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
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
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
with patience for I experiment and see clearly that though we labour and wish earnestly to get out of our imperfections our Lord sometimes leaves us there a long while to make us know our weakness and to humble us He desired to be advertised of and reprehended for his faults and we shall see now what he observed therein at the beginning of his call to this high perfection It came to pass that a person which was much below him had order from his Director to advertise him if he saw any thing in him that was contrary to perfection when this person gave him notice of some failing though very light and indeed but of the shadow of a fault he listned thereto with respect and thanks and humbled himself for it as if he had committed some crime and he accused himself when he thought he had made any failing upon his knees saying he was a miserable sinner and that he had committed such a fault which yet often very hardly could one discern to be any This exercise as being most wholesome and efficacious was very useful to him for the making of a great progress for our nature by reason of its feebleness hath need of such props to walk uprightly and not fall If his imperfections and his sins humbled him his excellent qualities and the graces which he received from God did the same also And the same things from which the greatest part of men draw nothing but vanity served him for motives of self-abasement The Spirit of Jesus Christ wherewith he was enlivened extremely estranged him from the Grandeurs of the world making him not onely contemn them but also to be ashamed thereof so that he took occasions of abasements from his own condition because so high in the world and from the secular advantages which it gave him which made him often to groan before the Majestie of God and to say that he was in a condition very low and plebeian according to the Spirit of Jesus Christ and that he had great confusion to see himself in that estate From whence it came that being born a Gentleman of so good rank as we have said he renounced his Nobility and gave it into the hands of our Lord who in return imparted his own to him as he made it known to a holy soul that is to say his love which by its proper force transforming man in God divests him of himself and leaves nothing in him but God alone there living and reigning and by this means raiseth him thus Deified to the highest degree of Nobility that he can mount to Hence it was that he endured with pain that one should call him Monsieur and he said sometimes smilingly among his familiars I am a fine Monsieur it is well for me and in his Letters he complained that they treated him as in that quality And in one of them giving another course or carreer to his humility he said Believe me I pray you it is great pitty of me I take again the Monsieur which I had rejected my pride must have these her Appendixes rather than deceive your Candor which else perhaps make you mistake in me a piece of glittering glass for a Diamond Out of his humility it was that he would not bear the title of Marquess which was due to him as proper to his house in regard the Emperor Charles the fift had erected Renty into a Marquifate and he suffered onely that of Baron of Renty by which he was commonly called For the graces and gifts of God as they were received in a soul well disposed so produced they most excellently their true effect which was to abase and elevate the soul both together to raise it to God and to abase it to it self And first his humility made him hide as much as he could the gifts of God and so hath rob'd us of the knowledge of a thousand brave actions which might have been very serviceable to this History Secondly when he received any favour from God or that one rendred him any honour the light whereby he saw the Nothingness of the creature and the discernment he was endowed with in distinguishing the precious from the vile and that which is done on Gods part in all-good things from that which man bringeth thither of his own was the cause that in those things he assum'd no share at all but referred all to God as to the true Source and so in the management of these great goods which God enriched him withal he had always his hands clean without doing wrong to God or touching that which appertain'd to him and for himself he kept quite out of sight of all vanity which slides most subtilly and most easily into a spirit that abounds in riches of heaven as well as those of the earth if he look not very close unto it Nor would he therefore that any one should consider him in what he said or did but regard God alone therein He wrote thus to one that much desired of him a visit I cannot bear but with pain the account you make of my visits and society Let us look much upon God let us binde our selves strictly to Jesus Christ that we may learn of him a profound annihilation of our selves O my God when will it be that we shall have no more a sight upon our selves when we shall speak no more of our selves and when all vanity shall be destroyed And he wrote to another I beseech you not to regard in me save my infirmities and a depth of wickedness and pride very