delight is to honour the eternal Father which is best effected by this means A faithful Soul will never part with an esteem and love of the Cross as to the Interiour because her desire is to please God and we best please him by humiliations Let us well ground our selves in this exercise of the designs of God who would have us conformable to his Son and consequently to have a love for sufferings and abjections Whatever disposes us to this conformity ought to be precious to us as few natural Talents Sickness ill successes and the like The Spirit of the World and Nature find therein their punishment but the Spirit of Jesus Christ takes pleasure therein and so advances a faithful Soul to Perfection We are not yet spiritualiz'd if we be not faithful to the love of sufferings and abjections And we are not faithful herein if we are not content with those things that humble us and cause abjection A right prospect of abjection and sufferings is supernatural and delicate and requires time to bring it to perfection and must be first tried in our selves before we extend it to others As for my particular when I see a person in great misery and poverty I am not much troubled at it because I consider the real good that Soul may procure to her self by this abjection On the contrary I am in fear for those who are advanced to Honours and have great natural abilities for the difficulty they must needs find to curb the Spirit of Nature and the World and bring them off from the love of these things which are so powerful in them and hinder in them the love of Jesus Christ Let us therefore remember that the purity of Virtue consists in a faithful tendance to abjection and suffering and by how much a Soul is more faithful herein the greater advancements she makes in Virtue Abjection being as the centre of the Soul the more she is humbled the nearer she draws to her repose and by consequence has a greater feeling of God in inward peace A Peace that the World nor Nature can ever give us a Peace that passeth all understanding CHAP. VI. The sublimity of the Christian Life NOthing but God made man poor annihilated sacrificed could honour God according to his greatness The designs of the eternal Father to this end are admirable full of Divine Wisdom of unspeakable Love and Mercy towards Man and most ardent Zeal for his own Glory O the wonderful oeconomy that discovers it self in all the mysteries of the Word Incarnate O the ineffable mystery of Jesus By you the eternal Father is loved glorified honour'd and his Justice satisfied to the utmost rigour In this mystery is contain'd an inexplicable Commerce and Trafique of God the Father with his Son the Interest of his Glory in the Salvation of mankind The will of the eternal Father was that his Son should be incarnate circumcised poor scorn'd and crucified and the Son of God in all these states of his life intended thereby to render to his Father all the humiliations respects love and adoration which were due unto him These are the annihilations which so much elevate and exalt the Christian Reliligion to these she owes her grandeur and excellence O amiable eminent and excellent Religion how unknown art thou to wordly men who tast no sweetness but in sensual pleasures O Christian Religion how art thou admirable how art thou ineffable whose chief business is to employ your Children with the Divine Trafique of the eternal Father with his Son Incarnate When thy Heavenly Lights shine upon a Soul she sees the deceit the vanity and pitiful baseness of the thoughts of those men who love not God nor aim at his Glory O my Soul how wretched wilt thou make thy self if thou follow thy sensual appetite and walk not in the ways of Jesus Christ But this we cannot do of our selves but by Grace and Power of the same Jesus who is our hope and only helper We ought to bear no less respect to the Maxims of a supernatural Life than to Jesus Christ who hath establish'd them seeing we ought to believe that they are full of Divine Wisdom and ineffable Sanctity To have no esteem for poverty contempt and humiliations is to undervalue the Wisdom of Jesus Christ Some are so brutish as to be led only by sensuality others follow only the light of Reason and human Prudence but neither of them know the excellency of Christianity but such only who are conducted by the light of Faith O Life supernatural how sublime art thou How dost thou so elevate a Soul as to become blind to things here below yea to her self and to see nothing but God in her by the rays of Grace Be pleased O Divine Spirit of Jesus to bestow upon us some part of this holy life which the world can neither receive nor know Quem mundus non potest accipere nec scit eum as St. John testifies The world cannot receive it being wholly taken up with Creatures nor can know it being blinded with sensuality What a malediction is this But what a happiness is it to know and embrace this supernatural life This was wrought in the hearts of the Apostles who return'd with joy to be found worthy to live this life that is to be whipt and despised for the name of Jesus Verily if there was nothing to suffer here I know not why we shou'd desire to live here We should endeavour to imitate that great Saint who suffer'd a greater Martyrdom among Roses and Suavities than by Racks and Tortures Worldly pleasures are a kind of torment to a Soul that loves Jesus Christ crucified Let us take a resolution O my Soul not to be pleased but with the Cross and when that does not relish let us please our selves with our own annihilation seeing the Creature is nothing in effect but what she is in the sight of God But she is no more in his eyes than inasmuch as she is a Christian and she is no more a Christian than inasmuch as she loves this supernatural life While then we are too sensible of a suffering condition we have no great share of the spirit of Christianity that is of the spirit of Jesus abject suffering and annihilated CHAP. VII There are divers degrees of this Supernatural Life GOD has been very gracious to us to draw us out of nothing but more gracious and merciful in withdrawing us from sin and the occasions of displeasing him But the choicest of his favours is to advance us from a common to a supernatural Life That is when the eternal Father does lead us into the states of the mortal life of Jesus by abjections sufferings and annihilations which is the choicest of his Mercies and Favours on Earth because thereby we bring to him the greatest Glory A Soul is not all at once elevated to the perfection of this life But as soon as she beholds the beauty thereof being
that Purity wherewith I ought to love him who is essentially good and perfect I know God is a jealous God who will admit no Rival in his love and that with great reason because he is only truly amiable as our Soveraign good O that he was loved according to his Beauty My Soul is inflamed with a great desire to disengage her self from all Creatures that I might wholly be busied about God alone I see clearly that this is my principal concern and not to meddle with other affairs without necessity For a Soul whom God attracts to a sublime union with himself must cut off abundance of superfluous thoughts discourses and occupations or else she will be lyable to a thousand amusements For my part I often say to my self Come my Soul let us to our principal work and let the rest alone that does but estrange us from our happiness We must live a life more retired than ordinary with greater silence and attention to God and Holy Duties This life will seem a little abject and will not be so pleasing to many who are for unprofitable recreations But will be amiable to such who are wholly taken up with the exercises of Divine love in a beloved retirement For they have tltogether given themselves up to the good pleasure of God and love nothing but the accomplishment of his holy will This perfect abandon is wrought in us by pure love and this pure love cannot raign in our hearts without a generous mortification to all Creatures and a freedom from an attach to imperfections This death doth work but according to the measure of our love to sufferings which sufferings for God wonderfully unites us to him with the bond of Perfection Purity love suffering God what would we more If Providence so order I shall freely forsake my solitude though most dear to me I will endeavour to die to all things to apply my self wholly to Gods pleasure and sacrifice my self and whatever I have to his holy Will Has he a mind to reduce me to my first nothing If he will have it so I am content Will he have me in a suffering condition His will be done neither will I complain but have recourse to Jesus Suffering for me on the Cross and rest contented with his good pleasure A Soul that loves God and his Will more than the Creature is content and peaceable in all events seeing Faith assures her that the will of God is accomplish'd therein She embraces miseries and afflictions as proper means for her sanctification and discovers more clearly therein the good pleasure of God then in prosperity O my Soul we must now give our selves to God in good earnest indeed by embracing contempt and poverty forsaking the vain respects of the World and sensual delights to expose a Penitent poor hidden abject life so contrary to worldly men Methinks hitherto I have had but Idaeas now I desire to fall to the practice of Perfection after the example of St. Elizabeth While she was a Princess how did she abhor the life of Worldlings and what love had she for a poor abject life O my God when shall I give you the practice of so many excellent truths whereof you have given me the knowledge by heavenly illuminations O my God speak powerfull to my heart and make me faithful in my obedience take from me all other things and attach me entirely to your good pleasure CHAP. XII We ought to comport our selves with a respectful reverence in God's presence A Soul that sees God present with her by the light of Faith will often times feel in her self the great veneration she has for so infinite a Majesty and Benefactor She cannot but have a respectful regard for all the inspirations and secret advices conducing to perfection all good desires which come from God yea she has a reverence and love for Crosses that come from the hand of her Soveraign good The Soul in this state is peaceable and may so continue a long time O my Soul remember this well and when any thing comes into thy thoughts which thou believest to be an inspiration cherish it with great respect and be faithful to the designs of God upon thee according to the measure of their manifestation O what irreverence wilt thou be guilty of not to be Faithful in such cases Above all be content to look upon crosses and humiliations with respect and love and hold thy self happy to be accounted worthy to suffer for Christs sake Vobis datum est ut in Jesum credatis pro eo patiamini God is pleas'd to manifest to me with what dispositions I ought to walk in his presence and in his ways namely humility patience longanimity simplicity and purity When we find our selves in good disposition of heart humility makes a Soul to esteem it highly be it never so small and thinks her self happy to have it because she deserves nothing yea is rather worthy of eternal punishment This will free us from sadness and discouragements when we see others glittering with greater Graces and pulls down our pride from exalting our selves higher than God will have us to be Moreover by patience the Soul is well composed and labours after perfection with courage and perseverance be the time never so long before God bestow on her the gift of Prayer By longanimity the Soul suffers and supports her self in her defects and imperfections so that self-love shall not discourage her in her endeavours Simplicity makes her still to have an eye to God and to follow his conduct whereby at length she arrives to Purity Our chief work must be to do Penance with all humility and if God gives us not the gift of sublime Prayer and eminent virtues to abide peaceable in that little we have and we shall find favour in the eyes of God What we ordinarily want is a noble generosity to support crosses and surmount the contradictions we meet with from nature in the occasions of Fidelity These difficulties make us timerous and fearful but we must be content to be feeble that the Power of the Grace of Jesus Christ may be glorified in us When I am weak then am I strong says St. Paul Virtus in infirmitate perficitur This acknowledgment of our weakness does wonderfully humble us and opens our eyes to see our own poverty and the great need we have to relie on the Grace of Jesus Christ I find that God requires of me to be Faithful in these following practices 1. First I must be very indifferent to whatsoever it shall please God to do with me and to be content either with action or suffering being attent wholly to his good pleasure Why therefore should I long after the Graces of others because great and glorious 'T is enough for me to bless God for them and be faithful to my own with peace and contentedness seeing our happiness consists in serving God in what manner he pleases 2. When I find my self in
the Will of God If I have not a great care the Devil will deceive me and make me delay to my own ruine CHAP. XX. Of the different Caresses God vouchsafes a Soul in Prayer THose who practise Prayer know by Experience that God unites Himself to the Soul in different manners all most intimate most pure and full of Sweetness Oftentimes by the pleasing Attractions of his Goodness and Mercy so delightful to the Soul that for the time she in a manner enjoys a Heaven upon Earth Sometimes God unites Himself to the Soul by the Rigours of his Justice trying her with interiour and exteriour Sufferings so that only the supreme part of the Soul remains united to God the inferiour part being in a Suffering condition Sometimes God unites himself to the Soul by his Sanctity his Bounty Power and other Perfections and to the end all these Unions may be pure it suffices that the Soul render her self passive to the Operations of God in her whether sweet or bitter comforting or afflicting with Respect and Affection 'T is observable that to live this Divine Life it is not necessary to find no Repugnance from sensual Nature it suffices if we continue firm in this state by the Superiour part whether Grace could only advance us and where we cannot subsist but by being dead to all Creatures He that will live this life must resolve to suffer All the Interiour Commerce between God and the Soul passes principally in the Will the Understanding is not so capable thereof but the Will receives the more intimate more pure and more perfect Communications being more proper for it The Understanding herein is more lyable to Illusions the Will is more assured in her way and the Devil cannot counterfeit what passes in her in the feelings of pure Love For the Soul that has experience of the effects of pure Love cannot easily be deceived From hence it comes that the Purity of the Will is the principal Disposition for the Prayer of Vnion be it ordinary or more sublime by the powerful influences of preventing Grace This Purity is altogether necessary God being not pleased to work these Wonders but in a purified Soul And this Purity consists in willing nothing but Gods good pleasure being dead to all other things contenting her self with the orders of Providence God finding the Soul thus purified especially in her Will takes up his mansion in her Interiour where he exercises his Divine Operations putting her into divers states acording to the different Designs he has upon her Sometimes he is pleased to inflame her Affections with Divine Love and to kindle this holy fire in her Breast manifests to her his Divine Perfections Other times he puts her upon the Cross and exercises his Justice for her greater good Sometimes he hides himself the more to purify her and make her dye to whatever is not God Otherwhile he gives her Councels to advance her in Perfection and then if she has not been faithful to his motions he gives her interiour Checks of Conscience Sometimes he enlightens her Understanding to enflame her Will and the Soul being retired within her self finds her Divine Bridegroom working something in her to which she is to be purely passive and adhere in all simplicity of heart to his gracious Operations Being thus retired into the Cabinet of her Heart she is elevated above her self and all Creatures and being united to God though he send her Sufferings she is not taken up with them but Divine Love she feels his Caresses is inricht with his Gifts and imploys all her Intellectual Powers to Love and Glorify her Well-beloved Here is her ordinary abode from whence she descends not to her inferiour part but for necessity and enjoying the Embraces of her Divine Bridegroom she adheres to him by pure Faith and Love without being diverted by her Imagination in intellectual Contemplation I cannot but think that a Mistress of a House that had a King and Queen in her Closet willing to converse with her would have a care not to divert her self by other matters and quit them to wash dishes in the Kitchen What strange Incivility would this be yea what Infidelity would it be in a Soul that is honoured with the Presence of God in the Cabinet of her Heart to have her near himself to converse with her and to ravish her with these Spiritual Delights which are ineffable Souls that are thus favour'd of God if they quit him for exteriour Imployments and temporal affairs neglecting the Presence of the King of Glory for some inconsiderable Business by this strange Neglect or Contempt of his special Favours must needs be guilty of deep Ingratitude O my Soul be thou faithful to the Divine Calls thou art too much favour'd of God considering thy too frequent not complying with his Graces He calls thee to himself his Attracts are powerful and sweet let us quit Temporal things and leave them to who will take them fear not we shall want nothing having God in possession If Divine Providence dispense to us with so liberal a hand the great Favours of God's Spiritual Graces let us not think he will deny us his lesser blessings which concern the Body and are as nothing in comparison Let us betake our selves to Prayer and never leave it for that is our great and sole Affair The End of the Seventh Book BOOK VIII Some Maxims of great Importance to conduct us in a Spiritual Life CHAP. I. To have above all things an extreme Horrour of Sin THere is nothing of greater Concern to us in this World than to manage well our Love and Hatred to which Passions our Will principally owes her Motions Our Love ought wholly to be fixt on God who is an infinite Good and our final Happiness Our hatred ought to have no other Object but Sin which is an infinite evil and utter ruine of our Souls Love makes all things easie and what is done with great Love is of great value in the sight of God Who knows to love cordially knows how to do whatever God requires of him seeing Love includes in it all Perfection Hatred also makes all things easy for from a torrent of Hatred commonly flows an inundation of evils He who really and from his heart hates an infinite Evil that is Sin will be reveng'd on himself by severe Penance and fly from it with such a Horrour and Detestation that he would sooner cast himself alive into Hell than commit a Sin that breaks Friendship with God A Soul that sees clearly the enormous Malignity of Sin and how it fights against the great God of Heaven and Earth to annihilate Him if it was possible will easily conceive an implacable Hatred against Sin and abhorr it to the utmost with an irreconcileable Enmity knowing well that Sin can only separate her from God her final Happiness This hatred ought to possess the Soul with permanency and such extensions as not only to preserve her from
he is her repose and true Felicity Alas when shall it be that Jesus possesses my Soul so as never to leave me This is what I sigh after and I will purchase it at any rate So to possess Jesus is a Heaven upon earth and all we have is too little to gain it Come O dear Jesus and make my Heart your Mansion for ever Of all your Graces and Favours I only desire you to be always present with me and that I make it my business so to serve you as in some sort to be made partaker of those admirable disposition of your contemplative Life I then had a sight of the Infinite difference between the service of Jesus between the Sensual and a Spiritual Life This cannot be discerned unless Jesus imprint his Maxims his Spirit and Sentiments in our hearts which will enable us to Crucifie our Sensuality and obey his motions I observ'd that my Devotion to the Sacred Humanity increas'd daily and felt in my Soul such Powerful attracts that no sooner was I in a Praying posture but Jesus possess'd my heart and discover'd something of his Grandeurs to me This Grace I received from his goodness in my third Prayer After which me thought I knew Jesus Christ in a new manner who though inaccessable to the Creature by reason of his Divine and Infinite Perfections yet sometimes he does most clearly manifest himself to special Favourites Such a view of Jesus is more to be valued than the whole World and a Soul that once has been vouchsafed this Grace esteems her self so rich that she looks upon all Worldly things as dross and dung adhering close to Jesus as her only Treasure We can never know what admirable effects this sight of Jesus works in a Soul but by experience 'T is true there 's a great deal of difference between the Visions of Jesus A Soul in the beginning of a Spiritual Life is taken up with the sensible part of the Sacred Humanity but in the progress she receives such pure discoveries of Jesus that she only relishes Jesus wholly Divinized but cannot express what she sees in him Souls thus dispos'd receive much of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and his humane states seem to them so elevated and transcendent that they find nothing more beautiful more precious or more charming to win their Affections O that we did know Jesus as he ought to be known O that we could see the inestimable riches the rare and precious Treasures contained in him My fourth Prayer was only to open the eyes of my Soul to see Jesus Christ as we behold any Object with the eyes of our Body to consider it attentively He was pleas'd so to manifest himself to my Soul as my joy was superabundant and I was dead to all things and my self to live in Jesus and love his Beauties I found my self in a manner like a drunken man who is not himself but as a dead man he knows not what he says nor is capable of any business nor can govern himself his drunkenness has possess'd him and made him fit for nothing else Enjoyment for the time it continues has the like effects in a Soul she is then capable of nothing but this enjoyment which is all in all unto her Such Souls are now and then put upon the rack by themselves or their directors fearing least this may savour of idleness They think it may be better to suffer and more profitable to help their Neighbour and that self-love may creep into this enjoyment This sometimes brings a Soul to quit this enjoyment so as to put her self out of the way where God has plac'd her except some particular Grace preserve her in the performance of Gods will A Soul capable of this Grace must be in a state of great Purity disengaged and dead to all things Exteriour and Interiour indifferent to all Divine Ordinations whatever and be in a perfect disposition to adhere to God and his Divine operations in what manner he pleases O how great is our humane weakness O how often do we resist the Designs of God by our Imperfections Seventh Day Jesus our Exemplar and Guide IN my first Prayer I consider'd how Jesus was a scandal to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness that the same Person should be God and Man and die upon a Cross to save the World the belief of this seem'd a pure extravagancy to poor blinded Creatures I consider'd also how a true Supernatural Christian Life seems but as folly to Worldly-wise-men who cannot understand it being elevated above sense and humane reason wholly Spiritual and repugnant to the Inclinations of depriv'd nature Alas how the practice of the true Christian Life is rare To love crosses and contempts and poverty and humiliations and to rejoyce in Persecutions by preferring the Maxims of Faith before humane Wisdom is a proceeding very extraordinary to Carnal men who in a manner are wholly guided by their Senses If Grace do not open the eyes of Faith in us our poor Soul has no director but Reason which casts a mist before us to hinder our sight from Christian Verities The same Grace also discover'd to me that as Jesus lived a Suffering Life we likewise should conform to his states and be content with crosses and contrarieties pains and deprivations and be pleas'd with whatsoever comes from the hand of God The poor retir'd abject Life I resolv'd to lead answerable to my Vocation without doubt will be accounted a folly by Worldly men and may sometimes so seem to my self But take courage O my Soul a lively Faith will discover the deceit by a Light from Heaven The Proceedings of a Spiritual Life are not govern'd by Humane Arguments but Divine and Supereminent Motives For we must suffer to do Penance and we must love Poverty to advance pure Love which despises all things to have God in possession In my second Prayer I clearly saw that Jesus took no pleasure without necessity to prescribe such rough Maxims to us He knew that the corruption of our Nature was great our inclination to things of this World was continual and therefore to live in his Love requir'd constant Mortifications and Contradictions to Nature And the degree of Love is according to the degree of Self-denyal and Mortification Jesus hath founded Christian Perfection upon two high Mountains Calvary and Tabor on the one we learn Perfection and Mortification on the other the Perfection of Prayer and on both the Sublimity of Divine Love To follow Jesus Christ upon one or th' other mountain we must die to the World and never let the love of the Cross and Mortification to languish in us Solitude must be dear to such Souls and they must take no imploy but what God will have them least interessing themselves and spending their Spirits in other matters they make themselves unable to follow vigorously the works of their Vocation My Soul would it not be a sad thing to quit thy Creator
he ought nor lov'd with thankfulness He loves us so as to die for us and we make no reciprocal returns O the prodigious insensibility of men Is then Jesus Christ a stranger to us and not our God and Saviour Does the History of his holy Passion pass with us as a profane or indifferent thing Ought not the bloody Tragedy of Calvary fill all Christian hearts with love and sorrow For my part I could hide my head with shame that I have so little compassion and love for Jesus dying on the Cross for our Salvation O my Jesus I confess my fault in that I have so little known my infinite obligations to you But seeing your Grace discovers now to me more clear than heretofore what you are I will never more lose sight of you I will love nothing more than You and esteem nothing more than to do you honour You are my true Father my true Brother true Friend true King true Redeemer O how great a truth is it that you are all in all unto me O that I have been so long without knowing you aright O Jesus how Happy am I that I have found you O let me never so much loose my self as to forsake you For my fourth Prayer I stood at the Sepulcher of Jesus and seeing his precious Body dead and covered with Wounds I made this Epitaph Here lyes Love Yes yes here lyes Love indeed for his excessive Love to us brought him to this state and condition A state full of horror and wounds Blood and Infamy But a state well pleasing to God as satisfying his Justice for mans Redemption I embraced his precious Body and kiss'd his Sacred Wounds I adored Jesus in this state and said O my Soul we must either cease to Love Jesus or die with him seeing Love equalizes Lovers and makes them alike My Soul then chose to die with Jesus and after many sighs and desires to please her Beloved she died with Jesus never willing more to live a Natural and Humane Life but a Life Divine and Supernatural as that of Jesus And I made for her this Epitaph Here lyes a Soul dead of Love Behold in what consists the death of my Soul 't is to live no longer according to the natural Inclinations but according to the motions of Grace which are the Love of Poverty Contempt and Sufferings While these dispositions live in a Soul she is dead to Sensual desires and lives a Life of Grace a Life Supernatural Therefore for the future I will never hunt after Honours or Pleasures or Riches willingly and by Election but I will either heartily forsake them or if I use them it shall be upon Divine Motives for the good of my Neighbour or for pure necessity seeing That is the Will of God the surest rule of all our Actions Tenth Day Jesus risen from Death and Glorious IN my Morning Prayer I consider'd the Glory of Jesus Christ in the state of his triumphant Resurrection O Jesus how Glorious are you How well does this become you Verily 't was a strange state whither your Love had brought you A state of Misery Shame and Sorrow This was well for us Criminals but in no sort agreeing to you who are Innocence it self For what belongs to you is Majesty and Glory What joy did swell my heart to see Jesus Glorious My Tongue cannot express what my Heart feels This great Feast of the Resurrection is to be celebrated by all Creatures seeing 't is the day wherein Jesus appears as God O Feast of the Glory of Jesus O Feast of the Glory of Mary 'T was a Miracle she did not die of Sorrow at the Death of her Son and 't is another Miracle she did not die of Joy at his Glorious Resurrection O my heart be thou enlarged with Joy for 't is a general rule without exception that the Interest of the Creator is to be preferr'd before all Creatures And therefore O triumphant Jesus I more rejoyce that you are Glorious then that I hope to be Glorified with you Yea though I should never be raised your Glory does ravish me It glads me when I consider that damnation only concerns the Creature for the Interest of Jesus suffers not thereby seeing God is Glorified by the Reprobates as well as by the Saints in Glory 'T is also a certain rule that the Elect O Divine Jesus are Images of you and so necessarily must resemble you in your Sufferings if with you they will be Glorified 'T is a folly to think not to suffer here some way or other more or less seeing the way to Glory is by Sufferings O my Soul be thou united to Jesus Crucified and then thou shalt have part with Jesus Glorified To this end thou must love the Cross and desire of Jesus to die or suffer O World thy way is meer folly and nothing else In my second Prayer I was taken up with these words of Divine Jesus Ought not Christ first to suffer and so to enter into Glory I discover'd how all the Divine Perfections did wonderfully shine forth therein But above all the Wisdom of God doth ravish those hearts which contemplate the works of Grace and Mercy O Divine Wisdom how well is the Oeconomy of your Mysteries order'd to work our Salvation and bring us to Glory Every Mystery which I consider'd did raise a new Fire in my breast to inflame my affections with the Love of Jesus Sometimes they altogether did as with so many arrows pierce my heart and made me languish with Divine Love For seeing my self so Belov'd of good Jesus how could I but Love him again O Infinite Love of Jesus for whom shall I have a heart if not for thee O Love 't is for thee my heart is reserved Thy attracts are powerful enough do not redouble them so sweet and charming 't is enough my heart is for thee O Love except thou wilt have me die do not wound me any more Yet I will die willingly if thou wilt have it so on the Cross of Interiour and Exteriour Suffering that I may be conform to my Loving Saviour My third Prayer was a continuation of the Sentiments of the Love of Jesus I made use of the words of great St. Austin in his Confessions O my Jesus you have wounded my heart with the arrows of your Charity and I have devoted it to your Love Since that you have scatter'd my Darkness and made your self known unto me I have not forgot you Since I had the Happiness to know you I have imprinted you in my memory there I find you and I tast perfect Delights and receive extreme Joy and Contentment when I remember you My Soul feeling Divine Fires within her which did fill her with Pleasures I did sing extempore Canticles to my Beloved and though not methodical yet they better express'd her amorous languishings Though alone in my Chamber I spake of Jesus aloud as if I had had many Auditors to be partakers of my
Divinity O how great is the dignity of pure Souls when they Communicate O how low and abject are all the Grandeurs of the World They are a meer Nothing compared with this For what Glory is comparable to that of a Soul intimately united with the Supream Being My God how delightful and transporting is the sight of the Wonders and profound Secrets wrapt up in your Mysteries how they penetrate the Soul you disclose them to This Union with Jesus in Communion is inessable For as the Father and the Son are one in Unity of Essence the Word and Humane Nature one in Unity of Person so the Soul that is one in Jesus partakes of both the Unions Divine and Humane Jesus is in her according to both his Natures and she is All in Jesus and while she does all things in him he works all in her he Prayes Adores Loves Suffers Labours insomuch that this perfect Union produces a certain Unity between God Jesus and the Soul and between all their operations It settles a kind of Partnership and Community of Goods and Possessions between them In a word it imports more than can be expressed Now this condition must needs be most Holy and Divine where God works in the Soul and the Soul in God In me manet ego in eo And the Alliance between them grows continually streighter and closer proportionably to her increasings in Virtue in this Life and receives its ultimate Perfection only in Heaven O amiable Jesus with what a profusion of Goodness and Love you entertain our Souls in this Sacrament You conceal your Presence under the External Species to give us occasion and advantage to exercise our Faith which beholds you so much more clearly as you are more secretly and obscurely present Again on the other side you manifest and shew your self by innumerable effects of your Grace and Divine Sentiments which you breath in the Soul to excite and exercise our Love What can a Soul do when she sees her self so prevented so convinced so pressed by evident instances and experimental proofs of your endless and unwearied Bounty What can she do but Love Love without stint render Love for Love how many excellent things might be said upon this Subject But how can those Sentiments be expressed that can hardly be conceived CHAP. XI The fourth Effect of Communion is to Confer the highest Love OFtentimes before and after Communion I was taken up with Contemplating the Perfections of God Which being one and the same in themselves yet they are different in our manner of conception and the verity of their effects Now when any one of them discovers it self it appears in full Beauty and Majesty and all the other seem to sink in to it and lend all their Ornaments and Excellence to increase its Lustre An instance hereof we have in the Blessed Sacrament where the Divine Love displayes all its Magnificence and the other Attributes contribute to that design the brightest of their Charms and Perfections Eternity Immensity Wisdom Omnipotence Justice Mercy and whatsoever is most eminent and adorable in the Divine Nature are present there and attend upon the triumph of Love Each of these Perfections espouse the Interests and put on the Inclinations of Love which are Liberality and Magnificence and accordingly operate in a Soul when Love makes his triumphant entry at the time of Communion For Love as its proper effect produceth in the Soul a reciprocal Love Eternity imprints continuance and perseverance Immensity spreads the Affection and gives it an unbounded extent wisdom sheds round about a Super-natural Light to guide its good purposes and illustrate the ways of Virtue Omnipotence inspires an invincible strength to surmount all difficulties and obstacles Thus in Communion a Soul does not only receive the impressions of Love but of Love attended with the Lustre and Excellencies of all the Divine Perfections It is observable that Jesus Christ together with his Eternal Father sent the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles to replenish them with Love in the same place where he had given them Himself in the Sacrament So that this Divine Sanctuary was chosen two several times to be the Theater where the two greatest Actions of Love were represented that ever the goodness of God exhibited out of himself The first in giving us his Son to reside in our Hearts who from all Eternity rests in his own Bosom and thereby enabling us to live Divinely by him as he lives by his Father The second in sending on us the adorable Spirit of the Father and the Son to be the knot of the Eternal Espousals of the Soul with her God to Beautify her with his In created Light to warm her with his Sacred Flames to animate her with his Heavenly Force and Virtue and in a word to render her entirely Spiritual And both these Actions are perpetuated in the Holy Church when at the same time we are Feasted with the precious Body of the Son of God and inebriated with the Spirit of his Love O who can conceive the admirable Commerce and Caresses that are interchanged between Jesus Christ and pure Souls in this Divine Sacrament The World which discerns nothing but by meditation of the Senses is too gross and stupid to comprehend them It thinks that Souls which are escaped from its snares and dis-engaged from its business lead an idle and unprofitable Life it fancies they do nothing because their Actions are not seen that their Fire is extinguished because it does not blaze in the eyes of Men. But on the contrary they resemble those Mountains full of Sulpher which carry vast Globes of Fire in their Bosomes though they break out but at certain times and then they are not only seen but whole Provinces feel the Conflagrations Towns and Villages are Burned and Fields covered with Ashes In like manner those retired Souls which burn inwardly with Divine Love and for the most part shine only to God and themselves yet when the command and service of the Lord excite them to External Duties they produce such extraordinary Effects that numbers of Souls are set on fire with their Virtues Example and Instructions In this kind we have had many great Servants of God who having conceived a thousand good desires in their retirement and inflamed with Heavenly fire by the frequent use of the most Holy Communion issue from their retreat and this Sacred Table like Lyons breathing nothing but flames and setting all on fire about them Such have made the great Conversions of Sinners changed the face of whole Provinces and Kingdoms and all this performed only by one or a small number of such Servants of God who appeared so powerful in Works and Words that all their Actions seemed to be so many Miracles Here we must observe that this Interiour Fire in a person not sufficiently retired within himself or that from time to time is not careful to lay on more Fewel to nourish it I mean to
