For these three moneths I have not it may be spent three or four hours at my prayers upon my knees together out of the Church and should I perform them at all no otherwise than on this fashion I should but very ill discharge my â—uâ—y It is certain that I have discharged it ill enough yet I understand that God is pleased in the midst of these imployments to which he hath appointed me to make me sensible of his presence and power in uniting my soul to himself by certain intimate ways and that the outward work may be performed by the hand whilst the soul solaceth herself in that real alliance of Sons with their Father by the Spirit of the Son who admitteth us into his communion together with that of the blessed Virgin the Angels and Saints yea and of the whole Heaven if you will Such a wonderful expansion of soul can our Lord give when and how he pleaseth I enjoyed at the same time such a sensible impression of God yet excelling all sense as being acted in the more noble part of the Soul viz. the Spirit that if I had been thrown like a boul I could never have lost the sight of my God All things are here transitory for our Lord turns this boul in a strange manner when it pleaseth him And these dâ—verse turnings are done for the souls advantage whereby she is fashioned for every occasion that she may do nothing for or by herself but all for God and according to him Moreover I evidently see that a person whom God employeth in these low affairs if he follow them with the same fidelity as if they were greater keeping his station by obedâ—ence and self-denial is as acceptable to him as he that is occupied in the noblest functions The work it self making not the difference but the faithful execution of it by submitting to his good pleasure Will nothing please you but to convert a thousand worlds and bring all souls to God you shall be content to carry stones and sometime to sit still and do nothing The Sâ—crifice of Patience is both well pleasing to God and comfortable to our selves And I believe it is without comparison more rare to finde a soul faithful in patience and content to do no more than God would have him than faithful in actions which appear abroad I know well that God doth all in all but this Sacrifice of Patience and of Câ—ssation is more commendable in a heart who hath the love and zeal of his honour and in pursuit hereof is hurried on to action and hath need of greater force to withhold it from doing than to incite it This kinde of Cessation seems to be nothing at all available for the nourishment of such zeal and this hunger and thirst after righteousness which would devour the four quarters of the world is reverberated like the fire pent in which circles and works about until it finde a vent by this consideration that God is all-sufficient in himself and hath no need of us for advancing of his glory that we receive more honour from our imployments than he service being so impure that we blemish every thing we meddle with and rob it of some lustre and prove often not onely unprofitable but endamaging servants I have one word more to tell you that you may direct me in it which is that I am really ashamed and confounded in my self that I do no more for God considering his dignity hâ—s love his gifts and communications by the alliance of Jesus Christ and his Spirit Which indeed together with the sense of my great imbecility for any thing that is good of my sins and miseries would work my extream torment did I not bethink my self of his all-sufficiency in himself and that he doth with us as he pleaseth in keeping us in obedience and profound annihilation Thus far his Letter wherein are many good things to be learnt CHAP. 4. The excellent use he made of all things and his application to the Infancy of our Lord for that purpose IT must needs be that Monsieur Renty made excellen use of all accidents that occurr'd to him and generally of all creatures to attain to such a height of perfection whereof this usage of them as muâ—h as is in man is undonbredly the prinâ—ipal means to which all others are subordinate otherwise and without it unpâ—ofitable and meer hinderâ—nâ—es True it is that God hath placed in the bosom of each thing as in riches poverty honours disgrace health sickness good and evil a secret vertue and moral capâ—city to advantage us in our salvation and to be instruments of perfection even as so many cords to draw and unite us to himself but all this according to our usâ—ge of them For bâ—ing well used they produce good effects but contrarily abused instead of uniting us to God they estrange us further from him rendring us more imperfect and vicious and instead of advantages prove the instruments of our ruine Wherefore he being well instructed in this grand secret of Spiritual life imployed all his care to practise it perfectly Which that we may better understand it will not be amiss to follow it to the Spring-head The holy man had continually in his heart making it the principal conduct of his devotions as we have mentioned and may be easily deduced from the series of this History to unite himself to our Lord Jesus Christ and that upon good grounds Since out of him as saith S. Peter there is no salvation God having chosen him the sole Mediator of Redemption and the repairer of our miseties loving no creature in the world but him with a love of perfect amity Whereupon by S. Paul he is stiled the Son of his love and good pleasure and we alone are accepted in and thâ—ough him who are found beautiful and shining with glory when we are united to him and out of him we appear deformed hideous and most abominable being indeed without him filled with sin and his enemies Wherefore every man is so far dear and amiable to him as he stands united to his Son which is manifested in the Blessed Viâ—gin and his Apostles all our actions pleasing him so far as they are united to him even as each member of our body participates of life according as it is animated by our soul Having therefore perfectly learn'd this fundamental truth of Christianity his study was to unite himself to our Lord Jesus Christ and to copy him forth as his Rule and Law for the regulating of his Exterior and Interior adoring him daily under this notion applying himself with great reslection to his words actions designs and the several mysteries receiving from each of them great enlightnings Thus he writ to me one day upon the mysterie of his Incarnation I have had the grace divers times very intimately to understand that ineffable mysterie hidden with God from all ages and manifested now to the Saints according to S. Paul which is the