horrible that is in me that 's it for which I shall have need that all the world talk to and punish me In the third place he esteemed himself most unworthy of the graces and favours of God and beleived there was not one of them how little soever it were but was far above his merits and for the great ones he was so full of they did put him to a Non-plus He wrote to a confident The gifts of God are sometimes so great that they put us as I may so say beyond our selves and if it were possible we could finde the means to recoil our selves further off than beyond Nothingness we should do it You see among men that when one receives a gift that bears some proportion to him he renders thanks and acknowledgement to the giver for it but if a Prince be Liberal to a poor man according to the Grandeur of his own power whether it be a sum of money or a place you shall see this poor man recoil and say Alas my Lord I think you know me not I must not have so much I am unworthy of it In like manner there are blessings that go beyond our expectations capacities and which make us see what we are without daring to lift up our eyes towards them their brightness doth so much dazle and their greatness so much astonish In fine he humbled himself always for the favours of God because he thought
great pains he took he made answer that our Lord humbled himself and took toilsome pains for the good of souls in a far other manner sure and that he was his pattern Being one day to go see a person of very great quality about a business which much concerned the glory of God he would not use his Coach although he were to traverse in a manner all Paris and that when it pour'd down with rain but go thither on foot one motioned that he would at least let a cloak be carried by a Lackey to take it when he came thither and not present himself before that person in a Cloak altogether wet and speak to him in such unseemliness but he yielded not yet to accommodate his humility with decency he cast that cloak above his own and past through the streets so far in this humble equipage and afterwards in the Noblemans house laid aside the wet cloak and appeared in the other ordinary one of his own But behold here another effect of this humility whereof he wrote to his Director the 20 of December 1646. It behoves me now saith he that I render you an account of a business that passed the other day Madam my Lord Chancellors Lady sent me a packet of letters wherein I found some from the King with all the Seals and formalities wherein I was made Councellor of State but my thoughts were not taken up at all with the business I sent her word that I would assume the honour to see her to thank her for that my Lord Chancellor vouchsafed to think of me that I honoured more than so that which had the mark of the King and which came from their hands than not to receive it with all respect But I most humbly begg'd one thing of her that living in a kinde of plain and vulgar manner as I did she would be pleased to take in good part if with all acknowledgement premised of my exceeding obligations to them I did not accept those letters and that the business might sleep without noise some represented it to me as a thing worth thinking on for that a Committimus might be very necessary for me in some sort of occurrences and that a pension of 2000 livers per ann about 200 l. Sterling would afford me ability for the giving of more alms To the first point I answered that by the goodness of God I had no need of it and that often the Committimusses prove a great vexation to those upon whom they are executed That this should be our work to bear our own little ordinary crosses without laying extraordinary ones upon others And for the second that God having given me more of riches than I had need of I thought I was not obliged to augment them but to keep me in my little way of living you see how we stand as to this business Whereupon let me tell you that this thing cannot be affected so but that I must take upon me also the quality of a Councellor of State and must have a dependence upon the State as a Pensioner of the King Now by the paper that some while ago I sent you you may see that I have given up my worldly Nobility to God and this thing here would derogate much from it and moreover it would be a step to an engaging of me I know not where which now I see not nor will see having other things to six my eyes on My disposition towards affairs of that nature is to have no share at all in them if per-force and without my seeking they come upon me I shall count it a real cross which our Lord will in such a case give me strength to bear To conclude Elegi abjectus esse in domo dei mei absit mihi gloriari nisii in cruce domini nostri Jesu Christi I have chosen to be a door-keeper in the house of my God and God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the Cross of Christ So have you the inclinations I finde in my self This was that he writ to him concluding with these words which carry with them another touch of humility and much wisdom I have been willing the business might be concealed for the avoiding of Ostentation which is found often in the refusal of things that have something of lustre and give occasion of talk And thus he carried himself in that conjuncture but notwithstanding sometime