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

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

would rather never eat meat than Offend the least of his Brethren for whom Christ died How can we then be tied to any expression that gives Offence to a weak Soul Mystical Men therefore should take away all equivocal terms when they know the same are abused in order to corrupt the soundest Doctrine Let those who have spoken after an improper and exaggerated manner and without precaution explain their meaning and suffer nothing to be wanting for the edification of the Church let those who have been erroneous as to main Doctrinals not content themselves with condemning the Errors but let them confess they have believed them and give the Glory to God let them not be ashamed that they have erred as being what is natural to the race of Mankind but let them humbly confess their Errors since they remain to be no longer theirs after they have made an humble Confession of them It s in order to distinguish Truth from Falshood in so nice and important a matter that two great Prelates have Published Thirty-Four Articles that in substance contain all the Doctrine of the internal life and I have no other design in this undertaking than to give a larger Explanation of the same All these Internal ways have a tendency to pure or disinterested Love This pure Love is the highest degree of Christian perfection It is the end or boundary of all the ways known unto the Saints Whoever allows of nothing beyond that contains himself within the bounds of Tradition Whoever exceeds this bound is already out of the way If any one should doubt of the Truth and perfection of this Love I make an offer of shewing an universal and clear Tradition for it from the times of the Apostles to that of St. Francis de Sales without any interruption and I will thereupon publish when I am desired to do it a Collection of all passages out of the Fathers School-Men and holy mysticks who unanimously speak of it It will appear from this Collection that the Ancient Fathers spoke as vigorously to the matter as St. Francis de Sales and that they for the disinterest of Love have made the same Suppositions concerning Salvation that our disdainful Criticks so much laugh at when they meet with them in the Writings of the Saints of the last Age Even S. Augustine himself whom some have taken to be an Opposer of this Doctrine hath taught it as much as any other It 's true indeed the main Thing is to explain this pure Love aright and to mark out the exact Bounds beyond which its Disinterest could never go The Disinterest thereof can never exclude the Will from loving God without Bounds neither in regard to the Degree nor the Duration of that Love This can never exclude a Conformity in us to the good Pleasure of God who not only wills our Salvation but would have us will it with him for his Glory This Disinterested Love is always tied to the written Law performs entirely the same Acts and exercises the same distinct Vertues as Interested Love does with this only Difference that it doth exercise the same in a simple and peaceable Manner and such as is disengaged from every Motive of Self-Interest This holy Indifference that is so much praised by St. Francis de Sales is nothing else but the disinterest of this Love which is always indifferent and without any interested Will for itself but the same is always determined to and positively wills all that God would have us do according to his written Law and that by the Attraction of his Grace In order to the attaining to this State our Love must be purified and all our internal Trials are but the purification of it even Contemplation itself that is of a most passive Nature is nothing else but the peaceable and uniform Exercise of this pure Love We cannot insensibly pass from Meditation wherein we perform methodical and discursive Acts into Contemplation whose Acts are simple and direct but in proportion to our passing from interested to disinterested Love This passive State and Transformation together with the Spiritual Marriages and essential or immediate Vnion are no other than the entire Purity of this Love the Habit whereof without being ever either invariable or exempted from venial Sins very few Souls are endued with I do not speak of all these different Degrees that are so little known to the Generality of the Faithful but because they are Consecrated to us by being made use of by a great many Saints whom the Church hath approved off and have in these Terms explained their Experiences neither do I relate them for any other end than to explain them with the strictest Precaution Finally all these internal Ways tend to pure Love as to their End an habitual State whereof is the highest Degree attainable in the Pilgrimage of this Life it 's the Foundation and the top Stone of the whole Building Nothing can be rasher than to oppose the Purity of this Love that is so worthy of the Perfection of our God to whom all is due and of his Jealousie which is a consuming Fire But again there is nothing can be so rash as to go about to take away from this Love the reality of its Acts in the Practice of distinct Vertues by a Chymerical refining of it Lastly It will be no less dangerous to place the Perfection of the Internal Life in some mysterious State beyond the Bound fixed to it of an habitual State of pure Love It 's in order to prevent all these Inconveniences that I have taken upon me to treat of the whole Matter in the following Articles that are digested according to the various Degrees that have been remarked unto us by Mystical Men in the Spirittal Life Every Article will consist of two parts the first will be the true one which I shall approve of and which shall contain all that is Authorized by the Experiences of the Saints and pursuant to the sound Doctrine of pure Love The second shall be the false part where I shall exactly explain the very Place where the Danger of Illusion lies and as I shall give an Account also of what is exorbitant in every Article I shall qualisie the same and censure it according to the strict Rules of Theology And thus the first part of my Articles will be a Collection of exact Definitions of the Saints Expressions in order to reduce them all to an uncontestable meaning that can neither be liable to any Equivocation nor alarm the most timorous Souls It will be a kind of Dictionary for Definitions in order to know the exact meaning of every Term These Definitions together will make up a plain and compleat System of all the Internal Ways including a perfect Vnity seeing the whole thereof will be clearly reduced to the Exercise of pure Love that has been as vigorously taught by all the Fathers as by the more modern Saints But on the other hand the second part