how much she was troubled to see him so much honoured and esteemed by men Who answered her First That she had great reason for it in that he so little deserved it And secondly upon her demand how those commendations assected him He replied I neither attend nor return any answer to them they affect me no more than a stock through the grace of God I am insensible of praise and dispraise the one nor the other make not any impression upon my spirit but I entertain them without reflexion And he had good reason since'as all the prayers men bestow upon us make us not one jot the better so neither their opprobries the worse Besides that ordinarily in the distribution of these the greatest piece of injustice in the world is committed by commending such as least deserve it but rather shame and confusion and blaming such whom God highly esteemeth In the fourth place he was dead and crucified to all supernatural good things all spiritual delights and favours which without comparison are of greatest value above all that we have named even to all gifts vertues perfections which he desired and sought after with a most disengaged and self-denying spirit not lusting after this or that vertue this or that degree of perfection but willing and desiring all according to Gods will about which he expressed himself further thus The love of our selves is so afraid to be stripped out of any thing that it suffers us not to be carried forth to our true rest as long as it can subsist and uphold it self by its own right and property which should teach us to use all diligence for the annihilation of our own desires even of those that seem to us to tend onely to vertue I say that seem to us whereas indeed if God gave us a true light we should undoubtedly see that the course which tends to our divesting of all these things carries us on secretly but most really to the true possession of them and our own preservation and that we must daily descend to our own nothingness in which alone God is to be found Thrice happy are all such poor in spirit He was also dead and annihilated to all gusts of Devotion all sensible Graces and Consolations of which our love-sick souls are so greedy Upon which subject he expressed himself thus I am better satisfied with those graces in which sense hath no part than with those that have more of the sensible of which indeed I am somewhat jealous for we finde amongst spiritual persons great store of counterfeit riches of the Spirit those I mean who are all for gusts and sensible consolations and illuminations in this state of exile wherein we ought to live rather by faith than feeling and which is much to be â—amented We meet very few that are not infected with this â—â—ch it being the natural condition of man to desire to see and to that end to affect and search for enlightnings and wanting the experimental knowledge of that which comes from God which is not to be gotten but by quitting his own he looks after that which he findes in himself mistaking it for Divine because it is modeliz'd to his own gust and fancy And in another Letter thus As for obscurities aridities and other troubles of spirit they are to be born with upon any terms and we must give up our selves as forlorn creatures throwing our selves into God on all sides of us as a fish in the Ocean which is its proper element into God at all times and for all things If we be true members of our Saviour Christ Jesus we shall see nothing but submissions and abnegations and shall sense nothing else but these He was dead and annihilated also to all glorious and extraordinary favours enjoyments of which he had no other feeling than the Sun which being covered over with light and crowned with glory yet is no way sensible thereof insomuch that having received by the mouth of a great Saint promises of some great favours from God he returned this answer to his Director Those things whereof they have given me notice and assurance must be as they may I rest nothing upon them nor confide in them knnowing it to be my duty to live by faith Being certified at another time of a special favour received from our Saviour it had no other operation upon him but the impression of a great confusion and profound humility And as they gave him all these things in writing at large he parted with them all to his Director together with all his other secrets and most important papers of Devotion especialy those written with his own blood formerly mentioned an evident demonstration of his great humility by reason that most men are taken with those parcels of piety grounding this their affection to them upon some benefit receiveable by them But the reliance which is placed upon God must be disengaged from every thing else This he made appear by this Letter to his Director I have received the paper which mentions this grace and favour whereof I send you the copy having no other reflection thereupon but to meet it with the greatest latitude of heart I can possible to bless God acknowledge his goodness and serve him for it I have burnt the original with several other papers of the like nature If you judge it not convenient that I should do so let me receive your commands accordingly for the future I could wish if there be any thing left for me to wish that I had nothing left me but my God This is the sure replenishment of the soul and rich treasure of the heart Moreover he was wholly dead to all that God wrought by him taking no share thereof nor interesting himself any more with them after they were done than if they had been performed by another Fifthly he was crucified and dead to all affections not onely such as are irregular but those also which are purely natural of all creatures and in particular of those who used his counsel and depended upon him for the conduct of their souls wherein the obligations and relations on both parts use to be more than ordinary insomuch that upon a separation there falls out de jection of spirit and distractions of Devotion To this purpose he writ to one of those persons thus I cannot without much trouble bear the great matter you make of my converse and of my removes Let us breath after God and make good our alliance with Jesus Christe to learn in and from him a profound abnegation of our selves And in another Letter thus Jesus Christ is ever the same and his grace is continually advancing and as long as I am to him so long shall I be to you for him and in him he is not wont to part souls by the separation of bodies since his custom is to separate onely what is imperfect as being that which very often brings with it some hinderances to the perfect life of
that he neither desired noâ— feared any thing in this world And in fine enjoyed such a sweet tranquillity of spirit and repose which nothing could disturb or alter that from thence arose a wonderful and invariable equality shining forth in his Exterior at all times in all places upon all occasions One of his intimate friends desirous to try one day whether he had an affection to any thing questioned with him about every thing he could think of to put him to the rest and among other things asked him whether he desired not that these works which he had undertaken for the glory of God might succeed and take effect To whom â—he replied that he had no other aim in all his actions and enterprizes than the accomplishing of the will of God and that although he used his utmost endeavour that such things might succeed yet notwithstanding he was perfectly resigned in all things to his Majesties good pleasure adding many other expressions testifying his Mortification to all desires and a perfect transformation of his will into that of Gods This discourse was not quite finished but there hapned an occasion to put it to the tryal for one came running in crying that all the Heaven was on fire which news usually very frightful made no alteration in him at all who most calmly and composedly looking up to the heavens said the fire is here in Paris without any further distance though he understood presently that it was so violent that the street he lived in was in danger to be burnt down and his neighbours said it was necessary to quite forsake their quatters by reason