after he was constrained by good advice in consideration of a business that much concerned the glory of God and relief of the poor to accept of these letters and that quality and to make use of it In a paper he wrote to the same person I finde this that follows which makes much to our purpose Walking one day this Lent thorow the streets of Paris much be-dirted and very poor to look at I bore in me the resentment of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.13 when he saith That he was as the scum and off-scouring of the world I returned in my minde blessing for reviling and the rest of that passage so much as fell under my passive obedience both actually receiving illumination to understand it and strength to execute it I know well how much neatness and new things even to a boot even to a glance and a look do hurt if one take not good heed the simplicity and dignity of this Christian self-vilifying And I saw that it was a great temptation for a man to think to preserve his estate of Grandeur and note in hopes to be thereby more exemplary and have more weight and authority for the service of God This is a pretext that our infirmity makes use of in the beginning but perfection draws off at last to Jesus Christ who was humbled upon the Cross and made the lowest of men What an honour is it to keep company with Jesus Christ so lovely and so little followed in his ignominies and his humiliations it is one of my errours that I have not yet well begun it The great knowledge and marvellous sense that he had of these truths and of the lowliness of Spirit whither ought to tend and come the true children of God and perfect followers of Jesus Christ made him often to say Let us be little and very little Oh this holy littleness it is a great matter From this Spirit it was that he loved low and mean things and shun'd whatsoever it was that outwardly carried splendor with it whither he knew that nature in a secret reflex upon it self is always carried and even in things most spiritual and holy as on the contrary Grace as being the grace of Jesus Christ carries to things of no reputation such as he embraced And he avoided out of the fame thought whatever it was that held of the extraordinary and said that in exercises wherein there appeared even most of perfection as in observing Fasts and other penances more than others there was not in them sometimes so much as in the
hopes always that he will and in the interim beareth all things from him These are the vertues in which he must be particularly exercised that will deal profitably with his Neighbor without which he labors in vain for experience will shew him that after much time and pains he shall profit little for the more any one is filled from God and animated by the Spirit of Jesus Christ the more shall he advance holiness in himself and good in others yea though his words be few and ordinary for that our employments receive not their force from the hands that acts them nor our words from the mouth that utters them as from the disposition of the heart and the Spirit that animates it Now as bare Vertue alone is not sufficient to compleat a man for this design but one must also have a capacity thereunto So this charitable man besides that capacity wherewith God had abundantly furnished him as well of a great wit piercing solid well disposed resolute laborious and constant as of a body well made of a good grace and presence and besides the Sciences and fine knowledge which he had learnt in his youth he had also by his own industry and travel being good at every thing learnt several things not onely for his own use but to teach them to others whereby to help themselves or make some other use of them as to let blood to make medicines for cuting of wounds to compound remedies for several diseases of which he had books writ with his own hand which he communicated abasing himself to learn the meanest skills which might any way be useful to others One day in Paris he carried a friend with him to a poor man who got his living with making hots and wicker baskets in a cave into which he entred and in the presence of his friend finished a hot which he had begun some days before with design having learned the thing to teach it to some poor people in Countrey to help to get their living he left the hot and a peice of money to boot for teaching him with the poor man which indeed deserved to have been reposited in some Cabinet of Rarities or rather in some place of Devotion as a glorious Monument of an Heroick Charity Understanding when he was at Dijon that the Religious Veselines whom he affected very much provided out of Charity Drugs and Medicines for poor people he was much pleased with it and to improve their good work taught the Sisters belonging to the Infirmary to make some excellent Compositions which had very great vertue against several maladies preparing them dispensing and boyling them himself stooping to the meanest and most troublesome labors as much as could be done by any servant holding his head for a long time over the smoak of those medicines which sent forth no pleasant fumes before a great fire not desisting till all in a sweat without any word or sign at all of complaining of what he suffered The Religious desired him to suffer the lay Sisters to help and