the more he may make you grow in the holy use of your suffering to accomplish perfectly in your person what S. Paul saith Absit mihi gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ I assure you it is a great shame to a Christian to pass his days in this world more at ease than Jesus Christ here passed his Ah! had we but a little faith what repose could we take out of the Cross But if all have not this grace how much ought they to whom it is given to cherish it seeing it is a mark of the high degree of glory that they one day shall possess for who doubts but that in proportion as we shall be conformed to the death of the Son of God and to his pain we shall in the same degree be to his glory and receive the recompence thereof in bliss And afterwards teaching him the way of well-suffering he gives him this advice which contains all the secret But the beauty of suffering is in the interior in the holy dispositions of Jesus Christ who is and it is a thing to be well marked and always studied as well the model as the head of all sufferers And to another out of the same thought he said It is a great favour to suffer All the worlds deceiv'd supposing this a common favour it is very rare It is true we may say that many suffer but of them there are very few that suffer in the dispositions of Jesus Christ very few which suffer with a perfect resignment to what God ordains concerning them very few without some inquietude and dwelling in their thoughts upon their pressures few that give up all events to the conduct of God without making reflection thereupon for to employ themselves entirely in his praise and to give way by our acquiescence and submission for him to exercise all his rights and power over us He fortifies and encourageth in this sort a Lady much in pain Few understand the secret of Christianity many call themselves Christians and few have the spirit thereof many in their prayers and ordinary affairs look up to heaven but in their important actions they are children of nature not looking but on the earth whence if they life up their eyes to heaven it is but to complain and pray him to condescend to their desires and not to shew their acceptance of his They give some small things to God but will retain those which their love ties them to and if he separate them from them it is a violence and a dismembring which he must make and to which they cannot consent as though the life of Christians were not a life of sacrifice and an Imitation of Jesus Christ crucified God who knows our wretchedness takes from us for our greater good the cause of our evil a Parent a Childe a Husband that he may by another evil which is affliction draw us to himself and make us see that all these alliances and connexions to whatsoever it be that separates us from him are so many obstacles of so great importance that one day in the face of all the creatures we shall confess that the greatest mercy that he ever did us was to free us of them It is a wormwood-bitter onely to the mouth and taste but wholesome to the heart kills the old Adam to make alive in us Jesus Christ it is a great winter which is the assurance of the beauty of the other seasons But we must beware that what is given us out of favour we take not as a thing by chance or a misfortune for this would be to turn the remedy into poyson and to receive the grace to chase it away Let us enter into the holy and adorable disposition which was always in Jesus Christ to suffer willingly for the honour of his Father and for our salvation Is not this a strange thing that men knowing that the way which Jesus Christ past thorow to glory was ignominy pain and the cross yet they that call themselves his disciples and followers should expect and beg of him for themselves another way to walk in Is the Disciple greater than the Master and if the head willingly passed that way what remains for the members ought not they to follow him Let us therefore go after him and suffer after his model Blessed be sickness the loss of honour of riches of goods and of the nearest things and the separation from all creatures which hold us bowed towards the earth if it set us streight and make us lift up our eyes to heaven and to enter into the designs that God hath over us Blessed be the plague the war and the famine and generally all the scourges of God which produce these effects of grace and salvation in us I conclude in these words which he sent to another person While we live here it is our season of patience where faith and hope would be unprofitable if all were clear and nothing caused us to suffer It is in the obscurity of this desertion and in all the sorts of tryals as well from within as without that those vertues are established in our souls and that they make us hope wall of our salvation SECT 2. His Domestick crosses THe greatest exercise of patience that Monsieur Renty ever had in all his life was that which was given him by the Lady his Mother who whether she were angry that he was so forward in devotion always among Prisons always among Hospitals always employed in actions low and abject in the eyes of the world far beneath as she thought his birth and that she should have been glad to see him in glistering and glorious employments wherein his Ancestors had appeared or were it that she was pushed thereto by some evil counsel or otherways So it was that she gave him and for a long time matter of suffering and one may say that as she contributed much to the making him man so she contributed much to the making him a perfect Christian The case was thus The Lady pretending to great rights in the goods which her deceased husband had bequeathed to her Son did demand the same of him who with great submission and respect gave her all that he believed was her due and over and above but she not content therewith demanded more which her son finding by advice of learned Counsel that it could not be done without wrong to his children did remit the business to Arbitrators and agreed for the satisfaction of his mother that she should chose them all as she pleased persons of ability and honesty of her acquaintance and such as he knew not at all to determine what he might give her without prejudice to his conscience When they were chosen he went to finde them out and prayed them to content the Lady his mother in every thing that might lawfully be done without having
with patience for I experiment and see clearly that though we labour and wish earnestly to get out of our imperfections our Lord sometimes leaves us there a long while to make us know our weakness and to humble us He desired to be advertised of and reprehended for his faults and we shall see now what he observed therein at the beginning of his call to this high perfection It came to pass that a person which was much below him had order from his Director to advertise him if he saw any thing in him that was contrary to perfection when this person gave him notice of some failing though very light and indeed but of the shadow of a fault he listned thereto with respect and thanks and humbled himself for it as if he had committed some crime and he accused himself when he thought he had made any failing upon his knees saying he was a miserable sinner and that he had committed such a fault which yet often very hardly could one discern to be any This exercise as being most wholesome and efficacious was very useful to him for the making of a great progress for our nature by reason of its feebleness hath need of such props to walk uprightly and not fall If his imperfections and his sins humbled him his excellent qualities and the graces which he received from God did the same also And the same things from which the greatest part of men draw nothing but vanity served him for motives of self-abasement The Spirit of Jesus Christ wherewith he was enlivened extremely estranged him from the Grandeurs of the world making him not onely contemn them but also to be ashamed thereof so that he took occasions of abasements from his own condition because so high in the world and from the secular advantages which it gave him which made him often to groan before the Majestie of God and to say that he was in a condition very low and plebeian according to the Spirit of Jesus Christ and that he had great confusion to see himself in that estate From whence it came that being born a Gentleman of so good rank as we have said he renounced his Nobility and gave it into the hands of our Lord who in return imparted his own to him as he made it known to a holy soul that is to say his love which by its proper force transforming man in God divests him of himself and leaves nothing in him but God alone there living and reigning and by this means raiseth him thus Deified to the highest degree of Nobility that he can mount to Hence it was that he endured with pain that one should call him Monsieur and he said sometimes smilingly among his familiars I am a fine Monsieur it is well for me and in his Letters he complained that they treated him as in that quality And in one of them giving another course or carreer to his humility he said Believe me I pray you it is great pitty of me I take again the Monsieur which I had rejected my pride must have these her Appendixes rather than deceive your Candor which else perhaps make you mistake in me a piece of glittering glass for a Diamond Out of his humility it was that he would not bear the title of Marquess which was due to him as proper to his house in regard the Emperor Charles the fift had erected Renty into a Marquifate and he suffered onely that of Baron of Renty by which he was commonly called For the graces and gifts of God as they were received in a soul well disposed so produced they most excellently their true effect which was to abase and elevate the soul both together to raise it to God and to abase it to it self And first his humility made him hide as much as he could the gifts of God and so hath rob'd us of the knowledge of a thousand brave actions which might have been very serviceable to this History Secondly when he received any favour from God or that one rendred him any honour the light whereby he saw the Nothingness of the creature and the discernment he was endowed with in distinguishing the precious from the vile and that which is done on Gods part in all-all-good things from that which man bringeth thither of his own was the cause that in those things he assum'd no share at all but referred all to God as to the true Source and so in the management of these great goods which God enriched him withal he had always his hands clean without doing wrong to God or touching that which appertain'd to him and for himself he kept quite out of sight of all vanity which slides most subtilly and most easily into a spirit that abounds in riches of heaven as well as those of the earth if he look not very close unto it Nor would he therefore that any one should consider him in what he said or did but regard God alone therein He wrote thus to one that much desired of him a visit I cannot bear but with pain the account you make of my visits and society Let us look much upon God let us binde our selves strictly to Jesus Christ that we may learn of him a profound annihilation of our selves O my God when will it be that we shall have no more a sight upon our selves when we shall speak no more of our selves and when all vanity shall be destroyed And he wrote to another I beseech you not to regard in me save my infirmities and a depth of wickedness and pride very horrible that is in me that 's it for which I shall have need that all the world talk to and punish me In the third place he esteemed himself most unworthy of the graces and favours of God and beleived there was not one of them how little soever it were but was far above his merits and for the great ones he was so full of they did put him to a Non-plus He wrote to a confident The gifts of God are sometimes so great that they put us as I may so say beyond our selves and if it were possible we could finde the means to recoil our selves further off than beyond Nothingness we should do it You see among men that when one receives a gift that bears some proportion to him he renders thanks and acknowledgement to the giver for it but if a Prince be Liberal to a poor man according to the Grandeur of his own power whether it be a sum of money or a place you shall see this poor man recoil and say Alas my Lord I think you know me not I must not have so much I am unworthy of it In like manner there are blessings that go beyond our expectations capacities and which make us see what we are without daring to lift up our eyes towards them their brightness doth so much dazle and their greatness so much astonish In fine he humbled himself always for the favours of God because he thought