that the fire was not far off and was likely in a very short space to reach them In this publique fright he keeping his ordinary equality and referring all to the will of God went into his Chappel where he continued long time in prayer offering up himself in sacrifice to God and resigning up his own will unto him some persons looking upon him with great admiration in this posture whilst so many hundreds were at their wits end and preparing for a speedy flight He professed to another secret and familiar friend that he felt himself through the mercy of God in such an absolute state of death to every thing that neither Angels nor men the loss of all he had the subversion of his family nor any other accident could remove him from his settled tranquillity And this he said not hyperbolically or by way of ostentation but out of a solid experimental establishment in that fortitude common with him to all great Saints Such was the mystical death and annihilation of this man of God by which his soul was enriched with a vast treasure of spiritual wealth causing him to lead a most perfect life and uniting him most intimately to God to which this death is absolutely necessary because no being can arrive to that which it was not formerly without ceasing first to be what it was as wood cannot pass into the nature of fire as long as it keeps its former nature this must be quitted and the matter be divested of all the form of wood both in substance and accidents and reduced into a state of privation to be made capable of the fires unitement to it And this is a general rule in nature admitting no exception that each subject must be predisposed to receive a new form and so much more as this form is more noble and this disposition consists in the privation of the subject and loss of other forms to gain a new one So also to make a spiritual man he must no more live according to nature but that he may be capable to be united to God must necessarily dye and be annihilated to himself And if fire require this total privation in the matter to communicate it self thereto with greater reason doth God who is altogether a spirit infinitely pure the first and soveraign entity require of a man this universal nakedness and privation this death and annihilation to himself and all created beings before he give and unite himself with him for in giving himself he giveth also the fruition of himself of his beauty goodness wisdom and his other perfections and by this union renders the receiver happy Hence also may be gathered what admirable purity is requisite in a soul for this union with God in Heaven in the state of glory that for this we must either conserve our Baptismal Innocence or if that hath been lost or fullied we must be purged here or in Purgatory by severe penances notwithstanding our other good works and the high degrees of sanctity to which we have attained And the same in proportion may be averred of the soul here in this estate of grace where it must be very pure to prepare it well for its union with God here in this life And seeing her pollution ariseth from her love to the creature and to herself and from the life of the first Adam according to the lusts and appetites of our own spirit it must dye to all these creatures and likewise to its self just as the body to be made perfect and to partake the true life of immortality and bliss must necessarily dye first so likewise must our souls if we will have them arrive to perfection consisting in this union with God to lead a holy and Divine life which alone can truly be called life To this purpose he writ thus to his Director I see clearly that the onely way to a Divine Union is to be perfectly divested of every thing that is not God and dead to our selves and every creature O that I well understood the importance of this nakedness and death and what is it that hinders the bonds of this Celestial love and union with his Divine Majestie and that Soveraign Beauty but a certain shew of and light adherence to some creature and shall we suffer that a thing so small and so unworthy should possess in the room of God and that Holy Spirit which is an all-consuming fire of love invirancing us on all sides should not have the power to work upon us the same effect which this elementary fire worketh upon wood Why should not I vicious and discontented creature in the midst of these my wretched plenitudes acquire happiness in the possession of God which I may do by his grace in separating my self gently from the creature by a single and affectionate application to the Creator To another person he writ thus When S. Paul saith You are dead and your life is hid with God in Christ Jesus He layeth death as the necessary foundation of a Christian whereby to remove from him all affection and inclination to the creature As we see that a dead man hath no more any motion or sense of any thing for though we are frequently sensible of the rebellious motions of corrupted nature yet they onely spring to be choaked and stifled in their birth To this purpose the
aniting of our selves to this Son contiruing that life of his upon earth within this of ours by the direction of his Spirit Thus also in another Letter Let Jesus Christ be in each of us our bond our soul our life as he is our pattern Le ts take a nearer view of this Holy Original enter into his Principles lay hold on his desires execute his works and let men know that we are Christians Writing to another he spake thus I adore and bless with all my heart our Lord Jesus Christ for that he opens you his heart to possess wholly yours he will make it to dye and will reduce it to a Holy Poverty which shall cause you to taste the true Life and compleat Riches and to avow that it is a great mercy to belong to Jesus Christ I beseech him to bestow on you his most sanctifying graces and that we may beth dye well and live well by his Spirit Let us enter into this Spirit which will give us the Sentiments and the Energie of the Children of God All other presence and application to the Divine Majestie which is not by this union of the Soul to Jesus Christ is onely of the creature towards the Creator which carries indeed respect but gives not the life and approaches of children towards God their Father where being united to the Interior operations of Jesus Christ we finde there the affections of true children which we canâ— not have but by being united to the true Son Let us end with that which a person to whom he unbosom'd himself confidently in this matter reports of him This rare man said he appeared touched with a verie tender and fervent love towards our Lord Jesus Christ I have observed that his Conversations and Discourses did shoot alwaies at this mark to imprint in souls the knowledge and love of our Lord with true soliditie In discourse with him I had often from him these words I avow that I have no gust in any thing where I finde not Jesus Christ and for a soul that speaks not of him or in which we cannot taste any effect of grace flowing from his Spirit which is the principal of operations both inward and outward that are solidly Christians speak not to me at all of such a one Could I as I may so say behold both miracles and wonders there and yet not Jesus Christ nor hear any talk of him I count all but amusement of spirit loss of time and a very dangerous Precipice And at several other times he said Let us love Jesus Christ let us