of their internal Gifts without any dependance upon the Ministers of the Church or else direct themselves without any Character without an extraordinary Call and even with marks of an extraordinary Vocation against the express Authority of Pastors To talk in this manner is to teach an innovated Doctrine full of Prophaneness and to attack one of the most essential Articles of the Catholick Faith which is that of an entire subordination of Believers to the Body of Pastors to whom Jesus Christ said he that heareth you heareth me The Conclusion of all these Articles HOly indifference is nothing else but disinterested Love Tryals are nothing else but the Purification of it the abandoning of the same is but its exercise in Tryals The disappropriating of Vertue is nothing besides the laying aside of all Complaisance all Consolation and all Self-Interest in the exercise of Vertue by pure Love The retrenching of all activity implies no more than the retrenching of all inquietude and interested eagerness for pure Love Contemplation is but the plain Exercise of this Love reduced to one simple Motive Passive Contemplation is but pure Contemplation without activity or eagerness A Passive state whether it be in a time bounded with pure and decent Contemplation or in those Intervals wherein a Man does not at all Contemplate doth exclude neither the real Action nor the successive Acts of the Will nor the specifick distinction of Vertue as they relate to their proper Subjects but only simple activity or interested inquietude it 's a peaceable Exercise of Prayer and Vertue by pure Love Transformation and the most essential or immediate Union is nothing but the Habit of that pure Love which of it self makes up all the internal Life and then becomes the only Principle and Motive of all the deliberate a●● meritorious Acts but this habitual State is never fixt unvariable nor unliable to be lost The true love of that which is right saith Leo carries in it self Apostolick Authorities and Canonical Sanctions THE Lord Archbishop of Cambray 's LETTER TO THE POPE Most Holy Father I have resolved with utmost expedition as well as with all manner of submission and respect to your Holiness to send the Book that I wrote some time since concerning the Maxims of the Saints in relation to an internal Life It 's a duty which I am obliged to pay not only to the Supream Authority with which you preside over all the Churches but also to those Favours you have been pleased to heap upon me But to the end that nothing may be omitted in a matter of such importance and concerning which Mens Minds are so tossed about and agitated and for removing any Equivocations that might arise from the diversity of Languages I have undertaken to make a Latin Version of my whole Work to which I apply my self wholly and will very quickly send this Translation to be laid down at your Holiness his Feet I would to God most Holy Father I could my self in person bring you my Book with a zealous and submissive heart and then receive your Apostolical Benediction but the Affairs of the Diocess of Cambray during the misfortune of the War and the instruction of the young Princes which the King has done me the honour to intrust me with will not allow me room to hope for this Consolation And now most Holy Father I come to give the

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

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

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