that either by his sloth he was not answerable to their extent or that by the sole misery of nature he used them and made them lose some part of their force as it happens to Plants of the Levant which removed into a strange soil do not retain their vertue but degenerate and savour of the earth they are removed to And if the spiritual things of nature are allayed and corrupted in their passage through our senses how much more reason is there to think that the Divine and spiritual things of grace will there become enfeebled and altered These considerations rendred him most humble even in the greatest gifts of God and in things of most sublimity SECT 2. The pursuance of his Humility in heart AS the affections we bear to any thing are always founded upon the esteem we make of it so Monsieur de Renty esteeming himself so low so little and nothing in consequence thereof did extreamly abase and vilipend himself within his heart This he did in every thing and one of his strongest inclinations according to grace which is a great token of the Spirit of God in a soul was to be always condemning of himself He wrote to his Director I have at the same time two apprehensions quite contrary the one to avow to you with thankful acknowledgement to God that he fills me with effects of his goodness and impressions of his Kingdom and the other that I am more disposed to condemn than to regard my self for upon the whole what I do is pittiful Another time after some speech to him of many great enlightnings and excellent sentiments which God had communicated to him he told him I rest not upon all this I told you onely what is past to render you an account not making use of my judgement but to condemn my self for vices suspending it as to other things and committing it to God He wrote to another Confident I know not what will become of our business one must not speak a word in sweetness and patience but I shall lose my credit somewhat if this could be throughly lost it would be great justice Alas if no body endur'd me and all the world condemn'd me my pride perhaps would be humbled Carried on by this Spirit he had an ardent desire though always with his ordinary tranquillity and giving himself up to the orders of God to receive some disgrace If I were to wish any thing it should be to be much humbled and nullified and to be treated as an off-scouring by others This would be my joy but I believe I deserve not so great a favour This desire carried him to such a point that had he not been withheld with the consideration of greater good he had done strange things to be disesteemed and receive confusion Out of this sentiment and abundance of his heart he said thus to one I should have great pleasure if it were permitted me to go naked in my shirt through the streets of Paris to make my self disesteemed and taken for a fool Whence we must observe two things the first that God gives sometimes to holy souls some thoughts affections and desires so raised above the common pitch and humane reason that they may seem extravagant as this here which he gave to Monsieur de Renty and which was before him also in our founder S. Ignatius The second is that we must not at all put in execution such desires till before hand they have been well examined and justly weighed in the ballance of Charity and edification of our Neighbour This burning desire which he had to be diesteemed made him seek for and love his own abjection and when it came to take it not onely with patience but also which is the highest step that one can mount in humility with joy He gave an evident and notable testimony thereof in the first journey he made to Dijon whither a suit that he had with the Lady his Mother and which to him by an extraordinary dispensation of God was one of the greatest exercises of patience and humiliation that he underwent in all his life of which I shall speak more at large in the following Chapter had obliged him to go for thus he wrote to his Director the 24. of July 1643. I am at Dijon now seeing God is so pleased where I have learnt by the prejudicate opinions that were entertained concerning me what it is that God would draw from my journey which is that I lead a life secret and unknown to men in the spirit of penance The bruit which they had spread concerning me was that I was a Bigot and had nothing but artifices and shews of devotion for the colouring of my naughtiness that indeed I have kept my self much private in my closet out of fear to give by coming abroad rather scandal than any example of vertue I have found a generality that sollicited against me though such as from whom I had good cause methinks for divers good reasons to hope for a prop than from any other but have found the quite contrary But so also as God hereby hath done me many favours I have been to see them where I have received humiliation with great joy I have been very wary of opening my self in any thing that might recommend me unto them I have onely done in my business what truth required and for any thing else I made it matter of confusion and humiliation as I ought to do I shall be here I believe as one excommunicate and the Scape-Goat of the old Law chased into the wilderness for my enormous sins for which I am of opinion God would have me do penance not by meer pain onely but by such as withal brings shame and confusion with it I tell you this to render you some account not dwelling on it any longer my sole scope being to love God and to condemn my self SECT 3. His Humility in words THe Humility of heart in which Monsieur de Renty was deeply rooted produced in him the Humility of speech which hindred him ever from speaking any word that savoured of vaunting or that carryed the least tincture of arrogance and esteem of himself or which was uttered in a haughty manner or in a tone imperious or conceited but on the contrary they were all of them tempered with humility and modesty and as he deemed himself to be indeed a sinner lazy ungrateful perfidious ignorant so did he set forth and qualifie himself with these names and titles We have seen hereof already something before whereto we will adde also this which he writ to a certain person I am to speak the truth but an Idiot a poor Layick and a sinner Writing to a Priest he said What do I an unclean one and a Plebeian in grace and in condition in the Church who live in a state that Jesus Christ refused for himself I speak to a Priest and to the anointed of the Lord my God if I should make a reflection
so great things as the possession of God and Eternal glory ought to undervalue all that which is is here below yea how resplendent soever with much more reason than a great King will reject a boot of hay-ropes to which hay indeed the Prophet compares all worldly glories in comparison of his Crown and Kingdom This was the cause that employed this servant of God to animate a Lady to the vilifying of the world by writing to her in this manner I shall tell you that seeing we are not Christians but by the tie the dependence and the life we have of Jesus Christ I wonder how it comes about that a thing so little as man drawn out of nothing in his first original infected with his first Parents sin and the addition of his own raised to so high a degree of honour as the alliance of Christianity gives him in being one onely Christ with the Son of God in being his brother and a co-heir with him in the life to come I wonder I say how after such admirable Prerogatives man can esteem the world and make any account of its vanities Shall he have his heart here and be a man of this world after these considerations The things of the earth whereof death also will quite strip us and for ever shall they fill our hearts in that little time we have to be here to work out our salvation to obtain the treasures prepared for us and to render thanks to God for his mercies should we not make appear to God and men a faith that is altogether lively in quitting freely the things of this world its honours false or at least not profitable its establishments perishable its opinions extravagant and all that which will pass away like a dream even as we see our great Grandfathers are gone and there is no more memory of them their risings and settings their contentments and displeasures which did stick so close to their hearts and which they had so much pain to accommodate to the Law of Jesus Christ and to the genius of their times all this is vanished away Is it not true that we have cause to think them to have been out of their wits if they considered any other thing but God in their ways The same thing will happen to us each thing will pass away and God alone will abide O how good it is to be fastned to him alone He encourageth the same Lady in another Letter thus Courage all is well we must dye to the world and search out the obstacles that it brings to our perfections to condemn them and to live in the world in the Apostles sense as not living there at all possessing it as not possessing it all Let us drive stoutly out of our mindes the complacence and affection to our brave houses let us ruine the delights of our gardens let us burn our Groves let us banish these vain images which we have of our children hiding secretly in the love of them that which is but indeed our own self-love though we seem dead to it and it makes us desire esteem and approve in their persons that which we condemn in our selves to wit the luster and glittering of the world I know there is a difference of conditions but all ought to reject these entailments as men account them upon great birth and noble blood I mean these principles of aspiring to the highest and entertaining no sufferings such principles as these our children carry from that birth we give them but it behoveth that the second birth which we procure them from Jesus Christ do repair these disorders Let us take from them this vanity of minde all these stately demeanors and the examples of these Grandees in story whose punishments are as eminent in hell as their presumption hath been glittering on the earth for otherwise it will be found we shall conduct them to no better end In another Letter he explains to her what he had said concerning her Houses and Gardens and which without this Explication would seem to be very harsh My design said he was not that you should demolish your walls and let run into a rude wilderness your gardens to be more at liberty for God I understand my speech of the disingagements and the ruines which must be made in our mindes and not be executed on things insensible and which have no worth in them but in form When I say we must set all on fire my thoughts were of following that admirable spirit of the Apostle who would that we have poverty among our riches and divestment in the midst of our possessions he means that our spirits be truly purified and separated from the creatures which we really make our solace because a Christian that tends to perfection doth himself great wrong in dwelling upon these amusements and entertaining in his heart other inclinations than those of Jesus Christ who saw all the world without destroying it but withal without applying himself to it the business of his Father and his glory was his life the windings of rivers and the ornaments of fields were to him but things of feeble consideration and not matters of imployment Hither it is that I would have one come and desire no more It is in effect thus That we must contemn the world whereunto God carries us and to bring us thither more efficaciously he permits by turns and often that we receive therein disgraces and meet with pain and trouble as when a man sets thorns in a way to make men take another The which Monsieur de Renty knowing very well see what he writes thereof to a certain person God hath his ends through all these contrarieties which is that those that are his should be yet more his in affiance in recumbency in life and in all The bruite of the world and its turning upside down are advantageous to make known its spirit its confusion its vanity to them that are not of it and who being in the spirit of death wait for nothing more there than for death bringing forth in the mean while the effects of life eternal which is a kinde of advancement out of mortality whilst we are in it CHAP. 5. Of his Patience QUestionless the humble man is patient because he esteems himself worthy of the evil he suffers and of much more also And if we will search into the true cause of our impatiences and drive up to the spring head we shall finde it to be our pride and the esteem of our selves Monsieur de Renty being most humble as we have seen was also by consequence most patient as this Chapter is going to relate And now at first when I am thinking of it there comes into my minde the description that Tertullian makes of patience representing her with a visage sweet and calm a forehead serene without all shew of frowning or sadness a carriage always equal few words and a contenance such as one sees in persons innocent and assured
have so great a vertue as to cure that disease What then having no better I prayed to God for his blessing upon that if it might be for his glory and the good of the Patient God did it for coming to visit her again I found her well recovered The Prioress asking him if he did thus often he answered Yes when he was desired it for these being poor people have no other help neither have I any better remedies I know my Saviour is not tyed to Medicines we must have faith in him where we can do nothing our selves and that out of his bounty he hath bestowed on me She replyed but this is then a miracle And doth not he work miracles for us every day said he And do you such for the poor said the Prioress To which he answered with great humility and well beseemingness in these words My Lady Prioress calls that a miracle which our Lord hath wrought for my part I have no share in it but onely by bestowing on the poor such as I have make what you please of it all my reflection thereupon is onely to return praise to my Saviour Christ when the cure is done If the Holy Scriptures command us to honour the Physician for our necessity of him Undoubtedly those are much more to be honoured who proceed in their cures not so much according to the method and direction of Galen and Paracelsus as that of God SECT 4. His zeal for the Salvation of his Neighbour THis part of Charity will appear greater and more ardent in Monsieur Renty than the former as being the most sublime and noblest degree of it as saith S. Thomas And the first in regard of its object the Soul which is incomparably more excellent than the body And secondly in regard of the things bestowed in this way of Charity which infinitely surpass those other as much as an eternal possession in the heavens conveyed by the one superlatively exceeds bread silver health supplied by the other Wherefore his holy prudence clearly perceiving a difference was transported with far other affections to the one than to the other And being continually inflamed with the love of God and his Son Jesus Christ uncessantly sought all ways and used all means to make them known and beloved both here and eternally by all men preventing what he could any offence or sinning against them daily pondering with himself the inexplicable goodness and tenderness of God towards the souls of men which have been so dear to him and cost him such an invaluable price He entred into the same affections loving and desiring their salvation according to that Model This zeal of his was admirable having all the qualities to render it perfect Being in the first place universal extended to all in France out of France yea all the world over Insomuch that he said to one of his Familiars that he was ready to serve all men not excepting one and even to lay down his life for any one upon occasion He earnestly desired to convert to enlighten with the knowledge of God to inflame with his love to sanctifie and save the whole world if it had been in his power of which Paris being as it were an Epitome he went through all the quarters and streets of that vast City searching out what he could remove or bring in for the glory of God and salvation of souls And the same Spirit of God that conducted him in this inquiry blessed his endeavours and gave him the favour to rectifie what was out of course to confirm the wayering to strengthen what was in order to root out vice and plant vertue Which he did in so many several ways as a man would think it impossible but what cannot a man do that is zealous disinterested and full of God He performed what possibly he could in his own person not sparing any cost nor losing one minute of time and wherein his power and strength of body or minde falling short of his desires proved deficient he engaged others Whereupon he procured Missions at his own charge in his own