unite our selves to his Spirit and Grace miserable sinner as I am who love him not yet should I be much joy'd at least to see my defects supplied by others that love him fervently but I am too unworthy to obtain a matter so great and wherein my self do bear so small a part Seeing then this faithful servant and follower of Christ Jesus had so strong an application and intimate union with his Divine Lord as 't is easie to gather from what hath been spoken we cannot but ascribe to this application and union all his vertues which we are going now to speak of in several and to look upon them as effects of this cause streams of this Fountain and branches of this Stem PART II. His Vertues in particular and first the Vertues which did perfect him in regard of himself CHAP. 1. His Penances and Austerities AS our flesh and senses are by their nature and more by their corruption very opposite to a Spiritual Life and among the enemies of our weal and perfection none more importunate or more violent than they so God useth when he intends to elevate any to the accomplishment of vertue and to make them Saints to inspire in them at the beginning of their conversion a spirit of Penance and mortification of their bodies Monsieur de Renty being destin'd by God to this glory and quickned by this Spirit encounters his body with rigorous Austerities thereby to reduce it to its duty and hinder it from annoying him in his Interior Exercises He begins therefore to fast every day making but one meal which he continued divers years until he was enjoyned otherwise and to take more nourishment to be the better able to undergo the great labours he undertook for his neighbour Some days in the week he wore an iron Girdle set with a double rank of long prickles and a bracelet of the same on other days he disciplin'd himself rigorously at some times wore haircloath having continually on his breast a brass Crucifix reaching to the bottom of his stomack the nails whereof being very sharp entred into his flesh When he went into the Countrey and was come to his Inn he would go into the Kitchin to eat there if it might be among servants and other mean persons and that for two ends both there to morâ—ifie his body and to speak some good thing to those poor people and when night constrained him to take his chamber he dismissed his servants to lie in other rooms and himself past the night in a chair or cast himself on a bed in his cloathes and boots which was his custom till death Being come to Amiens where I was and a Lady one of the chief of the Town having prepared a stately bed in a brave Chamber for him in honour of his vertue and cuality he was much troubled and would not at all use it but laid him down upon a bench and the day after as being much asham'd complained to me of the Lady for it so that to enjoy the blessing of lodging him at her house she was fain to change his chamber and bed and to accommodate him after his own mode that is to say where he might not be so much at his ease His Mortification in diet was very great eating little and always of the worst as not forgetting that our misery came not but by eating of delicious fruit Dining in company on a Fish-day one of the guests that noted his actions observed that all he eat was some Pears onely and that with so great modesty and recollection that one might easily discern that his minde was on God and not upon his meat When one of his friends a man of piety at Caen entertain'd him one day at dinner with some little ceremony as a person of quality he ate very little became much mortified and ashamed as he declared afterwards that Christians should be Feasters adding that a little would suffice and what a torment it was to him to be where there was so muâ—h chear as a thing quite contrary to the poverty of Christ who notwithstanding should be to us for our rule He would tell his friends that a little bread a little lard and butter was sufficient Hereupon his friends acquainted with this grace of Mortification in him took no more thought concerning his diet knowing his best entertainment to be the meanest fare The perfection
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
touched him so near in that he never spake word to me of it nor of his mother save onely to desire that they both might be recommended to God And from the beginning that I had the honour to speak to him when I gave him notice of the offers that divers persons had made us to ferve him he thankt me most heartily for my good will with great acknowledgment towards those persons and without speaking any more thereof he fell upon discoursing of God never after opening his mouth about that business which evidenced a wonderful disengagement and death to every thing though of never so sensible an interest There past also many other things at Dijon and since at Paris during these differences even to the death of his mother yea and after which required an extream deal of patience and which he practised in an Heroical perfection even to the astonishment of those who were acquainted with the business But it is enough of this matter we have spoken sufficiently and I doubt not Monsieur de Renty who is now as his eminent vertues give us sufficient ground to believe in the place of perfect Charity doth approve of my design in not speaking more thereof and of using reservedness towards that Lady to whom all his life he bore so much love and respect CHAP. 6. Of his Mortification WHat we have spoken hitherto in this Second Part of the Austerities of the Poverty Humility and Patience of Monsieur de Renty makes appear evidently to what height he was mortified and that he was a true grain of that mysterious wheat mentioned by our Saviour which by dying brings forth much fruit yet besides all this we shall touch here some other effects of his Mortification The grand secret of Christian-life consists in the destruction of what our nature hath in it vitious the better to give way to grace in crucifying the old man that Jesus Christ may live there who hath taught us that this is not acquired but by continual Mortification and to that end hath told us that if any man doth not take up his Cross and that dayly he cannot be my disciple This excellent Scholar of that great Master having well learnt his lesson employed all his care in the beginning of his Conversion to mortifie himself in every thing to subdue his passions to regulate his motions Interior and Exterior to annihilate his desires and to dye to all the inclinations of corrupt nacure with so great faithfulness and constancy that as soon as he perceived her to carry him to any thing with some imperfection and that his natural will enclined one way he did the quite contrary And he told an intimate person that having undertaken the endeavour to oppose his nature in each thing by the grace of God he had always surmounted it insomuch that in all things he proceeded with a spirit of death and continual sacrifice making no further use of his passions senses nor of any thing in him but with an eye always open to hinder the operations of malign nature and whatever she brought thereto of her own following the conduct of our Lord saying that a man must disengage himself from himself and every creature that God onely may be his object And accordingly he performed it exactly for when in his sickness he endured most sharp pains he was so taken up with God and abstracted