Divinity repos'd with Infinite joy in the Humanity of Jesus Christ in his Suffering state And a Soul never loves more nor renders a greater homage to the Divine Perfections than by the Cross and Sufferings Sacrificing her self to Gods Interests and Glory This then is the Motto of a loving Soul Aut pati aut mori Jesus let me suffer or let me die CHAP. II. That we must have a Love for Crosses A Life without a Cross is a Life without Love This Saying too common among us That we must live an easie Life does not become the Lips of a Christian for 't is all one as to say We must live a Natural Sordid Life Next to the Divinity nothing is more amiable than the Cross of Christ We must either enjoy with the Divinity or suffer with the Humanity and the more we suffer with the one the more we shall enjoy with the other A Soul conducted by enjoyments must also participate of great Sufferings for these make those more sweet and pleasant We find by experience that the least contentment taken in Creatures does diminish Divine enjoyment and therefore the Saints have been severe to themselves so as to allow Nature only what is purely necessary by a resolute denyal even of Lawful Pleasures We too often enlarge the Law of necessity and indulge our selves in our Refections and Recreations and Accomodations Nature is content with little but the clamours of others and the fear of prejudicing our Health does us no small hurt in our way towards Perfection 'T is a sign we march couragiously in the way of the Cross when we find in our Souls such a Peace and Serenity that does not indeed hinder Nature to feel the bitterness of Sufferings but inspires with a generous resolution to embrace and cherish them looking upon them as special favours from Heaven notwithstanding the regrets of Nature to prove our Fidelity and advance our Glory It comes into my mind that to take away the bitter tast of Crosses we must sweeten them with several Sauces that is with different confiderations Sometimes by accepting from Gods hand with a Spirit of Pennance Other times with a Spirit of Sacrifice And then again with the Spirit of pure Love Sometimes to be conformable to Jesus Christ in his suffering state and besides to do the Will of God and submit our selves with all Humility to the Orders of his Divine and Sacred Providence Thus the Soul may make use of several considerations to sweeten the bitterness of Sufferings and so preserve a Love of the Cross among all the repugnances of Humane Nature When God designs to advance Divine Love in a Soul he affords her great occasions of Suffering by the order of his Providence and she contentedly embraces them though very bitter to sensual Nature Such favours are precious and we ought to manage them with Prudence and Councel 'T is very true what our Blessed Saviour says in the Gospel Multi sunt vocati pauci verò electi Many have calls to Perfection by Inspirations Lights and Motions of Grace And yet they arrive not to it for want of Fidelity and overmuch sparing themselves by too tender a love of their Body Goods Friends and Relations giving an ear more to Humane reason than the voice of Grace Sometimes we perswade our selves that Devotion is a Life full of Peace without Crosses but we deceive our selves nor ought we to enter into the Service of God without a disposition of Indifferency to all states to be mortified there not as we would have it but after what manner best pleases God Crosses from the immediate hand of God do much conduce to Sanctifie us but what arise from our vanity or too much love of the World are for the most part unprofitable and rather a hindrance to the Soul in her way to Perfection Suffer we must more or less and what pleases God we must accept of with contentation O how rare is it to find Souls truly amorous of Crosses I am of Opinion that the little love we have for Sufferings is the only cause we so little advance in the ways of Grace and if we well examine our selves we shall acknowledge it The love of Sufferings is quite repugnant to our Natural Inclinations but God can make that easie by Grace which is impossible to Nature and if we ask this great Grace as we ought we shall receive it as God has promised Neither does the Love of the Cross so much consist in great Corporal Austerities as embracing with an amorous generosity all those little Contradictions Mortifications and Humiliations we dayly meet withall either from others or our selves or by the secret orders of Divine Providence and to make good use of them for our Spiritual advantage is not the work of Nature but of Grace The more perfect our Virtue is the more we have a love for the Cross that we may be more conformable to our Blessed Saviour Know we not that they who will live Piously in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution They shall suffer indeed on all sides from the Flesh from the Spirit from the World and God himself will try them with Afflictions This on earth is the high way to Heaven wherein Love must walk to come to Perfection which can never be gain'd without a labourious and couragious resolution CHAP. III. That we must have a great Love for Crosses WE must have a great Intellectual thirst to suffer all sorts of Crosses This is the Character of true Christians this is the Mark to know that Jesus Crucified is establish'd in us And this thirst ought to continue in us whatever our condition be because it much augments our Enjoyments and Consolations The more the Soul enjoyes the more she becomes thirsty not only of a more Savorous Union but also of a more heavy Cross Jesus Christ did thirst after his Passion for us and Dying on the Cross his thirst Increased being not quenched with all his Sufferings We say we ought to have the Image of Jesus Christ Crucified imprinted on our Souls and what is this but to have a thirst for Sufferings as he had O how the cup of affliction is pleasant to a Soul athirst for Sufferings When some great Cross happens to such a Soul she finds comfort and satisfaction therein as one enflamed with heat is refresh'd with Drinking God has a strange thirst for our Sufferings he is a thirst in us by the Fire of his Divine Love wherewith he loves himself and his Divine Perfections why do we not refresh him with our Sufferings But alas this Divine thirst is little known to men O how is it hidden from sensual eyes O Jesus how little are you known How little are you loved These Proceeding of Jesus are not understood by those who only follow the Light of Sense and Reason Emitte lucem tuam Whence once the Spiritual man discovers this nothing is more desirable to him then Suffering The great desire of the
true these are Crosses and Cruel Persecutions but if we bear them Faithfully with Love 't is a Martyrdom pleasing to God and profitable to us The Persecuting Tyrants tempted the Primitive Christians sometimes against their Faith sometimes against their Chastity which were Glorious Tryals of their Fidelity O how Blessed a thing is it to fight for that Faith and Fidelity we owe to God O what lovely Charms are there in this Martyrdom to those who behold them with the eye of Faith CHAP. V. Of Exteriour Crosses by the loss of Goods BEing in a Friends House who served God truly news was brought me that the Soldiers had ceas'd upon all my Goods at home and Blessed be God it little troubled me But rather I rejoyc'd and put my self into the Hands of God to do what he pleas'd with me preparing my Heart to undergo greater Losses contentedly I was much comforted by my Friend and I went home full of Joy and Cheerfulness accounting my self Happy that Divine Providence had brought me to Poverty and Abjection And I said with my self Courage my Soul our Blessed Saviour continues his Mercies Poverty and Abjection will afford us wings to flee to Perfection Behold now is the opportunity to make great Progress in Virtue if we be but Faithful It seem'd to me that at this time few Persons pityed me and yet they talk'd of my Affliction as no ordinary Tryal They blam'd me in some sort of Proceedings and after all I found my self an Abject and little considered I could never consent to the Councel of those who would have me either yield to anger or discontent For I always thought I ought not to part with that Meekness and Humility which becomes a Christian for the greatest Temporal loss that can happen to me I considered with my self that these little Crosses were hardly to be named with those that they suffer who are tormented with anguishes of Spirit or those who are Slaves under the Turk or such who are put to Death with grievous Tortures That which I suffer is nothing in comparison of those poor Creatures For I instead of being contristated by Suffering found a certain joy to possess my heart and a greater desire to suffer more Hereupon one told me That our Saviour sent me Crosses adorn'd with Flowers which though they took not away their heaviness yet their Odours did refresh and strengthen me to bear them This Persecution continuing I found my self always disposed to suffer it with great Interiour Peace and I kept my Soul from harbouring any thoughts of Bitterness against those who assisted my Plunderers I Saluted them with a Cordial Love although Nature had a repugnance to their Proceedings I beheld with contentment the Fall of our Family how our Friends did forsake us and some treat us very unworthily and yet I could not think it a misfortune but a signal favour from the hand of Providence And I did not complain but digest all this bitter Cup with Interiour joy O bona crux O good Cross The words of St. Andrew seem'd to me very true O how Crosses are good though full of Bitterness We ought to love what is good and make much of it In reality there 's an exquisite goodness in Sufferings and the Fruit of the Cross is wonderful Savorous For at last we shall find that the degrees of Glory shall be according to the measure of our Sufferings and degrees of Love I was then told some means how to get out of this Suffering condition Nature began to resent this with some joy but Grace repress'd it stifling this emotion of Nature that I might have no joy but in God alone and in the accomplishment of his good Pleasure CHAP. VI. Dispositions during Sickness where the Body suffer'd and the Soul rejoyced GOd has been pleas'd to make me enjoy during my Sickness an Interiour Peace so profound and great that I was altogether astonish'd at it considering my Miseries and former Transgressions I said within my self What is this that I find within me How comes it to pass that so miserable a Creature should be thus content and satisfied For my Soul was in a perfect calm from all her Passions feeling nothing but a pure and total union to the good pleasure of God and an absolute abandon of my self to the conduct of Divine Love It seemed to me that some dayes before this Sickness I was in a disposition of extraordinary Peace and Tranquility and one day after Dinner I was taken with a continual Feaver accompanied with much Head ach and Pains throughout all my Body But Divine Love methoughts continued his operations and set me all a flame with Holy Fires So that I often cryed out O Love O Love O Love And could say nothing else When I seem'd as a dying man my Friends weeping about me and every one saying I could hardly Recover my Soul beheld all this without being touched with any Sentiments of regret or tenderness for my Friends being wholly taken up with Divine Love which did so entirely unite me to the good Pleasure of God that methought I could never be seperated from it 'T was no part of my care to beg for my Life and one of my Friends proposing to send me some Reliques of Saints which had done Miraculous Cures I only thank'd him for though I have no small veneration for them yet I had no mind to make use of them for my Recovery but I would wholly put my self into the hands of Divine Love and leaving my self entirely to the conduct thereof whether for Life or Death for Time or Eternity In this extreme weakness of Body my Soul found her self Victorious and Triumphant to see that fall of Pain and her self full of Love and instead of being compassionate seem'd to me to smile at these Sufferings This was an extraordinary effect of Love that in this great weakness of Body my Soul kept up her strength and especially that the great Pains of my Head did not hinder her Interiour occupations This disposition of Love continued as long as my Sickness and I entertain'd my Friends with little consideration and I believe with too much talking fearing now to have discover'd then too much those Holy Fires that inflam'd my heart and that Self-love made me declare too freely my inward feelings My thoughts now make me suspect this defect but being inebriated with Love I said I know not what being like a drunken man that for a time forgets his Poverty and Miseries So in this disposition I forgot my Sins and extreme Frailties and cast my self into the Arms of Love that I might be united with my Well-beloved and enjoy his Reciprocal embraces I had a care to examine my conscience and confess my sins as a dying man and set in order my Temporal Affairs to pass to Eternity Finding my self not able to give much to the Poor it was a joy to me to die in Poverty and I was as well content to give
of God 332 BOOK VI. Of Interiour and Exteriour Crosses Chap. 1. That we must have a high esteem for Crosses 337 Chap. 2. That we must have a Love for Crosses 341 Chap 3. That we must have a great Love for Crosses 444 Chap. 4. God is pleased to send us Crosses in the place of Persecutions that our Life may be a continual Martyrdom 347 Chap. 5. Of exteriour Crosses by the loss of Goods Chap. 6. Dispositions during Sickness where the Body suffer'd and the Soul rejoyced Chap. 7. Other Dispositions in the time of Sickness where Body and Soul are on the Cross 357 Chap. 8. The Interiour Crosses of the Soul in Obscurity 360 Chap. 9. Of the heaviness of interiour Crosses 364 Chap. 10. The great Fruit we may reap from interiour Crosses 368 Chap. 11. That we must bear patiently our Imperfections 371 BOOK VII Of Ordinary Prayer and Contemplation Chap. 1. What esteem we ought to have for Prayer 377 Chap. 2. Of the different sorts of Mental Prayer 380 Chap. 3. That we ought to be indifferent to what manner of Prayer God is pleased to give us 384 Chap. 4. That above all things 't is necessary to practise Prayer 387 Chap. 5. Of the impediments of Prayer 392 Chap. 6. Of the Means that facilitate the Exercise of Prayer 396 Chap. 7. That we must not presume of our selves to attempt any manner of Prayer but what is ordinary 400 Chap. 8. How to pass from Ordinary Prayer to Contemplation 404 Chap. 9. Of the Prayer of Faith 407 Chap. 10 Of the Sacred Darkness of Prayer 411 Chap. 11. Of the Lights of Prayer 414 Chap. 12. Of Passive Prayer 414 Chap. 13. Of pure and perfect Prayer 421 Chap. 14. Of the hungring of the Soul after God and of her being satiated with him 425 Chap. 15. Of infused Prayer 429 Chap. 16. Of Prayer of quiet 433 Chap. 17. Of the intimate Vnion of the Love of the Soul with God in Prayer 437 Chap. 18. Of interiour Silence where God speaks and is heard 441 Chap. 19. Of most purifyed Contemplation 444 Chap. 20. Of the different Caresses God vouchsafes a Soul in Prayer 448 BOOK VIII Some Maxims of Great Importance to conduct us in a Spiritual Life Chap. 1. To have above all things an extreme Horrour of Sin 453 Chap. 2. To keep an even pace with Grace neither out-running it nor following too slowly 456 Chap. 3. That a Soul must wholly give her self up to God 459 Chap. 4. We ought to make it our Business to be content to suffer 461 Chap. 5. To renounce or selves wholly and strive against our proper Inclinations 463 Chap. 6. How to comport our selves well in Superiority 466 Chap. 7. That we ought to have our intentions purified from all Self-interest 469 Chap. 8. A conference clearing many difficulties touching Prayer 471 THE Interiour Christian BOOK I. Of the Love of Humiliations which is the solid Foundation of all Christian Perfection CHAP. I. That we ought to endeavour to attain Christian Perfection with the spirit of Humility LEt us endeavour after Perfection not because it is a sublime and elevated condition but because it is the will of God We ought not to set upon the practice of Piety by a motive of grandeur and to become greater Saints but only to do what God wills and expects from us and rest therewith content and satisfied Our happiness consists in a constant dependence on his divine will and pleasure with a perfect submission and resignation thereunto I must be content with my condition whatever it be seeing it is what God expects from me and 't is no small presumption to assume to our selves what great Saints have found in the practice of Piety God calls some persons to glorious performances others he places in a lower rank in all this we must suffer him to work his will upon us and receive with thankfulness his Divine Impressions whether great or little 't is enough for us that they come from God This is the way God calls us to walk in a way sublime pleasant full of peace in which we desire nothing but to please God It concerns us to take whatever he gives with simplicity of heart be it never so little 't is certainly more than we deserve To be annihilated in God is to will nothing but what God wills and in what manner he pleases otherwise we seek our selves and our own satisfaction and not purely God and his good pleasure We must labour for Perfection with a Spirit wholly dis-engaged from all self-interest To suffer to live poor and despised being the only way among infinite other means the Eternal Father made choice of for us to attain to Glory and regain those Excellencies Adam lost for himself and us by sin This being his design from Eternity his Son in the fulness of time embraced the Cross with affection and was inflamed with the desire of suffering valuing the Cross as a thing of great excellency being the Altar chosen for the life-giving Sacrifice by his heavenly Father preferring the Glory and the Will of God before the natural inclinations of his Humanity which had a repugnancy in the sensitive part thereof to pains and sufferings This is evident from that of the Evangelist Pater si possibile est transe at c. Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me yet not my will but thine be fulfilled And that of the Psalmist Sacrificium Oblationem noluisti c. Thou would'st not have Sacrifice or Oblation but thou hast prepared a Body for me and behold I come to do thy will And so he did run his course with joy though full of sufferings because he knew it was the good pleasure of his Father Wherefore by how much the more welove and esteem the Cross by so much the more do we participate of the Spirit of Christ and please his heavenly Father For to suffer is to sacrifice to God our pleasures and interests uniting our selves to the design that Jesus had by suffering to repair his Father's Glory O my Soul if these Verities have made deep impression in thee thou ought'st from henceforth to glory in being despised seeing thy Glory is to procure the Glory of God which cannot be done more advantagiously than by imitating his only Son O good Jesus possess my heart with your divine Spirit that may enable me to live your life O how your humiliations seem great unto me your abjections honourable your poverty rich and your Cross pleasant My Soul doth languish to possess your Spirit and desires it most ardently whatever has not a relish of your Spirit is not grateful to me O that I had inflamed affections to embrace the Cross and that I could bear the greatest can happen to me In the interim it seems to me that I do nothing and when occasion presents it self I find difficulty to suffer the least afflictions Dear Saviour how is this life troublesome unto me Strengthen
the Courts of Emperours Armogastus liv'd amongst Beasts as if good for nothing he deserv'd not the company of men O Armogastus where is the generous spirit of a Cavalier where is the courage of a Gentle-man why do you not quit this employment at least that you may shine bright in the grand exercises of Christianity Free your self by flight and in some other Countrey preach the Gospel do marvels in helping the poor and miserable but continuing thus miserable in your self you cannot arrive to any excellency in Christian Virtue Let me alone says this great Saint in my abject condition this suffices me and I am content to be thus thought as a thing of no worth O how well am I pleas'd to be thus scorn'd and forgotten Happy are those who preach the Gospel happy are those who are merciful to others I have as great an esteem of them as you but likewise happy are those who are as nothing in their own eyes To be poor despised annihilated and miserable shall be the only matter of my discourse as long as I live by this means I am emptied of my self and of all Creatures and made capable to be filled with Divine graces O that these things did touch our hearts with a sensible Devotion CHAP. V. That we have only so much of the true Spirit of Jesus Christ as we have an inclination to abjection IF the purity of love be on Earth it is in the heart of those who love abjection seeing they desire nothing but the interest of God his glory purely being in a manner wholly absorpt in self-oblivion To behold God advancing others to states sublime and glorious that they are but as atoms in comparison and to rest content in their abjections is a matter of greatest difficulty because herein they quit even their own spiritual interests being satisfied with whatever God does for them and with that measure of glory he will have us bring unto him though never so little 'T is true that this sort of abjection was not in Jesus Christ because being God the fulness of all grandeurs belong unto him But this is altogether proper to us because we are Creatures poor and abject and that little God gives us is more than we deserve seeing we of our selves can merit nothing 'T is to be feared there are but few who follow Jesus Christ in the practice of that abjection he loved for our sakes In our thoughts and words we may do it but when any occasion of humiliation or suffering happens we make the bravest pretensions possible to be freed from it Even such who make a profession of Devotion will suffer the want of nothing nor any injury from others they are for governing affairs as they please without any subjection or dependance shunning abjection because they think they can more glorifie God by Grandeur and Reputation in the world This is a meer illusion of self-love and a vanity of nature which in every thing affects to be exalted and not to be humbled Not with standing let us think and say what we please what measure we have of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is according to the degree of true mortification and self-denyal we find in us He expects we should honour his voluntary humiliations with the sacrifice of our pride Now in a Sacrifice the Host immolated is destroy'd and depriv'd of its former being so that we must make a continual Sacrifice of our reason and understanding of our will and inclinations to the judgments and commands of others of our reputation by a love to abjection of our goods by poverty of our health and corporal satisfactions by pains and austerities In a word we must sacrifice all our natural inclinations to the honour of God being as well content with adverse accidents as prosperous successes because the good use of humiliations is better for us than prosperity It is an excellent Lesson we learn by the love of abjection but 't is very hard to take out and without a continual looking over is soon forgotten The virtues which consist in action are more easily practised less troublesom to us and more satisfactory to others But those that consist purely in suffering as Humiliation Patience Abnegation are very difficult O Jesus abject and humble infuse into my Soul the Science of Saints and a relish of contempt of the world and I shall learn perfectly the Lesson of true humility which is above the apprehension of human reason Our blessed Saviour sometimes puts us upon the undertaking of certain good designs whereof he wills not the Execution but the Practice of many Virtues which arise in their pursuance and failing of the desired issue Nature is much disturb'd at ill successes but God by the wonderful contrivance of his wisdom oftentimes more glorifies himself by adverse than favourable events For the dispositions of humiliation resignation and contentedness which he sees in a Soul are more pleasing than what she designed St Lewis earnestly desired to re-establish the glory of God in Palestine all fell out contrary to his good designs but the purposes which God had to advance his glory took good effect For this great King was humbled and made abject in the eyes of the world falling into the hands of his Enemies his Army being destroyed either by the Sword or Pestilence O how these grand humiliations in the midst of which the invincible Soul of this holy King rested more content than in a Trpumph did render a marvelous homage to the Son of God in the self-same place where he suffered for us Perhaps this glory was greater in his sight than if the Sword of St. Lewis had sacrificed all the Infidels in Palestine Our weaknesses and imperfections are as ill Trees because they cannot of themselves bring things to maturity however they do not fail of bringing forth fruit in the worst successes by abjection humiliation and self-denial When we cannot do the good we would 't is no small good to acknowledge our insufficiency and unworthiness When we are hindred from our usual recollection by some incommodity we may hope that one good hour of suffering and abjection with a contented mind will prove better to us than an hour of Prayer wherein perhaps we should take more self-satisfaction When we think the Soul is not in fit temper to converse with God because we are disturb'd with many importunities let us remember that this may proceed from Nature but the repose of grace is that which is only necessary for recollection Now the repose of grace finds her self better in crosses and pains and abjections than otherwise In tribulatione dilatasti mihi My heart was enlarged towards God in tribulation CHAP. VI. That the sight of our own Nothing inspires us with self-contempt and the love of God THe principal reason of our little or no amendment is because we do not sufficiently depend upon grace we are not so frequent as we ought in our recourse to God we
that you withdraw from me your Divine Illuminations in Prayer and Recollection so as to be in a manner void of understanding sicut equus malus quibus non est intellectus Provided dear Jesus that I be but content with these humiliations it is sufficient I shall be happy Let others ask of you what they please as for me my desire is to be entirely annihilated and that my portion may be to honour your Divine humiliations We are not couragious enough to fight as we ought to destroy in us our sensual inclinations for we are too feeble against our selves and too indulgent to our defects in this spiritual combat But O my God put too your helping hand and work in us your will that we may be humbled and contentedly submit to your operation CHAP. VIII That the Soul is Rich when she possesses the love of self-contempt GOD has infus'd this thought into my Soul that the love of self-contempt and the desire of humiliation may be that hidden Treasure mention'd in the Gospel Thesauro abscondita in agro Matt. 13. 'T is really a great Treasure to love abjection yea a Treasure that contains abundance of inestimable Riches but they appear not outwardly being hid on purpose to preserve with more security And he only has this Treasure who keeps well hidden what he possesses 'T is a Treasure hidden and unknown to the world For who would imagine that there should be any thing so rich and precious in Sufferings and Humiliations Should our senses or carnal prudence or human reason make enquiry would they search here to enrich themselves and satisfie their desires We could never have thought that a hidden Treasure was here enshrin'd if Jesus Christ who put it there himself had not reveal'd this great secret to our Souls by his peculiar favour and merciful illuminations If we will have this Treasure we must buy it and give for it whatever we possess that is to say we must lay down our whole Patrimony the fatal Inheritance left us by our first Parents namely affection for Honours for Pleasures for Riches too much seeking our selves and our own interests the love of our own excellence and all the other wretched movables which we possess by being conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity If we will not be content to part with all yea the utmost farthing we cannot be enriched with this Treasure O how rich and happy is he who does possess it For it is a Treasure which as the world cannog give so it cannot take it from us and as long as we are in quiet possession thereof we find God in our Souls and such a profound peace as passeth all human understanding When one has purchas'd a good Estate in Land we are ready to say He is in a good condition what need he fear now having a sure foundation of subsistence If a War happen the Enemies can't carry that away with them they may indeed deprive him of his Money and Goods but for his Land that is fix'd and immovable 'T is the same case with this precious Treasure when once the Soul hath it in possession and will not part with it she need not fear she has sure hold of subsistence for her spiritual life Neither the World nor the Devil nor all the Enemies of our Salvation let them make never such furious on-sets can rob her of it it surpasses their power and belongs not to them 'T is true they may deprive her of some moveables as sensible consolations the love of austerities the desire to undertake brave actions for the Glory of God as to go to Canada or England for the conversion of Souls to the Catholick Faith in a word all the fair Idaea's of Spirituality The Devil the World Nature has a mind to these movables and a Soul that possesses only these has nothing but what may be taken from her but whosoever possesses this Treasure of the love of abjection and self-denial is rich for ever And when God is pleased to discover to a Soul the value thereof Prae gaudio illius vadit vendit universa quae habet emit agrum illum she joyfully parts with all she has to get it in possession We have a double right to pretend to the possession of this Divine Treasure The first is our natural inability to good the second is our criminal sinfulness These two lay upon us a continual obligation to endeavour after self-denial and annihilation and this endeavour is very pleasing to God who delights to see a Creature acknowledge what is due to it self and render to him his deserved Glory The Son of God began as a Gyant to run in this way of self-contempt by his Incarnation for 't is a wonderful humiliation for God to become Man and he finished this course by his Death on the Cross which was as low as humility could descend For God-Man to die an infamous death between two Thieves as a Malefactor and his whole life besides was but as one continued humiliation and yet alas we pass away our days in vanity calling our selves Christians tho' all for exaltation of our selves destitute of self-denial and true humility O wonderful blindness O Jesus poor and abject when will you draw me after you by the powerful attracts of your mercy Your ways are pure and pleasant and odoriferous to those whose Souls are enlightened with the Rays of Grace You O Jesus establish your Empire in humble hearts and reign there in peace as the Devil sets up his Kingdom in proud Souls and there domineers with intolerable Tyranny CHAP. V. What profit we draw from humiliations PAins and Miseries humble the body Poverty Riches Contempt Reputation and Honour Death Life aridities in Prayer spiritual Consolations all these conduce to purifie Virtue and sacrifice man wholly to God Some glorifie him by action some by suffering others by privations and humiliations and these last are the greatest Saints though here despis'd and known to God alone We ought to resign our selves to the conduct of God's spirit but if it was left to our own choice the way of abjections is best and safest Job did more glorifie God on the Dunghil than in his Palace Happy is he who in glorifying God follows the call of his holy inspirations in a way which the world neither does nor can well understand 'T is a great misery not to be willing to acknowledge that human wisdom is but folly before God which continually eggs us on to get out of the happy state of abjection upon the fairest pretences imaginable as the salvation of souls to help our Neighbours and the like Notwithstanding 't is safest to yield our selves up to the sole conduct of God's holy Spirit the order of whose providence we cannot shun God glorifies himself in Heaven by the exaltation of his Creatures on Earth by their Humiliation Let no person complain then that he cannot be instrumental to the glory of God for
