Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	affection_n	friendship_n	love_n	1,017	5	5.1675	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

making particularly like discourses and about the Houshold Affairs of their Penitents before they come to Accuse themselves of their Sins whereupon that little Devotion which they brought along with 'em to the Sacrament becomes cool'd and good for nothing Sometimes it happens that many Penitents are fain to wait to be Confessed who are full of business of their own and when they see such a long Demur they grow weary and sad and fall into impatience losing the actual disposition of Mind wherewith they were before prepared to receive so healthful a Sacrament whereupon the medley of these distractive superfluous and vain matters not onely makes 'em lose their precious time but also prejudiceth the holy Place the Sacrament the disposition of the Penitent who is Confessed and that of others who wait to be Confessed all of 'em considerable mischiefs and worthy to be redressed 53. For Confession there are some good but for the Government of Spirits by the mystical Way there are so few says Father John Davila that in a thousand you shall possibly find one St Francis of Sales says One among ten thousand And the illuminated Thauler says That in a hundred thousand it was a hard thing to find one expert Master of Spirit The reason is because there are so few who dispose themselves to receive the mystical Science Pauci ad eam recipiendam se disponunt said Henry Arpius Lib. 3. Par. 3. Cap. 22. Would to God it were not so true as it is For then there would not be so many Cheats in the World and there would be more Saints and fewer Sinners 54. When the spiritual Guide desires effectually that all should be in love with Vertue and the love which they have of God is pure and perfect with few Words and few Reasons he will reap a very great deal of Benefit 55. If the interiour Soul when it is in the Cleansing it self of Passions and in the time of Abstraction has not a sure Guide to curb in the Retirement and Solitude to which its Inclination and great Propension draws it it will be unable and unfit for Exercises of Confession Preaching and Study and also for those of its own Obligation State and Calling 56. The skilful Director therefore ought to mind carefully when the Powers of it begin to be employed in God that there may not be given too free access to Solitude commanding the Soul not to omit the outward Exercises of its State as of Study and other Employments although they should seem distractive so that they be not contrary to his Calling because the Soul is so much Abstracted in Solitude is so turned Inward in its Retirement and is removed to such a degree from Exteriority that if it afterwards apply it self again it doth it with toyl and resistance and with prejudice to its powers and the strength and soundness of Head which is considerable hurt and worthy the weighing of spiritual Directors 57. But if these have no Experience they will not know when the Abstraction is formed and at the same time thinking it holy Counsel will encourage 'em to Retirement and find Destruction in it O how necessary it is that the Guide be Expert in the spiritual and mystical Way CHAP. VIII Pursues the same Matter 58. THose that Govern Souls without Experience go in the Dark and arrive not at the Understanding of the States of the Soul in their internal and supernatural Operations they onely know that sometimes the Soul is Well and that it has Light other times that it is in Darkness but what the State of all these is and what is the Root from whence these Changes grow they neither know nor understand nor can verify it by means of Books till they come to find it experimentally in themselves in whose Furnace the true and actual Light is made 59. If the Guide hath not passed himself through the secret and painful ways of the interiour Walk how can be comprehend or approve it It will be no small favour to the Soul to find one onely experienced Guide to strengthen it in insuperable Difficulties and assure it in the continual Doubts of this Voyage otherwise he will never get to the holy and precious Mount of Perfection without an extraordinary and singular Grace 60. The spiritual Director which lives disinteressed longs more for the internal Solitude than the Employment of Souls and if any spiritual Master is displeased when a Soul goes from him and leaves him for another Guide 't is a clear sign that he did not live disinterested nor sought purely the Glory of God but his own proper Esteem 61. The same loss and evil comes when the Director is secretly diligent to draw some Soul to his Direction which goes under the Government of another Guide this is a notable mischief for if he holds himself for a better Director than t'other he is proud and if he knows himself to be a worse he is a Traytor to God to that Soul and to himself during the prejudice he does to the advantage and good of his Neighbours 62. In like manner there is another considerable hurt that discovers it self in spiritual Masters which is that they do not suffer the Souls Guided by 'em to Communicate with others though they are more Holy Learned and Expert than themselves all this is Interest Self-love and Esteem of themselves They do not permit Souls thus to unburthen and vent themselves for fear they should loose 'em and that it may not be said that their spiritual Children seek that Satisfaction in others which they cannot find in them and for the most part by these imperfect ends they hinder Souls from being advantaged 63. From all these and infinite other imputations the Director is free that is once arrived at hearing the inward Voice of God by having passed through Tribulation Temptation and passive Purgation because that interiour Voice of God works innumerable and marvellous Effects in the Soul which gives place to it hearkens to it and relishes it 64. It is of so great Efficacy that it rejects worldly Honour Self-conceit spiritual Ambition the desire of Fame a wish to be Great a presumption of being the only Man and thinking that he knows all Thnigs it bids adieu to Friends Friendships Visits Letters of Complement Commerce of the Creatures Interest with spiritual Children Mastership and Business it turns away too much inclination to Confessorship the Affection that is disorder'd in the Government of Souls that makes a man think he is fitting for it it removes self-Self-love Authority Presumption treating of Profit making a shew of the Letters which a man writes shewing those written by his spiritual Children to make known what a great Workman he is it turns away the Envy of other Masters and Teachers and the procuring more Customers to his Chair of Confession 65. Lastly this interiour Voice of God in the Soul of the Director begets a mean Value and Solitariness and Silence and Forgetfulness