Countreys of Normandy and Brie and by joynt contribution of others erected the like in many other Provinces where he had no Land as in Burgundy Picardy Chartrain and elsewhere And here it will not be amiss to take his own words concerning these out of a Letter my self received from him relating to a Mission in his Lordship of Citry in Brte The Mâ—ssion was begun here on Whitsunday a day that bringeth with it an extraordinary benediction the peoples hearts are touched with great sense of repentance which they manifest by abundance of tears Many restitutions and reconciliations are made common and publique prayers are made in Families swearing and cursing are redressed And this Reformation extends it self to three or four leagues round about us Amongst many others there came a young maid whose life had been very vâ—cious who returned home a real Coâ—vert giving an ample testimony of her repentance relinquishing her former acquaintance Whereby I finde that this was the very end for which my Saviour brought me hither and ingaged my abode in this place These operations of grace filled him up with unspeakable joy which often distilled into tears for having to do in that which made for the glory of God and benefit of souls We have it from an eye-witness who hath seen tears stand in his eyes and demanding the cause received from him this answer I profess they proceed from that excessive joy I take to see so many touched with remorse evidencing their conversion by making restitutions by being reconciled to their enemies burning their idle and vain books â—uitting their former occasions of sin commencing a life altogether new We have seen him likewise in the Church of Citry so transported with zeal that he hath swept the Church carried out the dirt himself rung the bell to assemble the people thither In all his Missions he commonly imployed some Secular Priests of his acquaintance living in community and settled at Caen for those employments who have quitted themselves herein with great benediction and notable success He writ divers Letters to their Superiour earnestly entreating and conjuring him to promote this business seriously and heartily giving him account of what Missions were established and what were in a hopeful way what he had done in them himself and to whom else he had spoken with such courses as were to be taken to make them effectual The year he dyed this was written in a Letter to the same person concerning a Mission he had projected in the Town of Drieux of the Diocess of Chartres I have sollicited soveral persons to joyn in setting up a Massion every year and I shall go my self along with it as oft as I can to serve and obey your orders in visiting the sick and giving alms to the needy And for the same design to assemble some companies of people whom God hath wrought upon by your preaching
beams and treading in their steps gave himself to this exercise with such care and diâ—igence that we may aver this to have been his ordinary employment and his whole life a trade of praying I mean not here his vocal Prayers having spoken of them before I affirm that his affection was exceeding great to mental Prayer understanding well the necessity thereof as that whereby we come more intimately to know and reap the benefit of all Christian verities which until they be known are not at all beneficial and the utility thereof to learn a man what he is and enable him to exercise the real acts of vertue in the inward life and spirit of them elevating the soul to a familiar conference with God an honour more incomparably glorious though but for one quarter of an hour than is the most intimate communication with the greatest Monarchs for whole years together like as we esteem it a greater honour to discourse freely and familiarly with a King the space of one hour than many years with a Peasant Moreover he well understood the different manners of this Prayer and how it ascends by four steps The first is Prayer of Reasoning and Discourse The second that of the Will and Affections The third that of Union or Contemplation which divides it selfe into two branches viz. in Contemplation active or acquisite and Contemplation passive or infused which passive Contemplation is the fourth and highest round of this ladder of Prayer Prayer of the Understanding and of Discourse or Meditation is an application of the Spirit to understand some vertues of his salvation which he apprehended not before reasoning and discoursing thereon within himself ruminating upon its causes effects and circumstances of time place manner and persons belonging to it to draw from thence arguments of good life going from one circumstance and point to another from the causes to their effects and so backward which is called reasoning and because our minde is quick and ready in this operation not onely nimble to go but run in it therefore it is termed also discourse He began at this step and made some stay upon it where indeed every one ought to begin and rest until he is called by God to another because the most proper and naturall way that God hath given men to come to understand and affect any thing is that of Consideration and Reasoning wherefore each one must serve himself herewith till he be advanced higher The ordinary subject which he took for these meditations were the Life Passion and Death of our Saviour Which without all contradiction is the most profitable of all others since he is set before us for our pattern in the imitation and expression whereof consists our perfection and life eternal After some time having been faithful in this first stage he passed to the second that of will and affection being called with an Amice ascende superius Friend fit up higher Not unlike a Scholar who becoming a good proficient is set up to a higher class of deeper learning For he spent not all his days in Grammar but studied to proceed from one Science to another till he arrived to perfection This Prayer of Affection is a familiar and passionate treaty betwixt Christ and the Soul wherein very little or no discourse is used or a sincere communication with God as present and resident within us in which the soul quitteth all reasonings and disputes and by a simple direct contemplation and thinking upon God is carried on to him and enflamed with the desires of praising blessing adorning and glorifying him with several elevated acts of grace oblation petition and above all of Love the Queen of other Vertues most acceptable to and most glorious in the sight of God most advantagious to our selves enabling us with power to surmount all difficulties to practice all good works and uniting us more intimately to God This I say the Soul performs without discourse in regard that the understanding being sufficiently furnished with light from her former meditations hath no need to study new arguments or motives to produce love and other necessary affections but may serve herself of the former store The way to practise this is first of all to retire into the secret cabinet of our heart applying our selves to God who resideth there not by reason and discourse but by faith stedfastly believing his Divine presence with all his perfections And in order to this firm assurance to present our selves before him with profound reverence and adoration abasing our selves out of respect to his infinite greatness and the sense of our own vileness in the light of those words of David Domine quis similis tibi Quid est homo quod memor es ejus Lord who is like unto thee What is man that thou art mindeful of him or that he should dare to appear before thee Keep your self before him with these affections of Reverence and Humility and remain there for some considerable time the better to imprint them upon your soul for such time will be very well spent and continuâ— it yet longer if you finde your heart dilated and melted with these affections After this shutting out all ruminating and reflection upon the subject you desire to be employed upon as for example suppose it be this that God is all in all and your self are less than nothing that he is your Soveraign Lord and ultimate end that he hath a particular care of every thing that concerns you that our Saviour dyed for you and the like employ your self hereon by faith in a most simple naked manner reiterating acts of a lively faith of such a truth which the Church hath taught you and after this an act of Hope or of Praise or Thanksgiving or Contrition for your sins or of any other passion the soul shall be more disposed to but especially of love taking care that these affections have an influence upon your will and manners to produce in them a happy alteration These are the directions we are to observe in this second degree of Prayer which therefore is called Prayer of Gods presence and of Fâ—ith and of Affection Wherein also two things are carefully to be marked First that it is not requisite in this prayer to exercise at the same time several passions but rather one as Hope Love or any other well-grounded and prosecuted is sufficient And the rea on is plain because so long as God gives to the soul the grace to produce acts of any one vertue in such a manner as that she findes herself disposed and pressed thereto and to exercise the same with ease this is an evident token that it is his will that she should serve and honour him should sanctifie and perfect herself by the same and that she ought to continue therein so long as she findes that succour graciously assisting her Moreover on the souls part it would argue want of discretion to quit so good and profitable an exercise
number the time favourable and themselves fresh setting upon men harrass'd out and tired with the pains of a long march Thus God watcheth over them that fear him and for their sakes many others also This lodging might have faln to the lot of some one less deserving such a favour from God and that would not have made use of it so prudently For execution of business he was not at all defective therein having a body strong and robust a spirit active generous and resolute not fearing any danger But for an Additament hereto as it were the soul to the body and light to beauty we finde in him the fear of God Piety and Uprightness without which Nobility hath but a false glister power is destructive and War brings with it mischiefs horrible and without number Monsieur de Renty all the time of his being in the Armies performed constantly his Prayers and other Exercises of Devotion when he came to his quarters if there were a Church there His first care was to visit it and to do his devoir to our Lord if there were any Religious House he took up there his lodging and that he might not incommode them for himself alone when the Army staid any time in a place while many and much elder than he past away their time in Gaming Drinking Rybaldrie Swearing and other Disorders he contain'd himself within the bounds of his usual wisdom avoiding all these base and vitious actions and entertaining himself in Exercises of Vertue and Honour In every place where he had any power he wholly employed it to keep off disorders He forbad peremptorily his men the treating ill of their Hosts that entertain'd them or giving them occasion of complaint and he never took horse but he made come before him them with whom he quartered to tell him themselves if any had done them wrong and if he found that any of his had offended he forthwith saw it remedied and did them right One day being mounted and ready to depart having made this enquiry of his Hostess and she complaining that one of his Servants had stoln a shirt he caused them all forthwith to come before her that she might finde out the Thief which being done and one of them confessing that he had it upon his back he incontinently ordered that he should be stript of it before them all and it restored to the woman notwithstanding many persons of quality thought it very harsh and opposed the business But he always kept himself firm to Justice and said he would by no means endure any Thieves If all that have commands dealt in this sort as they ought people would not stand so much in dread of their Souldiers as of the most cruel of Enemies and God who is the Lord of Hosts would afford more blessing and success to their Arms. But as the passage most dangerous to Nobility of making Shipwrack of their Salvation is falling out and Duels so God was pleased that his Servant should meet with this perilous occasion to teach all Gentlemen and those that wear a Sword how they ought to behave themselves therein Being in the Army he he had a falling out with a punctilious Gentleman which coming to the knowledge of the Chief Officers he made it appear that this Gentleman had no reason at all to be agriev'd at him which thing they judged also to be very true But the other party not acquiescing in this determination appeal'd â—o that judgement which according to the unhappy Maxime of the World his Sword could yield him and challenged Monsieur de Renty to Duel who returned this answer to him that brought the challenge that the Gentleman was in the wrong and that he had given all satisfaction which in Justice he could desire But this not contenting this untoward spirit he persisted in his perilous design to make him meet with his sword to which finding himself much press'd he made an answer vvhich is so much the more considerable in that he vvas so young and had not as yet a reputation but vvas to get it by Arms The ansvver vvas this that he vvas resolv'd not to do it since God and the King had for bidden othervvise he vvould have him knovv that all his satisfactions he had endeavoured to give him came from no fear of him but of God and of his displeasure and that he vvould go every day after his vvonted manner vvhither the necessity of his affairs call'd him and that if he did assault him he vvould make him repent it This quarrelsome man seeing he could not provoke him to an open Duel found one day the means to meet him and so to make him dravv his Svvord vvhere by the just judgement of God this other came very ill off for he and his second being hurt and disarm'd got nothing for their rashness but shame and sorrovv But then this true Christian Gentleman instead of doing them more harm as he might led them to his Tent caused Wine to be given them their vvounds to be drest and their Svvords to be restor'd them And joyning to Charity and Generosity both Humility and Modesty as his greatest ornaments he kept the thing ever after in secret never opening his mouth concerning it to any as some vvould have done out of vain-glory and vvhich is more to be vvondred at he never aftervvards spake vvord thereof to his man vvho vvas present and serv'd him for a second in this Assault to vvhom also before the deed vvhen he savv himself forced to a defence he gave charge by no means to kill This was not the onely difference but he had others also with some of the Neighbours or at least good cause to complain of them to which business he brought all that Prudence Patience and Charity could contribute and always came off most happily and he was wont to say to his Domesticks concerning his own differences or theirs that there was more of courage and generosity to bear any injury for the love of God than to requite it with another and to suffer than to revenge because the thing was far more difficult that Bulls themselves had courage enough but that it was a brutish courage whereas that of ours should be reasonable and Christian CHAP. 3. His entire change and call to a high Perfection MOnsieur de Renty having lived to the age of 27 years it pleased God to touch him now more closely to enlighten him more clearly and to call him to that high Perfection whereunto by the faithful co-operation which he yielded to this call we have seen him to arrive that like a great Torch or Luminary he hath spread his beams far and wide to Paris and in all places where he hath been This came to pass at a Mission made by the Fathers of the Oratory some six or seven Leagues from Paris whither he went on foot and where he made a general Confession with all the care that those take who desire to do it