let him but heap up his own miseries and lay himself thereon as Isaac was on the Altar and then sacrifice himself by a voluntary annihilation with the fire of Divine Love and God will be glorified thereby When a Soul is left to her self in Prayer so that aridities and desolations do darken her wonted light and deprive her of the usual feelings she had of God and Goodness she may make her address in these or such-like words My God! I am nothing and I am contented with all my heart with this dealing with me it is your pleasure thus to mortifie me and I have no other will but yours You have sometimes vouchsafed unto me illuminations and consolations which were dear unto me but now you are pleas'd to deprive me of them blessed be your name I am contented with your pleasure If poverty or ill success or sickness afflict us let us apply our selves to God with these or such-like words My God! I can do nothing of my self but I am well pleased with what you do unto me sacrifice me wholly to the grandeur of your Majesty whatever reluctance I find in Nature upon the Altar of my miseries and imperfections Little Isaac ready to be sacrificed by his Father's hand might have said these or such-like words I had hopes that in after-times I might have been signally instrumental for the glory of God and that according to his promise out of my Loins by continued Generations should come the Messias but I sacrifice all this before-hand and reflect on nothing but the Burnt-offering God is pleased to make of me by my Father's hand St. Lewis had hopes to establish the glory of Jesus Christ in Palestine but seeing his Army defeated he might comfort himself in saying O my God! seeing 't is not your pleasure to have it so but have humbled me and my Army by the Pestilence and Sword of your Enemies your will be done I submit unto it I behold the generous Enterprises of your Servants and their great Attempts and bless you for them but my comfort is in the consideration of my objections which have brought me to a state wherein I see God alone and possess Him in the denudation of all Creatures after the example of Jesus Christ Christus non sibi placuit whose work was only to do your will Let us not then so much disquiet our selves with our imperfections They are indeed but an ill brood and deserve not to be loved but we must bear them with patience seeing they serve to debase our selves in our own eyes and to conform us in some sort to the infinite humiliations of Jesus Christ crucified for us Man was created in the state of innocency now he is born in a sinful condition He has then had two opposite ways to conduct him to Glory The first was a state of Exaltation happy and enjoying all Creatures freely but the second is a state of Abjection in misery and denudation of all Creatures He that will walk a third way attempts above the condition of that from whence he is fallen and that provided for us after this life CHAP. X. The way how to arrive to perfect humiliation I Conceive three deprivations necessary to effect this First the deprivation of all exteriour things as Riches Honours Pleasures This is the first advance a Soul must make to draw near to God for as long as there remains the least inordinate affection to these things she can never make any great progress in finding God being fetter'd as it were by other affections and so cannot have perfect possession of God being excluded by the Creatures which more or less take up the heart When necessity or charity require it we may have the real possession of these things and live only in disposition of spirit and affective poverty However it will be matter of joy to be freed from them because for the most part they rather hinder than advance us towards union with God And if we have not a great care Nature will cheat us with a pretext of Charity and helping others which is but a good illusion for sometimes they who have the less Riches have the more charitable hearts 'T is good counsel to forsake Riches and Honours when it may be done conveniently but when by secret tracts of Divine Providence they forsake us 't is our duty to possess our Souls in patience and be contented which is in a manner better than if we our selves had left them especially when we believe these losses happen'd by our own fault and imbecility for this brings us to a greater abjection and self-contempt which is the centre whither we ought to tend If there was nothing else good in poverty but this that it mortifies our liberty and independance whereof naturally we are so amorous 't is a great happiness to be enrich'd therewith When we are out of Employment and Honour in the world we are look'd upon as unprofitable and easily forgotten and forsaken by our best Friends 't is so much the better for our humiliation This is the second deprivation that we must suffer O the great Grace that is necessary to carry on a Soul to God when we are despised by our Friends whereby they become rather the subject of affliction than affection to us Without doubt we have a strong inclination to them to whom we are so glew'd that without some great and special grace we can never mortifie our selves therein without some attach to conserve such friendship They are happy occasions whereby we are depriv'd of our Friends without sin in losing them we lose a great upholder of self-self-love in us St John Baptist when very young left his Father's house to live in a Desart with God alone Great Saint they are Saints whom you forsake I know that very well says he but they are my Relations that have an affection for me O what a violence is this to nature For when an attach to Friends especially if virtuous seems more spiritual and reasonable than any other affection to mortifie our selves in this is an extraordinary Sacrifice to God and only granted to such Souls whom he carries on to great perfection But we must pass further yet For there 's a third deprivation to lose our selves which is to be esteem'd as Fools for Christ's sake according to that of St. Paul Nos stulti propter Christum To love to obey and be in subjection to have no reason and yet to renounce our own reason and to enthrone Faith in our Souls for direction O how the pure light of Faith discovers to us that we ought to be well pleased to have no great natural parts but to be as it were good for nothing For the view thereof if it come to the heart does powerfully annihilate the natural inclination we have to be esteemed To consent willingly to be abject and despised is a great means to empty us of this self-love and according to the measure of this evacuation
by this fault I may see my Nothing my weakness my inclinations to evil more clearly than formerly I was miserable and I did not know it I was frailty it self and I did not perceive it but 〈…〉 acknowledge my vileness tho' I cannot 〈◊〉 â—athom the depth thereof 〈…〉 I am well-pleas'd that this fault happen'd 〈◊〉 presence of my Friends who will thereâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—ow what I am It much displeases me to 〈◊〉 offended God by being so faithless to his â—â—â—ces but I joy in this that I am well-pleas'd â—â—th my humiliation 'T is a good hap to be deâ—â—â—sed in the esteem of others and does relish â—weet to such who desire to repair the injury â—hey have done to God by sinning against him To be powerfully convinced of our pure Nothing and great Frailty is the profit we ought to make of our imperfections How profitable is the discovery of my misery to me seeing it makes clear unto me all these verities This is the truth of it I am nothing but infirmity and corruption and more than I can comprehend And for the love I ought to have for Truth by a voluntary acquiescence I love and adore Divine Providence which has brought me to the sight of my own Nothing I acknowledge my self to be miserable and am pleas'd the world should know it and use me according to this verity 'T is true also that we ought not to complain of whatsoever injury is done us by word or deed for 't is always less than we deserve 'T is the Law of Christianity and a great truth that we ought to love abjection Jesus having loved it by his Father's order and he is the grand exemplar we must imitate 'T is true also that after our failings we ought to comfort our selves with the love of abjection and make use of our infirmity to please 〈◊〉 Just as when a Ship is broken by a Temâ—â—â— we get some shatter'd Plank to save us 〈◊〉 perishing 'T is true also that since this lapse I perceâ—â—â— better than ever the Bounty the Power anâ— Mercy of God towards me and all the Divine Perfections appear unto me beaming forth more splendors of Glory Just as the Moon never makes more evident the dependance she has upon the Sun than in Eclipses 'T is true also that a Soul sensible of her infirmities is content with her Talent without disquieting her self to attain the perfections of great Saints whereoâ— she acknowledges her self unworthy And if God be pleased to communicate unto her great Graces she will not grow proud as well knowing her own weakness but rejoyce in this that God thereby may be more honour'd 'T is true also that being convinced of her own unworthiness she has no confidence in her self but in God alone to whom entirely she gives up her self to deal with her as he pleases in Mercy or Justice She wonders not to see her self left and abandon'd to sin because she knows she deserves no better and then blesses the Divine Mercy for not dealing with her according to her Merits 'T is true also that a Soul grieving to have displeas'd God would be content to be really reduc'd to her first Nothing iâ— such was the Divine pleasure For though she knows being so brought to Nothing she cannot be capable to please God or enjoy him notwithstanding such is the love she has for the Divine Will that she would have that done though she perish To acknowledge and be content with our own baseness is one of the greatest mercies God can do for a Soul For hereby she draws Salvation from Perdition as God knows how to advance his Glory by our sins A Soul thus enlightned is content to be set on the Dunghil of her miseries surrounded with humiliations for her faults as Job was with afflictions and beholding her self as it were the Queen of Infirmities and Abjections she 's pleas'd therewith seeing she may thereby honour and magnifie the Divine Goodness If a Soul be miserable by falling into sin she is rich in possessing the Treasure of humiliation after her failings But this is a truth hidden to most men who do not discover this advanrage They are poor and yet have a Treasure in their Field which they may have for digging Jesus poor and abject for love of me leave me not to my self lift up my Soul after her fall and gâ—ve her some of that Cordial Water which is call'd the love of Abjection that chases away the vain vapours of self-love by which the Soul is darken'd and loses courage Glorifie your power in my infirmities be pleas'd to condescend so far as to receive me returning into the arms of your Mercy and grant I may die unto my self that I may live in your Embraces Methinks dear Jesus I already feel your tenderness unto me your divine love vouchsafes me a relish of the sweets of Paradice my eyes are bath'd in tears of contentment my heart is dilated and love does firmly unite me to you Wherefore do you vouchsafe the kiss of Peace so soon to such a Wretch as I am Why do you not leave me in bitterness of Soul and trouble of Spirit as a just chastisement for my sins Your Mercy will not so deal with me but by wonderful preventions of love in the midst of my infirmities you redouble your favours and consolations O that I was all love to serve you wholly by way of gratitude I would have all the world to see my Infidelities to the end your mercy may shine more glorious I know that the sight of my sin had so frozen my heart as in a manner to make me liveless but O my Jesus you have provided an excellent remedy seeing the flames of divine love have set me all on fire to do your will 'T is a great favour to be in this temper of Soul but dear Jesus stay not here visit my heart again with the feelings of your humiliations that your inscrutable abjections may be its centre and render it in some sort conformable to yours and do this miracle of your Grace that this faithless heart may become a divine heart by the infinite merit of your most precious Blood CHAP. XVII Considerations upon the vileness of this corruptible body HOw is a Soul pleased to know that her body must return to dust This humiliation is the object of her complacency When the illustrations of a Divine Light clear up the understanding then she knows that perfection consists in a tendence to humiliation wherein she meets with the exaltation of God by the admirable contrivance of the Divine Wisdom O dust and ashes you may be terrible to worldly Souls but I am sure you bring joy to those who walking by the light of Faith and conduct of Grace love dearly the interests of God and life eternal The loss of worldly Interests Honour Contentment is painful to Nature too much attached to her self but a Soul elevated by Grace rejoyces at the loss of her own
interests to advance God's glory A Soul ought to be well-pleas'd that her body shall be crumbled to dust and as it were reduced to nothing to exalt the Glory of God and glorifie his Justice A holy person much wondred how the Saints who are powerful with God kept their bodies so long entire not obtaining that they might be humbled by putrefaction because they knowing the inestimable value of humiliation which most glorifies God ought as it seems to have procur'd it to their bodies But if God think best to glorifie himself by preserving them from corruption his Divine Will is and must be the Rule of their desires Sometimes I have desired death as amiable because it would give me free access to enjoy God but at present I have the spirit of annihilation This annihilation is a state above that of death and by it we offer a perfect Sacrifice A Soul which seeks the Glory of God desires death to enter into this perfect annihilation What is most horrible in Death paleness deformity noisomness putrefaction pleases her best for these are companions of a perfect annihilation to humble her as much as possible O death how lovely art thou to such a Soul 'T is a strange thing that the fire of Divine Love burns no brighter in our hearts upon the frequenting of the Sacraments Oftentimes we exercise our selves twice a day in mental Prayer sometimes by holy Conferences daily Lectures and Considerations Now I think the cause of this is that we are sad dejected with abjections which so chills the heart that the fire of Divine Love is stifled thereby but when once humiliation is a joy unto us the heart presently becomes enflamed My Soul having a great degust of this life feels a wonderful desire of death she never was more sensible than now of her Captivity and Prison in this mortal body She sighs after the liberty to see God and enjoy him without any disturbance whatsoever for all created things do divert this happy exercise in which consists her felicity Being a Prisoner in this Body she is yet in darkness and distractions by eating sleeping several affairs and accidents O how is she crucified in being deprived of the full Embraces of her Beloved Quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus This made St. Paul earnestly desire to be freed from the Prison of this mortal body I admire the happiness of those who die in our Lord and do wonder at the blindness of of such who passionately desire this present life and are taken up so much with the care of the Body Goods Employments which are so many impediments of our converse with God and Christian Perfection O how importunate is sensuality with us and yet how contemptible is every thing that is not God! We ought not to be discomforted at the loss of temporal things because thereby some chains of our Captivity are broken Much less ought we to be troubl'd to see our Body the Prison of our Soul to weaken by degrees and threaten death Take courage we shall soon see our desires accomplish'd and shortly we shall enjoy God in full possession This state of desires and languishings after God is a state whereby we honour him as our final happiness and being so he deserves by reason of his excellence that we should continually sigh after him Such as have no love for their final end make no matter of it and give too much evidence that they find their repose in something else which is a most dreadful disorder But considering our happiness by death methinks I see nothing more lovely than crosses and abjections which can only refresh a Soul panting after the full possession of God and sometimes so content with it that she forgets the pain of her banishment seeing her self in a state wherein she may glorifie God in so transcendent in a manner which is what she chiefly desires aspiring to enjoyment without having regard to her proper satisfaction CHAP. XVIII Considerations upon the natural inclinations we have to evil A Stone held in the Air if let go falls naturally to the ground by its own weight and 't is no more matter of wonder when we fall into imperfections If God leave us to our selves we are presently in our own nothing weakness and infirmity And if the Grace of God was not very great unto us we should fall more often They may be thought valiant who bear up stoutly against the blast of strong temptations Alas take us at the best we are as frail as Glasses on a Cupboard If some are sooner broken 't is because they are more used and found in the hand of an ill manager Those that stand still on the Cupboard if they had reason would not brag of their strength but only acknowledg that they have not been tryed by occasions When the Grace of God keeps us from falling we ought not to take complacence therein as if we were better than others by reason of such Divine Favours but our content ought to be in the good pleasure of God who is so munificent to his Creatures yea the most unworthy To be thus pleas'd only with God's will is also very necessary when it is God's pleasure to leave a Soul to combat with some singular imperfection a long time without victory For it being the will of God to leave a Soul thus to fight it out she ought to be as well content as if she was more elevated by Grace seeing in this state she meets with the Divine pleasure which is the object of her complacency Insomuch that the Soul has no more inclination for one Grace than another but indifferent to all being content to have her faults made known to glorifie God by the love of abjection Secret faults do us the greatest hurt when manifested if we make good use of it they may bring no small advantage to us I have at present a wonderful distast of this Life which is hardly a Life but a continual Death because it deprives us of knowledg and and love in perfection O how this mortal life is a great punishment and full of Crosses Here we sin here we forget God and run a hazard to lose him eternally Love here finds little nourishment being fed with slender knowledg sometimes much clouded and continual propensions to evil Dear Saviour when will you deliver me from the body of this death This was the desire of St. Paul which I take the courage to make being so much out of love with this miserable life The End of the first BOOK BOOK II. Of the Supernatural Life which is the Life of all true Christians CHAP. I. The Idaea or description of the Supernatural Life WE can never attain Perfection by the sole conduct of human reason which is the light of Philosophers Faith is the light of Christians which teacheth us to renounce the ratiocinations of carnal prudence to follow in simplicity a Jesus Crucified To observe the Commandments of God as
the Treasures of the Earth We ought daily according to our abilities to examine our selves to the end to purifie our hearts from all affections that tend not to this supernatural Life It resides in the superiour part of the Soul and therefore we must not wonder if the inferiour part has degusts and aversions from it We must expect that Nature Sense Friends the World and ordinary Christians will keep a noise and trouble our ears with many Arguments against it But to all this it is enough to answer in few words with St. Blandina Christiana sum Christiana sum I am a Christian Let us say to such who endeavour to divert us I have undertaken to lead this supernatural Life I will never abandon it maugre all the contradictions of worldly Maxims and the repugnances of sensual Nature I know to become a perfect Christian I must be turn'd up-side down destroy'd annihilated according to my natural inclinations hate in a manner all that the world naturally loves Riches Honours Pleasures yea though innocent and love what the world naturally hates Poverty Contempt and Sufferings This is a great attempt but we have powerful helps for we can do all things through Christ strengthening us CHAP. III. That we ought with St. Paul to convert our selves wholly to God I Am now resolv'd in good earnest to convert my self wholly to God to be taken solely with his Divine Beauty and Infinite Goodness forsaking all Creatures which heretofore have too much taken up my time and affections O my God! deal with me as you did with your Apostle strike me down to the ground humble me make me blind to all things but to You who are in the interiour of my heart beaming forth Lights which discover sufficiently your Divine presence This makes me ask you O my God what you will have me to do And methinks you answer That this manifestation of your presence in me should make such an extraordinary impression on me as to change my life and conform my self wholly to your Divine will and pleasure Behold it seems to me this is what you would have me to do First Not to persecute the sentiments and inclinations I have to a Christian Life by taking part with the struglings of old Adam in me St. Paul persecuted Jesus Christ in persecuting the Primitive Christians and I also persecute the same Jesus when I stifle the motions of Grace in me and will not suffer my Soul to live his life which he did lead here for me to follow Pardon me good Jesus I will no longer persecute you by stifling your holy Inspirations I desire to be a Christian and your Disciple I will profess Christianity in the face of the Sun and only be asham'd to live after the Law of old Adam To be a Christian this is my Glory this is my Life this is my Delight Poverty Contempts Pains Humiliations I will no more be affraid of you but make much of you seeing Jesus hath loved you even to death To live this Life we must become blind and have no other light than what the rays of Faith afford us For Nature cannot teach us the Grandeur Excellence and Eminency of Christianity St Paul after his Conversion suffered a thousand hardships He was whipt banish'd despis'd mock'd imprison'd tormented us'd as if he was the filth and off-scouring of the world which is as much as to say St. Paul after his Conversion was a Christian to death nothing could deter him from living the life of Jesus Christ Let us then O my Soul be true Christians that is let us be content to live in Sufferings Persecutions Mortifications and the Ignominies of the Cross of Jesus Christ Let us embrace the wisdom of the Word Incarnate and become as Fools in the eyes of the world who persecute true Christians that is those who die to themselves and all things else to live to Jesus Poor Christian Life little art thou known how ill art thou treated in the world Thou dwell'st in the lips of many but few afford thee a place in their heart I am fully persuaded that a Soul truly converted loves God entirely that this entire love of God is a perfect union with his goodness that such a union implies a universal detachment from the Creature that such a detachment cannot be got without the profession of Virtues and among the rest Poverty and Self-denial by which we are interiourly disengaged from earthly things and exteriourly when God pleases contentedly suffer miseries sickness loss of Goods and whatever the world naturally abhors as evil but by the work of Grace are for our greater good because they advance our union with God When we abound with Riches and Honours we live in a continual fear of having too great an affection for them but in sufferings a Soul possesses a stronger assurance of Divine Love Nothing but Grace can teach us these verities and a greater Grace can only make us relish and practice them the weight of our natural inclinations still hindring us from rising to so great Perfection When we give up our selves to God with resolutions daily to advance in Virtue we can more easily conceive what this perfection is than practice it However let us take courage nothing is impossible to God and we shall find doubtless this Jewel by a perfect abnegation that is possessing nothing not the very means of serving God but with a spirit of resignation To follow Jesus naked on the Cross we must divest our selves of all Creatures that we may be solely united to him Yea dear Jesus my desire is only to be for you my resolution is to serve you and in what manner you please be it by action or by suffering or contemplation I will be attached to nothing but You my desire is to be dis-engag'd from all Creatures to find You and possess You as my only happiness CHAP. XV. Of the Alliance we must make with the holy Folly of the Cross AFter many illustrations of Grace which have cleared up to me the beauty of the sacred Folly of the Cross after many proposals and reviews I have at last espous'd it saying with fervour the same words which Christ us'd to his Spouse in the Canticles Sponsabo te in aeternum My Friend my Spouse my Sister I have espoused thee for ever Methinks I say these words for ever but yet faintly my infinite frailties making me fearful I may become an inconstant Lover Notwithstanding I say for ever with a real heart in hope that by virtue of that immense Love whereby the Divinity hath for ever espoused our human Nature and this same Humanity hath espoused the Cross sufferings and abjections our blessed Saviour will vouchsafe me some part of the Grace of this Divine Alliance to enable me to walk his way and live his life in annihilation humiliations and self-denial Let us then O my Soul live this life of the Son of God any other life is but a real death Jesus
hath espoused the folly of the Cross and 't is his will I shall do so likewise and shall not I do his will O my God! I am content to be depriv'd of what the world loves and desires leave but me the folly of the Cross I shall be rich enough O amiable folly he who knows thee cannot but love thee What a fool have I been to embrace thee no sooner Behold my Soul thou art engaged and this engagement makes thee fearful Quare tristis es anima mea quare conturbas me But why O my Soul art thou disquieted 'T is true for the future thou must suffer injuries affronts pains of body troubles of mind be content with annihilations and abjections be pleas'd with disgraces be the play-game of Worldlings and esteemed as a Fool yea to be ill spoken of by some Devotes Thou must not be cast down with ill successes whether thou be in fault or no Thou must drink deep of the Cup of humiliations see others exalted and love to be humbled yea though by spiritual Desolations Take courage O my Soul we can do all things through Christ strengthening us I confess the greatness of my engagement would have quite cast me down being sensible of my own wonderful weakness if I had not been supported by the infinite mercy and goodness of God Wherefore I must love the Cross which I have espoused for ever I shall find my self well enough in this alliance if I do but continue faithful for the more I converse with it I shall the more discover its Beauty my fears will vanish my passions will be appeas'd and being in peace my Soul will be enlarged and melt in love towards this Spouse which tho' black is wonderful comely If I love the Cross it must needs be an effect of pure Grace my own frailties bearing witness but at present I find my self in great disposition of love O how weak is my Soul when left to her self O how strong is she when supported by Grace O my Jesus 't is your love and your example that makes me love the sacred folly of the Cross which you have so dearly loved as to die in its embraces When I consider a God crucified methinks I discover certain rays of Beauty which make the horror of Mount Calvary seem wonderful amiable and I can hardly be satisfied with looking on this lovely object and say O my Jesus how delightful is it to see the beauty of a God dying for men This beauty indeed is not in his sacred visage for that was all disfigured with blood and buffettings but in that God was pleased to die on the Cross for men and the eternal Father took complacence in this beauty I cannot explicate what is this beauty unless by the effect it produces in me for verily my Soul sees nothing besides this to captivate my sight Jesus only in his humiliations and sufferings on the Cross commands my eyes and my heart When I consider the other states of the life of Jesus his Incarnation Nativity Solitude Conversation and the like I find in them a beauty invites me to behold them with delight because I discover certain irradiations to beam from the obscurities and humiliations of these states which are very ravishing I often say with my self How lovely is the abjection of this state How is the poverty of that admirable And in all I perceive the beauties of a sacred Folly which the infinite Wisdom would make use of to confound the false Maxims of worldly Prudence O what a favour have you in mercy done for me O my God to discover to me the beauty of this Divine Folly which to worldly men seems nothing but deformity But what abundance of Grace do you vouchsafe me by enabling me to make so strict an alliance with it I have espous'd it I will live with it I will die with it and nothing shall ever divorce me from it CHAP. V. How we ought to conform our Interiour to that of Jesus Christ. OUr Interiour ought to be conformable to that of Jesus Christ that as his Members we may be governed and animated by his Spirit that having part of his Grace as Christians part of his light from his Doctrine part of his inclinations to put us upon practice we may be so transformed into Jesus as to have a perfect union with him And this is that wherein lies the excellency of a Christian this is that which makes Christians indeed and to do and suffer as becomes Christians 'T is a strange thing to see what little knowledge we have of the Christian life Some who have left Nature to follow Grace suppose it consists in doing much for God and for the good of our Neighbour by preaching instructing giving Alms and such-like charitable exercises This is good indeed but we must form the Interiour Christian and then we shall do best for others what God calls us to undertake The Interiour consists in Illustrations inward Teachings Sentiments and affections of the Soul If those be high and elevated the Interiour is so likewise But the Soul of Jesus had the most elevated illustrations possible of the excellency of Self-denial Poverty Pains Abjections and the Cross and from thence a singular love and esteem for them These irradiations and affections were infus'd into his most beautiful Soul the first moment of his Incarnation and continued to his last breath on the Cross The eternal Father who by this New Adam would repair his Glory which was obscur'd by Old Adam's fall amongst the infinity of means which lay treasur'd up in the bosom of his Omniscience and Omnipotency chose this of the Cross which his Son made Flesh embraced cherished loved and put in execution all his life-time esteeming Contempts Crosses Sufferings as things great and excellent preferring the interest of the Glory of his Father before the satisfactions of his sacred Humanity which had a natural repugnance to them By how much the more then that a Soul is partaker of the Divine Spirit and Interiour of the Son of God by so much the more she esteems and loves the Cross and consequently does more glorifie God the Father For to suffer is to make a continual Sacrifice of our Pleasures and Interests uniting our selves to the design the Son of God had by suffering to repair the Glory of his Father Wherefore when a Soul ceases to value and love the Cross and Humiliations she is no more conform to the Soul of Jesus and so does not glorifie God the Father in a high manner but when she feels in her self a high esteem and love of the Cross she highly glorifies the eternal Father who takes great delight in her in that she resembles his well-beloved Son When a Soul is enlightned with these irradiations she sees her Glory is to be despised because her Glory is to procure the Glory of God which she does most by humiliations She finds her delight to be in suffering because her
according to Nature and must employ all means and Motives to this effect I will set down some of them 'T is a good Motive or means to renounce all Creatures and our selves by a spirit of denudation saying with great fervour and affection Away Creatures get hence from me and leave a place in my heart for God alone 2. 'T is a good Motive to do this by a spirit of Poverty for it is not possible to follow Jesus poor and abject unless in due circumstances we be willing to leave all things for Jesus sake and become poor to follow him Let us therefore be content to quit all things joyfully and be glad to have nothing to possess God himself alone 3. ' Tisae good Motive to die to all things by a spirit of abjection What greater happiness is there O my Soul than to live in humiliation seeing this was the life of God upon Earth To be despised with Jesus is a state of beatitude Worldly Prosperity is a hindrance to our happiness 4. 'T is a good Motive to abandon all things by a spirit of oblation sacrificing and annihilating our selves sincerely to pay homage to the Infinite Majesty of God with such a confidence in him so as to rely never more on any Creature Quid enim mihi est in Caelo aut à te quid volui super Terram Deus cordis mei O my God! shall any Creature take part of my heart with you when all is yours If it was possible to love you too much I might give place to something else but seeing I am infinitely below my duty in that particular what Creature can pretend to have the least part with you CHAP. IX Of the liberty we enjoy by the exercise of the Supernatural Life 'T Is wonderful to see the great liberty which a Soul enjoys by the exercises of a supernatural life When the illuminations of this state irradiate a Soul throughly she enters into a new region of light full of Peace and Love marvelous large and spatious in which she lives in high union with God A union which is not so liable to vicissitudes and disturbances as formerly because accidental occurrences as sickness disgraces c. do not hurt such a Soul by reason they make no strong impression in her and by consequence being become less sensible she is not easily diverted from the supernatural Object of her love Yea such a Soul improves hindrances and divertisements to her greater recollection and increase of Divine Love because in this state she is dis-engag'd from the Creature and so freed from fear of miseries which she can chearfully embrace as the occasions of her happiness whereby she enters into a perfect liberty and great purity of Virtue I could never well understand what that is which is called Purity of Virtue but now I see 't is the state of a supernatural life wherein the Soul lives no more in her self and of her self and for her self but in God and of God and for God being wholly separated from the Creatures and united to God Alas how is this poor Soul afflicted to do things so much below her self in this high condition For oftentimes she must act according to her natural inclinations and the dictates of pure reason which affords her matter of sighs and languishings after her Beloved This is that which kindles in her breast an ardent desire to be dissolved and leave this earthly Tabernacle wherein by the common misery of mankind she lives a life displeasing to her self for being not wholly for God as she desires it seems to her a kind of death And seeing she cannot continually live this supernatural life without vicissitudes it is as it were a death unto her A Death unknown to sensual men but such that are spiritual are very sensible thereof O Jesus deliver me from this life of mortality seeing here I cannot live your life of purity in comparison of which all other lives are but death and corruption To see so clearly the excellencies of a life so lovely and not to be able to live but little of it considering my frailty makes me resent my misery and acknowledge dear Jesus how necessary your Grace is for me O how great is the dependence which my Soul hath on your mercy 't is so mighty and essential dependence that words cannot sufficiently express it However this comforts me herein that it gives you all the Glory of the Interiour beauty in the Soul which is a work more magnifies your Power Bounty and Wisdom than the whole outward work of the Creation Your greatest wonders dear Saviour are secret and hidden A Soul that lives this supernatural life above her inclinations does more set forth the great power of God than to elevate the Heavens above the Earth for this is as miraculous as to elevate the Earth above the Heavens This makes me O my God desire to live this blessed life that I may thereby bring greater Glory to your Name Assist me powerfully with your Grace for if I be once left to my self I shall relapse into my natural weakness which is but a meer Nothing and Infirmity Some trouble themselves too much in philosophising on this spiritual life which is needless it being enough to say The Spirit of Jesus must be the Spirit of my Interiour 't is He by whom I must live this life and act accordingly and so free our selves from other considerations which may hinder our liberty to follow this light and fall faithfully to practice on the occasions of Crosses Contempts and Disgraces which happen to us in this life I ought daily to endeavour after purity although I cannot attain the highest practice because the course of my life wherein God has placed me will not permit it nor does exact of me to attempt of my self the grand effects of purity lest I should be discourag'd by failing in the enterprize This is only the perfection of the greatest Saints and herein we must give our selves up to the conduct of the Spirit of Jesus Christ who being infinitely wise we need not fear having him for our Leader But as we ought not to be too rigorous so we must not be too faint-hearted in the ways of perfection but apply our selves with love and resolution to all occasions by suffering peaceably and with contentation whatever injuries we may receive from others in seeking too much their own interest All sufferings are to be entertain'd with love but especially what we suffer by Injustice For is not this that which the Son of God hath done principally upon Earth by suffering innocently Do not therefore say I would suffer this injury if he that does it had the least reason for it for this proceeds from self-love and passion It may well be that he has no reason to do you this injury but Divine Reason and the spirit of Christianity teach you to bear it patiently 'T is good to suffer thus and in this to imitate Jesus is