assist him but his minde was so set upon it that they must let him alone and give place to that fire of Charity which inflamed him all within and which sweetned unto him or rather consumed all the the pains the outward material fire could inflict yea and moreover he urged them out of great prudence to acquaint him with the hours of their devotions and set times of their meetings that he might not divert them from these being a punctual observer of the time they appointed him that he failed not one minute though with much difficulty considering his several other employments to which he stood engaged The like he observed in all other things insomuch that he took upon him all shapes transformed himself into any figure condescended to all accommodations for the good of his neighbor and all these by vertue of this celestial fire which melted and cast him wholy into the mould of Charity his thoughts words actions and each thing in him was charity which made him say one day thus in a letter to one of his great Confidents Methinks my soul is all Charity and I am not able to express with what ardency and strange expansion I finde my heart to be renewed in the Divine life of my new born Saviour burning all in love towards mankinde SECT 1. His Charity to the poor FIrst of all concerning his Charity and affection to the poor I shall say this that Jesus Christ was not onely the fountain from whence this grace did flow but also the motive and object in that he beheld him in them and him chiefly he imagined to assist and serve in their persons so that his thoughts stayed not upon their torn and ragged habit nor upon their vile and despicable outside which naturally displeaseth the eye offendeth the smell and other senses But passing further he beheld within and under these with the eye of faith our Lord Jesus Christ present and dwelling in them whom he esteemed as his native images loved and valued by him And as he burned with an ardent affection toward our Lord so he loved tenderly the poor succoured them with all his might and left nothing unattempted for their sakes With these eyes and not those of nature must each one behold the poor that will love them indeed and have bowels of compassion and a true resolved and constant Charity to towards them In the second place resolving to give you this Charity by retail we will begin with that which he exercised in his house where from the year 1641. he invited to dinner poor men two in number and at first twice every week on Tuesdays and Fridays but five or six years after finding himself much engaged in other services for the honor of God and good of his neighbor he reduced them to one day which ordinarily was Thursday and then invited three which he ordered in this manner willing to joyn his Spiritual Alms with his Corporal an important secret to be learned and practised by all charitable persons each one according to their capacities he sought out such poor as seemed to him to have greatest need of instruction wherefore during his abode at Paris after his morning devotions he went to S. Anthonies gate and there took up such as were newly arrived whom courteously saluting he brought home and if it were winter brought them to the fire always making them sit down and afterwards with a cordial affection which appeared in his countenance and whole deportment and with a marvellous grace he instructed them in what was needful for them to know in the mysteries of the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of our Lord and Holy Sacrament He likewise instructed them how to make Confession and to communicate worthily and in brief how to live vertuously this done he gave them water to wash set them down at table where himself served bareheaded with exceeding great respect and set the dishes before
and pastimes and other vices 3. To prevent that their Servingmen haunt not Taverns and oppress not others 4. The Mistris of the house must provide that her servants be carefully treated and tended in their sickness that she visit them in her own person even being as our brethren and fellow-servants of the same God and Father of us all And at all other times make provision for their necessaries that they be not tempted to pilfer or murmure 5. Let her also endeavour not onely in her own house but also among her neighbours to bring in the custom of common prayers at night and if her husband be absent let her supply his place in calling them together and praying with them 6. Let her and her children be continnally in some imployment that their lives be not unprofitable or their family brought up in idleness remembring the Apostles rule that he that will not work shall not eat which thing prudently ordered will prevent many inconveniences 7. Let her often visit her poor neighbours to comfort and encourage them in vertuous living 8. Let her take into her eare the repairing of the Ornaments and Linnen of the Church lest the holy mysteries of our faith be undervalued where decency is neglected 9. Let her shew great recverence to the Clergy not regarding the meanness of their birth but the dignity to which Jesus Christ hath advanced them Hereby both putting them in minde of their honourable function and the people by her example of their duty 10. Let her entertain Visitants with the spirit of Hospitality