of a Christian life and the fulfilling of Gods will was to him after the example of our Lord as most exquisite and delitious meat and viands and when any gave him opportunity or left him to his liberty to practise this Mortification it pleased him exceedingly Often at Paris when some deed of charity had drawn him far from home that he could not return to dinner he would step in all alone or unknown to a small Victualling-house or some Bakers shop and make his dinner with a piece of bread and a draught of water and so very gay and chearfull go on with his business And what he pracrised for the mortifying of his gust was in like manner done for his other senses the sight the hearing the smell and the touch Being come to Pontois on a very cold day in winter and lodging at the Carmelite Nuns he desired earnestly the Nun that was the Door-keeper to have no fire made nor bed prepared for him and after he had discoursed with some of them he old the last that he must go make some little visits and that was to visit the Prisoners the poor that were ashamed to beg and to employ himself in some other deeds of charity which he never forgot at any time how little soever was his leisure He returned about nine a clock at night when the Nuns went to say Matins and without taking any thing to eat went into the Church to his prayers which he continued till eleven a clock and then retired into his chamber not suffering a fire to be made for him although by his own confession the cold did incommode him very much He constantly kept a vigilant eye over himself in every time place occasion and even in the meanest things for the mortifying of his body daily putting it to some hardship or at least hindring it from sense of pleasure And to that end had found out some very notable and ingenious inventions so bearing continually about him the mortification of the Lord Jesus in his body that the life of Jesus might live and shine forth in it well knowing as the same Apostle elsewhere saith That those that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust thereof And to say the truth the more a man is full of one thing the less room there is for its contrary the more one sinks into darkness the further off from light and as we said above there is nothing more opposite to the Spirit than the flesh so must we of necessity conclude the more a man pampers his flesh the more doth he indispose and estrange himself from the life of the Spirit Thus this illuminated person dealt with his body as with his enemy out of the design he had to lead a life truly spiritual Whatsoever might content and flatter his senses was insupportable to him whence it happened that one day there slipt from him this word to a confident that God had given him a great hatred of himself and this was advanc'd so far by his fervent and unsatiable desire of mortifying himself that beside the moderation that his Director was obliged to lay upon him a famous person of our days the Carmelite Nun of the Covent of Beaulne Sister Margaret of the Holy Sacrament who lived and dyed in a fragrant odour of Sanctity with whom he was most intimate in the bonds of grace did out of divine light she had in that matter much reprehend him for it and gave him her advice in the business whereunto for the confidence he had in her and that not without good cause being willing to yield he remitted something of his rigour although not without complaint which he testified to a person thus in writing I know not said he why one stould strive to keep in so lazy a beast that stands more in need of the spur than bridle For all he was thus held in he left not off the war which he made with his body in each thing he could but without transgressing the Orders he had received till he thereby came to such a point of perfect Mortification that his body became as it were dead and insenâ—ble in all things which now in a manner made no impression upon his senses eating without gust himself saying that all meats were to him alike seeing as it were without sight so that after he had been along time in some Churches most richly adorned with stately ornaments and those before his eyes when one asked if they were not very fine he answered plainly that he had seen nothing By reason of his Mortification he had no pain nor trouble at all from those things which make other men so fret and take on who are alive to themselves and enslav'd to their bodies neither was he onely without pain but which as Arâ—stotle saith is the highest perfection of a vertue he took great pleasure therein which came not to him so much from abundance of sensible consolations which may sweeten Austerities to an unmortified man but from the ground and bottom of vertue intirely acquir'd and possessed CHAP. 2. Of his Poverty SECT 1. Of his Poverty of spirit ONe of the most great and admirable Vertues that shone in Monsieur de Renty was this that in the possession of riches he was utterly disingaged from the love of them and possessed in a most high degree as we shall now declare the first of the Beatitudes which pronounceth Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven of grace in this world and of glory in the other A truth which served him for a powerful attractive to endeavour the gaining of this rich treasure Whereof writing to a person of Pietie he thus said I was the other day touch'd in reading the eight Beatudes and upon this word Beatitude I took notice that in effect there were no other Beatitudes but these for if there had our Lord would have taught them and therefore those ought to be our whole study But what shall I say we ground not our selves upon them nor desire the grace to do it but run after the Beatitudes of the world and our own Concupiscience quitting that which is clear and given us by our head Christ Jesus to be in a state of hurley-burley and confusion and consequently of trouble danger and unhappiness It was not to these kinde of Beatitudes that he ran but to those of the Gospel and in particular to the first concerning which le ts hear what one saith of him a person very credible and of his intimate acquaintance I never sew mâ—n said he in so perfect a poverty of spirit nor in so ardent a desire to feel the effects of it as was he And in the fervour of his desire he said to me Procure by your prayers that we may change this form of life when will you labour with God that this may be this habit and this wealth is to me most painful I have talked since his death
is the principal and true one of which alone our Lord gave himself a samplar and of which the two other are but the effects if they be true or otherwise they are but onely shadows and phantasmes of Humility therefore we begin with that of the heart And this we say consists in the humility of the understanding and of the thoughts of the will and of the affections to be well acquainted and know truly what a man is of himself and that he is meer Nothingness and sin and in consequence of this knowledge to take up most mean and low opinions of himself to judge himself unworthy of all esteem and praise to abase himself and love his own abasement A thing most excellently performed by this perfect follower of Jesus Christ He had so low an opinion of himself that it would be a difficult thing to unfold it and although he had most rare qualities natural and supernatural yet he saw nothing in himself but as we have said the Nothingness and the sin And out of a true and sincere perswasion he thought himself the most unworthy of all men assuming that title in some of his Letters but the name which usually he gave himself was Sinner and A great Sinner which he repeated very often and with a spirit truly humbled That which I have noted in him for the space of six years wherein I have had the honour of his acquaintance said a person worthy of belief was a most profound humility which kept him in a perpetual self-abnegation before God and the creatures but after such a manner as I have never seen in any man whatsoever although I have been acquainted with most holy souls The greatness of God humbled him even to an abyss or immeasurable depth And is there said he one day to me any thing great in the presence of that Greatness I see my self there so little so little and nothing And afterwards being elevated to God in this Sentiment of littleness he said A mote in the Sun is very little but yet I am far less in the presence of God for I am not any thing Afterwards humbling himself in another sense he said Alass I am too much I am a sinner and Infidel an Anathema through my crimes And besides he wrote to the same person thus Methinks I break my self in pieces before God as when I stamp an egg in pieces with my foot upon the ground and I be spoken of that I have so much as a name is a strange thing This so exceeding base opinion which he had of himself made him say oftner than once and ready to weep that he was much astonished at the goodness of men in suffering of him and that he could not enough wonder why every where they threw not dirt at him and that all the creatures did not bandy against him This same opinion had perswaded him that it was much boldness in him to speak and that men shewed great mercy toward him in enduring his conversation which he believed was very burthensome I have seen him very often saith a person of piety that well knew him humble himself even to the centre of the earth while he spake to me of God saying it was not for a man of his condition to speak of him but that he ought rather to contain himself in silence And so he spake not of God without some particular inducement that our Lord gave him either for the necessity of his neighbour or for some other good which God would draw thence for his glory keeping a distance from this discourse out of humility as if he had not known how to speak two words of him In a Letter to another he said Let us live as we are in truth what place can we hold before God and his Saints but that of Nothing with amazement that we are endured being a Nothing of all good and a compound of all evil This humility of heart was general in him because he practised it in each thing there being not the least thing that serv'd him not for an abasement He abased himself much in the consideration of the feebleness of our nature whereof he wrote to me one day this sentiment It concerns me to tell you one thing before I end which keeps me in a marvellous disesteem of my self and makes me resent how little confidence there is to be had in man it is this that when S. Peter and the Apostles make the greatest profession of their fidelity to our Lord our Lord then mindes them of the infidelity they would commit saying to S. Peter that he could not follow him whether he went S. Peter answers him Why cannot I follow you now I am ready to give my life for you Thou give thy life for me replies our Lord I tell you in truth the Cock shall not crow but thou shalt deny me thrice S. Peter not understanding these words continues in the protesting of his fidelity and upon occasion of the apprehending of our Lord draws his sword and sheaths it not again till our Lord commands him He follows him and forsakes him not thus apprehended but yet afterward he denies him upon the bare word of a maid servant The apprehensions of these weaknesses which come to me not by search or study but by Divine enlightning and by the impression which they make in me keep me wholly in annihilation without any affiance in my self which I place altogether in God and his Son our Lord This condition would keep me in a marvellous littleness if I were faithful therein I have some instances when methinks my whole body is crush'd bruised annthilated and my interior much more To another person he wrote Pitty it is to see man and his infirmity it is sometime important that he have experience of what he is that he may neither forget himself nor the place which he ought to hold ut non glorietur omnis caro in conspectu ejus That no flesh might glory in his sight that being abased nullified and rendred as a thing that is not at all Jesus Christ may be in him the life of grace and holiness waiting for the time of our redemption that is to say the entry into his glory and as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. And to another thus The state of our poverty and the sight of our miseries makes us know the need we have of grace and settles the soul upon the Nothingness of her self and the perswasion of her inability to all good and in this truth that she never hath been nor can be but retardment and diminution to the operations of God in her The knowledge of his faults and sins humbling him strangely as indeed they are the most just and greatest causes a man can have of humiliation made him write one day to me thus I assure you I lack for no matter to make me humble and to labour in good earnest to correct my self although