from them that he thought not of them It was impossible to finde a man more reserved in speaking of that which troubled him than he For as he knew that nature is apt to seek and comfort it self in discoursing of that which hurts her so he deprived her of that satisfaction and content lifting up in the mean while his heart to God and offering him his pain without otherwise dwelling upon it being glad that Gods work went forward that the body of sin was in destroying his sacrifice advancing He that is baptized said he ought to be dead in Jesus Christ and to lead a life of suffering and in this suffering of application to God let us march on to our end which is sacrifice in each thing in the manner that God will have it upon the bottom of obedience to his orders and of the annthilation of our selves in the imitation and by the Spirit of Jesus Christ Let us be so many Victims entertained and taken up with these Interior dispositions and sentiments that Christ had from his conception to his death and to the last period of his offering up Hence it was he had often in his mouth these words Sacrifice Vnion minding to say thus that we ought to study and enforce our selves to dye in each thing to our selves and for the attaining thereof to sacrifice to God our spirit our judgement our will our thoughts our affections our desires our passions and all in the union and after the manner of Jesus Christ In these apprehensions he wrote to a person that he had great devotion to these words which the 24 Elders sang in the Revelations to the Lamb which is our Lord prostrate before his Throne Thou hast made us Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon the earth In that this divine Lamb causeth that God establisheth his Kingdom in us by reigning in our souls and in our bodies by his grace that we are Priests to offer up our selves to him in sacrifice and that by this means we shall reign for ever with him in the land of the living So that this excellent man in all occasions where it behoved him to deny something to his nature and to dye to himself cast his eyes upon this estate of sacrifice and of victime to offer up himself to the glory of God by the pattern of his Son our Lord. This great and continual care which he had to mortifie himself in each thing brought about that he had so tamed his passions so regulated the motions of his soul and body so changed his inclinations and subdued his nature that at length he came to such a point of Mortification passive and of death that he felt no more in the spirit any opposition to any thing painful and was not mortified with any thing whatsoever From thence came it that writing to his Director concerning his disposition he said that he understood not that which they call Mortification because that where there is no contradiction nor resistance there is no mortification and when there befel any thing of a much mortifying nature and would have touch'd him much if he had been as yet alive to himself if any familiar person spake to him of the pain thereof he said smiling that the thing went well and that we must gain upon our selves that nothing may mortifie us any more and that we be as it were insensible to each thing He came to this pass not by the goodness of his nature nor by a kinde of stupid indifferency which sometimes is found in certain sleepy spirits but by
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
Since God gave us a heart thereto we have brought others to have a hand in it and my Wife with two others bear their part in it imitating herein St. Mary Magdalen Joanna and Susanna of whom St. Luke saith that they followed our Saviour and his Disciples ministring with their substance for the preaching of the Kingdom of God We shall endeavour to perform this without noise or shew taking a private lodging apart for the purpose Be pleased my dear Father to be our Father and Guide and assist us in Autumne if you can to break the bread of life to those who with great humility desire it of you I beg of your Reverence with tears to give ear to our request who are touched with the necessities of our poor brethren and the love of Christ who desires to unite us together in one heart even his own that therein we may live in the presence of God My dear Father I commit this charge to your care it being onely in the power of his holy Spirit to render yours and the endeavours of other Fathers successful I trust he will hear us and that we shall see abundance of his mercies I attend your sense both for the thing and the time and in the mean time you may if you please keep the thing secret between us SECT 5. Of the same Subject WE have already declared how he kept correspondence all over France and elsewhere concerning great undertakings and important affairs for the glory of God and good of his neighbour He further obliged in all places as much as he could several persons to joyn together and assist one another in the work of their own and others salvation And procured Assemblies of Piety for divers uses of which he wrote thus in one of his Letters 1648. I am now returned from Burgundy where my journey hath been full of imployment in helping the setting up of several companies of men and women also who have a great zeal for Gods service In a Memorial from Caen we have these words Monsieur Renty hath settled here many Assemblies of devout persons whom he advertised to meet once a week and consult about relief of the poor and the preventing of offences against God which hath succeeded marvellously Moreover he advised divers Gentlemen of the Countrey to meet together from time to time to encourage one another in the way of Christianity and make a Profession against Duels He writ to a Superiour of one of the Missions in these words I was united in Spirit to you on Sunday last which I conceived to be the time of opening your Mission If you think I may be any way useful in forming some little body of Gentlemen and Societies in that City as we have already performed in little Villages and Towns I most humbly intreat you to believe that I shall imploy my utmost in it though haply I may do more hurt than good When he came to Amiens where I was the precious odour of his vertue and sanctity perfumed the whole City for in less than a fortnights space he performed so many and so great things in visiting Hospitals Prisons and poor people that were ashamed to beg with several other acts of Piety as were wonderful In two onely journeys which he made to that place parly as well by his example as by his Conversation and Advice he ingaged several considerable Citizens in these Exercises of Charity which they embraced with good courage and alacrity and have continued in the same inviolably It was his earnest desire and design to plant the Spirit of Christianity in all Families and to engage people of all conditions to serve God in good earnest having special care of their Conscience He desired to be able to instruct Fathers Mothers Children Masters Mistresses and Servants in their respective duries aiming herein at their mutual benefit seeing we can put little confidence in such who truly fear not God For he that once comes to falsifie his faith to his Soveraign Lord and Saviour will not stick as we may well believe where the interest of Honour Pleasure or Profit doth byass him to do as much to one who is but that Lords Servant Wherefore he endeavoured the planting