great Charity and Christian Civility taking opportunity thereby to do some good not losing precious time in frivolous discourses 11. Let her keep no obscene or immodest pictures in her house much less permit her danghters or herself to appear such by going naked Avoiding likewise all curious and phantasticul fashions which are evident signs of impenitent hearts and breed nothing else but the nourishing the soul in its corruption and the averting it from God These are the Directions he left under his own hand for Ladies and Gentlewomen Moreover he studied for a long time how to reform Trades and free them from those abuses and corruptions which in process of time they had contracted and so to sanctifie them that some at least in each profession might live like the Primitive Christians in such sort as to make all their gain common deducting onely sufficient for their own necessary maintenance and bestowing the rest upon the poor And at length God so blessed his endeavours that he found some Tradesmen of the same minde and spirit so that at this present there be two companies in Paris one of Taylors the other of Shoo-makers and of these in two several quarters of the City and the like at Tolose who live and do all in Community They rise they go to bed they eat and work together morning and evening they say their prayers together and at the beginning of every hour in the day exercise some act of Devotion as singing a Psalm reciting their Chaplet reading in some book of Devotion discoursing of some head of the Catechism They call Brothers and live accordingly in very great unity and concord Monsieur Renty was the chief Agent in establishing this business and with the help and assistance of some Religious persons drew up Rules for the ordering of their Spiritual Exercises They chose him their first Superior in which Office he had a very particular care of them visiting them frequently and when he found them upon their knees at any of their Spiritual Exercises joyned with them not permitting them to rise to salute him or interrupt so good a work making himself as it were one of the Brotherhood Moreover besides these Tradesmen living in Community there were a great number of others of all Professions that came to him for advice instruction and assistance Whom he treated with wonderful respect and Charity most affectionately discoursing with them answering their quaeries resolving their doubts and instructing them what they should pursue and what avoid in their Vocations for the saying of their souls SECT 6. The Continuation of the same subject HIs zeal carried him on to endeavour the good of all sorts of persons He had a particular inclination to prevent the danger that threatned young Maids who wanted subsistence and to reclaim such as were faln And indeed it would be too great a task to recount all his actions of this nature and the number of those Maids whom he placed forth and contributed towards their maintenance some in houses erected for such purpose others in the Monastry of St. Mary Magdalen and others with devout Ladies who addicted themselves to this kinde of Charity Which is so highly commendable as that which doth not onely save such women as are in peril of shipwrack of their honour and vertue and retrive such as have already lost both But likewise doth prevent the destruction of many men and the committing of many enormous sins and disorders We mentioned before what is recorded of his Charity in instructing the poor at the great Hospital in Paris And now I shall relate how he behaved himself in that of St. Gervaise where passing by one day in the year 1641. he enquired to what Charities that place was devoted To which answer was made that they lodged poor Travellers He was much pleased with this Institution and perceiving withal that so great a number of poot that lodged there every night wanted instruction he found himself moved from God to perform that Office And shortly after came to beg of the Superiour with great humility and submission leave to Catechize them in the evening when they were assembled together To which the Superiour willingly assented without any knowledge of him who would not tell his name but concealed himself for the space of six-Moneths He undertook the imployment and performed it with great content because every night he found there new comers whom he duly Catechized and instructed coming thither commonly alone and on foot both Summer and Winter in â—ain and snow without light in the dark After Chatechism ended he caused them to kneel down with him to examine their Conscience saâ— their Prayers then sung the Commandments with them and distributed some Alms. This 〈◊〉 he continued for many years till some Eccle 〈◊〉 persons moved by his example undertook 〈…〉 and continued it to this day with great 〈◊〉 〈…〉 and renderness of heart was exceeding 〈…〉 poor people whom he had never seen 〈…〉 also with such humility as cannot not easily be expressed When he met any one at the Hospital he saluted them with great respect and put them before him talked with them bareheaded and very reverently If at any time they kneeled to him he did the like to them and continued on his knees till they rose first One of them observing him diligently and knowing him to be Lord of the place where himself lived was