the delicious fruits that are produced from this mysterious grain of wheat when it is dead PART III. CHAP. 1. His application to our Lord Jesus Christ in regard of his Neighbour WE have observed in the first part of this History that the grand exercise of Monsieur Renty was to apply and unite himself to our Saviour and from that union and his example to derive all his vertues and good works This was the general course he held in them all to mould himself after him for the composition of his Exterior and Interior never taking his eye off this Divine Copy but endeavouring to draw each line exactly and pensil his true lineaments making him his native and perfect Original This was the scope of all his designs and cares and particularly of his charity to his neighbour for which he propounded our Saviour as his grand Exemplar marking what he had done and what he had suffered for men weighing those affections and tendernesses he bore towards them how he sought after and conversed with them how he instructed comforted and encouraged them sometimes reproving otherwhiles bearing with their infirmities and at all times carrying them in his most dear embraces and most intimate inclosure of his heart He pondered what he had delivered concerning this vertue of charity that it was it that he had established as the ground and perfection of his new Law having left us this one command more expresly which with special propriety he had termed his own and the execution whereof he had inforced above all other he much thought upon it how that this Master had charged us to love our neighbour according to the model measure and fashion that he had loved us And finally that he had made this vertue and no other the distinctive character betwixt such as possessed his Spirit in truth and those that had it onely in appearance Wherefore having well-weighed these actions and doctrines of our Saviour and resolved to do his utmost to render himself a good Christian and his perfect Imitator he determined as far as he could both to embrace this doctrine and follow his actions and to love his neighbour with the bent and spirit of of such a divine Master Writing to Sister Margeret a Carmelite of Beaulne he said I sigh after my Saviour Jesus desiring to imitate and follow him whither he pleaseth I beseech you by your prayers obtain for me his Spirit to be my life my whole life sigh and groan for me after my God that I may be wholly for him in his Son that I may follow him and not live but by his Spirit And to another person he writ thus I have so great a view of the love and of all the effects of the love of the most Holy Soul of our Lord that this Interior so full of clemency bounty and charity makes me conceive far otherwise than ever how that we ought to live of this Divine love even in our deportment towards men and how in effect it is in him that the whole Law is accomplished in its perfection Furthermore to the same party thus Since God hath manifested himself to us by his Son and hath admitted us through him into his grace and made us partakers of all his actions both towards God and man how can we ever quit this his dear Son He that hath Jesus Christ hath a key which opens many doors it discovers unto us large prospects it enricheth us with vast treasures and breaks open the prison of mans heart as being too strait for his Immensities And to the same thus also Ah how good is that desart when after Baptism we are conducted thither with our Lord by the Spirit of God Thence it was that our Saviour came out to converse with men to teach them and work their salvation Since therefore we together with him make up but one Jesus Christ as having the honour to be his members we should live his life take on us his Spirit and walk in his steps This was the ground that made this perfect Disciple apply himself with all his power to this admirable Charity which we are now coming to speak of at large endeavouring in all the commerce he had with men to unite himself most intimately to our Saviour rendring himself up as an instrument to be guided by his hand in the helping of others beseeching him to breath upon him this Spirit of Charity recommended so much to us in his word but more in his actions and to inflame him with this divine fire which he hath kindled in the midst of his Church to be wholly burnt and consumed with it he consulted him in all his doubts concerning it begging of him to inspire what and how and when he should speak and act for the good of his neighbour and that in him and by him these might all be done He look'd upon men not according to their natural qualities their beauty nobility riches dignities and wordly honors but according to their more noble relations and those common to all viz. as creatures divine the lively images of God created to praise and love him to all eternity as dyed and purpled in the blood of Jesus brothers and co-heirs with him his purchase and inheritance bought with the price of his life and a thousand dolours and who therefore must be infinitely dear unto him and most passionately beloved of him In this capacity it was that he beheld men loving and applying himself to their necessities and he arrived by the purity of this conduct to so far perfection that as on the one side he was extreamly useful to his neighbour and received therein wonderful blessings from God so on the other this communication with them did not distract nor bring any prejudice to himself but very much good There are that advise them who have to do with others in the matter of their salvation especially with such from whose converse any danger may arise to consider them as bodies without souls or as souls without bodies and as pure spirits The counsel is good and some make profitable use of it but Monsieur Renties view was to look upon God and Jesus Christ in every man and to consider that it was they that demanded succour of him and prepared his thoughts to talk to them and perform what was necessary for their souls and bodies believing truly that it was to God and Christ that he rendred these assistances and service And this same thought is much to be made use of that we may do good and take no hurt from others otherwise we shall hazard ourselves and do little good for when we proceed upon the inclination and motives of nature the effects have a relish of their cause proving no more but natural or vicious or at most indifferent viz. loss of time light discourses amusements engagement of affections which carry in them much of sense and degenerate afterwards into something worse whereby instead of purifying one another a
them with his own hands brought in by his children and servants in which his Lady also had a great hand enjoyned silence to others whilst they were eating providing that they should feed freely and familiarly after dinner dismist them with an Alms himself waiting on them to the gate with very great reverence and some wholesome discourse He must be very much a Christian that could do in this manner and a Nobleman of his age and quality who stoops to such services must have his eyes very strongly fixed upon his Saviour otherwise such offices will go down with much difficulty It s true indeed a Courtier will make no scruple but rather a point of honor and delight to wait upon his Soveraign disguised in rags or some poor habit but then he must be well assured it is the King and no other Many persons of quality in Paris and elsewhere being present at this so holy and Christian an action were much taken therewith and encouraged to imitate it at least in part This laudable custom he continued to his death and when his occasions would not permit him to perform it in his own person his Lady did the same to so many poor women His other custom was on that day in the week that Christmas day fell upon every year to invite a poor childe of ten or twelve years old to dinner and on the day of the Epiphany to invite a woman with a sucking childe in honor of the mysterie of that day likewise one Midsummer day in honor of S John Baptist his Patron he invited twelve poor people waiting upon them himself and on Maundy Thurday did the like after he had washed their feet Besides these and several other Charities and Alms at his own house he endeavored the general relief of all the poor in Paris and all other places thereabouts as much as possible busied himself to understand their wants studied ways of remedy and carefully prosecuted them and what he could not accomplish himself he commended to others spake for them begg'd for them bought necessaries for them and carried them with his own hands studied to establish settled courses of living for men and children that were destitute and when he could not at present provide for them abroad he kept and maintained them at his own house until he could conveniently put them forth He was the first that thought upon and motioned some relief for poor English Catholicks driven by persecution out of their Countrey ingaging persons of quality in the purchasing of Lands for their Subsistance and having brought it to perfection himself undertook the charge of distributing one part of this Charity which he performed monethly going to them a foot and commonly alone having made choice of those quarters which were most remote where entring their chamber he saluted them with tenderness and compassion and after in a very civil and respectful way he gave them their allowance lapt up in a paper privately One day in his return from this employment he spake to a friend on this manner Certainly these are good Christians who have left all for God where as we live in plenty whilst these content themselves with two Crowns a moneth having parted with thousands for their conscience and endure with patience such considerable losses O Sir Christianity consists not in words or shews but in deeds Furthermore this wise and charitable man joyned with his care of the poor one consiberable point of prudence viz. after his visits and survey taken of their wants in gross he examined in particular as well their spiritual as corporal necessities and endeavored in the first place to mark their inclinations their passions their ill habits what vices were predominate in them what were their chief infirmities that like a prudent Physitian he might apply fit remedies duly exhorting them to live like Christians and to make a sanctified use of their poverty As to their temporal necessities he considered each ones capacity industry trade and employment of each if Tradesmen he considered what was necessary to set them to work what tools or materials which accordingly he provided either buying new ones or redeeming their own laid at pawn bought materials giving them provision of bread for two to three days and procuring them work and that not onely for themselves but their wives and children and afterwards bought some of their work and bestowed it in Alms upon others took order for the quick sale of others commodities encouraging them to take pains and avoid idleness coming from time to time to visit them and see if all went well with them To these we may adde his Charity to poor Prisoners whom he visited comforted and relieved mediating and procuring their liberty when he found it expedient for the good of their souls For one day he returned this answer to some that made suit to him for the release of him whom we are now coming to speak of We often get men out of Prison who make use of their liberty to the dishonor of God and their own destruction for whom it had been better they had remained in durance This being first considered he afterwards labored for their enlargement with great affection of which I shall now give a pregnant proof There was in Low Normandy a Prisoner for divers years who was both innocent and in great extremity several persons had endeavored his freedom but without success by reason of a potent adversary The business was commended to Monsieur Renty who after a just information of the case undertook the matter chose an honest man a Master of Requests where the cause depended to make report of it to the Counsel commended the prosecution of it to his own Advocate went in his own person often to see and sollicite it undertaking for the charge of the whole business Notwithstanding all this perceiving the cause to hang long and the Prisoner to languish in misery he changed his purpose writ to his adversary in his behalf requested that the business might be referred to him promising to make a journey into Normandy and there to accommodate the matter to his content When he came thither he presently set up a Mission in his Parish of Beny from whence taking along with him one of the Fathers of the Mission he went to the Town where both patties were When his coming was noised in that place all the streets were filled with people blessing God for his coming and understanding the occasion thereof professed that none but he could accomplish that business or put an end to that poor mans misery praising God that had chosen such a holy man with a thousand good pâ—ayers for him He went strait to the Prison where the Father made an exhortation to the Prisoners to strengthen and comfort them which he seconded with his Alms after which he promised the poor man to go to his adversary to induce him by arguments and perswade him with intreaties to grant his enlargement in the