of vertue in all as the best Promoter of the Service of God the Salvation of our souls and the common utility of all relations To which purpose he drew certain rules for Gentle men and persons of quality and likewise for Ladie and Gentlewomen Since those that are above others in place and dignity are seen at a further distance and their example makes a deeper impression of good or evil than that of the vulgar These I met with written by his own hand which deserve to be inserted here as a testimony of his zeal to do good to the Publique Certain Articles to minde all persons of quality of their Obligations to their Families their Tenants and in their †Lordships †For the better understanding of these Rules the Reader must know that the Lords in France have in several Mannors the power of Justice as well Criminal as Civil and for that purpose have their Judges and Subordinate Officers in their Courts THe first and most important obligation for the conduct of a family is good example without which the blessing of God cannot be expected It is therefore meet that all the Domesticks from the highest to the lowest give good example of modesty as well in the Church as in their particular Places and Offices that by the excellent harmony of their outward behaviour it may appear that God is the primum mobile within them For Officers 1. The Lord of the Mannor ought to inform himself Whether his Judges and other Subordinate Officers belonging to his Courts behave themselves well in their places and he ought to procure for this information and redress of what is amiss persons of known ability and integrity 2. He ought to examine with prudence and privacy what complaints shall be made by the people of injustice or bribery 3. Whether they observe the Rules and Laws of his Court. 4. Whether they frequent Taverns on Sundays and Holidays or in time of Divine Service 5. Whether they observe the Precepts of the Church in forbearing to travel and work on those days without real necessity 6. Whether they punish publique crimes as Blasphemy Usury c. and whether the Laws be put in execution against Drunkards Fornicators and Oppressors of the poor Whether they banish lewd women who procure manies ruine and cause so much mischief 7. Whether there be any such Libertines who scoff at Religion and Priests or eat flesh on days prohibited 8. If some notoriously wicked person be found in the Lordship it will be convenient to begin with him if it may be that the rest may understand that no quarter is to be given to vice and that it may appear to all the world with what firm resolution you proceed in what opposition to Libertines
finde experimentally a real union both in light and faith with the party I mentioned which is more than palpable giving me assurance that we are all one Upon this occasion I shall acquaint you in what manner my minde hath been busied these few last days and is yet full of it and to the end my relation may be more intelligible I shall take the matter somewhat higher The operation I have found in my self for these two or three years hath constantly held me fixed in the pursuit of our Saviour Christ to finde in him Eternal-Life before God the Father through the influence of his Spirit of which I have from time to time given you account And now I confess to you that though for that time I also honoured from the bottom of my heart our B. Lady the Saints and Angels and have been desirous to express it upon all occasions yet so it was that their presence and their commerce was obscured in and as it were very remote from my soul I assure you that those thoughts hath frequently run in my minde saying thus within my self I so much honour our Lady and some other Saints and Angels and I know not where they are I lifted up my heart easily towards them but there was no presence of them at all at least such as I now perceive it Some moneths ago I possessed an opening and a light in my soul accompanied with powerful effects concerning love and dear union with God making me to conceive inexplicable things of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost who is perfect Charity not by the reasonings and discourses of the understanding but by a single view most by one touch penetrating the heart with love And I beheld how the Son of God our Saviour came to advance us by his Incarnation into this love uniting himself to us whereby to reduce us all into this intimate and sweet union until he shall have compleated us all in himself to be made all of us one day all in God after he hath delivered up his Kingdom to his Father Ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus That God may be all in all And we enter into this blessed union with the Father Son and Holy Ghost Some ten or twelve days since being in my morning prayers on my knees to pray unto God I perceived in my self that I could findâ— no entrance unto him onely I kept my self there much humbled but the sight of the Father the access to him of the Son with whom I ordinarily converse with as much confidence as if he were yet upon earth and the assistance of the holy Ghost seemed at a strange distance withheld from me and I perceived an unworthiness in my self so great so real and so penetrating that I could no more lift up the eyes of my soul to heaven than these of my body Than was iâ— given me to understand that I had really that unworthiness which I felt But that I must seek my entry to God and to our Saviour in the Communion of Saints Whereupon I was on an instant possessed with a wonderful presence of the respect and love and union of the B. Virgin the Angels and Saints which I am not able to express nor to utter the greatness and solidity of this grace For this union is Life Eternal and the Ecclesiastical Paradise and this union is both for the Saints in Heaven and those on earth which I have almost always in full view and presence From thenceforward I understood that we were not made by God to be alone and separate from others but to be united unto them and to compose with them one divine total Even as a beautiful stone fitted for the head of a column is altogether unprofitable till it be settled in its place and cemented to the body of the building without which it hath neither its preservation its beauty nor its end This meditation left me in the love and in the true and experimental connexion of the communion and communication of Saints yet with a due order of those to whom I am more united which is my Life in God and in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the contents of that Letter CHAP. 7. His devotion to the Holy Sacrament ONe of the greatest Devotions of this holy man was that to the H. Eucharist considered both as a Sacrifice and as a Sacrament of which he had ever an incredible esteem honouring it with all possible reverence and affecting it with tender love blessing and praising God for its institution and exciting both by his word and pen the whole world to do the same He was accustomed to say that it was instituted to stay and place our Saviour God and Man in the midst of us to obtain for us all the benefits of grace whereof we are capable here and to dispose us for those of glory That the great design of God in the Incarnation the Life Death and Resurrection of his Son was to convey unto us his Spirit to be unto us Life Eternal which Spirit he hath taught us by his Word merited for us by his Death doth