pleasing to him And seeing this exercise of the supernatural life does bring with it a universal Peace and this Peace cannot be preserved without suffering contentedly all injuries whatsoever this excellent life does teach us holy Patience Now this Patience preserves this Peace and this Peace brings with it an admirable Liberty and Resolution to mind principally the One thing necessary which is to give up our selves to God and his direction CHAP. X. Our greatest happiness on Earth is to profess the way of Christianity I Have a great resentment of joy and thankfulness to see my self a Member of Christ's Church and in the number of the Faithful I have a sensible taste of this happiness which is incomparable O my God! what shall I return unto you for having prevented me with this signal mercy why have you chosen me out among so many thousands Alas this is the excess of your sole bounty to me To be a Child of the Church O what a happiness is this 'T is of more worth than to be Monarch of the whole world The Church is the Congregation of the Faithful that is of those who believe and confess Jesus Christ and have no other Maxims nor Sentiments than his O my Soul let us then live as becomes our Profession that Jesusmay live in us according to his holy will and inclinations To be a Member of Christ's Church is to be a person who ought to have an affection for humiliations and crosses to be well content not to thrive in the world and to advance in Virtue by opprobrious usage and contradictions What a misery is it to see us live so little in the exercise of Christianity We account it an honour to be in authority to be well descended to have a generous spirit but to be a Christian we are affraid to own it by our actions O the beauty that adorns our Christian Profession How wonderful is it and yet how little esteemed by us I shall be very honourable and happy to keep that with me when other things are gone and vanish'd O how amiable are the Maxims of a supernatural life in what an excellent order do they put all things They give to every one what is their due to God all Honour and Glory and to me a wretched sinner Contempt and Confusion For I ought to consider my self as a centre of all miseries and deserved punishments God is the Centre and Object of all the adorations of Men and Angels Glory is his just tribute but to me belongs confusion If I should be beaten disgracefully I ought to take it with contentation to see Justice so well done to me on this occasion And if I was truly animated with the spirit of Christianity I ought as much desire to be humbled as worldings thirst after Honours Praises and Preferments 'T is a supernatural disorder not to love Ignominies and not to endeavour the destruction of our corrupted Nature Jesus hath built his Mystical Body on the ruins of our Natural Body and we cannot form in us the same life of Jesus without the ruin of ours that is to say our natural life according to our depraved inclinations Poverty Pains Contempts your dear Companions good Jesus make sometimes my heart ake and then again they refresh me breathing forth such sweet Perfumes as chear my spirits A Perfume that purifies and calms my Soul into a fit temper to converse with you I will now wonder no more that your Spouses run after you in the Odour of your Perfumes A Perfume that doth strengthen me to accomplish the desires I have to be conformable to you My heart dilates it self with hope to see that happy day in this life when I shall be free from all molestation of Creatures and have some participation of the poverty and abjections of Jesus crucified We cannot live here without some Director or other for either the Humanity of Jesus will direct us or the Humanity of Adam will govern us If we live the life of Christianity the First will conduct us and impart to us such directions as his holy Soul receiv'd from the Divinity which are all for the Cross and humiliations If we love only a human life the Other will guide us in the ways of self-self-love 'T is as great a miracle for a Soul to live a supernatural life as for a stone to elevate it self into the air because the corruption of sin hath made the Soul so heavy that of her self she cannot but tend downward to sin and misery This is that which magnifies the power of Grace in us So that it is a prodigious vanity to boast of our good actions when being done by the supernatural power of Grace they are not the fruits of human Nature If a Soul loses the sight of the light of Faith she will soon lose her self in the Mist of self-love If she does not live in a continual mortification by curbing her natural appetites she must needs fall into superfluities and imperfections The sweetness and joy that a Soul receives from austerities crosses poverty denudation of Creatures makes her spiritual peaceful chearful and affords her solid content and satisfaction The content and delights she receives from sensual pleasures though lawful as Meat and Drink temporal successes Reputation c. make her carnal and afford her but a false peace and vain joy and instead of elevating her to contemplation do more or less depress her to sensuality CHAP. XI That Truth is only found in the Spirit of Christianity the rest is Vanity WHen the beams of the light of Faith are darted into a Soul they discover to her that there 's nothing true indeed but the verities of Christianity which Jesus came from Heaven to teach us and all the rest but deceit and vanity O what happiness is it for a Soul to be thus irradiated Then she begins to know how she hath been enveloped with darkness and dwelt in obscurity O what joys do now refresh her How rich and glorious is she in perceiving that what she thought to be true Riches Glory and Joy is false and counterfeited and in reality but poverty infamy and sorrow These heavenly Illustrations do open her eyes to see perfectly the vanities of this world which now she values not but Jesus is her only joy her life and verity Whatsoever is not Christian that is to say according to the Maxims of Christianity she esteems now as folly death and perdition and what to the world and the flesh is folly death and perdition she accounts to be wisdom life and the greatest gain O when the rays of this light do pierce a Soul how on a sudden becomes she knowing content and elevated 'T is hardly credible how much such a Soul is alienated from her self and whatsoever is not God She sees so much wisdom in the folly of Saints and so much beauty in their miseries that all the allurements of the world cannot win her affections For having been taken
up with the super-eminent knowledge of Jesus Christ she cannot understand why she should dread crosses mortifications nor how 't is possible for men to apply themselves so much to the affairs of the world and so little to the concerns of Eternity Carnal prudence believes these Maxims to be Chimaera's but in reality they are solid Verities She thinks the contrary Maxims to be Truths which in effect are but meer Illusions and Vanities What more convincing evidence can be given hereof than the example of the Son of God The sacred Humanity of Jesus entred into the highest and most eminent alliance with God that ever was or can be by being united hypostatically to the Divinity And so being united to an infinite Verity without doubt by this alliance entred into the possession of all real good But what was the consequence of this alliance The greatest humiliation that ever was What profit arrived to Jesus Christ thereby He became the most abject persecuted despised of all Creatures And why all this Because being so strictly allied to Verity he could not but have the possession of all veritable goods belonging to his mortality and being so intimately united to the Divinity he entred into a strict obligation to procure the interests of his Father But the best means to repair the Glory of God offended by the pride of sinners was humiliations sufferings annihilation The sacred Humanity therefore would suffer and die to repair the injuries done to God and to purchase Souls for him that might adore and love him to all Eternity This being considered let men tell me that Honours Pleasures and Riches are true goods to be desired and I will answer with the Psalmist Omnis homo mendax that every man 's a Lyar. I will hold close to the eternal Verity who hath taught me by his words and example That pains poverty humiliations are the true goods that a Christian ought to esteem and love above all things But 't is a very hard matter to dive into the bottom of this Verity it must be a great and powerful supernatural illumination can only do it O how happy is that Soul which sees sufficiently to disern Verity from Vanity A great number of Christian Verities lie hidden to us because we acquiesce in only human appearances which are vanities and cloak real truths from our eyes Jesus was born in a poor Stable under the appearance of the Edict of Augustus Caesar nevertheless this was in verity the design of the eternal Father hidden under this Edict The Emperour executed his vanity and the eternal Father at the same time executed the verity of his Divine Decrees Herod made Jesus flie into Aegypt we judge he did it for fear he should take his Crown from him And 't was in effect the eternal Father who crown'd himself in bringing about his sacred Ordinations by such mysterious proceedings O how the exercise of a Christian Life and the study of its mysteries discovers to a Soul admirable Verities And besides this all is but vanity CHAP. XII There are many ways in Christianity all which are according to the Life of Jesus Christ. 'T Is a great pity to see how we trouble our Brains with nice subtleties and daily find out some pretence or other to excuse us from the practice of this supernatural life as having not proper qualifications for it Now there is no condition for which Jesus hath not formed a Model for a supernatural life 1. For he himself hath led divers lives on Earth One was a life of a sufferings chiefly at the time of his passion 2. Another was a hidden unknown despised life almost all his days except the last years when the Glory of his Father and the Salvation of Mankind did necessitate his manifestation 3. Another was an illuminative life by his Divine Sermons when he preach'd as our Doctor to instruct the People 4. Another was a liberal and charitable life as when he fed his Auditors miraculously in the Wilderness and healed all manner of Diseases 4. Another was a life of converse as when he treated with the Jews to bring them to Faith and Repentance 6. Another was a life all of sweetness and extraordinary illuminations as on Mount Tabor 7. Another was a life of Contemplation as when he passed whole nights in prayer 8. Another was a life of mortification and fasting as when tempted by Satan in the Desart Now Jesus led all these lives so different to instruct Christians who are his Members and in them shall live to the worlds end so as they may truly say with St. Paul Vivo ego jam non ego c. I live yet not I but Jesus who lives in me Jesus hath honoured all these states of his life in his Church on Earth Some hath chosen to honour his suffering life and in a manner it seems they are proper for nothing else Others he chooses to honour his abject life and in this they are excellent never ceasing to glorifie highly the abjections of Jesus Christ by being well-pleased with their humiliations for the love of God God hath in his House those sorts of Servants who are thought by some to be unprofitable being neither proper to suffer much nor procure the good of others spiritual or temporal and so are despis'd and of no repute but judg'd a charge to Religion and nothing serviceable and 't is thought a mighty matter to endure them O Divine Light of Abjection descend from Heaven and enlighten poor Souls What changes wilt thou make in them What glory will they return to God O the blindness of some who are spiritual not to know how to be content with the portion that Jesus gives them and live the life which he assigns them 'T is decreed in Eternity that I shall live a life of abjection and I will needs live an active life not proper for me O Christian whoever thou art it matters not what life thou livest provided thou dost honour the life of Jesus If thou desirest nothing but the will of God any one of his ways will content thee If thou beest well mortified and annihilated in thy self thou wilt be content to glorifie God so much and in that manner as best pleases him A hidden life glorifies God as well as an active have a care in desiring one for the other under a false zeal to do more for God Perhaps herein thou secretly seekest after Fame and Splendor but this is rather to desire the Honour of the life of Jesus than purely the life of Jesus Christ A purity where Nature cannot find what she desires O the happy state of denudation which ravishes the Angels with admiration A Soul that has mounted to this point hath left all Creatures below her and can truly say with holy David Quid mihi est in Caelo aut à te quid volui super Terram God is the only object of my desires To be plung'd in abjection is to find God purely
our Soul tends to him as to her Centre and sweet repose This repose works in her a will to give her self up wholly to his Ordinations with an entire love This resignation when 't is general and real indeed doth powerfully free her from the love of the world making her passive to the Conduct of God and his holy Attracts and Inspirations What good thoughts God sends her in the morning she nourishes all day long making use of them on all occasions and takes from the hand of God whatever happens peace or trouble sweet or bitter rest or labour because 't is God's will who glorifies himself by all events This carries a Soul on to the practice of pure Virtue CHAP. II. The presence of God in the Soul makes us little value the absence of the Creatures I Find my Heart and Soul so content in that God is inseparably united to me that I am hardly sensible of the absence of my dearest Friends I know not when I shall suffer any thing for all mortifications prove sweet unto me by reason of the abundant joy the presence of God affords unto me God is in me and I in him and nothing can separare me from him because he is always present in me by his Immensity which is his Essence The thought hereof does so affect my heart that I value not the privation of all Creatures but rather I get this advantage in that methinks by their absence God is more intimately present with me And by how much the more I am elevated above all Creatures though some be holy persons and dear to me by so much the more I feel my heart more united to God as to its Centre where I find true quiet and repose I take for a special grace and favour the employment God gives me by his sacred Providence What have I to do with Creatures seeing God is in me and I in him seeing he is for me and I for him O what Riches it is to possess God! But this cannot be without being dead to the world Blessed Mary Magdalen being dead to the world and forsaking it yea her dearest Brother Lazarus and her beloved Sister Martha found God present in her Soul and that sufficed I participate a little the joys of this Saint in possessing God after I have so happily found him When a Soul complains of the absence of any Creature 't is a sign she has not yet found God so well as she ought But may not some Creatures be instrumental to bring us to God I grant it But when we have found him why don't we then leave off all affection to worldly things Alas how flat is the gust that Creatures affords after we have tasted of God's sweetness 't is but a torment to us to continue with them O my God! seeing I have found you I will never forsake you My Soul is so present with you that methinks I enjoy you Separate me more and more from all Creatures that this sweet enjoyment may increase in my Soul What need shall I then have of converse with Creatures 'T is of singular profit to consider how many holy men and women have as it were buried themselves in solitudes flying the society of all Creatures that they might be wholly taken up with the presence of God! Saint Mary of Aegypt hid her self in a vast Desart to be far from the sight and remembrance of the world that she might only find her God and Creator O my God! how happy was she by thus finding you living without the help of any Creature without Cloaths and almost without any refection She had no person to comfort her no person to complain to of her sufferings no person to take part of her consolations she alone was with God alone in a general deprivation of all Creatures O how this Spirit of separation from all created things is excellent O how necessary is it to a Soul who desires to be wholly for God and enjoy the sweets of his Divine Presence But to come to this we must suffer much both from our selves and others to the end we may be freed from the love of the world God himself who will be all in all to his Creatures oftentimes brings us home to himself by great variety of afflicting events This makes the lives of the Servants of God full of continual alterations as well in temporal affairs as spiritual designed for his greater Glory sometimes it goes well sometimes ill with them in their Souls and bodies by constant changes These vicissitudes oblige them to love nothing but the Sovereign Good and in this general abandon of all Creatures God is pleas'd to let them feel the sweets of his Divine presence and by this happy experience of God's presence they grow insensible of the privation of things dearest to them in which before they found Contentment 'T is true those Servants of God with whom we can converse are as so many Conduit-pipes by which God conveys some streams of living Water so that we learn from them eternal verities and many secrets of spirituality with much advantage to our Souls But these are only Pipes Jesus Christ God-man is the true Source and Fountain from whence those Streams flow which we receive from them or rather by them 'T is from the splendours of his Divinity we can have a prospect of his Grandeurs and Perfections 'T is from his sacred Humanity we must learn the exercises of all Christian Perfection When you please dear Saviour you will make a Soul to know the difference that is between the Spring-head and the Pipes between drawing the living Water of your Graces from your self and from your Saints between a view of your Interiour and the Perfections of Servants And so to lose the presence of the holiest persons to enjoy the presence of God in a more transcendent manner is no loss but a gain To be without the converse of God's Servants to have more of their Divine Masters company is no prejudice but an advantage The pierced side of Jesus Christ is as it were a Sacred Mouth from whence his Heart speaks more divinely to us in dumb Eloquence than can the Tongues of Saints and Angels CHAP. III. That we can and ought to conserve the presence of God in occasions of Extroversion A Soul may be as much separated from Creatures in the midst of Towns and Cities as in the Desarts Behold how I conceive this may be done When God once makes a Soul sensible of his Grandeurs and gives her lively resentments of his presence this Soul thus illuminated begins to be dead to the world and regardless of it because the light that brings her to know and tast God present makes the Creature disgustful to her Neither is it so much the insufficiency of Creatures that causes this disgust as the all-sufficiency of God and the lively feeling of his Divine presence which may be had as well among the crowd of men as in the
and miserable I had so little strength that my sufferings did stifle the enjoyment of Gods presence in me and the sensibility of them did eclipse the other And because I thought that this enjoyment of God could not be found but in a Soul exempt from all sorts of Sufferings when Sadness or Pains or Troubles did seize upon me I got free as soon as possible to regain my former state of enjoyment But I see my error for now these sufferings shall become the means to unite me more strictly to God I am content with them and will offer them a sacrifice to that hidden Majesty who is really present in my Soul For I conceive that the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Hypostatically united to the Word had God most intimately present remaining in this union in a state of enjoyment and suffering also As Man he offer'd up to the Divinity a continual Sacrifice of his Humiliations Poverty and Sufferings and the Divinity imparted to him a wonderful enjoyment of sweetness by his presence And in this manner God is yet glorified in a Soul He bestows upon her a profound Peace in the Superiour faculties by being sensible of the Divine Presence And in the mean time being mortified in the inferiour part she makes a perpetual homage of Sacrifice to God by offering up her Suffering to him A Soul in this state is an excellent Image of Jesus as both Traveller and Comprehensour God does not always manifest his presence to a Soul by abundance of Divine Irradiations but sometimes by a sensible Peacefulness which gently touches the heart and unites it to God In this the Intellectual Faculties do nothing but barely eye God and now and then the heart breaths forth some amorous Aspirations As O what a Happiness is it to have God present without a possibility of Separation What can I desire more then to have the possession of God O my God be my Portion and my Heritage for ever Sometimes also the Soul receives a certain prospect of the Grandeurs of God present which works in her Adorations and Humiliations Sometimes the Soul is mov'd with such sensible touches that she experimentally finds God present in her whereby she melts into affections respect and love and praises to the Divine Majesty and thereupon enjoys a Peace that passes our understanding Crosses and Sufferings may bring a Soul in time to a more union with God though not to the pleasures of enjoyment A union so much the more excellent by how much the more 't is imperceptible to the Soul who seeking her own satisfaction has some mixture of self-self-love in the sweets of enjoyment but cannot happen in the Crucified union which joyns the Soul to God in such a manner as is hardly perceptible That state is most perfect which brings us to the greatest Interiour Purity but this cannot take up a mansion in our heart without an entire death to all Creatures Now in the Crucified union the Soul being only attached to the will of God and not reflecting on her own operations and so taking no self-satisfaction from them she thinks all is lost and that she has no part in the love of God which is the only thing she passionately desires What great pity is it to love and not to know it Nevertheless this Soul that seems to her self in so sad a condition is a delightful Object in the eyes of God who sees in her the love only of his interests in that she is content with a total denudation and confessing she is not worthy of Gods Graces wherewith she beholds others adorned and admiring their beauty perceives not all this while what she is her self And this ignorance of her own state possessing her Spirit by a true sense of her own indignity she easily concludes that she is a miserable Creature And 't is no wonder if discouragment and sadness set upon a Soul in this disposition at least to affect the Inferiour part I clearly see that this union Crucified does advance us in the participation of the states of Christ Suffering which is the greatest advantage a Soul can pretend to in this Life of Mortality seeing this puts us in a condition of most expressing our love to God This great Truth well consider'd will wonderfully comfort a Soul that desires to be conform to the Image of Jesus Crucified The Crucified union carries Mortification to the marrow of the Soul making it die to whatsoever is not God seeing that she lives by the privation of all Creatures But the sensible union does nourish it self by reflections upon such a state which will indeed purifie a Soul from worldly affections however she will go on but slowly to the purity of Perfection if God be not very merciful unto her O my God how ought we to give up our selves wholly though in the dark to the conduct of your Divine Providence 'T is your wisdom to lead us through Obscurities to the end we may deny our own judgment which is no lover of Mortification O how this insensibility does purifie the operations of the Will which cannot relish in this state of denudation any thing but only your good pleasure The Soul in this Crucified union has the advantage to know how tenderly Jesus Christ loved her in his abandonments and humiliations He makes us to suffer this that we may know the greatness of that and this experimental knowledge discovers to us how much Jesus suffer'd in the state of his Humiliations and puts the Soul in a disposition to follow him in his Humiliations And seeing the greatness of the love of Jesus to us was most manifested by his Sufferings for us so our love to him is greatest by our Sufferings for him 'T is to be observ'd that the highest degree of this Crucified union is to have no sight of the excellency of this state which once being perceived begins to lessen our Holy Sufferings CHAP. VII That the Divine Presence makes us to love Prayer or Action as best pleases God I find the Life of Man to be poor and miserable we see not God unless surrounded with Clouds Our true Life consists in a Holy Converse with God present whereby a Soul enjoys a delightful repose and is fill'd with Peace unspeakable And being ravish'd with such lovely sweets does melt into enjoyments which transcend infinitely all earthly pleasures In this disposition a Soul does not relish the affairs of this World Ordinary Discourses though never so harmless are troublesome to her Yea the occasions to help our Neighbour though Good and Holy are not then convenient nor pleasing to her She is all for to be at the feet of Jesus with Mary Magdalen in a perfect repose and let Martha go about her business Notwithstanding God makes us to understand that sometimes we must go out from this in time presence and undertake Exteriour Actions in the Affairs of his Glory Ingredi egredi And this is the Life of a Holy Soul She goes out by
secret Orders well known to her self and walks Peaceably in the pursuance of those Affairs which have immediate relation to God And is content also to be extroverted by Secular Affairs as Goods and Honours to serve our Corporal necessities and help our Neighbours But 't is God present in us that sets a a Soul on work by his Orders and necessary Instructions 1. We must undertake no business yea not good works without a Mission that is without some Interiour Call from God And therefore it concerns us to have recourse to him by Prayer to know his will least we do what he does not require of us 2 When we know that God sets us on work we ought to be very faithful in the performance of it I observe that affairs of obligation do not distract our Introversion 3. We must acknowledge our insufficiency to bring our endeavours to a Happy issue 'T is the Sun that makes the Plants to grow to blossom and fructifie and not the Gardiner that sets and waters them In like manner 't is the Grace of God that makes our endeavours prosperous Paul may plant and Apollo may water but God gives the increase 4 To regulate the times of our Exercises without which the Soul will languish and grow feeble Charity well order'd begins at home I must not for others neglect the most important affair of my own Salvation O my God when I am in the privation of the sensible sweets of your presence and find a dryness on my Soul it seems to me not hard to bear it But when I am ravish'd with enjoyment to be call'd from it to mind other business this seems to me more difficult and mortifying We may strive to have the like content in other affairs but our infirm condition will not suffer it and do what we can we fall short of the sweets of such enjoyment It remains then to make an excellent act of abnegation and by an amorous resignation of our will to Gods make it our contentment to have no other contentment than Gods good pleasure who will not have us to be disturb'd to want enjoyment And thus we offer up to God an excellent Sacrifice seeing we give to God what is most dear and precious to us by dying to our selves to live to him I am therefore resolv'd to fall a working without troubling my Spirit too much with the Ideas of Affairs that I may still conserve an actual endeavour to practice on divers occasions and maxims of Christianity and Evangelical Councils by self-denyal and a love of Sufferings for Christs sake And if I continue in this Spirit of Sacrifice and entire abnegation it will make me content with that little Service God requires of me being unworthy by reason of my sins to be advanced to greater performances He is indeed our Soveraign Lord and he may be do with his Creatures what he pleases But whatever we undertake let us have a care to do our works for God with purity of intention and in ill successes to have a Spirit of resignation which may prove to us of more worth than the conversion of Souls When we are in the heat of our Affairs it much concerns us not to let them deface in our Soul the incomparable Idea of the Interiour of Jesus which is the Copy we must endeavour to write after in imitation whereof we always find sufficient matter of glorifying God which is the only pretention we ought to have both for Time and Eternity In this Abiss of Perfections I find how to behave my self in Prayer in Action in Affairs in Contempts in Temptations in Aridities in Disconsolations And without the Idea of this Divine Interiour we do but blunder in the way to Perfection and seek our own esteem and excellency There are in Spiritual Persons three sorts of Purity 1. Purity of Conscience 2. Purity of Virtue 3. Purity of Perfection Whoever is careful to avoid sin even those that proceed from Frailty has purity of Conscience Those who on all occasions practice Virtue without a mixture of nature have Purity of Virtue And those who being divested entirely of themselves and the creatures endeavour purely to practice the perfect acts of Virtue are arrived to the purity of Perfection By these degrees of Purity we may discover the different states of Virtuous Souls CHAP. VIII The presence of God brings us into a disesteem of other things AFter God has manifested himself to a Soul making her to see that he is all the Soul enamour'd on this adorable presence takes no rest but in him finding her self ill at ease without him who is all in all unto her O how Powerful is this Divine Idaea to withdraw a Soul from all Creatures that she may be united to her all How does she happily loose her self in this great all O my God says she how true is it that you are all and I am nothing Dear Lord what can we do for you You are all and have no need of our goods Of the all of our Souls how little are you known and beloved I know not what men intend in not having their thoughts taken up about him who is our all Where art thou O my Soul when thou art not in this all Without doubt thou art in nothing for as long as thou art in thy self or in the Creatures thou art in the depth of nothingness The content I have in that God is all is more as it seems to me for him then my self For my joy is to know him to be what he is before I was any thing O great all be you for ever what you are and that you shall be our all everlastingly does comfort and ravish me I see that God is not only all but that all Glory all Grandeur all Beatitude is in him neither loses he any thing by his communications to his Creatures He takes infinite Pleasure to do good to them by his mercy and no less content is he to punish them by his Justice because they deserve it for nothing can disturb his happiness O what Felicity is it to a Soul that loves God purely to be assured that God shall be infinitely happy to all Eternity and that no malice of man can alter his Beatitude Such a Soul is greatly pleased to consider the contentment God takes to make her live to make her die to keep her in Health or in Sickness to supply her Corporal necessities and furnish her Interiour with all Graces For God draws great Glory to himself by all his Creatures Be comforted then O my Soul and be not disconsolate seeing that God is always happy Be not troubled for any thing seeing that every thing which torments thee may bring Glory to God Do not value any thing but God alone seeing in his presence the most excellent Creatures are as pure nothings Tanquam nihilum ante te 'T is easie and pleasant for a Soul to value nothing in the presence of God she finds in