formerly and made them himself before them in the place Commonly he came thither alone somtime in company of some Noblemen of good quality who encouraged by such an example strove to imitate it in some sort and to have a part in such holy actions Neither did he onely visit the sick but they likewise sought him and would finde him out where ever he came if they were able to go abroad At Dijon they would come to him in troops for all sorts of sicknesses and distempers In the year 1642 going to his estate in Normandy he spent about four moneths in these works of mercy administring Physick and Chyrurgery to all sick of that Countrey in such sort that from all quarters they came to him and in such multitudes daily that one could scarce come near him This puts me in minde of that we read of our Saviour how from all parts they brought to him all that were sick of all diseases to be healed by him which seems to be represented in some measure by this his servant and true disciple in that the sick the weak the lame or otherwise in firm came to him from all sides and we have seen him compassed about with a throng of them some to be let blood some for his oyntments some for his powders or other medicines some for counsel or consolation some for an alms or for ease in some case or other Treating all with the like diffusive Christian Charity with the like bowels of pitty and compassion the like spirit of love as wherewith the Son of God of whom he received it had pitty upon us And stood in the midst of them with the like goodness and patience endeavouring to do good and minister comfort to them all SECT 3. A further prosecution of the same Charity and the success BEyond all these his Charity yet ascended higher even to the care and cure of such diseases as were very troublesome and which to nature carried much horror and aversion along with them At his Castle at Beny he entertained poor people infected with scall'd heads lodging them in a chamber fitted and furnished for them where himself visited them plucking off their scabs with his plaisters attending and feeding them till their recovery At Paris likewise he visited the same in the Suburbs of S. Germains which was their usual abode carrying them some collections of Alms joyning Humility also with his Charity forasmuch as he hath been seen standing in the midst of these noysome sick folks bare-headed attending to a Sermon which he had procured for them A credible witness testifieth thus of him I have seen Monsieur Renty in his Hall at Beny dressing a Cancre which a man would not look upon at some distance without aversion and horror which he having mastered all such squeamishness of nature did handle with pleasure and respect During his abode at Dijon he met with a Wench who had been taken with the Souldiers by whom she had gotten the foul Disease some charitable people had perswaded the Religious Nuns the Vesulines to take her into their care who lodged her in a poor neighbours house Her body was in a very sad condition even nothing but â—ottenness casting out such a stinking infectious smell that none could come near her and the house she lodged in were ready to turn her out of doors so that she was in a forlorn condition had not the Superiour there a woman of great vertue bethought herself to confer with Monsieur Renty to whom she bore a very great respect about the means of relieving this poor creature This good mans Charity like a perpetual motion giving him no rest or truce not for a moment carried him instantly to visit this poor creature and to provide for her extremity In the first place he hireth a woman to attend her and deals with her Host to keep her there after this he provides her Dyer-drinks and Physick proper for her disease bringeth her broths his own self with all other convenient nourishment stayeth by her a long time at each visit and whilst she was in a sweat wipes her with his own handkerchief using the same himself afterward a thing more admirable than imitable Moreover having as great a care of her soul as body instructs and comforts her taking the pains once in a day to read her a Lecture out of some Book of Devotion enduring with much courage and delight all the difficulties of trouble and inconvenience that so noysome a disease could present by its stench and rottenness at all which his heart leapt as if it had been entertained by some delicate perfume which was no doubt the sweet odour of Jesus Christ whom he look'd upon in these poor people as we have said before which perfumed all their infections and caused him to finde delicacies in the greatest loath-someness In fine by his care he retrived this poor creature from misery and the very jaws of death brought her into the state of a good Christian insomuch that she spent the rest of her time very vertuously and when ever she came to the Monastery of the Vesulines she could not hold from relating with great fâ—eling the unparalel'd Charities of Monsieur Renty together with her deepest obligations which she every where published with the highest recognition of her gratirude to so worthy a person Neither were these generous acts of his Charity enclosed within the walls of Dijon several other places and Hospitals bearing witness of the like which we have heard from divers and have good cause to believe To which we may add his ardent desire for the erecting of an Hospital for the infected with the Kings Evil there being none such in Paris nor in all France Thus did this great servant of God imploy himself about diseases and those the most noysome And now let us consider what blessings and success God gave to his endeavours and Medicines which will appear little less than miraculous Being in low Normandy much busied amongst his sick people men were astonished to see how he cured all diseases even the most desperate and extraordinary and that with remedies sometimes which scarce appeared to have any thing in them which made those that took notice of them apt to believe that the cures were wrought not so much by any natural power of the Medicines as by Grace and Miracle The same opinion they had at Dijon of the cures he wrought there that they were healed by some way supernatural To which purpose I cannot let pass the discourse he had with the Prioress of the Carmelites a great Confident of his whom he visited often to whom he related how a little before a woman in child-bed had been sick unto death and given over by all the Physicians whom he visited notwithstanding and tryed whether in so great extremity his remedies might minister any ease I went to her said he and made up the best Medicine I had yet such as I could not imagine to
than to him that begins it In all affairs that concerned the service of God he had an unmoveable constancy and undaunted courage never flagging or yielding up himself And besides the force of his words there appeared in his countenance an extraordinary assurance although his ordinary deportment was always sweet and quiet which particularly appeared in all meetings where he manifested so much spirit and God invested him with such a force that those that beheld him felt themselves struck with an awful respect When he spake and gave his opinion his proposals carried so much light in them his judgement so much solidity his reasons so great force he taking every thing in its due place and observing each juncture of time that all were constrained to acquiess in his determination But if any approved not of his advice or disputed his reasons he knew how to inforce them with such arguments especially where he had any authority in the Assembly that at length they yielded But if they chanced to make another reply he gave not one word more but his very silence and the steadiness of his countenance and his other carriage restrained any further dispute And the meeting ended he would go to that party and crave his pardon with great humility Sweetly informing him that what he aimed at was not to make good his own opinion but for the cause of God to which by duty he was obliged But in other things that he was most ready to yield to every one We meet daily with those spirits that are very inconstant in business doing and undoing every hour very indecisive and mutable But he was of another temper quick-sighted to penetrate into a business judicious to determine it and constant not to vary in a resolution well grounded so that his word was his law and was taken by others as current as an obligation When his presence was requested at any consult he would be punctual at the time appointed that none should stay for him Where taking his place and that the lowest if it were possible his demeaner was so modest and composed that all were edified by it Listening to others with great attention and seriousness as if he had no other business And after his opinion given very brief and material his presence being no further useful he would take leave being a great husband of his time since other business for Gods service still attended him else where And notwithstanding the throng of business and though never so important he quitted not for them his Exercises of Piety nor his care of perfection which he preferred before all other his affairs knowing that as wholesome meat taken immoderately doth hurt and instead of strengthening the stomach weakens and suffocates its natural heat So these Exterior employments even the most holy if a man surcharge himself bring much prejudice and extinguish the ardour of Devotion Wherefore he was careful not to over-burthen himself with them being very vigilant that they should not distract and dissipate him nor quench the Interiour motions of the Spirit nor secularize his soul but ferve onely as means to elevate and unite him more to God In the multitude of business he was still recollected and as much alone in great meetings as the Hermites in their solitudes which might be gathered from his modestie and composed countenance evidencing his application to his Interiour and his union to God from whom he drew light and strength for the managing and prudent ordering of these buâ—nesses One day he wrote thus to his Director My recollection hinders no business at all but rather furthers it For without it I should have a solicitous desire of doing all my self whereas I act now in a most serene way in which I have no share for it is our Lord that doth all In another Letter thus Finding my self one day much burthened with divers-business I had a desire to draw off my minde wholly and at the same instant I found it Since which time they create me no trouble and I dispatch them more readily without thinking of them This grace hath been often renewed to me although in several manners which I acknowledge to be very great because it preserves me disingaged even in the multiplicity of business And notwithstanding he never omitted any thing of prudence or industry for the effecting his business yet the success he expected much more from Gods benediction than from his industry or any humane endeavours knowing well that what was undertaken for the service of God and good of his neighbour was to be accomplished by his grace Wherefore in every thing he had a great recourse to prayer instantly commending all his exercises to God and in all imployments and choice of persons which he made use of his eye was more upon grace than nature or any Exterior abilities And knowing that the affairs of God are not without their difficulties but meet with great oppositions even sometimes to be overturned he was armed with patience in the undertaking to suffer with courage not starting at the greatest dangers but still hoping of the success If they miscarried at any time he rested well satisfied after all fair means attempted on his part Thus he writ to a friend It is a great infirmity in our humane nature that she needs applause in matters of grace Wherefore I look at it as a great favour from God when I have the honour of executing any enterprize solidly undertaken and well approved of and acknowledged to proceed from the Spirit of God by those to whom he hath committed in his Church the judgement of such things notwithstanding the accomplishment of it meets with many crosses and contradictions In another thus We may take up good and holy designs and God doth often inspire them yet when he is pleased to permit a contrary event we must adore his secret will which brings with it more of mercy in the crossing of them than if they had succeded to our comfort We should always be jealous over our own spirit that it fix not upon any thing And again thus The sweet Jesus hath his designs which he conducts by such means as we would not at all make choice of and the reason is because he would thwart our wills and abate our dependancies upon earth And therefore often thwarts he our just undertakings being more jeolous of the Sacrifice of our hearts than of any thing else how specious soever But the principal rule which this holy man observed in these affairs was never to look at them in themselves but in the will and design of God and to proceed in view of this Whence it came to pass that he applied himself to business not as appearing glorious pleasant or profitable but as agreeable to the will of God to which he submitted his own making poor and mean imployments equally considerable and sometime preferred before greater Hence he took up things cast aside by others undertook charities out of the road
told him that of a long time he had left off the use of a sword and that after he had commended the business to God by prayer he should follow his inspiration assuring himself that his protection over us is much according to our relying upon him These words were found in one of his Letters to his Director My soul being armed with Confidence Faith and Love fears neither the Devil nor Hell nor all the stratagems of man neither think I at all on Heaven or Earth but onely how to fulfil the will of God in every thing He hath been noted to do very notable things through the strength of this Vertue even at such times when he hath been afflicted with great aridities in his Interiour In our aridities and privation of the sense and feeling of grace saith he in a Letter to a friend is manifested an heroick abnegation of our selves to the will of God when under Hope believing against Hope we shew our selves to be true sons of Abraham Isaac shall not dye though the knife be at his throat and in case the true Isaac should in fine be crucified it is but to make us conformable to the Cross and cut of our ashes to raise us to a true and better life Thus likewise he writ to his Director I have a very clear insight into the great want I have of my Saviour him I behold in his riches and my self in my deep poverty him I look upon invironed iâ— power and my self in weakness whereby my spirit being filled with content by the impression of these words Quid est homo quod memor es ejus What is man that thou art mindeful of him doth rest upon a total abandoning of its self into his bounty These words Longanimiter ferens bearing patiently have dwelt longe upon my spirit though I did not at first remember whence they were taken or what they meant onely this that I must wait with patience for the commands and approach of my Saviour without putting my self forward by my own inquest or endeavours but rest with faith and reverence begging his grace and hope in him But a few days ago taking up the New Testament in opening the Book I did light upon the sixth Chapter to the Hebrews where the Apostle speaks of Faith and Patience whereby we obtain the promises qui fide patientia haereditabit promissiones who by faith and patience shall inheret the promises and to prove this brings in the example of Abraham sic longanimiter ferens adeptus est repromissionem and so waiting patiently obtained the promise This passage touched me to the very heart and relieved my languishing together with another passage of S. James which presented it self to my eye at the same time Patientes igitur estore fratres usque ad adventum Domini ecce agricola expectat preciosum fructum terrae patienter ferens Be patient therefore my brethren till the coming of our Lord behold the husbandman waiteth patiently till he receive the fruit of the earth Hereby I was settled in peace upon the solid foundation of Hope and Abnegation As this incomparable Vertue enricheth the soul that is perfectly stated in it with a profound repose a solid joy a wonderful courage and sets it aloft above all Terrestrial things with a generous contempt of whatsoever the world esteems and desires giving it a taste of the pleasures that are Eternal as it is not difficult for him that hath assured hopes of a glorious Kingdom to set at nought a Pad of straw so did it communicate to this holy man all these excellent treasures and imprinted in his soul all these noble reflections Whereby he was incited with all his strength to encourage others