supream good as it is my reward and not that of another and desire it in conformity to God who will have me to desire it Then I desire that which is really and which I know is the greatest of all my interests without being determined to it by any interested motive In this state hope remains distinguished from charity and does not alter or diminish the purity or impartiality of her state This is by S. Francis of Sales explained in these words according to Theological strictness Love of God Lib. 2. c. 17. It is a very different thing to say I love God for my self and to say I love God for the sake of my self the one is a holy affection of the Bride the other is an impiety that hath not the like c. To speak so is to conserve the distinction of Theological virtues in the most perfect Estates of the inward Life and consequently to depart in nothing from the Doctrine of the holy Council of Trent 'T is to explain at the same time the tradition of the Fathers of the Doctors of the School and of Mystick Saints who have supposed a third degree of Just Men who are in an habitual state of pure love without any motive of interest IV. False IN this third degree of perfection a Soul wills not any longer her Salvation as her Salvation nor God as her supream good nor reward as reward though God will have her to have this will Whence it is that in this state one is not any more able to do any act of true hope distinguished from Charity that 's to say that one cannot any more desire nor expect the effect of the promises in and for himself even for the glory of God To Speak at that rate is to place our perfection in a formal resistance of the will of God who wills our Salvation and will have us to will the same as our own recompence And this is at the same time to confound the exercise of Theological virtues against the decision of the Council of Trent V. ARTICLE True THere be two different states of righteous Souls The first is that of holy Resignation The resigned Soul will or at least would have several things for her self by the motive of her own interest S. Francis of Sales saith Love of God Lib. 9. That she hath yet selfish desires but that they are subjected She submits and subordinates her interessed desires to the will of God which she prefers before her interest Thereby this Resignation is good and meritorious The second state is that of holy indifference An indifferent Soul wills not any longer any thing for her self-interest She hath no interested desires to submit because she hath no more interrested desire 'T is true that there remains in her still some inclinations and unvoluntary repugnances which she submitteth but she hath no longer any voluntary and deliberate desires for her own interest except in those occasions wherein she does not faithfully cooperate to the fulness of her grace This indifferent Soul when she fulfilleth her grace wills not any thing more but as God makes her to will it by his attractive power She loves it is true several things besides God but she loves them only for the sole love of God and with the love of God himself for it is God that she loves in all whatsoever he causeth her to love Holy indifference is nothing but the impartiality or disinterest of love as holy Resignation is nothing but interessed love which submitteth self-interest to the glory of God Indifference reacheth as far and never farther than the perfect disinterest of love As that indifference is love it self it is a very real and positive principle It is a positive and formal will which causeth us to will or desire really all the will of God known to us It is not a dull unsensibleness an internal unaction or non-willing a general suspension or a perpetual equilibrium of the Soul On the contrary it is a positive and constant determination to will and not to will any thing as Cardinal Bona does express it One wills nothing for himself but every thing for God We desire nothing in order to be perfect or happy for our own interest but we will all perfection and blessedness as far as it pleaseth God to make us desire these things by the impression of his grace according to the written Law which is always our inviolable rule In this state we desire no longer Salvation as our own Salvation as an eternal deliverance as a reward of our merits or as the greatest of our interests But we will it with a full will as the glory and good pleasure of God as a thing which he wills and will have us to will for his sake 'T would be a manifest extravagancy to refuse out of a pure love to desire that good which God will do to us and commands us to desire The most disinterested love ought to will what God wills for us as that which he wills for others The absolute determination to will nothing would be no longer a disinterest but the extinction of love which is a desire and true will it would be no longer holy indifference for indifference is the state of a Soul equally ready to will or will not to will for God all that he wills and never to will for ones self what God does not declare that he wills Whereas that nonsensical determination not to will any thing is an impious reluctancy to all the known will of God and to all the impressions of his grace This equivocation in saying that one does not desire his Salvation is easie to be resolv'd We do desire it fully as the will of God To reject it in this sense would be a horrid Blasphemy and we ought always thereupon to Speak with a great deal of precaution It is true only as we do not will it as it is our recompence our good and our interest In this sense S. Francis os Sales hath said Second Conversation That if there was a little more of God's good pleasure in Hell the Saints would exchange Paradise for it And in other places too Conv. p. 182. The desire of Eternal Life is good but he makes us to desire nothing else but God's will Conv. 368. Could we serve God without Merit we should desire to do it He saith elsewhere Love of God Lib. 9. c. 11. Indifference is above Resignation for it loves nothing but for the will of God So that nothing moves an indifferent heart in presence of God's will An indifferent heart is as a Wax-Ball in the hands of his God in order to receive in like manner all the impressions of his Eternal good pleasure 'T is a heart without choice equally dispos'd to every thing without any other object of his will but the will of his God who does not set his love upon the things which God wills but in the will of God who wideth them In