indisposition of Health I ought to value it and not forsake my usual Devotions nor have recourse to such refreshments as satisfie sensuality But to take pleasure for once to make bold with my body that hath often made bold with my Soul Notwithstanding this must be done with discretion 3. I must rejoyce at crosses and difficulties which I meet withall as affording matter to practice many great virtues which prepare the Soul for great graces and make her worthy of great love What God pleases to give oftentimes to his best Friends in this life are fair occasions to suffer for Christs sake by a generous renunciation of what the World most affects and nature most desires 4. I ought to be strongly perswaded that I shall be so far rich in virtue as I shall be poor in worldly goods provided I be faithful to the Grace of my vocation which invites me to be dead to all things but only God I must therefore have a care not to harken to the arguments of humane prudence which still finds pretensions enough to shun contempts and sufferings Our sensuality does much retardus in the way to perfection but humane reason more being more subtile and powerful to perswade The only remedy is to abandon our selves to the conduct of Grace and fall in love with the folly of the Cross CHAP. XIII To give our selves up to the conduct of Gods Spirit WE must not use violence in the practice of a Spiritual Life by binding our selves severely to this or that way but sweetly follow the motions of Gods Holy Spirit We must row against the stream of our corrupt nature but not strive against the wind that comes from Heaven Work we must but by following Gods holy Inspirations which are sensible enough to holy hearts a Soul accustomed to the conduct of God's Spirit does know his motions I cannot explicate this as I would but 't is an assured truth she knows them by experience I must wholly depend on Divine Providence without any dependance on Creatures though holy casting my self into the arms of God as an Infant that takes no care but to lye in the Mothers bosome to suck the teat and delighted therewith does love her dearly I confess our blessed Saviour treats me after this manner for without any sollicitude of mine to nourish my Soul with Spiritual food or without any searching into Books for that end but only in his Sacred heart I experience that I want nothing which sometimes does strike me with admiration and fear that I have been negligent to do my duty But this fear does presently vanish seeing God was pleased to provide for me before I thought on 't This makes me know experimentally that God will have me wholly depend upon him without any support from Creatures for if I seek to them his care diminishes and my Soul falls into indigence finding little succour from the Creatures she had recourse to which makes her soon retire to the Paps of Providence and this suffices A Mother sometimes has milk in one Pap and not in the other if the little Infant will change he is deceiv'd but finding little help from the left Pap he returns to the right and now will not quit it being grown wise by experience My Soul thus finding little help from the creature returns presently to the Pap of Providence and there abides I fear sometimes to have too many consolations in Prayer but this does satisfie me that God will have me live as an Infant that stands in need of such comforts He make choice of other Souls for great performances that regard his glory If an Infant should leave the bosome of his Mother to do her service he would fall and hurt himself and do no good He must then let others work and be content with his Mothers embraces Wherefore what I have to do is to stick close to God and let others travel in great affairs as more grown up in grace in comparison of whom a little Infant is nothing but weakness My perfection consists in my fidelity in a perfect abandon of my self to God which will increase as I advance in the ways of God and his designs I must therefore be in a manner passive and in my thoughts desires actions dispositions interiour and exteriour depend on the pure conduct of God and his pleasure A Soul well illuminated loves not the dispositions she finds in her self but God who gave them and his will is the sole object of her complacencies it being all one to her to be in this or that disposition as best pleases God and loving nothing more than a perfect abandon of her self to his Providence O dear abandon Thou art at present the object of my love which by thee is purified augmented and enflamed whosoever possesses thee does know and tast the amiable transports of great liberty of Spirit A Soul loses her self happily in thee after having lost all Creatures for the love of abjection and finds her self no where but in God being dead to all things besides him O dear abandon Thou art the disposition of dispositions and all other do refer to thee Happy are they that know thee being of more worth than all other graces A Soul in abandon hath a pure regard to God and is not concern'd but for his Interests yea desires not abjection nor any thing else but Gods good pleasure Few words cannot explicate the great effects that it works in the Interiour to establish a Soul perfectly in God 'T is abandon that makes her insensible in all kinds of accident and nothing but the loss of abandon can afflict her You are admirable O my God you are admirable in your holy operations and assentions that you make in Souls whom you conduct from light to light by your Divine Providence which is not known but by experience Sometimes it seem'd to me that the grace to love abjection was the highest pitch but now I see that abandon mounts the Soul to a more elevated state O dear abandon Thou doubtless wilt be the ultimate disposition I desire nothing but thee and death as the gate whereby to enter into an eternal abandon Dear death how pleasant and lovely dost thou seem unto me What allurements do I see in thee Deliver me from my captivity that I may fully enjoy my well-beloved However if thy coming will interrupt my abandon come not for thou art nothing in comparison and all thy delights will be bitter to me O dear abandon Thou art the beloved of my heart which ardently breaths after thee But when shall I know that I possess thee perfectly This shall be when the Divine will shall raign perfectly in me For my Soul shall be established in an intire indifferency to all events and means of perfection when she shall have no other joy then in God no other content no other felicity Our blessed Saviour sayes often to a Soul abandon'd to his will Think upon me and I will think upon
of God is all in all unto her and without it all things are as nothing seeing she 's only content with the will of God The Soul that truly understands this Truth lives always well pleas'd in the changes of this Life observing therein the order of Gods Providence wherewith she is well satisfied and resolv'd to be indifferent to every condition If we be not content with a low vocation as well as with great Graces it proceeds from interest and self-self-love Great Saints of God your ways are high and sublime and mine are low and ordinary in which however I live well pleas'd without aspiring after your elevations because I taste a sweetness in Gods order that contents my heart To abide in interiour peace and tranquility with submission to the Orders of God by a strong union with his good pleasure in all things is not the work of a day we must fight couragiously many years with all sorts of enemies before we can gain so great a victory In my judgment there 's nothing more dangerous than to leave the order of God and to aim at greater things than he will have us But a Soul content with Gods good pleasure is well pleas'd with any state wherein is no Sin nor beloved Imperfections But our Pride is the source of a thousand disturbances and we continually trouble our selves if we will aim at too high a perfection or run too fast to that which God discovers to us by light from Heaven A pure Soul must desire nothing but the pure satisfaction of God and not her own interest though she find in her self much imperfection Jesus Christ to whom she has absolutely given her self such as she is is all perfection this is enough for her she will find in him her repose her tranquility her beatitude without troubling her self too much with her defects and failings I know not how it comes to pass but I am content and imperfect both together and yet my imperfections do not please me neither by the Grace of God shall they disquiet me I do not seek for the object of my contentment in my self but in my God and Saviour the only love and center of my Soul CHAP. XVI The practice of the Presence of God for the seven days of the Week THe solid foundations of a Spiritual Life are Mortifications pure Virtue to shun excess of business though never so good to converse with Holy Persons but above all Prayer and the love of Solitude which affords more liberty to attend to the one thing necessary The Soul that loves cannot but suffer at the absence of her Beloved and therefore love sets her to Prayer to make him present And the better to converse with God and entertain him with amorous discourses she applyes her self sometimes to the Being of God sometimes to this or that Divine Perfection considering him as the Being of Beings who only is of himself and before whom the whole Creation is nothing Sometimes her Meditations present him to her all-powerful with his only word creating and conserving all things And then again she considers him as infinitely wise ordering all things by his wonderful Providence Sometimes as infinitely merciful and patient bearing with our manifold sins and provocations And then again as infinitely loving and amorous of our Souls in a manner unspeakable Sometimes as infinitely just hating iniquity with an implacable aversion not sparing his only Son being a Sacrifice for sin Lastly as infinitely good and merciful pardoning our innumerable sins and transgressions Each day of the Week may take up one of these considerations in mental Prayer if God do not suggest to the Soul some other matter of Meditation The first Day The Being of God IS it so that we live move and are continually in the bosome of God In ipso vivimus movemur sumus and yet think so little of him He vouchsafes to dwell in our hearts and our hearts run after Creatures to rest in them that is in nothing for the Being of all things is nothing else in respect of God but as shadows about us What takes up the greatest part of the World does consist but in imagination as Honour Dignity Praises Reputation c. so much beloved and admired There be other things have a Being to our Senses visible and palpable yet but corporeal and corruptible to day here and gone to morrow however poor Creatures as we are we set our hearts upon them as if they were eternal There are other things whose Being is more permanent and elevated above sense as universal Verities which consist in the understanding however not eternal nor immense nor without defect O my God I elevate my self as I am able to find you and I discover that your Being depends not upon imagination or sense or reason but you are above all this Incomprehensible O Eternal Being You never had beginning nor ever shall have end O infinite Being You are nothing of what we see or know here below You are an Infinity to whom nothing is wanting to whom nothing can be added from whom nothing can be taken away Your Perfection is Infinite O immense Being You fill all things without extension without quantity without parts or composition 't is You alone in whom is the eternal source of Life and Being When I search for you if I go out of your self what do I find but privation and nothing O my God what damage what annihilation is it when we fall into sin or imperfection For this is to go out of our Being to plunge our selves in the Abiss of nothingness Ad nihilum redactus sum O my Soul wilt thou always commit folly Wilt thou daily run after deceits and vanity that is the Grandeurs and pleasures of this World Wilt thou continually tire thy self to follow a shadow that flies from thee And wilt thou forget God the Being of Beings who is every where present and offers himself unto thee O my God so take me up with your presence that I may forget all other things to think on you my only Happiness The second Day The Omnipotency of God 'T Is no better than a Prison to confine our Souls within the small limits of created Beings 't is a slavery to be tyed to the intollerable yoak which the World and Vanity impose on their Servants 't is a Hell to be precipitated into the dungeon of exorbitant Passions and filthy Vices But 't is a Paradice and glorious liberty to be taken up with the Thoughts of God where we may walk at large finding all in him to be infinitely great his Goodness his Beauty his Sweetness and to apply our selves to admire sometimes This then That perfection This day O my Soul let us contemplate the Omnipotency of God wherein we may behold so many wonders O how the effects thereof are admirable in the Production conservation and operations of all Creatures 'T is by this Power the Immense Machine of the World is upheld upon
of no value Speak to such a Soul of worldly affairs and you seem to cast dust in her eyes which hinders her from beholding the beauties of her Beloved and as soon as she can she clears her eyes to recover her Happiness This inconvenience makes her flee from the World to preserve her purity from being fullied with the dust of Creatures When we leave our Solitude by the order of God to converse with men we find our selves better dispos'd to the practice of Heroick Virtues to a perfect contempt of riches and honours to patience in cross affairs to the love of enemies to an affability condescendance and fidelity to our Friends Thus expressing in our actions the Image of Jesus Christ by faithfully complying with the occasions of Virtue Pure Mortification pure Virtue these are the delights of a Soul that hath convers'd with God in a holy retirement where she hath learn'd to love him purely and suffer for him CHAP. III. The difficulties of Solitude I find by experience that nothing more hinders our Salvation and Holiness than to overwhelm our selves with multiplicity of Affairs though lawful so as to loose thereby the times alotted for Prayer and Mortification the proper nourishment of a Spiritual Life A gracious Soul must therefore so comport her self in converse and action as not to engage at all her affections therein for God alone is the life of her Spirit without whom she finds her self both poor and miserable 'T is God only makes our Solitude amiable being a kind of participation of the Life of God which consists in knowing and loving This Solitary life is much endang'red and sometimes lost in a croud of Creatures nor can the Soul approach to them without some spiritual detriment She must therefore have a care not to leave her retirements to follow Worldly business unless it be by some inspiration from God or obedience to Superiours In which cases if she labours to do good to others it will be no prejudice to her self You may give them a hearing who tell you that 't is not well done thus to retire from the World for they may speak this out of Charity but yet without a true knowledge and understanding of your way To discern this aright we must have a care not to confound spiritual maxims some whereof are proper for a Contemplative others for an Active Life These are to be put in practice without partiality for otherwise we shall much disorder the ways of God and disquiet others Seeing the Active and Contemplative Life are different the practice must be different likewise The Active requires to spend much time to do others good both Spiritually and Corporally which cannot be done without abilities and possessions to relieve the poor These possessions cannot be kept without some care and trouble and this care of Temporals is suitable enough to the Active Life But damagable to the Contemplative which layes aside all Temporal Affairs least they should divert them from their principal employment which is the actual love of God and attention to his Divine presence The Active Life requires possessions to have wherewithall to give to the poor 'T is enough for the Contemplative to have himself in possession that he may give himself up wholly to God whereby he possesses him with great advantage Those that undertake this Solitary Life of Contemplation must expect sufferings on every side yea some spiritual men will account them Sycophants There 's little discourse of them because they live a hidden life and pass in a manner for unprofitable Persons They live unknown and die in abjection and living a despis'd life they are esteemed by too many but as the dust of the earth And which is the greatest cross of all if their Directors have not light and judgment in these matters they force them to an Active Life and so bring them off from their way and center with a continual rack and violence to their Conscience and Inclinations The Devil Persecutes them in their Solitudes endeavouring to divert them by disgusts or by Idaeas of great matters they shall do by helping others and that they ought to prefer the salvation of one only Soul before all their Prayers and Contemplations Notwithstanding all this they ought to continue constant to the Solitude to which they have a call from Heaven unless God give them different Inspirations to apply themselves to an Active Life Holy Abraham did quit his Hermitage upon these terms to search out his debauched Neece to save her Soul The truest Rule for Contemplatives either to continue or quit their Solitude is to observe the instincts and motions of God in their Interiour examin'd by skilfull Directors in those matters We must have a special care that in the eager pursuit of the things of God we do not withdraw our selves from the Divine Order concerning us in a course of spirituality Our great efforts must be not to do much but to please God And seeing God is pleas'd with a little from us though all we can do for his glory is always very little and almost nothing we must be content to do little since such is the order of his Providence Let every one go on in his own way with indifferency love and fidelity leaving others Peaceable in theirs with a great esteem of the Grace of God in them and continuing on our course 't is no prudence to discover the actings of God in us unless to such who are Practitioners in Contemplation Who has a call to Solitude and Contemplation must free himself from Creatures as much as possible shun discourses of News and reflections on Worldly Affairs unless constrained by necessity or Charity For a little matter will darken the Soul and hinder her from being elevated to God by Contemplation To conclude believe me a true Contemplation must be endowed with profound Purity of Virtue which cannot be attained by a constant Mortification of sensual nature which is no small and a lasting Martyrdom CHAP. IV. The Occupations of Solitude MEthinks for some days past I have had many inward motions inviting me to Solitude and Contemplation which notwithstanding did not relish with me because in such retirements we do little or nothing for the good of others But we ought to carry our selves above such considerations resolutely following the conduct of God with a firm adherence to his Orders In this faithful complyance with Divine Inspirations consists the Purity and Happiness of our Souls it being the principal work and most advantagious means to attain to Perfection and union with God O my God I am in a manner good for nothing you have not endow'd me with great Talents for the good of others But I must needs acknowledge your singular mercies to me in enriching my Soul with Divine love and continual aspiring after union with you Let others do what you have set them about 't is sufficient for me if the ardours of Divine Love inflame my heart To
have inflamed affections for you is my greatest work but to bring my heart to such a temper it must become like dry wood being emptyed of humidity by a seperation from all Creatures This desire of inflamed affections puts me upon purifying my heart and the expectation of enjoyment makes me eager in the practice of Mortification by embracing Evangelical Councels and maxims of Christianity Seeing poverty contempt and crosses increase the flames of Divine Love they are welcom to me for I ardently desire to see them arise to their highest elevation I know a good Religious man who in his Solitudes is in continual Prayer not only by the elevation of his Spirit but by union with God in a wonderful manner My Soul finds great contentment in his discourse and conversation In sickness his enjoyment of God is not so vigorous nor his Peace of Soul so savorous though always great Worldly conversations seem but as dreams to him and when past they did only leave confus'd Idaeas in his memory A blessed man doubtless while here on earth And conversing with me in simplicity of heart by obedience he declar'd to me what wonderful enjoyments God was pleas'd to vouchsafe unto him He told me that to attain Purity of Heart we must divest our selves of all affections to Creatures and not satisfie our natural desires which is a great Mortification when 't is continual In sickness we must stand very much upon our guard for we easily relax and yield too much to nature Not to correspond to a known inspiration is gross infidelity and much retards our advancement in a Spiritual Life A principal point of Devotion is by a punctual fidelity to omit no occasion to practice virtue whether of humility patience abjection or any other This Contemplative told me that the choicest effect wrought in us by Revelations or Visions is this punctual fidelity to Gods calls 'T is an affair will take up the whole Soul to free her self from any engagement with Creatures and conquer her own natural Inclinations that she may enter into the states of Jesus crucified and into his ways with his Spirit that is with his intentions and dispositions Let us O my Soul in the profound silence of our Solitude often say to Jesus O Divine Jesus despised for me contemptible poor for me a poor Creature annihilated for me a meer nothing Terms which in some sort express the perfect union that the Soul ought to have with Jesus Crucified And this union is the grand occupation of Solitaries In the Court of Kings the Cooks and Bakers and other meaner Officers labour more than a Gentleman of the Chamber who has little to do but to attend his Majesty as a Companion rathen then a Servant A Favourite has yet less employ being admitted into his Prince's Closet to converse freely with him and entertain each other with mutual caresses In the House of God they who are appointed most for action are not the greatest Favourites those to whom God vouchsases extraordinary visits in Contemplation labour less and yet are more accepted by him T is not for us to apply our selves too much to Exteriour actions of Charity but to correspond to Gods Holy Inspirations if he call us to Solitude to attend on himself alone out of the noise of Creatures Is it not great pity that Temporal affairs should take up the best days of our years and the choicest hours of our days leaving us little time in comparison to apply our selves to the one thing necessary the work of our Eternal Salvation 'T would be better for us if we would allot more time to our Holy retirements to converse with God by Prayer and Contemplation and begin on earth what we must continue without end in ever Blessed Eternity CHAP. V. How we may put our Soul and Senses into a Solitude LEt us not deceive our selves in being content to receive the seed of Divine Inspirations without bringing forth any fruit according to the designs of God If we have a discerning Spirit in the ways of Grace we shall soon discover that this our only affair and all the rest is but amusement and folly To nourish this Divine Seed in us we must shun the conversation of Worldly wisemen who are guided only by Carnal Prudence and so being strangers to the Procedings of Grace leave in us more or less by their Discourse some Impression of their ill opinions which will retard our advancement in the ways of God To put the Soul into Solitude we must retire from all Creatures and put our selves absolutely in the hands of God to do with us what he pleases and apply our selves to him alone with all possible endeavours To be faithful herein we must resolve to suffer much for we cannot abide Peaceably in this Divine Hermitage without leaving Parents Friends Worldly Entertainments Affairs and to suffer almost a continual Persecution on every side For one tells you that it is an Hypocritical and unprofitable Life Another that so much Solitude cannot be good in that we ought to have some Charity for our Neighbour But let them talk on every one is to follow his own work and the will of God according to their vocation The best and most noble imployment in the World is to converse with God and do that on Earth which the Saints and Angels do in Heaven How the Devil persecutes a Soul in this state under fair pretences But she must stop her ears and quit all to adhere to her Soveraign good when he vouchsafes to call her to attend on him alone When God says he will lead a Soul into a Solitude Ducam eam in Solitudinem 'T is a singular Mercy For we shall find but few in the World prepar'd for the Cross and resolv'd to go through all the difficulties of a Life so supernatural A Soul that is in such a happy disposition will live Solitary not troubling her self with the cryes of others When God once speaks Powerfully to the heart 't will make more impression on us than all the noise of the World It comes into my mind that to be Faithful to the Call of God which I have to Solitude requires of me to spend six hours a day in Prayer and to comply therewith to retire my self about five in the Afternoon and eat little at night Methinks also I ought to observe a general Solitude not only in relation to my Soul but to my Interiour and Exteriour Senses yea when I shall converse with my Friends and behold her I conceive this may be done Sacred Solitude consists in being alone with God in a vacancy from Creatures and whatevet is not God It seems to me then when we discourse of God and his affairs we make our tongue Solitary and so speak like a Hermit When we will not give ear to any but Divine Discourses our ears turn Hermits When we will not allow our eyes any Objects but such as are pleasing to God we put them into
a Hermitage The same may be said of our Memory wholly taken up with Idaeas of God and his Excellencies Of our Understanding and will imployed only in the knowledge and love of God If we would often put our Senses into this Solitude we should attain great Purity of Virtue A true Solitare does hardly touch the earth with his Feet that is all his stay with the Creatures is for pure necessity his Conversation being with God and Heavenly things I have Inspirations from God to Prayer and Solitude so frequent and powerful that my Soul takes pleasure in nothing else Methinks God speaks thus to my Soul Be thou Faithful to quit all Worldly things and I will conduct thee into an Interiour Solitude where no Creatures shall hinder thee and I will speak to thy heart which shall answer Of what will my Divine Bridegroom speak except of his Infinite Beauty and Goodness CHAP. VI. A Solitude or Retreat of Ten Days upon the Infallible Mystery of the Sacred Trinity ALthough every one who will seriously apply himself to the great affair of his Salvation ought to have an affection for Solitude as the proper School of Virtue yet 't is necessary from time to time to make some more severe retreats by seperating our selves from all business and company that we may converse with God alone in a more continual Prayer than ordinary I observe that there are divers manners to treat with God in Prayer and a devout Soul must conform her self to the measure of Grace bestowed on her co-operating therewith with all humility and dependance whether her Prayer be of higher or inferiour nature The first is when the Soul by the light of reason discourses on the Principles of Faith The second is when in converse with God she only beholds the proper objects of Faith by a simple view and apprehension The third is when a Soul receives Supernatural Illustrations in the understanding and extraordinary motions in the Will to know and love God by the gift of Wisdom And this passive and extraordinary Prayer hath many degrees of which I have nothing to say at present A Soul experienced in the operations of Grace will easily know to what sort of Prayer she has a Call from God and will betake her self to it with great sweetness submission and simplicity Spiritual Authors tell us there be three sorts of passivity The first not approved by them is when a Soul yet very imperfect in Prayer expects extraordinary illuminations from Heaven by neglecting to help her self with considerations suitable to her condition The second doubtful and call'd in question is when a Soul yet imperfect provides her self of no subject for Meditation and mental Prayer but expects that God should furnish her immediately with matter for it The third good and commended is when a purified Soul receives Divine impressions in her Spiritual Exercises 'T is also of high concern to observe well that a Soul may be Divinely inspir'd to this or that undertaking or kind of Life in such different ways that to discern perfectly the Call of God will be somewhat difficult 1. God sometimes works upon a Soul by his Grace joyntly with the Light of reason to move her to those things which do not transcend but are conformable to the dictates thereof 2. There are some things to do which we can have no motions but only by the Light of Grace and Instinct of the Holy Spirit But those whom we consult about them ought to be experienced in Spiritual matters and in whom the Light of Grace is more predominant than that of reason For if those instincts are purely from God the light of nature is no fit judge of Supernatural Inspirations From whence arise great troubles to persons so inspir'd by meeting with contradictions on every side A Director must be highly elevated in Grace to discern between the motions of Grace and reason And therefore 't is no wonder to see some good men of good judgment not to relish or approve of some manner of extraordinary Devotion Great resolution and fidelity is requisite to follow such Instincts of Grace for Sense and Reason and their Partizans who are no small number will mantain strong disputes with them I will begin my Exercises taking God for my only Conductor but nevertheless am resolv'd according to the method prescrib'd to me by a Friend on Gods behalf to take up my thoughts principally with the Infinite and Eternal Perfections of the Divine Persons of the most Sacred Trinity and set apart at least four hours a day for Prayer and Meditation First Day BE taking my self to Prayer the first day I was seis'd with astonishment that men so little consider'd this ineffable Mystery Yea great Devotes are much taken up with it but apply themselves either to the Saints or the Mysteries of Jesus Christ which is very well done however this grand Mystery ought to be the principal Object of their Thoughts and Adorations O Mystery of Mysteries foundation of all other Mysteries A Mystery not only Divine but God himself involv'd within himself A Mystery of Beauties and Eternal Grandeurs A Mystery of Eternal Ravishments in consideration of the Infinite Perfections of the God-head O Grand Mystery too much forgotten by us who think but little on these Infinite Productions The greatest of Mysteries and the most forgotten O my Soul let not this justly be charged upon thee but be often attentive to these eternal emanations adore them continually and sing on Earth the Song of the Angels in Heaven Holy Holy Holy Holy in Essence Holy in Attributes Holy in all his Ways and all his Works This present Retreat will work much good in me by putting me in mind of my Duty towards the adorable Trinity Hereafter nothing shall appear to me so great and beautiful as this employ about the most Sacred Trinity The application to Saints and Mysteries of Jesus must yield to this and not appear while this possesses my Soul nor take place 'till God is pleas'd to change this disposition In my second Prayer I consider'd that my Soul was created to be an express and excellent Image of the most Sacred Trinity God having made it Spiritual Intelligent and Loving to exercise in her his Divine operations which are the knowledge and love of God Entring into this Idaea I consider'd that the found of our Interiour ought to be a Pure Mansion for God himself and his Divine operations and that the best Prayer we can make and most acceptable to his Majesty is to annihilate all the Powers of our Soul in her operations that God may work in us who can only know and love himself according to his infinite Perfections That our understanding be not otherwise imployed then to adore God present in his operations and the will to consent thereto That the Soul wholly apply her self to Gods workings in us corresponding in all things to his good will and pleasure by a ready and faithful
co-operation O how did I discover clearly the abuses most men commit by profaning the Faculties of their Soul in employing them about Vanities and unprofitable Curiosities as are for the most part our Worldly Affairs We see not except in a Retreat and Solitude how Worldly business hinders the actual knowledge and love of God wherein consists the true Life of our Soul O the happy condition of true Solitaries O how great Wisdom is it to free our selves from Worldly Affairs the better to mind the one thing necessary that is to live a life Divine for which we were created Let us O my Soul flie from distractions and the amusement of Affairs which engage us in a thousand Discourses Vanities Extravagancies and Weaknesses Let us be Faithful O my Soul and give our selves up wholly to God that we may live up to the end of our Creation In my third Prayer this Truth made deep impression on me that the most Sacred Trinity made Man after the Image of God which afterwards being disfigured by sin the same adorable Trinity vouchsafed to imprint it anew and more exactly in our Holy Baptism when we are Baptiz'd In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost We owe our Christianity to this impression of the three Divine Persons We enter not into the Church but by this great and ineffable Mystery which is the foundation of our Catholick Faith I do not see that the Sacred Trinity brings forth any thing created of a more noble Production than a Christian the whole Machine of the World is less considerable for the order thereof is only Natural but a Christian is a Supernatural work wherein it seems the most Sacred Trinity takes delight to be born as it were anew by imprinting his Image in our Souls Shall we deface this Image to make our Souls deformed by some monstruous resemblance Yet this is that we do O my Soul when instead of carefully preserving the Image of the most Sacred Trinity imprinted on us by Baptism not considering the great Honour and Happiness we receive thereby we deform our selves by sin and deface this Image with unclean resemblances O my Soul when shall we be purified Flie from the World and betake thy self to a Holy Solitude For my fourth Prayer God was pleas'd to inspire me with this thought that my Conversation ought to be in Heaven already that is in God for 't is God is our Heaven and 't is in Him I ought to take up my Mansion seeing I was created to consider his Eternal and Temporal Affairs and to contemplate his Infinite Perfections I call the Eternal Affairs of God his Divine Interiour operations the generation of the Eternal Word the procession of the Holy Spirit and the Infinite Complacency which he takes in his incomprehensible Beauties and Grandeurs the Eternal Designs of the Mysteries of the Word made Flesh which was to be accomplish'd in the fulness of time in which however he took an Infinite satisfaction from all Eternity I call the Temporal Affairs of God the execution of his Divine Decrees touching the Mystery of the Incarnation and Passion of Jesus Christ the Creation of the World the Justification and Reprobation of Men God before all time having Infinite Sallies in himself by the Production of the Son and Holy Spirit hath in time had Sallies out of himself full of wonders and admiration O my God how a Soul enlightned from Heaven finds great joy and content in contemplating these Eternal and Temporal Verities out of which all is but deceit and vanity But how low Spirited are they who never attempt the knowledge of these Truths For my part I will never more stand in admiration to see the Holy Hermits forsake the World with intentions never more to return to earthly matters when once they have discover'd the Truth and Beauty of things Eternal and Divine O my God make me dead to the World that I may live to you alone and my Thoughts may be only taken up with your Perfections Second Day BEhold what suddenly comes into my mind about this great and incomprehensible Mystery I am wonderfully content to be in a state of inability to understand it in that the Powers of my Soul are led captive by Faith surrounded with Clouds This inability this obscurity this captivity are pleasing to me and for the future I 'll believe that there is no better way upon earth to please God then by submitting our understanding and will to his Revelations Yea I do more value this captivity to Faith in believing what I see not than all Splendours imaginable How is this submission of our Spirit naturally curious and inquisitive pleasing to God! How much hereby do we honour and glorifie him O glorious Saints with all due reverence I challenge you to be more in love with your Eternal Splendours than I am with these Clouds of Holy Faith If you be content I am no less to be so happy as willingly to captivate my understanding to the high Mysteries God has revealed And that which fills me with joy and makes me happy before I come to Heaven is to find my will in perfect submission to my God and to the meanest Creature for love of him O blessed Souls I am a little too bold with you yet I speak the Truth and ye well know it I aspire to Perfection of Divine Love and this submission is the way to practise it A way sure and excellent In my second Prayer I yet found my Soul taken up with the Grandeurs of this incomprehensible Mystery and being almost lost in this Ocean of infinite wonders was full of Faith and Sweetness at the sight of such adorable Perfections though all surrounded with clouds of darkness For as soon as this Mystery presents it self to the eye of the Soul her light is obscured and casts our Spirit into a thick darkness which yet brings with it a Light to see what reason cannot Nox illuminatio mea My night hath some day and I perceive the Infinite distance between the Creator and his Creature and being plung'd into the Abiss of my own Nothingness I acknowledge O my God and adore your Grandeurs and Perfections I admire I love I obey O my God I adore and believe stedfastly what you are pleas'd to reveal to your Church I neither know nor comprehend nor desire it but am content with my ignorance and submission Let us O my Soul abide as low and abject as Grace can make us for nothing renders us more pleasing to God than profound Humility and annihilation God who is infinitely delighted to dwell in his own Grandeurs is also well pleas'd to see an abject Creature content with its own nothing 'T is an error in Spirituality and savours of self-love to shun abjection under pretence to advance our selves in Divine Love O my Soul let us comply with Gods will and march on in the ways of abjection if God be pleas'd