in the pursuit of this Vertue knowing by his own experience the inestimable benefits thereof understanding it to be our Lenitive in all disasters our staff and stay in all weaknesses and our secure haven in all tempests instructing them continually how that God to the end that he might drive us into this Port and cause us to rest in it doth frequently permit us to be assaulted with temptations and tryals the deeplier to engage us to have recourse to him begging his aid and succour and relying upon him with confidence The like instruction he gave to a certain person upon occasion of the Apostles amazement when they beheld our Saviour walking upon the waters and took him for a Chost Think you this was without a special providence that our Saviour suffered his Disciples to go alone into that ship and permitted a contrary winde to arise Who knows not that in the same manner he fashions the souls of the faithful by his absences and by their tryals that he may afterwards manifest his power upon the seas and tempests quickning thereby our Faith and shewing himself to be the Messias and true Deliverer of the world But observe we how many Christians in their sufferings are affrighted with the Apostles seeing our Saviour marching on the waters Every thing makes them afraid the winds the waves yea even Christ himself that is the anxiteies of their spirit their own disputings and also those good coursels that others give them for their establishment upon Christ Jesus before God All this appears but as a Ghost to amaze them unless Christ himself graciously appear yet more unto them to comfort and strengthen them Shall we always want confidence thus to think Christ a Phantasm Shall we not address our selves to him in all our necessities as to our Lord and Deliverer The Jews brought all their sick folks to him and he cured them What is he become a greater Physician of the body than of the soul No no our little Faith our little Love our little Confidence is the cause of our languishings and unfruitful anxieties of spirit Let us go strait to him and all will be cured CHAP. 4. His Love of God SEeing the Love of God is without contradiction the most excellent and perfect of all vertues and that which principally and above all the rest makes a man a Saint we cannot doubt that this holy man was possessed thereof in a very eminent degree and that he loved God with all his heart This Love he founded upon his infinite perfections and favours which may be perceived by what he writ to his Director in the year 1648. concerning this Queen of all Vertues Our Glorious Lord hath from time to time with his resplendent beams shone upon my soul quickning her therewith which have appeared in such several manners and have wrought such great things in a short time as would take up far more to write them which really I am afraid to undertake or begin They all concenter in this one point the love of God through Jesus Christ his communication of himself to us by the Incarnation of his Eternal Word and ours to him through the same Word becoming our brother conversing with us and erecting as it were a mutual society
Apostle sets our Saviour for our pattern of whom he said in the former part Exinanivir seipsum He emptied himself If you ask how long and to what degree I answer even from the instant of his conception to his death Behold this is our Rule our Patron and our general Rendezvouz from all sides And to a third If we understood truly how the real divesting our selves of all rendred us capable of union with God we would incessâ—ntly beg this grace offering great violence to our selves to arrive at this state of Death and Abnegation to which every Christian must endeavour that aims at union with God and ascend to perfection I received some years since great illumination upon this verity giving me to understand that the treasure hidden in the field mentioned in the Gospel is no other but this estate of Death and Annihilation taking away from us our selves to give us to God emptying us of all creatures to be replenished with the Creator the Fountain of all good Our Saviour tells us there that he that found it went and sold all to buy it If we understood the true value of this precious treasure we would freely part with our liberty with all we are and all we have to purchase it Really this should work in us great confusion that such precious things and such forcible motives obliging us to tend to this Abnegation we arrive at it so slowly and most men so seldom O how few truly annihilated persons are to be found few that do not live according to the corrupted life of the old man producing actions accordingly when ever occasions of honour or profit or pleasure are presented Few that attain to lose and renounce themselves in such points as tend to their perfection Let us therefore employ all our forces to arrive at this happy estate O the spirits that are thus dead what an admirable life do they live I and hereby become rare instruments in the hands of God capable to act great matters tending to his glory These are intimately united to him wholly transformed and annihilated in God and by this gainful loss and happy annihilation arrive t the height of perfection they enjoy a setled peace a pure and solid contentment incomparably surpassing all sensuall pleasures These are so far advanced above all earthly greatness above that Idol-Honour which the world so much admireth that these are become their contempt and scorn They make no difference betwixt the pomps of Emperors and Spiders-webs they value Diamonds and Precious Stones equal with common Pibbles they neither take health for happiness nor sickness for misery they think that poverty should not be termed a misfortune nor poor men be deemed miserable they weigh not Beatitude in silver scales nor measure it by the ell of Pleasure but repute that all these things do much resemble running waters which in their courve wash the roots of trees and plants as they pass but make no stay with any of them flowing continually towards the end and place appointed them Of these illustrious dead men and most divinely annihilated souls the Angel speaks in the Apocalypse Write blessed are they that dye in the Lord from henceforward for they rest from their labours And indeed this verity should be writ in Letters of Gold in Characters of Saphyrs and Rubies Blessed are the dead who dye thus to themselves and to all created things to live onely to their Redeemer The Holy Ghost hath said it and assured them that at the instant of this precious death they finde rest from all their labours because their former pains and troubles of spirit now have an end for that they have now rooted out the causes of them and dried up the fountain which according to S. James are our lusts and concupiscences Monsieur de Renty had arrived to this pitch as may be seen in what we have mentioned deserving to be put in the list of those truly happy I mean those happy ones of the state of grace and possessors as of the Paradise of this life CHAP. 10. Of his Corporal death MOnsieur de Renty having now finished his mystical death must now also look for to enter into the way of Glory to receive that recompence of the reward which God had prepared for him in the Heavens necessarily dye the death of the body and so he diâ—â— 't is this day that I writ this two years ago which fell out in that manner as I shall now relate One the 11 of Aprl 1649. he found himself very ill and having concealed his sickness for five days was constrained immediately after a journey he had taken about some acts of Charity to keep his bed where he endured great pains all over his body with which his spirit likewise was so much affected that he professed his fancy to be so much disturbed with absurd and raving imaginations that if Gods grace had not assisted him to undestand the ground of them and preserved him under them he should have spoken more extravagancies than any mad man that there was much therefore in such an evil to desert and humble him but it was the duty of a sinner to honour God in all conditions in which he should put him During these great pains and torments both of body and minde and during the whole course of his sickness his ordinary employment consisted in affectionate elevations of his minde to God in thoughts and words of blessing praise and submission to whatsoever was laid upon him of meekness and perfect obedience to all that attended and had the care of of him with such a humble and contented spirit that he thought all well done though sometimes it was otherwise He exprest a wonderful patience which ever gave a check to any complaint still saying that he suffered nothing although his pains were extraordinary And when his keeper which was a Sister of the Hospital of Charity with whom he had visited so many poor and sick solks did importune him to declare his grief O Sister said he how doth the love of God wipe away all pain The Servants of God-fuffer nothing Another friend demanding of him if his pain was not great He answered No. The other replied That he thought it was It s true saith he that I am much clogged with my disease but I feel it not because I do not think of it Being urged by their sister to take some sweet things he refused saying These conduce little either for life or death and are not at all needfull Yet he refused not Physick though it was very bitter which he took with a chearfull countenance and swallowed it with great difficulty without leaving any The day before his death one told him of an excellent medicine which had done great cures He answer'd Patience is a soveraign remedy intimating his unwillingness to try it yet when it was brought he took it without any reluctancy or once asking what it was evidencing his mystical death to any thing
world that you may have no part therein And above all my children that you may live in the fear and love of God and yield due obedience to your Mother On Saturday which was the day of his death about half an hour past ten in the forenoon being newly recovered out of a violent fit of a Convulsion which had like to have carried him away looking attentively on those that were present he made signs with his hands head and eyes with a pleasant countenance for a person of quality and his intimate friend to come neer him Which being done he spake thus to him Sir I have one word to say to you before I dye then pausing a little to recover his strength he testified his affection to him but in words that could not distinctly be understood at length raising his voyce and speaking more articulately and plainly he proceeded The perfection of Christian life is to be united unto God in the faith of the Church We ought not to entangle our selves in novelties let us adore his conduct over 〈◊〉 and continue faithful to him unto the end let us adhere to that one God crucified for our salvation let us unite all our actions and all that is in us to his merits hoping that if we continue faithful to him by his grace we shall be partakers of the glory of his Father I hope we shall there see one another one day which shall never have end The party ready to reply and give him thanks Monsieur Renty stopped his mouth saying Adieu this is all I have to say to you Pray for me Some time after this and a little before his death fixing his eyes stedfastly upon heaven as if he had discovered something extraordinary he said The Holy Infant Jesus where is he Thereupon they brought him his Picture which he kissed devoutly and asking for his Crucifix took it in his hands and kissed it most affectionately Then turning himself towards death presently entred into his last agony which held not above a quarter of an hour of which he spent the most part in pronouncing the Holy name of Jesus making as well as he could acts of Resignation and commending his spirit to God after which he expired sweetly and his holy soul as we have good cause to believe departed to its place of rest Thus lived and dyed Monsieur de Renty one of the most glorious lights that God hath bestowed upon his Church in this age and one of the greatest ornaments of true devotion that hath appeared this long time He died at Paris the 27 year of his age the 24 of April 1649. about noon neer the time of our Saviours elevation on the Cross of which a certain person having a particular knowledge in his prayers applied the merits of this passion to him at the instant of his death in such sort that this application together with his own acts of resignation and annihilation which he had made and with which he both honoured and embraced the Cross are piously believed to have perfectly purged his soul and put it into a condition of entring into its beatitude and enjoyment of God at the instant of its dissolution There are reports of several Revelations and Visions concerning his state of glory and how at the instant of his death a Globe of light was seen ascending from earth to heaven Certain miraâ—ulous cure are also related to be done by his intercessions and spiritual relief supernaturally afforded to several devout persons by his admonitions which things will not seem incredible when we consider his holy life and heroick vertues rendring him one of the miracles of our age Yet since I have not the like assurance of these as of what I have already written and that true Sanctity and Châ—istian perfection consists not in suâ—h things which are not at all imitable I shall not insist upon them I onely adde by way of conclusion that we have great reason to admire the secret counsels of God in taking out of the world a man so useful who being in his full strength and flower of his age and in such an eminent degree of credit reputation and capacity might wonderfully have advanced the honour of God and good of his neighbour But when I say it was the hand of God all things are therein concluded And hereby he is pleased to let us know that he hath no need of us for the advancing of his glory the execution of his designs which he can bring about without us and when he is pleased to make use of us his instruments therein we are to behave our selves with great humility in his presence He hath translated him to another place where he glorifies his Majestie with greater perfection to a place and state that truly deserves the name of glory and that not onely in consideration of what the Saints receive but of what they render to the King of glory Moreover we may affirm that these holy men great pillars of the Church and comforts of the faiâ—hful are frequently taken away before their time as a just punishment upon us for the little use and benefit we make of their conversation and example And truly when first I heard the news of his sickness and the danger that he was in I could not but make this reflection that considering so solid and compleat a vertue notwithstanding that great need the world had of him and the exceeding great good he might still have done in it it was very likely he might dye as being a fruit ripe for heaven even as fruit in its maturity is ready to be gathered and takes hurt by being plucked too soon or too late Thus did God gather this good man in the maturity of his graces and perfection of his vertues as a man perfect and compleated to place him in heaven there to receive his just reward where he waits for us to adore and glorifie and love together with him in all perfection God the Father the Son and H. Ghost to whom be Honour Praise Benediction and all sorts of Adoration and Service now and for ever Amen THE CONCLUTION OF THE WORK How we ought to read the Lives of Saints TO conclude this work and render it more useful to the Reader I think it will not be amiss to afford him some instructions how to read the Lives of Saints and Histories of persons eminent in vertue to the end that that fruit may be reaped by them for which they were compiled These eminent souls then are to be considered two several ways 1. As they have relation to God 2. As to our selves For the first as they relate to God it is certain that these Saints and Persons famous for Piety are the greatest Master-pieces the richest Ornaments the most precious Jewels the choicest Works and the greatest Instruments of Gods Glory that are upon earth For if the meanest righteous man is incomparably more noble and honourable than all sinners put together since