is united to God without any medium either by the Veil of Faith or the infirmity of the Flesh since the fall of Adam nor by the medicinal Grace of Jesus Christ by whom alone one may in every state go to the Father To speak at this rate is to renew the Heresie of the Beggards Condemned by the Council of Vienna XLI ARTICLE True THE Spiritual Wedding uniteth immediately the Bride to the Bridegroom essence to essence substance to substance that 's to say will to will by that entirely pure Love so often mentioned Then God and the Soul make no more but one and the same Spirit as the Bride and the Bridegroom in Marriage are made but one Flesh He who adheres to God is made one and the same Spirit with him by an intire conformity of the will which is the work of Grace The Soul is then fully satiated and in a Joy of the Holy Ghost which is the bud of Coelestial happiness She is in an entire purity that 's to say without any defilement of Sin except those daily Sins which the exercise of Love can immediately blot out and consequently she may without Purgatory be admitted into Heaven which no unclean thing can enter into for Concupiscence which remains always in this life is not incompatible with this entire purity since it is neither Sin nor a spot in the Soul But this Soul hath not her Original integrity being not exempt either from daily faults or from Concupiscency which are incompatible with their integrity To speak so is to speak with the Salt of Wisdom wherewith all our Words ought to be seasoned XLI False THE Soul in this state hath her Original integrity she sees God face to face she does enjoy him as fully as the Blessed To speak at this rate is to fall into the Heresie of the Beggards XLII ARTICLE True THE Union called by mystical Men essential and substantial consisteth in a simple and disinterested Love which fills all the affections of the whole Soul and which is exercised by Acts so peaceable and so uniform that they seem to be but one though they be several really distinguished Acts. Several mystical Writers have termed these Acts essential or substantial to distinguish them from Acts that are froward unequal and made as it were by the out-goings of a Love which is yet mixt and interested To speak so is to explain the true sense of mystical Writers XLII False THis Union becomes really essential between God and the Soul so that nothing is capable either to break or to alter it any more This substantial Act is permanent and indivisible as the substance of the Soul it self To speak at this rate is to teach an extravagancy as much contrary to all Philosophy as to Faith and to the true practice of Piety XLIII ARTICLE True GOD who conceals himself from the Wise and great ones reveals and communicates himself to the little ones and to the simple The transformed Soul is the Spiritual Man S. Paul speaks of that 's to say a Man acted and led by the Spirit of Grace in the way of pure Faith This Soul hath often both by Grace and by experience for all things of simple practise in the tryals and exercise of pure Love a knowledge which the Learned who have more science and humane Wisdom than experience and pure Grace have not She ought nevertheless to submit with heart as well as mouth not only to all the decisions of the Church but also to the Conduct of her Pastors as having a special Grace without exception to lead the Sheep of the flock XLIII False THE transformed Soul is the Spiritual Man of S. Paul so that she may judge of all the truths of Religion and be judged by no body She is the Seed of God that cannot Sin Unction teacheth her all so that she hath no need of being instructed by any body nor to submit to superiours To speak at this rate is to abuse the passages of Scripture and turn them to ones ruine 'T is to be ignorant that Unction which teacheth all teacheth nothing so much as obedience and suggesteth all truth of Faith and of practice only by inspiring the Ministers of the Church with an humble Docility In a word 't is to establish in the midst of the Church a Damnable Sect of Fanaticks and Independents XLIV ARTICLE True THE Pastors and Saints of all Ages have used a kind of an Oeconomy and secret in not speaking of the rigorous trials and of the most sublime exercise of pure Love but to those Souls to whom God had given already both attraction and light to it Though this Doctrine was the pure and simple perfection of the Gospel noted throughout the whole body of Tradition the Ancient Pastors proposed usually to the generality of Just Men no other than the practise of interested Love in proportion to their Grace and thus gave Milk to Infants while they distributed Bread to strong Souls To speak thus is to say what S. Clement Cassian and divers other Holy Authors both Ancient and Modern do constantly affirm XLIV False THere has been in all Ages among those that live Contemplative Lives a secret Tradition and such as has been unknown even to the body of the Church her self This Tradition would include secret Opinions beyond the truths of universal Tradition or these Opinions at least would be contrary to those of the common Faith and would exempt Souls from exercising all those Acts of an explicite Faith and dislimited Vertue which are no less essential to the ways of pure Love than to that which is interested To speak thus is to annihilate Tradition instead of multiplying it It is the way to make a sect of secret Hypocrites in the Bosome of the Church without her being ever able to discover them or to free her self from them Hereby the impious secret of the Gnosticks and Manicheans will be revived and all the Traditions of our Faith and Morals undermined ART XLV True ALL the Internal ways that are most eminent are so far from being above an habitual state of pure love that they are but the way to arrive at that bound of all perfection all inferiour degrees do not come up to this true estate The last degree which Mystick Writers call by the name of Transformation or Essential Union without any Medium is no more than a simple reality of this love without a peculiar interest This when true is the most safe state because it is the most voluntary and meritorious of all the states of Christian Justice and because 't is that which referrs all to God and leaves nothing to the Creature But on the contrary when 't is false and imaginary it is the heighth of illusion The Traveller after many Fatigues Dangers and Sufferings arriving at length upon the top of a Mountain from thence discerns at a distance his Native City and the end of his Journey and all his toils he is presently

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

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