to require it of us My third Prayer pass'd on in these Thoughts that the most Sacred Trinity being Eternally Knowledge and Love Substantial my Soul ought to endeavour to produce in her self an actual knowledge and love of God the better to resemble this adorable Trinity A Soul in the state of Contemplation renders this honour to God in a more peculiar manner enjoying God by the guift of Prayer in as transcendent a manner as Mortality permits 'T is true the prospect I have of this Divine Life here below draws my Soul Powerfully after it and I love it better than formerly But I see that to persevere therein we must be very poor in Spirit that is not only free from exorbitant Passions but all distracting Images which pass by the senses that are not Mortified News attended with curiosity or the eyes attached to sensible objects or such like immortifications fill the Soul with unprofitable Images which make her uncapable of Divine impressions by corresponding to which we most benefit our selves and most glorifie God In my fourth Prayer I was taken up with a view of those amorous complacencies and those Infinite joyes wherewith the three Divine Persons replenish the Souls of the blessed in Heaven It seem'd to me that the Happiness of the Saints was the clear vision of the Ineffable Mystery of the most Sacred Trinity and to be made partakers of that knowledge and love which is reciprocal among the Divine Persons To see God clearly is the Beatifical Vision Alas how ought we to be humbled to consider how Infinitely we fall short in our Devotions of the continual Hallelujahs of the Saints in Glory Yet this is the end of our Creation and our hope is at last to bear them company O how this life is poor and miserable where all is vanity and vexation of Spirit The view of my own weakness making me sensible that all I do for God is as nothing what shall I say at the sight of my sins and unworthiness I have nothing to say dear Lord but that I merit Eternal Confusion which must needs fall upon me unless your goodness have pity on me according to the greatness of your Mercies Can we imagine we can do any thing too much for God 'T is for the glory of his Bounty and Goodness that he is pleas'd to accept of our small service and endeavours and reward them eternally O how great a Truth is it that Grace and Glory are the effects of his pure Goodness and Mercy vouchsafed to us Blessed be his Name to all Eternity Third Day IN my first Prayer of this day I consider'd that the three Divine Persons were Happy in Contemplation of themselves from all Eternity When they created the World the Preservation and Government thereof does not at disturb their repose and Felicity The Father is the center of the Son and the Father and the Son is the center of the Holy Ghost Three in One and one in Three Infinitely Happy in each other before all Time and shall be to all Eternity O what ravishing Beauties do they behold in each other and what unspeakable Delights do they take in ther Infinite Perfections Nothing without them can interrupt their Joys or add to their Happiness Tho true Solitaries who live the Life of God in like manner repose only in him and being dead to themselves and all Creatures live only in him to him and for him O Divine Life of Solitude Thou art here begun on Earth and canst not be perfected but in Heaven A true Hermits life is not a Sensual but Divine Life God calling me to Contemplation I will repare to Church as to a Hermitage where I may live this Divine Life The Psalmody there much rejoyces my heart and lifts up my Soul to Contemplation Through Natural Considerations I have condescended to please others against my own inclination but now I have the Happiness to converse with the three Divine Persons I can no more relish the Company of my Friends and Relations except rarely to maintain Peace and Union or for some great necessity and if they be displeas'd I must not value it My second Prayer was an amorous attention upon what past Eternally among the three Divine Persons How the Father knowing his Divine Perfections did beget his Son and how the Father and the Son by an Infinite Love did produce the Holy Ghost The Father is an Infinite Ocean of Perfections by an Infinite Fecundity begetting his Son and they being absorpt in each other produce the Holy Spirit by an everlasting flux and reflux of Love This I did contemplate with great repose of Soul and yielded up the Intellectual Powers thereof to the obedience of Faith to receive some Rayes of Divine Light about such great and Incomprehensible Mysteries God then working in my Soul I became passive contenting my self to behold simply and sweetly the Infinite operations of the Sacred Trinity and said within my self Blessed Trinity know your selves for I can do nothing towards it 't is enough for me to contemplate that mutual Love which is among you which I believe and admire with adoration It seems to me that no other Mystery of our Faith can so take up and content my Soul nothing being more Divine than the Divinity No other practice is so charming to me we being created to know that Knowledge and to love that Love which God has to himself to all Eternity In my third Prayer I consider'd the Souls of Just Men and Blessed Spirits are as so many Sacred Vessels into whom God infuses his love and knowledge by a continual emanation Which love and knowledge returns to God its source as the water of a running Fountain rises as high as the Spring from whence it had its Origen This love and knowledge does establish God in us and also does firmly establish us in God So that God takes a delight and repose in the Soul and the Soul finds her center and rest in him Thereby faintly representing how the Divine Persons have a mutual repose in each other Empty Vessels are most capable to be fill'd And by how much the more our Souls are empty of Self-love and Nature by so much the more are they capable of Divine Love and Knowledge A Soul in such a state delights in Solitude and cares not to live in the thoughts and affections of men What most saddens our Spirits and retards us in the ways of God is a natural aversion we have from a hidden life For man naturally desires to be known and lov'd and thinks life is as nothing without repute And as long as we are full of this liquor we are not vessels proper to receive the influences of Divine Love and Knowledge Let us O my Soul empty our selves of Self-love that Divine Love may take place in us In my fourth Prayer I found an amorous complacency in my Soul in that God being but One doth subsist in three Persons knowing and loving themselves
things else are but deceit and vanity 3. They considering the Mysteries of Jesus begin to discover the beauty of his Humiliations and Sufferings which yet is shadowed with some obscurity 4. Their eyes being more open'd they behold distinctly the Beauty of the Sufferings Contempts and Poverty of the Word Incarnate and thereupon conceives a great contempt of the World 5. In persuance hereof they contemplate the Divine Mysteries and if they be Faithful to imitate Christ Crucified they will arrive to a great knowledge of the Divinity 6. Then if they keep close to Purity of Heart they are wholly in a manner taken up with the Divine and Humane Mysteries of Jesus being very sensible what an Infinite Mercy it is to be deliver'd from the darkness of that ignorance which is in carnal men who have no feeling in the things of God or their Salvation 7. Their Light increasing they more and more discover the Perfections of God in the Creatures more clearly without comparison in the Sacred Humanity of Jesus but yet more transcendently in their Source the Divinity sweetly applying themselves thereto with much Felicity Behold this is what God gave me to know â—n a little time and this Light will increase if I be Faithful to practice the Virtues of Jesus Crucified who is the True Way to the Divinity the center of the Soul and her perfect repose In my third Prayer I found my self in a disposition to admire the operations of the Holy Spirit in our Souls God our Creator works in them what he pleases he having endowed them with a certain capacity extraordinary to receive his extraordinary Divine operations This must needs be extraordinary to our Faculties which before had great difficulty in believing the Mysteries of Faith and with great obscurity and with little or no gust But no sooner is this Light darted into our Souls but we see and tast them with great delight not as in Glory but in a very sublime and extraordinary manner The Meditations of many years cannot attain to this 't is a special gift we must receive from the Father of Lights to which we can only dispose our selves by Humility and Mortification O what Happiness is it for a Mortal man to be thus elevated and Spiritualiz'd by the Holy Ghost Let us therefore O my Soul humble our selves profoundly for the Spirit of God takes not up his Mansion but in a humble heart I know we ought to go whither God is pleas'd to Call us and not refuse his Gifts under the pretence of a counterfeit Humility But I know also that 't is not displeasing to God for us to be careful how we entertain extraordinary attracts least we be too ready by innate Pride of heart to walk in ways above our capacity In my fourth Prayer I consider'd the admirable preventions of the Holy Spirit in the conduct of Souls How he awakes us from the sleep of sin and draws us from the love of the World to unite us to himself by undeserved preventing Graces What wonders are there unknown to Carnal men which pass in these preventions I know nothing that may work in us more Love or more Humility For would any but a God of Infinite Goodness look with an eye of Mercy upon a Soul all black with Sin Ingratitude and Infidelity This miserable Creature is beloved of God having nothing to invite him but on the contrary to avert him from us and if his exceeding love had not surmounted the Infinite hatred God has of sin we had perish'd for ever without a Saviour To Love us Redeem us and prevent us with such Mercies does only proceed from his incomprehensible Goodness I am astonish'd to see that any Soul believing these admirable preventions should not be enflam'd with Divine Love What can more humble a poor Creature than to consider that we are nothing but Misery from which we can never free our selves unless God prevent us with his Grace and Favour What can more enflame us with Divine Love than to consider that God then loved us and prevented us with his unspeakable Mercies when we were just objects of his Eternal Hatred O my God who can comprehend the riches of your Infinite Goodness O my Soul acknowledge with thankfulness the great obligations thou hast to Love God with all thy Powers and Loving him to Praise him to all Eternity Eighth Day IN my first Prayer this thought presently possess'd my mind that all Power is attributed to the Father all Wisdom to the Son and all Goodness to the Holy Ghost And seeing these three Divine Persons are in each other by a Communication of the same Substance and Infinite Perfections the Eternal Father is the Power of the Son and Holy Ghost the Son is the Wisdom of the Father and Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is the Goodness of the Father and the Son A pure Soul that lives in the sublime exercises of a Supernatural Life becomes a Mansion for the Divine Persons and receives from them the impressions of Power Wisdom and Goodness The Power of the Eternal Father dwelling in her gives her strength and a Christian generosity to conquer all the obstacles of Perfection and she discovers that many difficulties are rather imaginary than real insomuch as the Principal and the most difficult of Christian actions is to believe that they are possible and that nature shall not suffer so much thereby as is imagin'd The Wisdom of the Son cummunicated to her affords her Light and Overtures to defend her self against the apparent reasons of sensual nature which damp many excellent Spirits that they can make no great advancement in the ways of God because they have too much of humane consideration and too little of this Divine wisdom which discovers to us the Beauty of Contempts and Sufferings in following Jesus The Goodness of the Holy Spirit imprinted on her makes her conquer the Inclinations of corrupted nature which is more or less according to the degrees of Grace in us He that is Holy let him be Holy still but we shall never rise to the heighth 'till we come to Glory In my second Prayer I considered that the adorable Trinity is the Treasury of all Beings Increated and Created That in respect to the Divine and Uncreated Beeing the Eternal Father is a Treasury that is exhausted by communicating all his Infinite Perfections to the Son and Holy Ghost But in respect of Created Beings the Sacred Trinity is an inexhaustible Treasury because all the whole World or ten thousand more cannot exhaust or diminish the least drop of his Infinite Power and Goodness I was almost equally taken up with both these wonders That a Million of Worlds drawn out of the Treasury of Gods Omnipotency should not make the least diminution of his Power is certainly matter of admiration But much more that the Grandeurs of the Eternal Son should be so elevated above the World as to exhaust the whole Substance and Perfections of
for ever-Blessed Eternity O my Soul let us not follow our own Fancy but serve God in what manner he will have us by a perfect resignation of our selves to his good pleasure The Eternal Song of the Saints in Heaven was the subject of my fourth Prayer I consider'd with great delight that all the Angels and Glorious Saints shall Eternally Glorifie the adorable Trinity with this Sacred Trisagion Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath Me-thought the first of the Seraphins began this Anthem with an admirable Air and all the Choirs of Angels joyn'd their Voices all Singing with a Tone more or less elevated proportion'd to the degree they possess in Glory And this innumerable multitude of Angelical Voices made a most Melodious and admirable Harmony wherewith the Divine Persons were much delighted It came into my thoughts that the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ the noblest of all created Entities the Sacred Virgin Mother of God and Queen of Angels with all the multitude of Holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and Virgins did bear a part in this Sacred Harmony with great contentment And my Soul being much delighted therewith desir'd to Glorifie God as much as possible I saw that the Church Militant in a Holy emulation of the Church Triumphant did use to the Glory of the most Sacred Trinity a like Canticle repeating in her Divine Offices on all occasions Gloria Patri Filio Spiritui Sancto Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost And so Heaven and Earth did Eccho forth incessantly the Glory of the adorable Trinity I heartily wish'd that all Creatures had Voices to Praise God continually and with much affection I often repeated Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Tribus honor unus Amen Tenth Day THis day beginning my Prayer I felt my Soul prevented with an extraordinary Sweetness I represented my God in the fund of my Heart as my Beloved and I return'd him Thanks for his manifold Visits My Disposition was then as a Spiritual Spring-time I scented the Odour of the Flowers of Virtue perfuming my Interiour and I made thereof a Crown for the Bridegroom of my Soul and set it on his Head and he seem'd to be much pleas'd with it and my Soul took great complacency therein I observ'd that when the Spiritual Bridegroom comes to Visit his Spouse whether it be in the Holy Communion or by any Visit extraordinary 't is with different effects Sometimes the Soul is as it were inebriated with Divine Love at other times she has a feeling of great variety of Virtues wherewith the Interiour is Beautified as a Garden with Flowers The Soul is is not then taken up solely with the Sweets of Love but being adorned with variety of Virtues sometimes she presents this sometimes that sometimes altogether to her Beloved My second Prayer was a continuation of the same Thoughts And I perceived that every step the Divine Bridegroom of our Souls made in the Garden of his Spouse gave a new Birth to different Flowers This is no small contentment to the Soul but what ought most to affect her herein is that her Beloved is pleas'd to take with her his recreation who delights to be sometimes with the Children of men Then 't is He refreshes us with the Perfumes and Odours of his Graces as Glorified and we must give our selves up to his Divine Will Other times he Visits a Soul in this Crucified state bringing with him nothing but Thorns and Nails and Bitterness and Sufferings But a Soul must not think that her Beloved is not then well pleas'd with her because of this rough usage for this is his Will and 't is best for her I was much astonish'd to see the excess of Gods goodness to me who deserv'd to have been treated as an enemy But he was pleas'd to unite me to himself with such ravishing transports as transcend expression O that I had a heart so full of love as might be answerable to the greatness of his Mercies vouchsafed unto me O Jesus the Love of my Heart if you continue thus I shall die of Love for you O amorous flames consume my heart to ashes that nothing may be found there but Love and Humility O my Friends come and see what great things God has done for my Soul My third Prayer was taken up with the amiable Communications that the most Sacred Trinity is pleas'd to have with our Souls The Divine Nature unites the three adorable Persons in the Sacred Trinity The Person of the Son unites two Natures in Jesus And Grace unites Jesus to purified Souls And this unions of Grace and Love is perfected by exercises of Prayer and wonderful communication in contemplation This union sometimes is so high and elevated that Jesus and the Soul seem to be but one thing one Spirit one Knowledge one Love and is in a manner the Soul of our Soul And in this state she Glorifies God in a transcendent way being wonderfully united to that Love and Glory Jesus renders to the Divinity and the Divinity to it self The design of the Son of God by communicating himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament is to augment this gracious union that as he Prayed to his Father we may be one as they are one By which wonderful union he gives unto us a fulness of Grace and Divine Love imprinting on us unless we be refractory the like inclinations he received from his Father to keep us continually united to him by Love and Honour him with the grateful Sacrifice of our Humiliations My last Prayer was an amorous repose of my self in Jesus Finding my self in this disposition I dwelt upon it knowing well that a Soul united to Jesus is transformed into him by amorous affections and so Glorifying God does Love and Honour and Adore the Divinity by the Love and Adoration of Jesus Christ The Soul in this amorous repose finds all her wants supply'd As Courage in Adversity Humility in Successes Perseverance in Good Actions and Grace to practice all those Virtues which God commands on all occasions By how much the more the Soul is thus amorously united to Jesus in Prayer by so much the more does she participate of his Spirit and Dispositions and consequently is more in love with the Cross and Sufferings To have union with Jesus Christ in Prayer and to be divided from him in our Life and Actions is an illusion for one principal effect of pure Prayer is to imprint in us a love to follow the Life of Jesus There now comes into my mind an excellent Observation of a Father of the Church That the Holy Spirit having visibly descended to us as well as the Son did not as the Son visibly return to Heaven but takes up his Mansion with us here on Earth to unite our hearts with our Heavenly Father as in the Divinity he is the union of the Father and the Son
O Sacred Spirit of Love and Union what consolation is it to my Soul and what encouragement for my weakness that you will vouchsafe to unite my heart to God from whom you proceed from all Eternity O Divine Spirit so unite me to your self that I may never forsake you but depend absolutely on your conduct In You and by You I adore I love and return all possible Thanks to the most Sacred Trinity for all Graces and Favours received in this retreat Amen CHAP. VI. Another Retreat of Ten Days upon the Adorable Person of Jesus Christ First Day Of the Mystery of the Incarnation I Entred into this retreat being greatly desirous to know Jesus Christ and my first Prayer pass'd in view of the Incarnation a Mystery to be admir'd by Men and Angels to all Eternity the source of all our Happiness A Mystery brighter then the morning Star which ushers in the day to Mortal eyes by shewing to us the Sun of Grace to enlighten the darkness of our Hearts and Cloath us with Immortality and Glory A Mystery of Mercies an evidence of the greatness of Gods goodness to us Christ manifested in our flesh to die for us A Mystery big with wonders where God is made Man and Man becomes God by an Hypostatical union O unspeakable Mystery what Grandeurs and secrets are contain'd in Thee above our understanding O Mystery that brings Heaven upon Earth that scatters our darkness that cures all our evils that teaches me to know and love God thus debased and annihilated for love of me O what sweetness do I tast in this consideration What wonders do I discover of the goodness of God herein beyond all expression O happy those who know it by experience Hereafter I will not trouble my self how I may Love God according to his Goodness or do him Homage according to his Greatness or Praise and Adore him according to his Excellency seeing the only begotten Son of the Father was born of a Virgin-Mother and gave himself to me to discharge these Infinite obligations for me O my Jesus seeing you have wholly given your self to me that I might by you acquit my Obligations my care shall be to Love God by your Love to Obey by your Obedience and to Adore by your Adorations Be you my Light my Strength and my Conductor to find you to know you to be perfectly united to you in this retreat In my second Prayer I consider'd the great Happiness of the Blessed Virgin in being chosen from all Eternity to be the Mother of the only begotten Son of God And I said within my self Doubtless this is the greatest Favourite of God among all Creatures enabled with more eminent Graces than any other for there can be no greater Priviledge or Prerogative Communicated to a meer Creature then to be the Mother of God How are your Thoughts O my God above the Thoughts of Men You bring your Designs about in ways most admirable This most excellent of all Creatures the greatest Favourite of Heaven Mother of God must be Espoused to a Carpenter a poor Tradesman working for his Living She brings forth her Son the King of Glory in a Stable flies into Egypt lives but poorly and suffers Infinite shame and dolours to see her Beloved Jesus Crucified Behold the Designs of the Eternal Father about this Blessed Virgin whom he had chosen to be the Mother of his only Son The weakness of Humane Reason cannot fathom this But this is to teach us to have an esteem for Poverty Sufferings and Abjections seeing God deals thus with his dearest Friends He is pleas'd to put them in this condition that they may be able to render him the greatest Love and Service is possible upon Earth To Love God Supernaturally is to love him at our own expence and being content with Sufferings for his sake A Creature having nothing more to do for God then to offer to him what he most values namely his own Interest and Satisfactions O my Soul do not now complain that thou canst do nothing for God 't is enough that thou canst suffer for him 'T is no easie thing to sound the depth of this verity In my third Prayer I was much taken up with the Grandeurs of the Sacred Humanity of Jesus being elevated to the Divinity in the Mystery of the Incarnation where by a Personal Union it entred into a state of Purity and Love towards the Divinity in so transcendent a manner and surpassing the understanding of Men and Angels that we are fit for nothing but Adoration O what Grandeurs were communicated to the most Sacred Humanity in the first Blessed moment of the Incarnation My understanding though enlightned by Faith found it self lost in this Ocean of Wonders and my Will was actuated with an esteem and Love of Jesus beyond all expression Hence such a Joy possessed my Soul in knowing Jesus with such content and satisfaction that all other knowledges seem'd nothing to it and with St. Paul Non aestimavi me scire aliquid nisi Jesum I esteem'd my self to know nothing but Jesus and Him Crucified I perceived that an amorous union with Jesus Christ does elevate a Soul to a wonderful excellency because it puts us in possession of whole Jesus his Divinity his Humanity his Mysteries and Verities For this union is accompanied with a perfect amity and that makes all things common among Friends O my Jesus although I am of my self nothing but Weakness and Misery being a sinful Creature nevertheles I love you with all my heart and having my part in you I can supply my wants with your Perfections as belonging to me and among my Inabilities present them to the most Sacred Trinity to acquit my manifold obligations O how admirable is this union with Jesus Christ What wonderful benefits does it bring to a Soul who having nothing of her self hath all things in him and by this means becomes Infinitely rich These Thoughts continued yet with me in my fourth Prayer and I admired Jesus from the first moment of his Birth in his applications towards his Divine Father to whom he then offer'd himself a Sacrifice to do him Homage And in his amiable Communications towards us his poor Brethren little worms of the Earth In these Discoveries I was much troubled that I could not serve him by reason of my Inabilities and could not please him by reason of my Infidelities O that I was so happy as to spend my self in his Service and die with Love This is a favour granted but to some special Favourites And alas I am a most unworthy and ungrateful wretch At this time methought I heard our Saviour speaking to me and giving me a strong impression of his Presence O what Happiness is it to know Jesus O what favour is it to find him What sweet repose finds that Soul who has a feeling knowledge of Jesus in her When this Science of Jesus appears in her Interiour all is sweet and lovely full
of Joy and Peace and It then seems to her that heretofore she was wandring in darkness In effect it seems to her that she now lives in another World with other Lights and other Principles and other Proceeding and another tast of Spiritual things She now seeks occasions to mortifie her Senses obedience dependance contempts losses do relish with her and she 's pleas'd only to live a Life of Faith making no matter of the mockeries of Worldly men who judge not but by Sense or at best but according Humane Reason Second Day Jesus an Infant BEginning my Morning Prayer these words of the Prophet were presented to my Thoughts Consideravi opera tua expavi I have considered your Works O my Saviour and stand amazed with admiration And how could I be otherwise affected to see the Eternal God an Infant To see that Immensity which the Heavens cannot contain lie Swadled in a Manger Eternity but one day old Omnipotency become weakness The joy of Angels in a suffering condition O God of Love who can but fall into an Extasie to see these wonders this excess of Goodness above the comprehension of Men and Angels But Blessed Saviour 't is your Glory to have nothing and do nothing but what is altogether incomprehensible I observ'd a great silence in Heaven and Earth where the whole Creation seem'd to be struck dumb with admiration of the great Mysteries then brought to pass I beheld how the Virgin Mary and good Joseph fixing their Eyes on the Infant God-man lying in a Manger spake not one Word being transported with Love and Admiration and wholly astonish'd at an Humiliation so Prodigious and I wonder'd all Creatures did not stand immoveable for a whole Age at the sight of so incomprehensible a Mystery All Expressions are below this excess of Love and Condescention Let us O my Soul be silent with a respectful attention loveing adoring admiring these great things God has done for us Methinks I have a desire to stand always in silence at the feet of Infant Jesus I apply'd my self in my second Prayer to consider the universal denudation of all things that seem'd most necessary at his coming into the World To be born as an Exile out of his Mothers House to have no lodging usual for men but a Stable which is prepar'd for Beasts to be his Bed-chamber and a Manger for his Cradle to suffer the rigours of Winter for want of Fire what poor miserable Creature could be reduced to a greater denudation Notwithstanding this is that which ravish'd both Heaven and Earth and the Glorious Angels found nothing in Heaven of equal admiration and therefore hither they came to contemplate these wonders and to bring the glad tidings thereof to men making the Air to eccho with their joyful Melody and without any mention of the Divinity declare only to them that they shall find an Infant wrapt in swadling Cloaths lying in a Manger And hither the Shepherds ran transported with Joy and the World has followed them When the Wise men demanded of Herod Where he was born who was King of the Jews This Idaea of Royalty did much afright him and in rage he design'd a Cruelty more Barbarous than what as yet the Sun did ever behold 'T is a great Truth that Grandeur and an elevated condition though in the Person of God himself made man is attended with many evils and commotions but abjection and Humiliations in the Infant Jesus has force enough to win our hearts And yet we will not understand this In my third Prayer I discover'd that since the Mystery of the Incarnation which is the wonderful union of the Creator with the Creature then Sons of men are called to a higher degree of Prayer and Converse with God then formerly The gift of sublime Prayer is one effect of this Divine Mystery and we ought to value and preserve it as a Treasure The heart of Jesus is the center of men and when a poor Soul is distracted she must gently lead her self to the heart of Jesus to offer to the Eternal Father the holy dispositions of that adorable heart to unite that little we do with that Infinite service Jesus renders to his Eternal Father Thus our little will be made great by Jesus Christ O my Soul let this Divine heart of Jesus for the future be thy Oratory 'T is in him and by him thou must offer all thy Prayers to God to make them acceptable to the Divine Majesty Make this thy School to learn there the supereminent knowledge of the Love of God which is quite contrary to that of the World Thou wilt find there Principles sublime and pure a Treasure which will enrich thee with Purity Love and Fidelity and what is very plentiful in this Treasury Humiliations Poverty and Sufferings The love and esteem of these things is a precious Jewel which principally and originally is found in the heart of Jesus Other hearts how noble soever have more or less of it according to the measure they receive from this exhaustible Treasury In my fourth Prayer I had a strong Idaea of the dispositions which the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph had towards the Infant Jesus 'T was revealed to a Holy Soul that the Blessed Virgin passed all the time in Prayer while her Sacred Womb was the Tabernacle of the Son of God and never ceas'd to adore the Word made Flesh That St. Joseph entring with the Holy Virgin into the Stable at Bethlehem was elevated in high contemplation upon the Mysteries there to be Accomplish'd and in this Prayer was so replenished with the Holy Spirit that his desires for the coming of the Messias were more pure and more ardent then of all the Holy Patriarchs before And that next to the Holy Virgin he was enlightned with the wonders of the Mystery of the Incarnation At the moment of the wonderful Nativity of the Infant Jesus such Rayes of Glory and admirable Splendors were darted from his Soul as pierced the Spirit of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph and discover'd to them the Infinite Grandeurs of that Babe through all the weaknesses their eyes were witness of And in deep silence and contemplation they offer'd to him a pure and amorous offering of their whole Being as to their God O who can comprehend the wonderful effects that his presence caus'd in their Hearts These considerations did sweetly possess my Soul during my Prayer and I found my self in a disposition of great Love for Internal Prayer in Silence and Solitude with Infant-Jesus Third Day Jesus Poor and Abject IN my Morning Prayer I found in my self a great esteem and love for Poverty seeing Jesus had so esteem'd and lov'd it and we have an obligation to be conform to him And I said within my self O Poverty of Spirit what riches dost thou bring to a Soul Thou givest her possession of a Kingdom of Peace Thou dost purifie her to unite her to Jesus in his Humiliations which