this time of resignation of my self to sufferings is to make good use of my affliction and endeavour after solid vertue with a perfect abandoning of my self to the will of God Behold here the blessings of God upon his endeavours for the good of his neighbours which working such strong impressions upon their hearts to bring them to God almost always accompanied his labours At which indeed we ought not much to wonder if we consider him as a happy instrument fastened and united to the Lord of hearts and Saviour of souls singly aiming at the glory of God and good of others and sparing nothing he conceived necessary thereunto To which purpose his custom was before he undertook any such business to give himself up to our Lord they are his own words to speak by his Spirit and in his Power And this Lord who desireth infinitely the salvation of man finding him so well disposed and fitted to his hand used him for noble imployments and furnished him with suitable graces and favours even to work wonders Which may serve both for the instruction and shame of such who by their calling are designed for the procuring of the salvation of men and yet through their own fault do it with so little profit I finde moreover that God gave him sometimes beforehand knowledge and foresight into the affairs which he would have him do thereby to prepare him to undertake them without fear and to acquit himself well therein Being at his house in Citry at the latter end of the year 1642. he had a secret intimation from God that at his return to Paris he should finde a new imployment about the poor and should be much taken up therein Which fell out accordingly two days after his arrival there certain persons coming to advice with him about a course to relieve such poor as were ashamed to beg throughout that City intreating him to take it into his care which he did accordingly undertaking for his share to visit the fourth part and distribute there alms according to their necessities which was a sufficient employment for one man to take up his whole time though he had no other business which yet he performed notwithstanding the multitude of his other occupations so that we may say that according to humane reason and without a special assistance from God he could never have been able to have done and suffered such great matters But God who hath given us a limited strength of body and minde can as easily heighten them when and how he pleaseth One day he said to one of his great Confidents with much humility and devotion I have been this night bathed all over in tears by a view which our Lord hath given me At which words making a stand remaining sometime recollected in silence and transported with that grace he had received afterward he went on saying that whilst he was at prayer he understood that there was a great imployment assigned him for new France in the Indies Which afterward fell out and chiefly in the building of a Church in the Island of Mont-real In which noble design other pious persons whom God had chosen thereunto joyning with him He by his cares counsels credit and liberality both of his own and what he begg'd from others was highly serviceable Sometime he received beforehand not so great light of his business but onely a bare knowledge and present impulse of doing something without any further discovery As when he was much pressed in Spirit to go to Pontois without understanding any reason for it having at the same time much employment at Paris yet with obedience to the inspiration without debating he undertaketh the journey where unexpectedly he met with a Nobleman of great quality from a Province far distant who came thither conducted by God to ask of Monsieur Renty and receive from his mouth instructions for his souls health and how to serve God perfectly which he had little known and less practised Which thing Monsieur Renty then taught him professing at his return from thence that he could give no account what afterward became of the party or how he lost him SECT 10. His grace in assisting particularly some choice souls THough this great servant of God had an excellent faculty in assisting all men for the good of their souls yet was he more eminently happy in some particular choice persons to whom our Saviour had assigned him for the curing of their imperfections to make them march on apace and that thorow the narrow way of vertue and perfection But because the greatest number of these are yet living whose modesty I dare not offend I shall speak something onely of some who are dead and chiefly of one person which may serve as a taste of all the rest This was the Countess of Chastres who being deeply in the affections of this world according to the custom of most young Ladies of her quality it pleased God out of his infinite love to her to bring her before her death from those vanities and conduct her by the thorny strait-way to the paths of vertue and high perfection for which great work Monsieur Renty was assigned from God He inspiring the one to request assistance and counsel and the other to afford it and this with so happy success that within less than a years space her advancement herein was so notable that he himself was astonished at it For in that short time she became so perfectly disingaged from all those petty conveniences and accomodations which our Ladies flattering themselves pretend still to have need of that one presenting her with something of that nature wherein she had formetly taken delight she returned this answer which may serve for a good lesson to us all especially if we consider that she was well known to be of a very delicate tender complexion and very sickly how apt we are to multiply necessities I thank God I have quitted this and far more other things for the love of God and yet finde no want at all It is true that nature of her self is dainty and prone to flatter her self upon the pretence of necessities which she is willing to apprehend much greater than truly they are and often maketh them such by her imagination God indued him with great grace and light to discern her proper way and to perswade her to follow it to advance her in the pathes of solid vertue and to teach her by degrees to dye to herfelf to support her in great interior afflictions and to instruct her very effectually in what was most proper for her present condition he being accomplished with all the qualities of a fit Director and she on her part perfectly resigning up herself to believe what he said and force her self to put it in execution A thing very requisite in those that resolve to make use of the conduct of others to good purpose She received his counsel with all the resignation she could imagining our
Saviour to speak to her by his mouth which really was not without cause if we duly consider the passage I shall now relate The Lady speaking to him one day about procuring some relief of a most pressing excessive pain with which her spirit was afflicted and not finding any comfort from whatsoever he said she was moved to cast herself down upon her knees to deliver up her own will to our Saviour and by a perfect resignation to enter into what designs his good pleasure had decreed concerning her which she did accordingly And after rising from her knees she no more beheld Monsieur Renty but in him our B. Saviour shining with a very great splendor saying to her do what my servant directs thee Which words at that very instant wrought such a wholesome and divine effect upon her that her pain vanished she remaning filled with God in joyning a perfect tranquillity of spirit accompanied with a lively repentance for her sins and an absolute contempt of the world and of herself Though this happy intercourse betwixt him and this Lady accompanied with such signal blessings from God had contracted a strict and perfect amity betwixt them yet he was very wary wise and reserved in his addresses visiting her onely when the work of God did require and making no longer stay nor discourse with her than what was precisely necessary Which the Lady thinking to be a little harsh bemoan'd to a friend whom she knew to have some power with this holy man in these words Monsieur Renty doth extreamly mortifie me with his civilities and reservedness I have great need to see him often and yet cannot obtain it yea when we are together he will not sit down except it be when I am sick or that I am not able to stand any longer and always with his hat in his hand I beseech you tell him what out of that great respect I owe him I dare not my self what pain and inquietude I suffer to see such his carriage toward me who ought be continually under his feet The party acquainted him with thus much and received this answer I proceed in this manner because my duty to God and to the Countess of Chastres require it and moreover since my Saviour doth oblige me to treat with her I must do no more than what is necessary and so retire to which this posture is most convenient If we sit down we should forget our selves and talk more than is needful and perhaps pass on to things unprofitable Wherefore we both ought to stand upon our guard I being a lay man and a sinner do not speak to her but with great confusion though I know it to be the will of God and am certified by several pious and judicious men that it is my duty Those that undertake the conduct of souls ought seriously to ponder this prudent answer and perswade themselves that the business consists not in speaking much to them but in disposing them to speak to God and in making them fit for God to speak to them to beget in their souls the substantial Word his Son And after wholesome counsel given consonant to their state and disposition in putting them upon its execution with good courage vertue consisting not in words but deeds Thus you have the course he took in directing this Lady who thereby arrived to great perfection making most excellent use of all her great sufferings of body and minde attaining to so great contempt of the world that she dyed with a design notwithstanding her great infirmities and sickness to become a Carmeline in the Monastery of Beaulne And that we may have a taste of his skill in conducting several other persons of great vertue let us consider these following Rules of great Perfection which he gave to them and which without doubt were drawn from his owne private observation I have protested in the presence of the blessed Sacrament that I will live according to the Maxims and Counsels of Jesus Christ and to that end 1. Never to desire or endeavour directly or indirectly to increase my fortune in riches or honour neither to consent to any advantages which my friends would procure for me unless in obedience to and advice of my Ghostly Father and Director of my Conscience 2. To study the contempt and hatred of worldly riches and honours to speak of them no longer according to the flesh but according to the spirit of Christianity and for the better establishing of its Maxims in my soul to avoid as much as I can the conversation of such as are guided by contrary Rules 3. To entertain no Suit in Law either as Plaintiff or Defendant until all possible ways have been used for an accommodation without any humane respect In which I will submit to advice 4. To cut off all superfluities as well in what concerneth my own person as my family that I may be the better enabled to assist the poor For the better execution whereof I will once every Moneth after Communion examine my self therein as strictly as if I were then to give an account to God 5. Never to contest but to yield to all the world as much as I can both in point of Honour Precedency and of Opinion Dispute and of another Will which I ought to prefer before my own 6. To shun all delicacies not to do or desire any thing upon the motive of pleasure nor to admit of any such thing unless it be joyned with necessity or condescention to my neighbour or the health of my body or the refreshment and relaxation of Spirit 7. To bear with patience Contempt Injuries Contradictions Losses Oppressions and Affronts 8. To do all that with discreet zeal I can to hinder others from offending God or blaspheming his Holy Name or detracting or slandering their neighbour 9. To avoid and reject all kinde of tenderness and delicacy for the ease of the body yea to diminish and cut off as much as I can such commodities and conveniences as may be forborn without danger of health 10. To receive with all readiness and charity the requests of my neighbour and to supply his necessities in what I can possibly by my self or by others 11. To perform the duty of Fraternal correption with all Charity and Humility in the most prudent manner I can and to receive it most willingly from others 12 Once every Moneth at least I will examine my self upon the faults I have committed against these present Resolutions And once a year many may meer together to renew this Protestation and advise together of the way and means to accomplish it SECT 11. The great skill he had in the Interior matters of the Soul WE must of necessity confess that the knowledge of Interior things is most difficult and that the discerning of Spirits is without contradiction the most obscure of all Sciences And to be acquainted therewith requires eminent grace from God and a light no less than what flows from the