more confer upon us from his estate of Glory And the better to convey this unto us to cause us to live thereby and dye in our selves he giveth himself to us in this most Holy Sacrament dead raised up and glorified to produce in us by the operation of his Spirit these two effects of death and life He was not onely present every day at Mass but took it for a great honour to serve the Priest himself He received every day if not hindred by very important business or some pressing occasion of Charity And as the honour we render to this B. Sacrament consists not in often receiving but in communicating well and perfectly he took all care thereof that could be expected from one of so holy life and eminent Piety He spent many hours in prayers upon his knees before the Blessed Sacrament And being once asked by a friend How he could remain there so long He answered That there he recreated his spirit receiving from thence refreshment and new forces and yet sometimes he encountred with some trouble in that Devotion which may be gathered from this Letter to his Director dated the 27 of June in the year 1647. I have been very poor all this moneth I know not whether I was ever so lumpish both in spirit and body as I was upon the Festival day of the Blessed Sacrament I was present at Service at Procession at Mass at Communion heard the Sermon at Vespers and Compline but like a very beast not knowing how to demean my self either kneeling or standing I was in a kinde of restless condition of body and very wandring and distracted in spirit onely I knew well that in the bottom of my soul I had a desire to honour God through his Son Christ Jesus After Compline I found my self so dull and heavy that seeing my self unable to remain
not onely from evil but even from our ordinary way and manner of doing that which is good undertaking what the Divine Providence presents to us by making our way by God to them and not by them to God which is a course more naked unengaged and abstracted which sees nothing but God And not so much if I may so say as the things she doth of which nothing stays in her neither choice nor joy nor sorrow for their greatness or for their littleness for good or bad success but onely the good pleasure and order of God which ruleth in all things and which in all things sufficiently contenteth the soul which adheres to him and not to the vicissitude of affairs whereupon she is constantly even equal and always the same in the midst of all changes In another he writ thus to the same purpose An absolute abnegation will be necessary to all things to follow in simplicity without reserve or reflection what our Saviour shall work in us or appoint for us let it be this or that This way was shewed me in which I ought to walk towards him and hence it is that all things to me ordinarily are without any gust or delight Moreover in another thus I apprehend great matters concerning the verity and simplicity of the annihilation I ought to have and I had for the twinkling of an eye the sight how simple this should be that the soul it self cannot take notice of it This is the state of Death and Annihilation without regard to any thing save our being wholly to God by Sequestration Faith and Affiance Lastly to another Assure your self there is no security in any estate but this of Dying and Annihilation which is to be baptized into Christs death that we may live the life of Mortification not that other ways may not be good but not secure especially any thing we do of our selves Our best way is therefore to divest our selves of all that the Holy Infant Jesus govern all He used the word All because this death must be universal thorow every part of old Adam even as a dead body is not onely dead in an eye or ear or hand but in every sense and member so much we dye to riches and poverty to pleasure and pain honour and dishonour praise and dispraise being affected with none of these because we are dead to all Moreover the spirit must be dead not onely to one faculty as the Understanding or Will but to all and to every thing onely the difference is this that the body being once deprived of her life cannot naturally recover it again but the Spirit will easily live again and the malignity of the old Adam return upon us if great heed be not taken because we are not able by this death to reach the very centre of nature Just as in your Garden you may either suffer a noysom weed to grow if you meddle not with it but give it liberty to spread its leaves and encrease or if you would not have it appear you may cut it or pluck it up by the roots but after all is done you cannot prevent that the earth should not produce the like if it be thereto disposed naturally Even so it is in your power to permit unruly affections to live in your soul producing therein disorders and exercising their tyranny or you may mortifie them so that they get not head although the root remains or further may root them up as heroick spirits do changing their nature and turning the course thereof introducing contrary inclinations from evil to good from vice to vertue yet although these generous spirits arrive to this height yet will their nature continue still rotten at bottom ready to bear the same cursed weeds without our daily vigilancy SECT 1. Of the same subject TO decypher particularly the mystical death of this renowned person we may aver That in the first place he was dead to riches and all the wealth of this world in which he so absolutely divested himself both of any affection to them in his heart and of the real possession of them that he quitted as we have formerly mentioned all property to them using them no otherwise than in the quality of a very poor man with an ardent desire that he might also be deprived of the very use of them I acknowledge before God saith he in a Letter to his Director his great mercy to me through his Son in freeing me from the things of this world and my constant thoughts are that if his order did not oblige me otherwise in that condition he hath set me to give away and quit all I have This is my earnest desire after which I long exceedingly not out of presumption of my own strength but in the power of Jesus Christ in imitation of his life And to another person he writ All that can be imagined in this lower world is of small concernment though it were the losing of all our goods and the death of all the men in it This poor Antchill is not worthy of a serious thought had we but a little faith and a little love how happy should we esteem our selves in giving away all to attend no more save on God alone and to say Deus meus omnia My God and my all In his suit of Law at Dijon he acted with so little shew of interest and so like a mortified man to gain or loss that he could not be perswaded not onely to solicite the Judges but not so much as to commend his case to them himself not out of any faulty supine indifferency or neglecting what he thought absolutely necessary but because by an heroick vertue he had lost the sense of all these earthly things entirely committing the success thereof to God and knowing that these things succeed better by our prayers to and affiance in him than with our addresses to men through the multitude of solicitings many times fruitless Secondly he was dead and crucified to all recreations and pleasures of this life having renounced them at the beginning of his Conversion remaining constantly in the condition of a sacrifice of body and soul no God which was his great exercise and his usual phrase making no further use of his senses and their objects than what was of absolute necessity following herein the pattern of our Saviour He was so wholly taken up with God as we have said before in his soul that when he had very grievous pains in his body and was very sick he scarce thought upon them but accounted it a trouble to speak or complain thereof as appeared notably in his last sickness Thirdly he was annihilated and dead to honour his great birth and nobility wherefrom he solemnly degraded himself in the arms of our Saviour to render himself the more humble He was dead also to all esteem and praise of men and to disgrace likewise of which he gave a notable testimony to a familiar friend who told him