gives her a right to the riches of Glory for Truth hath said it Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven O how a Soul which once hath beheld the Beauties of Holy Poverty is ready to follow Jesus poor and abject and conform her self to his example She finds her self freed of her Fetters which keep men Captives and Slaves to the World and it seems to her to be depriv'd of all Creatures is the greatest Treasure upon Earth She growes rich by her losses and when God will have her to possess Goods and Honours 't is yet with a disposition to quit them and possess God alone She therefore only keeps them by a pure dependance on the Divine Will without an esteem or love for them but loves in them solely the Will of God These were the impressions my first Prayer made in me In my second Prayer I continued to consider the poor and abject states of Jesus Christ God in his Eternal Decrees had a love for the humane ways of the Word Incarnate Those Souls who are favour'd with Illustrations from Heaven are strongly carried the same way discerning clearly that they can do nothing better upon Earth than to tread the footsteps of God himself To this end the Divine Wisdom elevates them above themselves and their natural inclinations to conduct them solely by the instincts of Grace whereby they make a glorious conquest over the weakness of Nature Self-love and Carnal Prudence which stand in the way to Christian Perfection and hinder us from following Jesus in his Abjections It highly concerns us to die daily to the World that we may attain to the Purity of Divine Love that is Possess and Love God alone The Pride of Adam will not die in us unless we be content to follow Jesus in his Abjections O my Soul let us fall in Love with this state of Jesus Christ which is little known to the World and take it for a Soveraign favour from Heaven to become so contemptible for Gods sake as to pass for one hardly good for any thing O Jesus how few Companions have you of your extreme Poverty Many Honour this Virtue in you but few practice it They must be Faithful Friends indeed who follow you in these ways so bitter and distastful to Flesh and Blood O Jesus be Merciful unto me and grant me this Fidelity that I may never forsake you in Life nor Death My third Prayer was taken up with a general view of the Humiliations of the Son of God for which I felt my Soul had much Love and Respect These Divine Humiliations did ravish me beyond comparison and I discover'd such wonderful Beauty in them that I could not be satisfied with beholding them I was deeply possess'd with a desire to conform my self to Jesus in his Humiliations and to spend my days in his imitation and I was much troubled I could not yet quit all things to live a poor abject retir'd life 'T is no less the work of Grace to bring us to relish the Abjections of Jesus Christ as to be taken with his Grandeurs His Grandeurs are incomprehensible but nothing in my eyes seem more great and rich and precious than his Humiliations The unspeakable Love that Jesus Christ has for Souls does manifest it self by making them partakers of his Humiliations Be content O my Soul with what part he shall give thee For it seems to me a punishment to abound with Riches and Honours whereby we become unlike to Jesus and march on in ways contrary to his practice and example When I reflect upon my sins I cannot sufficiently admire the great Graces God is pleas'd to vouchsafe me A strong argument to convince of his Infinite goodness and affords much matter of Humiliation considering how unworthy I am of the least favours But for me a poor wretch to have a call to solitude to converse only with God and his Holy Angels what a Mercy is this It came into my mind that Moses who had been a Captain of Thieves was afterwards a Holy Hermit and I had a special Devotion to him desiring him to help me by his Prayers O the wonderful effects of Grace that a Robber should become a Hermit I have a Devotion to Saints that have been great sinners methinks they are Powerful with God to help sinners to be converted This view of the extreme humiliations of Jesus yet continuing was the subject of my fourth Prayer And I found in my self great desires to begin a new kind of life to give my self absolutely to God as a Sacrifice by dying to all things of the world by a vow of Poverty But I being not yet in a condition to forsake my temporal affairs I resolv'd to make such a Vow when all things were settled and I took care that my affairs might be so regulated as to put me in a condition to comply with the call of God Having taken this resolution I found my heart inflamed with desires to be wholly for God and to conform my self as much as possible to Jesus in his humiliations Nature felt some afflicting resentment hereat and furnish'd me with arguments to divert me from it But the light of Grace scatter'd these thoughts and taught me to neglect the help of Creatures by casting my self wholly into the arms of his Providence O my Jesus the only love of my Soul though the most despised of men your Divine attracts and inspirations do so powerfully invite me to follow you in your ways of poverty that I shall never soon enough see the happy moment to engage my self thereto by a Vow never to be recalled Fourth Day Jesus the Fountain of Grace and Piety IN my first Prayer God gave me to see the infinite grandeurs of the Sacred Humanity united to the Divinity in the same person This ineffable union was the general and amorous object of my regard which wrought in my Soul a very great esteem and singular love and union with Jesus Christ This state of Jesus rejoyced my heart and I dwelt upon it my Soul being satisfied with wonderful contentment I had interiour assurances and very great certitudes of the Divinity of Jesus nothing in him seemed dark unto me though all surpassed the strength of reason I beheld him as the Principal of Grace and Glory This manifestation was in me by a Divine light and I found it filled my heart with most pleasing impressions The small conviction we have of the Divinity of Jesus makes us such cold Christians and that we walk so slowly in the ways of Grace For who firmly believes that Jesus is God will have a singular esteem of his Doctrine of his Counsels of his Proceedings and think it his Glory for to follow him The perfect belief of the Divinity of Jesus carries a Soul to real endeavours after perfection to despise the world to take up the Cross and follow Jesus in his abjections This is to be the Image of Jesus Christ
another as I have loved you which was the subject of my second Prayer I then found that when a Soul has made a good entrance into the heart of Jesus Christ and by the light of Prayer sees the infinite love of God towards men Grace then discovers how this divine charity is free generous and magnificent Free having a love for us when objects of his just displeasure Generous surmounting all difficulties and conquering all resistances Magnificent in giving his own life for our Redemption This is a Zeal truly Divine for the Salvation of Souls Now his pleasure is that the charity we have for our Neighbour be regulated by this divine Model that we love them to do the will of God and obey his Commands That we love them generously without any regard to natural aversions or injuries they have done us or any temporal advantages we may receive from them but after the example of Jesus to love and do good even to our greatest enemies O how many great Saints considering the ardent love of Christ to us have burn'd with the flames of a holy Zeal and spent themselves in labours to do good to those Souls for whom Christ died But alas we have little zeal for God for our Neighbour or our selves My third Prayer passed in considerations of the prodigious goodness of Jesus to men who seem'd to forget himself and depose the grandeurs of his Majesty to debase himself in the search of our Souls to indulge and love them with as much affection as if they did contribute to his felicity He prevents them with wonderful mercies and though they be unworthy of his love he gives them sensible feelings thereof by speaking to the heart in this or such-like manner My Sister my Spouse my love takes a delight in thee knowest thou well who I am 'T is I that am thy God thy Creator thy Saviour 'T is I who came from the bosom of my Father into this world to find thee being lost and tell thee how I love thee and I demand nothing but love again My Soul thus prevented with the blessings of this sweetness and powerfully touched with a sense thereof wanted words to express my thankfulness However I said O my God! You are my love I love you and will love you eternally with all my heart for what else have I to return but love for love 'T is a wonderful love for you to debase the grandeurs of your Divinity to search after poor sinful Souls Nor is it less wonderful for you to draw these Souls out of themselves to free them from their miseries and advance them to your embraces and place them in your heart as some rich Treasure This is the wonderful excess of the love of Jesus Zelator of Souls This love that so humbled Jesus does elevate a Soul to these amorous exercises and makes her see her own unworthiness and the incomparable beauty of her well-beloved In my fourth Prayer I had a deep impression of Jesus humbled and doing Penance for us I beheld him as it were annihilated in the presence of his eternal Father to honour his eternal Beeing by sacrificing his humanity which he continued his whole life and consummated on the Cross I beheld also how being charged with our sins he did continual Penance for us to satisfie the divine Justice and give content to that infinite love he has for our Souls Let us love then O my Soul our Jesus as he has loved us and imitate his sufferings by a spirit of penance and annihilation I am a great sinner and therefore ought to entertain a spirit of penance and thereby make advantage of all evils and infirmities which happen to me My principal affair in this world ought to be to annihilate my self and to suffer to annihilate my self to pay homage to the infinite grandeurs of God and to suffer as a just punishment of my sins After Confession having but one Gloria Patri for my penance it came into my thoughts that no penance is little when 't is united to the sufferings of Jesus Christ who by them has done penance for our sins It seemed to me that one only Ave Maria united to the sufferings of the Son of God which are of infinite merit and did infinitely satisfie his eternal Father becomes a penance which wonderfully satisfies for our sins My Soul was comforted with this truth and I had no more to do than to unite my little Crosses to the Cross of Jesus Sixth Day Jesus contemplating and enjoying OUr blessed Saviour did fill my Soul with such super-abundant consolation in my morning Prayer that I seem'd to have some part of that state of enjoyment which is reserv'd for the Saints in Glory O amorous enjoyment how wonderfully dost thou purifie our Souls Thou takest our hearts off from the World thou dost Crucifie us with a delightful Martyrdom thou dost enlighten thou dost purifie thou dost inflame thou dost mortifie thou dost fortifie thou makest us live and die together A small tast of this Ocean of delights will inebriate the Souls of men and the Angels in Glory This is that Blessed Life which is granted to some Servants of God honouring him by continual enjoyments which he pours into their Souls 'T is a great secret of the Interiour Life to be passive to the operations of God in us whether he visits us with dolorous and crucifying or joyful and beatifying impressions Our fidelity consists in a pure correspondence to his designs without reluctance If he please to make our Soul a Garden of Delights embrace his Favours All the ways of God are good in themselves but that which he puts us in is best for us O how the state of Jesus suffering is adorable O how his state of enjoying is admirable We must apply our selves to one or other according to the designs of the Divine Wisdom I found an Image of Jesus in Contemplation his Look and Posture ravish'd me and this took up my second Prayer I was not satisfied with beholding his Divine Aspect I admir'd and ador'd him Considering the profound attention he had to the Grandeurs of his Eternal Father and how he was absorp'd in the Divinity I made it my work to contemplate also by him and in him uniting my self to the utmost of my Power to his Divine entertainments O Jesus contemplating Jesus taken up with your Father with whom you pass in Prayer whole nights made as bright as the days of Eternity Jesus living a retir'd life in the Divine Essence You are the object of my Love I see nothing so beautiful as you are in this state My Soul hath no greater delight upon Earth than to have an eye to Jesus to think of him to speak of him to sigh after him O how happy is that Soul which Jesus makes his Mansion I know not how Jesus comes into a Soul but he 's there sometimes sooner then perceiv'd filling her with Blessings and making her to find that
and Redeemer to lay out thy self upon the Creature and not correspond to his Inspirations who calls thee to himself What a horrible Infidelity would this be Let us not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom we are Sealed to the day of Redemption The subject of my third Prayer was the admirable Oeconomy of the Incarnation in that by the excess of Love and Goodness God was made Man and Man became God I had profound veneration for the adorable Humanity absorpt in the Divinity and with an amorous confidence beheld the Divinity as it were annihilated in the Humanity which seem'd to me as a Tabernacle of Honour where God dwelt with Infinite Delight This Humanity also in a manner diviniz'd takes Infinite Delight in the Divinity from whence it receives wonderful Impressions of Annihilation to be poor abject and despis'd Crucified For after God was made man he inspir'd the Humanity with ardent desires and love of Sufferings for us Men and our Salvation O Jesus when you communicate your self to a Soul she receives impressions from you which incline her to a love of Contempts and Sufferings And when a Soul feels in her self the greatest propension to Sufferings and Self-denyal 't is then she most participates of your communications and has the greatest assurance of them For O good Jesus your Spirit is full of such impressions from the Divinity and the Soul where you reign as King does Infallibly receive the like impressions from your presence In my fourth Prayer I was touch'd with a great desire to leave this Mortal Life so full of Sin and Misery and depriv'd of the Beatifical Vision of God my Saviour Oh how irksom is it not to be in a capacity to contemplate at leasure this Infinite Beauty this Essence full of Infinite Perfections this only true Object of the Loves of Heaven and Earth O when shall I be deliver'd from this Prison of Flesh that I may behold Jesus the Light of my Eyes and Joy of my Heart Must I yet continue longer in this banishment What a cross is it to live here What a punishment is the delay Death how welcom wilt thou be in my embraces We must languish with Love after the Infinite Beauty of Jesus Christ and sigh to enjoy him O my Soul do not amuse thy self with Creatures love the Cross which is the high-way to Happiness Is it possible to believe in Jesus Christ and Love him and to languish with Desires to enjoy Him To stand much in fear of Death is a sign we have little desire to see the Infinite Beauties of God seeing Death only opens the gate of Paradice O Death thou art desirable come and put me in possession of the Object of my Love that I may live with Jesus who is the source of Life and the joy of the Blessed In the interim O my Soul let us have neither Love nor Life nor operation but what is in him and for him our Soveraign Happiness Vivit in me Christus Eighth Day Jesus our Light JEsus was present to me in my first Prayer as the Light of the World which discover'd to me such a Beauty in the Mysteries of our Religion with rayes of a new Light that I saw more then ever the vanity of the World and the strange Sottishness of such men who preferr'd the Darkness of Falsehood before the Light of Truth Insanias falsas The beams of this Light works wonders in a Soul for it leaves such impressions as bring her to know Truth in another manner then by the sole Light of Reason or Faith either If we be in the Closet of some great King in the dark we know well there be excellent pieces there we may know their number bigness and value of the Precious Stones the rareness of the Painting and what else we see not But when once the least light of day appears then we begin to have a view of all their Riches Beauties and Excellencies and the whole order of the Closet salutes our eyes and in admiration thereof we are taken with it in an extraordinary manner When it pleases God to give us a sight of his Divine Beauties discovering them to a Soul by the least Ray of his Heavenly Light then the Soul is wonderfully affected and being more then ever transported with admiration looks upon all things of the World as nothing Faith indeed gives us a certain assurance of her Objects but leaves in obscurity But one sole Ray from the Eyes of Jesus when he is pleas'd to dart it into a Soul doth confirm fortifie encourage and refresh her with Illustrations extraordinary and Soveraign consolations Accedite ad eum illuminamini We cannot approach to Jesus and not be enlightned I came to know in my second Prayer that when Jesus is pleas'd to manifest himself to a Soul he infuses a Light into her which gives her a marvellous Facility to believe the Verities of the Word Incarnate She has a certainty and as it were experience that his Thoughts his Words his Actions his Proceedings his Doctrine his Sufferings were Divine and brought a Soveraign Honour to the Divinity O Science of Jesus how art thou sweet and admirable All other knowledge in respect of thee is but ignorance and vanity I have by the great goodness of God had some little experience to know Jesus in this manner but I cannot express it The more this knowledge increases the less is it explicable The profound attention to Jesus does so take up my Spirit that it takes away my Speech It calls me from all Creatures to converse with him alone and draws me out of my self to be ravish'd with him O World how blind art thou not to see the Beauty of the Poor and abject states of Jesus His Doctrine and his Maxims are the only true Light All that thou hast O ignorant World seduced by the Prince of Darkness is but meer Darkness thy opinions thy imployments thy hopes thy fears thy desires thy entertainments are but Darkness and disorder thou stumblest almost at every step because thou walkest in Darkness out of which thou canst never get but by Jesus Christ For as the Sun is the principle of Corporal Light to the World so Christ the Sun of Righteousness is the source of all Spiritual Light and whom his Grace and Doctrine do not enlighten they wander in Darkness Ego sum Lux mundi qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenebris My third Prayer pass'd in continual astonishment in that I had so little known Jesus Christ and of that extreme blindness wherein I had liv'd At present I had almost a continual sight and a sweet and forceable inclination to regard this admirable Object so that I thought every moment lost which was not so imployed To behold him with amorous affections is a Cure for all my evils For when my Soul is afflicted with fears of loosing Gods favour or with experience of her Miseries or with difficulties about Perfection one
condition of Interiour Captivity where the Soul lyes bound and ty'd up in darkness and prison For this condition Honoureth the Captivity of Jesus confined to the narrow compass of a little Host This Divine Lord of ours shuts himself up in this strait Prison for the Love of us The King of Glory is contracted under these little Species and so renders himself a Prisoner to man yes he renders himself in appearance his Slave giving all of himself to man and still Sacrificing himself to his Eternal Father for man He still suffers as I may say and dies for man and communicates to him all the merits of his precious Blood and Passion O Divine Captive captivate my heart so strongly that it may never be able to re-enter into its natural liberty But that wholly destroyed and annihilated it may never be capable of any other Life than that which is more than Humane Never enjoy any other liberty than that of your Children Let the World look upon them as slaves And load them with all Indignities as the out-cast of men in despite of all contempt they are still your Children Every time we approach to this Sacrament wherein Jesus Christ gives himself to us whole and entire we enter into a new obligation and contract to give up our selves wholly entirely to him and to endeavour to render all our Actions Divine Wherefore a Virtuous Soul ought not to say I have not had time enough to prepare my self before Communion for she ought to aim at no other thing in all the Actions of her Life than to receive this Bread of Life to the end she may live the Life of Jesus and keep her self continually in such dispositions as she sees him in in the Blessed Sacrament CHAP. III. To receive the Communion Worthily we must imitate those Actions which Jesus Christ practis'd when he Instituted it I remark Principally three Actions that Jesus Christ was pleas'd to do for our example when he instituted the Holy Sacrament And we cannot make a perfect Communion without the practice of them 1. He never performed any Exteriour Act of such a profound Humility In Truth he annihilated himself in the work of his Incarnation Both according to his Humane Nature which he deprived of its Natural Substance in an extraordinary way of conception And according to his Divinity which he plunged into the Abiss of Humane Miseries Yet he debased himself farther when he chose a Stable to be born in as the most Poor and Abject of Men Still more when he condescended to take the Badge of Sinners in his Circumcision But the lowest Abiss and center of annihilation was in the Chamber where he made the last Supper and where he did a thing that is the most humbling of all Humane Actions washing the Feet drying them kissing them with his adorable Lips and this even to the greatest of his Enemies and most wicked Miscreant that ever lived even to Judas O my Jesus this is too much debasing of your Grandeurs 't is too profound a Humiliation of your Majesty 'T is my duty who am a meer Nothing by the condition of my Being and become less than nothing by the enormity of my sins 't is my duty to annihilate my self under the feet of the vilest of Creatures What an intolerable Pride would it be in me if having seen the God of Majesty humbling himself so profoundly to give example and having heard him tell me so with his own mouth Exemplum dedi vobis ut vos it a faciatis I have given you an example that you should do so as you have seen me do What a Pride I say would it be in me to approach to your Communion without the Sentiments of the greatest Humility that I can possibly exhibit in any Action of my Life The second Action our Divine Master practiced when he instituted this great Sacrament was a sublime Prayer one of the most perfect as well as one of the last that he made in all his Life lifting up his Hands Eyes and Heart to God his Father by an Act of a most respectful Reverence And though he was himself his own Heaven where his Father reigned he recollects himself into this most Sacred Humanity as into a new Heaven and there addresses his Prayers to his Father who was present to him and his first Petition is Glorifie me O Father which is to say give me the joy of Humiliations and Opprobries of the Cross which I have so long desired and sighed after Teaching his Church to look upon Contempts and Crosses as her Glory and the greatest Honour she can desire upon Earth He demands also the Institution of this ineffable Mystery of the Holy Eucharist which he was going to make in obedience to his Eternal Will and Decree knowing that it was to be unto us a Fountain of Eternal Life and unto himself the beginning of a perpetual Death as continuing there in quality of a Sacrifice even to the consummation of the World It is my Duty therefore after his Example to prepare my Soul to receive his Divine Mysteries by the most pure and most perfect Prayer as God shall enlighten and inspire me The most assured is to apply ones self to him by a simple regard of Faith accompanied with Respect and Love considering him full of Graces full of Mercies and Blessings in this awful Mystery and that he comes unto us with all his riches and gives himself without any reserve even rendring himself in a manner passive for all the designs that he intends to accomplish within us whether he comes himself in person to operate there the marvellous effects of his Love This sole regard of Faith in its simplicity contains all the Perfections of other Acts. 'T is sufficient to have God by Regard unto him and by Love this is to attain to the end where the heart rests All other Exercises of Meditation and Practices of Interiour Virtues are but only means to arrive unto God when he is once found the Soul is to repose there and rest satisfied The third and most endearing Action that I admire in our Lord when he Instituted the Blessed Sacrament and when he made his Love appear in its greatest Lustre and in its most Ardent Fervour as well towards God the Father as towards Men even his Enemies When he comes into the World his Love is a rising Sun But when he comes to leave the World in the vigour of his Life and in the excess of Charity that he shew'd in dying for us he is a Sun in the heat of Noon day The Gospel tells us That having loved his own that were in the World he kindled the flames of his Charity and raised them to the highest point imaginable when he Instituted the Holy and adorable Sacrament In finem dilexit eos But that which is most inconceivable in it which the most of any thing demonstrates the eminence of his Charity is that he did not
refuse the most charming and most tender embraces to the most unworthy and most perfidious of all his Enemies Judas whom Envy had already poisoned even to the heart whom Avarice had perverted and made a Thief Insensibleness had blinded and made ungrateful whom Malice had corrupted and made an Apostate a Traytor a very Devil yet this Judas in this condition that he was and in which Jesus saw him at the bottom of his heart is not excluded from the eminent Grandeurs of the Love of our Saviour which feeds this Demon with the Manna of Angels O Love how thou art admirable O Love how thou art invincible an abundance of waters cannot extinguish thy flames And now my Soul is it possible thou shouldst continue tepid and insensible while thou art near so great a Fire Hadst thou all the Ardours of the Seraphins thou wouldst still be too little on Fire to answer and reflect the Fires of that incomparable Love which inflames his heart when he comes to give himself to thee A good Religious Capuchin called Br. Bonaventure felt his Soul so inflamed with this Sacred Fire when he approached to the Holy Table that one day among others finding himself more than ordinary replenished with an Ardent desire to unite himself with God and seeing the most Blessed Sacrament in the Priests hand ready to Communicate him his heart seem'd to make strong efforts to leap out of his Breast and meet the only Object of its desires which also broke forth into words For the abundance of his Love forced out their amorous Aspirations My Jesu My Jesu My Jesu But to let both him and us know that the Love of Jesus in this unspeakable Mystery surpasses all ours in an Infinite measure the Holy Host quitted the Priest's hand and as it were all on a flame and encircled with Glorious Rayes of Light of its own accord flew into the Mouth of this worthy Servant of God CHAP. IV. Interiour Entertainments during Communion SOme times when I was Communicating it came into my mind to think that my heart was an Altar and that Jesus Christ came to continue upon it the same operations that he had performed on that Altar where the Holy Mass is Celebrated Wherefore my heart received him lovingly and simply united it self to all his Divine Operations relating both to his Heavenly Father and to Creatures And my Soul adhering to all his Adorations all his Sacrifices all his Love that he bears his Eternal Father became wholly passive like an Altar upon which Jesus does all that he pleases as well in regard of the Divinity as in regard of Men to whom he distributes and dispenses his Mercies It seemed to me that in the first place he apply'd himself to honour his Divine Father to annihilate himself before his greatness to love his Goodness and other Divine Perfections and then he turned himself to succour my weakness and shew his Mercies upon me by giving me a glimpse of what he is and a fight of the strick and close alliance whereby I ought to be united to him that I ought not to subsist a moment but by his Life that his Holy Spirit ought to animate my Soul and be the first spring of all its motion as my Soul moves my Body and is the Principal of all its operations That to live a Life purely Humane is a state wherein though a Soul does not offend God yet she cannot please him which is a thing Love cannot suffer nor will it endure that a Soul wherein it reigns should cease any one moment from pleasing her Beloved O Jesus enter into so absolute a possession of my Soul that she may be wholly yours and that she may never have any other motion than what your Grace gives her 'T is the great desire of my Soul which would not live to you partly and partly to Creatures but that all the actions of my Life be Consecrated to your Love I have need of a Powerful Grace O Jesu to continue thus elevated above my self in all sort of occasions But vouchsafe to magnifie your Omnipotence in my weakness your Mercies in my Miseries Another time after Communion I had represented to me the manner how all the Interiour Faculties of Jesus Christ in his Mortal Life did most worthily Glorifie his Eternal Father All the parts of his Holy Soul were taken up in this imployment the Intellectual Powers of the Superiour part the Beatifical Vision and Fruition the Inferiour part and his Body by a most perfect Suffering I saw the admirable connexion which was between these so different states and their joynt accord to Glorifie the Eternal Father And the wonderful Oeconomy of this Sacred Interiour charmed my Soul I continually offered it up to God in the pressures I lay under in the midst of my troubles I entred into these Holy Dispositions and united my Sufferigs with his my Actions with his Divine ones This disposition remains deeply imprinted in me and serves me for a comfort and support upon all occasion of our contempt pains or any other affliction Another time my Interiour entertainment during Communion was after this manner I consider'd that a Christian has but two concerns in this Life how to maintain the Life of Nature and that of Grace thereby to arrive to that of Glory Generally men think of nothing but the first though it be of no consequence and but for a moment besides that is full of Miseries and they forget the second which is Eternal and Infinite importance yet scarce any body minds it for every one lives in the darkness of Imperfection and the blindness of Sense O what a Misery And on the contrary how Happy are they who set no value but upon the Life of Grace and consequently love those Exercise which nourish and improve it as Mortifications Prayer frequent Communion O how clearly do I see that I ought to disingage my self from Temporal Affairs to apply my self more fully to the Exercises of the Life of Grace and to pure Prayer I made another time my Action of Grace after this manner An attention to the Presence of God before Communion had raised in me a great and awful respect towards that most Sacred Majesty before whom the highest Seraphins in Heaven do tremble The like impression continued in me also after Communion My Soul was all adoration seeing the adorable Jesus was become her Guest His Presence heightned my respect as being the source of all Graces and of all good Dispositions I saw himself also sometimes paying a profound respect to God the Father and then I plunged my self deeper and even lost my self in those Divine Respects unwilling to come out of them And fearing least some persons should come to visit me and interrupt my Devotion I hid my self that I might remain thus wholly plunged in this Sentiment of Reverence which Perfumed my Soul CHAP. V. Other Interiour Entertainments to give Thanks after Communion THe Dispositions most frequent
with me after Communion are 1. Jesus entring into my Mouth vailed with the Sacramental Species I Sacrifice to him all my Being my Faculties and Operations in Homage to his Grandeur And after this Act I remain quite annihilated and passive to Jesus operating towards his Heavenly Father Love Respect and Praise towards my Self Death Annihilation and Alliance with his Divine Life 2. A second Disposition after the Holy Communion is that Jesus entring into me presently operates a streight Vnion At that time I have no sight of any that may annihilate me only at first he unites me to the state of his Humanity in its Poverty and Abjections the Contempt Labours and Sufferings of his Mortal Life and being hereby purified next he draws me to a Vnion with the state of his Divinity that is to say to render to his Eternal Father Love Praises and complacency in his Grandeurs 3. Another time after Holy Communion these great words of our Lord presented themselves to my mind to serve for my Entertainment Rogo Pater ut sint consummati in unum Father I beseech you that they may be consummated in one They disclose to me a little of that perfect Vnity or consummated Vnion that ought to be contracted between Jesus and us His Love requiring that our Souls should be confirmed in that Vnion by the frequent use of the Holy Communion and that they act continually according to the conditions of this Alliance from whence they fall by the least Infidelity and very much offend God who sees himself neglected and as it were contemned and post-poned to Creatures after he has called them to so perfect a Vnion and come expresly to work it in them Wherefore a perfect Vnion requires that our heart be united the most continually that possibly it can and that it tend incessantly to a Vnity of Love with Jesus Christ to a Vnity of Instinct of Inclinations of Desires and to a great conformity with the condition of his Mortal Life which is that whereby we are to walk during our present Life if we desire to arrive to the enjoyment of his Divine Life 4. Sometimes after Communicating I have had this representation in my mind that Jesus giving himself to me seemed to speak to me but without any kind of words For the sole manifestation of his Love imparted to the Soul is in lieu of speaking and the Soul answers by Acquiescence and Admiration that cannot be expressed In effect the Soul in this state does not understand any Interiour words after the manner that Mystique Divines explain them in their Writings But the lively and clear representation that is made to her of the state of Jesus in each Mystery without any thing else serves her for Discourse While she is in this condition it seems to her that Jesus says Hear Daughter and see and forget your People and the House of your Father to enter into an imitation of me To which words the Soul makes answer by acquiessing and without any noise in her Interiour she signifies her acceptance by a most efficatious consent She hears by seeing and Jesus speaks by manifesting himself Another while at the Communion I had a general view of the multitude of the great wonders that Jesus operates in these Mysteries of Faith in favour of Men with whom he takes his Delight This general view raised me to a high admiration which nevertheless terminated in a sense of a most profound acknowledgment of the Goodness of God seeing that all these wonders tend to no other end than to manifest unto us the intenseness of the Love he bears us and import that he expects Love for Love That is your only design my good Jesu in bestowing on me this Divine Food to bestow on me the Life of your Love but this Life may very well cause my Death O Love Love Love was all that I could then say being struck dumb with admiration CHAP. VI. Another Method of Thanksgiving after Communion I Find a great gust in the understanding of these words Fortis est ut mors dilectio Love is strong as Death Methinks I see them practically verified in the Holy Communion where I see that Love has reduced Jesus to the state of Death and of a Sacrifice immolated as Death reduced him upon Mount Calvary I consider that while his Love severs him from the Splendours of his Glory to unite himself to me it excites me at the same time to separate my self from Creatures from my Self and from all other things thereby to unite my self to him alone My Soul thoroughly penetrated with a desire to correspond with this design of her Beloved Jesus and clearly discerning that the love of Crosses and Contempt is necessary to dispose and prepare her for this great Favour she looks on them with affection and delight as so many Springs whence flows her Happiness Another wonder which sometimes my mind has been intent upon and received great Comfort from it is the Infinite desire that God has to Communicate himself and to lift us up to a full participation of his Divinity This view well penetrated into discovers so many wonders of the Love of God towards Men of the Felicities to which they are destined after the Miseries of this World of the Dignity of their Creation since the end for which they were made is to possess God of the Infinite desire God has to unite himself to them and of the perfect corresponding and complyance they are from thence oblig'd to especially such Souls as are chosen and in a particular manner called to this state that after all this it is scarce possible to resist such cogent impulses and attractives of God They make one desire to die to all things the better to prepare for so great a work of Love the hurries and business of the World is not to be any longer endured and one becomes passionately in Love with Solitude My Soul reflect diligently upon the Grace is given thee and correspond to the Love of God towards thee which thou art now so thoroughly acquainted with Thou hast no other business but this for thou must never betake thy self to any other imployment unless thou receive express orders from God for it The more one is estranged from Creatures the better a Soul is disposed to this Divine Union wherefore Disgraces ought to be our Felicity because they are the means to obtain it The Cross Purity of Love Union God alone These are the degrees that Grace leads us through and our Fidelity calls us to There is also another good method of giving Thanks after Communion which consists in abandoning and resigning our selves absolutely and without reserve to the power and dependance of Jesus Christ who coming into our hearts ought to be master there and command as Soveraign When it pleases him to continue with a Soul to entertain her and to unite her to him by a most delightful feeling of his presence we must not think that