the spirit which is never so compleat as when it is alone Giving notice to a friend of the death of the Countess of Castres for whose spiritual good and perfection he had taken very much pains He writeth thus I was not in Paris but at Citry when she departed I was sent for post the day of her death which was Saturday but came two hours too late Entring the Town I understood the news from them that spake openly of it in the streets Presently I fixed my self to the will of God whereupon I found no more alteration in my soul than if she had been alive I see his order in this that I assisted her not at her death and make no doubt but that he permitted it for her advantage To a friend that had lost his Spiritual Director he writ thus Touching the remove of your Ghostly Father it would without question prove a great loss to you and all the Countrey from whence he went if the providence of God herein did not rather sanctifie and establish than destroy and if oftentimes by removing these petty visible and sensible supports he did not make way to settle us more firmly in our progress to which he designs us which is to dwell and to hold our selves in God together with Christ Jesus where we finde all truth and all power and who is so neer to us that he is even in the midst of â— and proportionably as our dependence upon creatures faileth through his providence he makes it appear aâ—d we experimentally finde that we are not left destitute thereby but that supply is made either by his Spirit that resideth continually in us for our relief or by the conduct of his Ministers which the fewer they are the more is that grace dilated and multiplied which we receive by them So great is the providence of our Heavenly Father as to take care of the meanest necessities of all his children who to him behave themselves as children Neither indeed ought we to be further engaged to those persons who assist us in our Spiritual conduct than as to Gods instruments whose help it is his will we should make use of but no longer than he pleaseth and when his will is either by death or otherwise to take them from us we ought not to be afflicted nor lose our courage but with submission and gratitude resign all to him which will be a good means to move him to provide others who perhaps with more advantage to us may understand the pulse of our souls In fine he was dead to all love of himself which he had so perfectly subdued that being naturally quick and hasty as we have formerly hinted he became so staid and equal in all his demeanor as caused admiration in those that knew him being naturally of a high spirit he had acquired a most profound humility of heart whereof he produced most evident actions exteriourly at all times and in all places And though his genius inclined him to wit and scoffing yet he so corrected it that none was more respectful and courteous to all even the meanest As for his passions those were so perfectly subdued and regulated that they never broke loose upon any occasion so that you might say he had none at all He had arrived to a perfect death in the superiour faculties of his soul his memory so emptied of all worldly things that it never presented any Idea's sufficient to distract his Devotions He made not any imperfection upon what was past as we have observed and our Saviour had endowed him with this singular grace not to be busied in his thoughts about those actions in which he was conversant which after they were done were obliterated wholly as to any care for them and quite blotted out of his memory that they might be no hindrance to what was in hand This Letter was writ to a familiar friend relating hereunto It is some while ago that finding my self in the midst of a world of people my spirit was enlightned and affected neither to desire to know any body nor to be known to any This hath wrought in me a wonderful separation from every thing and methinks herein consisteâ—h one of the chiefest points of a Spiritual Life which requires great purity of spirit wonderful estrangement and distance from the creature and which placeth the soul in this world as if it were no part of it in a state of perfect oblivion and ignorance of things which do not concern her that is no longer able to endure but onely what is necessary He was dead to his spirit reason and judgement living onely the life of Faith which is a Christians proper death It may be gathered from what hath been mentioned already that he acted nothing by this faculty of its self no more than if he had had no such power but wrought all by the moving of Christ Jesus who lived in him and operated by him Lastly he was annihilated and dead to his own will which we have placed after all as being the most important faculty in relation to Moral actions This therefore he had entirely resigned in conformity to Gods will not desiting absolutely any thing but in order thereto I adore saith he in one of his Letters so affectionately the will of God in whatsoever he pleaseth to make out for me that Hell it self should be my Paradise if he decreed me thither And in another thus Far be it from me to act in this business by my own spirit I would have it wholly annihilated that it might know no other language but Nothing and continually Nothing to follow in all the footsteps of the Divine will according to its measure and manner And to a third thus My Saviour hath graciously brought me into such a state of indifferency for every thing that I could be very well cortent all my life to be fixed to my bed a Paralytique not able to stir without making any reflection upon any service I might render to my neighbour or that I could render him no more all things according to the will of God being equal to me And in a fourth thus Of late I have been busied in such occasions both Exteriourly and Interiourly as were sufficient to have gravel'd such a weak mean spirit as mine had it not been absolutely resigned to the will of God It is upon him alone by this way of Abnegation that I bottom my self adoring with you and by your instruction the decrees of his Sacred and Divine Will who holdeth all things in his own hands to keep us subyect unto him by his justice and to sanctifie us also by love If the effects thereof upon us do evidence us to have the hearts of children that is 〈◊〉 Spirit of Christ Jesus to sigh after our heavenly Father and cry Abbâ— Peter SECT 2. Continuation of the same subject MOnsieur Renty was so absolutely resigned to God having quite lost and annihilated his own will into thâ—â— of God
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