In-actions and fulfilling your merciful intentions upon me which are very great and above the comprehension of him that receives them For who can comprehend how the Infinite Majesty of God should lodge and be received in so vile so streight so unworthy a place as the Heart of Man The coming of the Kingdom of God into a Soul Sounds very delightfully and seems sweet I but the poor heart must first prepare to suffer the violent pains of a continual Agony The heart where God Almighty reigns must bid adieu to all Humane Life She dies to all Pleasures to all Consolations even Divine She has no more support no more relyance upon Creatures even the most Holy The bent of Nature and all Humane Inclinations are extinguished in her she has no more a mind for one thing than for another unless it be for a Supream Indifference nothing but Abjections Annihilations Poverty De-reliction are her Portion She is not capable of any other knowledge than that of Jesus Crucified and her Wisdom is Folly to this World This is the manner I ought to depend on your Grace O Blessed Jesus and have continual recourse unto you For you are my Father who nourish me with your own Substance you are my strength and support my weakness You are my Center where all my Agitations and Inquietudes rest and are at an end You are my End and utmost term of all my Desires At present I have no clear sight of the Purity of your Love but only feel in my self forceable Instincts that incline me to desire the Purity of Love and make me frequently break out into such Expressions as these O pure Love O durable Love Happy is he that seeks thee more Happy he that has found and possesseth thee But ah incomparably most Happy Happy beyond measure he that Perseveres with thee and Dies in thy embraces The End of the Fifth BOOK BOOK VI. Of Interiour and Exteriour Crosses CHAP. I. That we must have a high esteem for Crosses I Esteem it a great Happiness when we suffer any thing for Gods sake there being nothing on Earth whereby we can better testifie the Honour and Love we have for him 'T is in this state we are in a capacity to offer up to the Divine Majesty excellent Sacrifices and render to him most signal Services We cannot do more for a Friend than to procure his Glory by our own Destruction and make our selves nothing to make him All. Hence it is that Saints have set up a higher value upon their Sufferings in Prisons and Chains for the Name of Jesus than to be wrapt up with St. Paul into the third Heaven by Contemplation Be comforted then O my Soul in the different states wherein thou findest thy self so it be that thou dost suffer something for God it is enough If thou hast not the gift of Prayer but art in in aridity of Spirit suffer and be content there is more merit in this than in the most ravishing Contemplation Art thou afflicted with Sickness and so deprived of hearing Mass and receiving the Blessed Sacrament Suffer and be content for 't is better to be in the rigours of the Cross than in the sweets of Spiritual Exercises If thou canst do nothing for the good of thy Neighbour suffer and be content for 't is less meritorious to act for God than suffer for him If thy Exercises of Devotion and good Designs do not succeed as thou expectest suffer and be content for 't is better to suffer then to have all things according to thy desires If thou hast any deformity of Body or no great Parts of Mind provided thou suffer this Patience no Person can do better for this pleaseth God Believe me the best Science in the World the best Prayer the greatest Happiness is to know how to suffer for Gods sake We have a very great esteem for the Wood of the Cross of Christ we search after it with no small diligence no person can present us with a more precious Relique We Enchese it in Gold we keep it near our Heart we have a Veneration for it and preserve it Religiously and not without reason because 't is a small Relique of the true Cross of Christ In like manner true Christians the Children of Light do highly esteem those little Mortifications whether active or passive they undergo finding nothing more precious upon Earth and a greater guift cannot be presented to them then the occasions to suffer and mortifie themselves which they embrace with Joy and Love and with great respect cherish them not near but in their Heart considering that the state of Suffering is most agreeable to the dispositions of Jesus Christ and some small participation of his Sufferings 'T is as a little Parcel of the true Cross and the most precious Relique they can carry about them Let 's never be without having with us some of the true Cross let us make much of what afflicts us and we have Reliques thereof before we think on 't When we examine our Conscience let us ask our selves this question Hast thou O my Soul any parcel of the true Cross Any Reliques of the Sufferings of Jesus Christ Happy are those who have some part of them for they enjoy the occasions of the great tryals and proofs of their Love to Christ as can possibly happen The flames of Divine Love burn brightest in the furnace of Affliction St. Paul had a good piece of the true Cross when he said He carried in his Body the Marks of the Lord Jesus Christ for his Sufferings were indeed for Jesus's sake The most noble and glorious thing that Christ did upon Earth was his Dying for us on the Cross a Death most Painful and Ignominious that his Heavenly Father might thereby be Infinitely Glorified and he being thus exalted might draw the hearts of Believers after him and more powerfully engage their Affections to love and adore him A Soul that beholds Jesus on this Throne of his Ignominies which indeed is the Throne of his Grandeurs desires here on Earth to be united to Jesus Crucified as the Saints in Heaven enjoy him Glorified And thus she breaths forth her Desires True it is I cannot have a full Fruition of my Well-beloved in this Life however this is my comfort I can suffer for him Enjoyment is more sweet to the Creature but suffering is more lovely to the Creator and so I find enjoyment of the Miseries of my Banishment When a Soul has no mind to suffer in this World she has no mind to belong to God For seeing in this exile we cannot be his by enjoyment or but very little and being not willing to appertain to him by Suffering we cannot possess God And being without God we adhere to Creatures and loose our selves in disorder and vanity God finds not out of himself a more pleasing Mansion than in a Soul and Body Mortified with Sufferings there it is he takes his complacency and delight The
Blessed in Heaven is Enjoyment but we Travellers on earth ought to desire nothing more then to suffer for Jesus This Suffering does mortifie Old Adam in us by Holy Violence makes us die to the World and separates from us whatever is Impure and Earthy as Gold is purified in a burning Furnace Our Corruption cannot be ruin'd but either by Fire or the Sword of Afflictions which should induce us to embrace them with Contentment seeing the more we Suffer the more we are Purified Let us have an Honourable esteem for the greatest Crosses because they work in us the profoundest Purity and the purest Love of God which is the Life of our Soul and the end of our Creation I am much pleas'd with my present state of affliction seeing it is the readiest way to form Jesus Christ in me and make me a Perfect Christian which is the work of works the highest Honour the richest Treasure and the Soveraign Happiness of this Life While we are Pilgrims on Earth we are exiles from Gods presence Which must needs be a Cross to Souls that sigh after the Beatifical vision I know not how it is but methinks I see more Purity of Love of resignation of Perfection in my present Suffering condition then what I have found in the joyes of union which puts my heart in repose and quiet It seems to me that I can say more truely than at other times O my God what do I desire in Heaven or on Earth but you who are my Portion and my Heritage for ever My Life is Crucified with Jesus Christ and altogether hid with him in the good Pleasure of God To send us Crosses and make us content with a Suffering condition is one of the choicest effects of the Providence of God Seeing he has an Infinite Love for himself his will is that all Creatures capable of his Love should love him also To dispose them thereto the better he sends them Crosses which purifie our corrupted Nature and produce in us dispositions fit for Divine Impressions O Infinite Goodness O merciful Justice I return you Thanks with all my Heart that you have afflicted me to make me love you Losses Contempts Poverty Sufferings come you are welcome my heart is open to give you entertainment Behold I receive you with open arms because you bring with you Divine Love CHAP. IV. God is pleas'd to send us Crosses in the place of Persecutions that our Life may be a continual Martyrdom I Am much taken with this Saying of St. Clement of Alexandria That seeing our Love and Fidelity to God does not at present appear by shedding our Blood for our Faith the Persecutions of Tyrants being ceas'd we must now manifest them by making our Faith visible in all our Actions To do the will of God is a great testimony of our Love to him but 't is a far greater to suffer for him Souls loving God and beloved of him are careful to correspond to Divine Graces whether by acting or Suffering and are so couragious in their Resolutions that no humane fears though of loss of Life it self is able to stop the torrent of their Affections Witness that good Religious man who askt his Spiritual Guide whether it was not better to die than complain of the Infirmarian who provided Diet not proper for him We now suffer more notably in some things than the Martyrs of Old by Bloody Persecutors For our Crosses Interiour or Exteriour being impressions of the Divine Holiness though they separate not the Soul from the Body yet they separate the Soul from the Love of all Creatures to unite us to God alone This Holiness of God having an Infinite abhorrence of whatsoever is not Pure and Holy Delights to purifie the Elect by Tribulations as Gold in the Fire When therefore the Soul feels her self as it were nail'd to the Cross by Derelictions Aridities and Interiour Sufferings let her not strive to free her self but continue in this Suffering contentedly as long as pleases God because hereby she Glorifies him and Purifies her self Seeing 't is certain that the Cross is the Source of Graces and Purity we are inconsiderate to complain and shun Afflictions for we flee from our advancement in Spirituality and the Purity of Love neither will we permit God to accomplish in us his good pleasure To die naked on the Cross is the ultimate disposition of pure Love 'T is in vain to pretend to the Perfection of Divine Love unless with St. Teresa We desire either to die or suffer The Holy Martyrs could not attain it but by dying for God nor we except by Suffering for him When I am in Prayer in the Presence of God I am much ashamed of my self to suffer so little and with so much Imperfection in a manner so different from the Saints I am in such confusion hereat that I dare hardly stay in Gods Presence were it not that to repair my Miseries and make him satisfaction I offer up to him Jesus suffering poor and abject for us sinners And thereupon I make resolutions to endure whatsoever Crosses happen to me with all the Fidelity that Grace requires It seems to me that a Soul can hardly be content without some Suffering or other I have had experience hereof in some little tempest that now is over And which is more I cannot believe so much content may be taken in limiting our sufferings as desiring greater if God thinks good because the Peace and Content of the Soul consists in Loving and Love is best satisfied with what most pleases God and therefore in suffering for him From these words of our Blessed Saviour If any one will come after me he must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me I learn that the state of this present corrupt Life requires that we must live in a continual dying to the World seeing the enjoyment of Creatures does too much work upon our weakness to bring us off from God Our Corruption and the long habit of taking Pleasure in the things of this World makes it very difficult for us to live this dying Life which is a great Cross and a long Martyrdom It cannot be denyed but we must suffer much to arrive to the possession of God in a Super-natural Life however to taste the sweetness of God for one moment does Infinitely transcend the pains of gaining him And when he hides himself and tryes us with Derelictions what a Cross is it 'T is a state of great Perfection indeed to be content without Comforts both Divine and Humane Many Martyrs have suffered less in dying for God then the Soul does sometimes in this condition Patience a little and God e'er long will sufficiently recompense us with abundance of his Graces and Consolations Sometimes God seems to abandon his most Faithful Servants as he dealt with Holy Job permitting Satan to assault them with several Temptations sometimes against Charity sometimes against Chastity and sometimes against Faith 'T is
so compleat a Sacrifice as on the Altar of interiour Crosses whether they come from the immediate hand of God from others or our selves It matters not much who makes the Cross on which we suffer be they friends or enemies God or our selves if we do but suffer 't is sufficient and we ought to be joyful or at least content to see our selves crucified some way or other And as long as we live Exiles here we shall hardly be without some Crosses A Soul that hath once tasted the sweetness of God finds it a cross to be taken up too much with worldly business yea even to satisfy necessities becomes troublesome to her She finds a cross when she is put to appease the sedition of her Passions when she perceives the eyes of Contemplation darkned by her Imperfections when she is over-burden'd with the weight of her mortal body tending to corruption all these miseries are crosses to her hindring her enjoyments of God But a saithful Soul to accomplish the will of God does bear them couragiously It much concerns us to desire of God a particular Light and Grace to see the beauty of the Cross that we may love to suffer We complain of the miseries of this life and the rigours of our banishment because we discern not that secret virtue which Privations and Crosses have to unite us to God It is great and powerful though little known and less sought after by reason it is not so sweet and pleasant as that force which ceases our Spirits in the Lights of enjoyment But it suffices me my God that I am united to you I desire not the pleasing Sentiments of Union because Purity there is not so eminent The Mercy of God does triumph in the state of Light and Sweetness and this is the time to glorifie his Goodness The Justice of God appears more visible in the state of Obscurity and Sufferings and this is the time to magnify his Greatness And what contentment is it to a Soul to know that let her condition be what it will the Divine Perfections may be glorified by her When God in a manner leaves us to our selves our weakness appears so great that the least stroke of Adversity quite casts us down at other times when we are supported by the Almighty an Army in battle aray can never daunt us Let us follow the conduct of Grace when she invites us to reflect on such like dispositions for the Soul will thereby know her extreme dependance upon God and her own infinite frailty her confidence in God will be re-doubled and her diffidence in her self will be augmented and she will know by experience that God mortifies and quickens when he pleases and that he is our only Supporter To be then in continual union with God the Soul must necessarily have a perfect indifferency to every state and a resolute will to be wholly for God Illustrations indeed make the Soul more attentive but not more united for a loving Soul in Sufferings adheres to God more closely than in the greatest Lights of Prayer Let us not then measure the Union by Enjoyment but by Suffering for the more the Soul suffers for God the more intimately is she united to him This is one of the Excellencies of the Supernatural Life and the only thing that can prevail with us to make Crosses the heavier they are to be the more acceptable I know a Soul that suffers extraordinary pains of all sorts but 't is with aridity of Spirit seeing only the Will of God therein without discovering the Beauty of Sufferings unless when they have left her God being not willing she should receive Consolations from such a sight which might much diminish the Purity of her Love CHAP. X. The great Fruit we may reap from Interiour Crosses I Thought that on this day of particular Devotion I should have been all on a flame with Divine Love But I have been in a manner always distracted in my Prayers though I had my Book in my hand my Spirit not being in a temper for Interiour Exercises To speak Truth I found my self much chang'd it pleasing God that having not corresponded to my state of Light and sweetness his Justice should put me into this rigour and obscurity and blessed be his Name for evermore What augments my sorrow is that I have not been Faithful to many opportunities of practising great Virtues At other times I have found all things helping me towards God now every thing diverts me insomuch that the fire of Love is in a manner wholly extinguished with the waves of Temptations Methinks I find my self in an abandonment so great as if I never enjoyed consolations Being to begin any good work I feel a tepidity and repugnance to it The very thoughts of Poverty did horribly afright me To be despised to want accomodations to suffer pains was terrible unto me It increas'd this bitterness in that the Servants of God did not comfort me as formerly so that it must go very ill with me if some powerful hand come not into my succour And what makes my condition more deplorable is that I am so sensible of the privation of earthly things For if it was the want of Gods presence and his Graces that did afflict me that methinks would afford some consolation I now in a manner make no Prayer that is my Prayer is as good as nothing I am full of Distractions when I Communicate I am apt to fall into passion on every occasion the least thing does much trouble me This day I had some good Intervals during which I was taken up with these thoughts What is man O my God when you cease to visit him How great is his Poverty his Wants and his Miseries I should never have believ d it if I had not known it by experience in this small time that you have left me to my self O my Soul how great is thy weakness How profound is thy own nothing and almost incredible Lay it up well now in thy memory and never forget it What can I do O my God without you My Spirit is nothing but a dark Dungeon and my heart is a recepticle of all sorts of evil Sentiments and extravagant Thoughts No inclinations to good but strong efforts to that which is evil Alas 't is now I find by experience the absolute dependance I have upon you more than a shaddow on the Body or the Light on the Sun I was never so annihilated and plunged in my own nothing as now I can see no stability either in my self or any Creature The whole World cannot uphold him whom you have forsaken O how vain is the consolation of Creatures when that of the Creator fails us Dare I hereafter think my self worthy of the least Sentiments of Grace that have had the experience of my excessive miseries Verily if God should plunge me into Hell I should not be astonish'd at it but rather admire his Mercies for bearing so long
with so ungrateful a Creature Neither am I at all amazed at my failings for what wonder is it to see frailty it self frail What most humbles me is to feel in my self so great repugnance to suffer so little What would become of me if I should be charged together with Interiour and Exteriour Sufferings O how far am I from the Patience of Saints and the Love that they have for the greatest Crosses Humble thy self O my Soul humble thy self to the very center of thy own nothing Blessed is the man who always fears God leaves us on purpose in this World without a certainty of our Salvation so that no person knowes whether he be worthy of Love or hatred This uncertainty is a great Cross and God to try us by Sufferings permits us now and then to fall into perplexing doubts concerning our Interiour state and dispositions to which our Spiritual Guides are as lyable as our selves and therefore cannot give us any Infallible assurance 'T is no ordinary perplexity to travel in a difficult way without assurance whether we be right or wrong to come to our journey's end To doubt whether we be deceived by the shadows of our ignorance rather than conducted by the Light of Grace is one of the heaviest Crosses of a Spiritual Life But 't is also most conducing to purifie the Soul and make her die to her own Interest and Abilities that in the midst of all her troubles she may cast her self wholly upon God and absolutely abandon her self to his Protection CHAP. XI That we must bear Patiently our Imperfections COnferring about Patience with some Servants of God we concluded that a Soul ought not only apply her self to bear with the Imperfections of others but more especially her own For after our failings we must not with an impetuous Sollicitude search after the means to Cure an Evil that oftentimes displeases us rather for our own Interest than the Interest of God Nor is it prudential while we are in a heat to resolve suddenly to make so many Examens Meditations and undergo so many Austerities but principally we must have an eye to God and his Glory and make an act of Contrition to repair the injury we have done him by our fault And then practice Patience whereby we shall bear with Peace and Tranquility the sight of our Misery which too often makes us sad and anxious But this proceeds from want of Love for Abjection for whosoever can be content to be abject shall never be disquieted but will enjoy a profound Peace in the greatest Humiliations Discite à me quia mitis sum humilis corde invenietis requiem animabus vestris We must not then spend our time unprofitably after our failings as we too often do But continuing in Peace of mind and being humbled for our defects we shall be better disposed to return to union with God where is the practice of Virtue without being too much dejected In this state let us say with a full confidence in Gods Mercies Cor Contritum Humiliatum Deus non despicies A Contrite and Humble Heart O God thou wilt not despise For he that is contrite because he has offended his Heavenly Father and truly humbled for his Unworthiness cannot but be Gracious in Gods fight This well understood and faithfully practis'd leaves the Soul in great Peace makes her Humble and Patient to bear all defects with meekness and compassion But because we are more sensible of our own Failings than those of others we have need of more Patience on our own behalf 'T is an effect of pure Love to make the Soul displeas'd with our Imperfections and Failings without being disquieted at the Humiliation and Confusion that attend them We ought indeed to afflict our selves for offending God but rejoyce that we are asham'd we have offended him for this plucks down our Pride and repairs the injury done to the Divine Majesty But if we refuse to acknowledge our Failings we are so much the more miserable in that we will not confess our misery Patience and Longanimity are very necessary for us to go fairly on in the ways of God Christian Perfection is not the work of a day we must bear with our Frailties and Imperfections many years 'T is a gross mistake arising from Self-love to think to march more speedily in ways of Grace than That enables us to perform From hence it proceeds that we are less taken up with the thoughts of God than of our selves and our own condition We are full of afflicting apprehensions that what we do in Gods Service is nothing worth that the best things are bad as we use them Imperfection and Misery being our constant attendants But this perpetual looking downward on our selves is prejudicial to our advancement in Perfection when we should principally look up to God and such as we are cast our selves into the Arms of Jesus Christ having an eye to him and relying upon him When we are resolv'd to take up our thoughts with God and put our confidence in him without so much ruminating on our own Failings this will not bury them in oblivion but God will discover them to us in a way incomparably better than what we can know by our own endeavours for all we can do is nothing in respect of those helps we shall find in him to advance us in Perfection What gain we by thus perpetually picking quarrels with our own selves After all we shall never be without Imperfection What can we discover in the ground of our Hearts but that Thornes and Briers do grow there daily with a thousand Failings use what diligence we can to manure and cultivate it As long as we bottom upon our selves we languish continually with Imperfections Let us free our selves from our selves as soon as we can when we have once learn'd to be more careful to please God then our selves we shall go on much pleasanter in the ways of God and arrive sooner at the region of Peace and Tranquility 'T is the true course of a Super-natural Life to give our selves up to the conduct of Grace which sometimes puts us to combat with our Passions at other times tryes us with Interiour and Exteriour Sufferings sometimes leaves us to discursive Prayer and then again elevates the Soul on the wings of Contemplation refreshing her with variety of Spiritual Dainties Sometimes makes all things easie to us without travel or difficulty and sometimes to feel a kind of tedious weariness in the ways of God But in all this the Soul that is abandon'd to the good pleasure of God keeps her self Peaceable and contented and indifferent to whatsoever God shall determine of her For my part I too often feel the repugnances of my depraved Nature but then I endeavour to make this a matter of Humiliation 'T is a great Misery to be always Imperfect and not to be able to cure our Spiritual Maladies But we must as well practice Patience in these as
obscurity of Faith She must therefore keep her self in an Indifferency rising and falling according to the conduct of Gods Holy Spirit Always esteeming her self unworthy of the least Grace and never pretend by forcing her Spirits to the extraordinary favours of high Contemplation But when she has a call to such elevations in Prayer the way to arrive thither is by a perfect death to all things and a Faithful imitation of Jesus Christ in his Crucified states of Abjection and Poverty with a Love of Solitude as much as our condition will permit There 's a great deal of difference between that Light and Fervour which is imparted to a Soul in the elevations of passive Prayer and that Light which is procured by the ordinary Grace of Meditation That is more in time and piercing and full of Heavenly Benedictions This however suffices to acquire Virtues and serve God in the state of our Vocation 'T is our duty to attend to our present condition with Peace and Humility and submission to the Divine Will and let God alone to order as he pleases the time of his Visits and our manner of Prayer Sometimes this will be by simple Thoughts sometimes by Discourse sometimes by Faith alone and sometimes by passive Illuminations But whatever is given us we must receive from the hand of the Divine Goodness with great respect and Thankfulness acknowledging our selves unworthy of the least good Thought That which a Soul ought to do both in and out of Prayer is to be very attentive to Gods Holy Inspirations and follow them with Courage and Fidelity If she find that God elevates her to extraordinary Contemplation let her yield to those Divine impressions If she be kept in an ordinary way let her there abide If she be left in Aridities let her also sit down without complaining The great secret of a Spiritual Life is for a Soul to purifie her self so as to comply with the motions of God who is our Alpha and Omega our Origen and final end There are things sufficiently declared as the Commandments of God and the Church the Duties we owe to Obedience Charity or Necessity There 's no need to expect immediate Light from God for the performance of these things But only in such which are neither commanded nor forbidden And in these great Purity of Soul is necessary to discern the motions of Grace for fear we be deceiv'd by our own imaginations Those Saints who by the Impulses of Gods Holy Spirit have writ Spiritual Treatises to direct Interiour Christians in the wayes of God oftentimes affect us with their Thoughts and Sentiments because they Pray in Heaven for this Blessing on their labours on Earth and therefore t is Beneficial to read their Books to advance our Devotion But do what we can we shall never know what that Prayer is by what those Books write of it unless by the practice and Light of the same Prayer We know well enough in general that Prayer is the source of all Virtue in the Soul who leaves that off falls into Luke-warmness and Imperfections Prayer is a Holy Fire that warms the Heart and Affections which without it must of necessity grow cold in Devotion In Health or Sickness Joy or Sorrow we must always Pray except we have a mind to fall from Grace to our utter ruin CHAP. III. That we ought to be indifferent to what manner of Prayer God is pleased to give us WE ought to shun two Extreams equally vitious The one is to covet more Grace and Perfection than God intends us so as to be troubled and disgusted to see others more elevated in Gifts of Prayer than our selves The other is not to co-operate faithfully with the Grace vouchsaf'd us either for want of Courage in the Difficulties that occur in the practice of Virtue or of Attention to observe the Motions of Grace or being observed by too easily diverting our selves to other matters and so neglecting the Mercies of God When a Soul is well purified and hath experience of the Impulses of Grace in her and can distinguish them from the motions of Nature she must give free ingress to the rayes of this Light from Heaven that she may be throughly illuminated and warm'd in her Devotions For to do otherwise under a pretence of Humility and fear of deception is not to yield to the Conduct of God's Spirit who inspires when and whom he pleases 'T is then our Duty to be entirely passive that God may fully work his Will in us When these Divine Illuminations are withdrawn from a Soul for the Glory of God and her good and so left in darkness or when her own Imperfections have made her not so capable of supernatural Lights she must rest contented with these privations till it pleases the Sun of Righteousness to shine upon her A purified Soul is satisfied and resign'd on such occasions because God only is her joy and not his gifts which he by his infinite Goodness communicates to her when he pleases And this is the reason that she loves not her inward peace and joy when she is deprived of heavenly Irradiations and Gifts in Prayer He who gives himself up to his Prince for his sole interest and satisfaction without seeking his own peculiar concerns and contentment does not much matter what Service he renders and what Rewards he receives provided his Prince be well pleased and satisfied If he keep him near his person to caress him he is content not that he is caressed but because it is his Princes pleasure If he imploy him afar off in troublesome Affairs he is content not to be so far from his Person and in a hazardous Employment but because this is the Pleasure of his Prince whose Content he only had an eye to in giving himself up unto his Service This is the true case of a Soul that desires to serve God purely for the Love of God If God caress her in Prayer with Visits full of Sweetness she is content because this is his Pleasure if he affords not his Presence but leaves her in Darkness she is content because 't is the good pleasure of God If God call her to the exercises of Charity in a life more active and laborious than the contemplative she is content because this is the good pleasure of God which is the only thing she seeks and desires in his Service This indifferency disposes a Soul to receive great Graces for by this means she sometimes arrives to a total oblivion of her self and all creatures without any reflection on her own Interests Temporal or Eternal haveing nothing in her eye but the good pleasure of God and desiring him alone insomuch that if any thing of self creep in at any time as soon as she discovers it 't is distasteful to her This is a state of great Nakedness and entire Mortification and a perfect disposition to most sublime Prayer whether God elevates a Soul whom he sees ready to submit
to the least degree of Prayer or Dereliction if so he pleases It happens oftentimes that in a state of Privations a Soul is so surrounded with darkness that she sees nothing of God who seems entirely to be hid from her and that which augments this Cross she is so wholly taken up with her Loss that she thinks not of the means to recover her happiness If in this state a Soul be content with this rigorous usage with all humble submission to the good pleasure of God though she apprehends it not at present she is united to God in a transcendent manner and possesses her soveraign-Good when she fears she has lost him This is the preheminence of a Soul which is not wedded to one manner of Prayer more than another but holds her self in an indifferency to receive of God whatever he pleases And let her Prayer be what it will she will be sure not to perform the Work of God negligently CHAP. IV. That above all things 't is necessary to practise Prayer VVE must understand aright that all our Perfection and all the Glory we can bring to God lyes in our Interiour and not so much in our Exteriour Actions Alas we pass away our time vainly and unprofitably both to God and our selves There 's nothing so precious as his Interiour nothing is to be preferred before it seeing thereby God is most glorified And therefore of all our Sacrifices the Heart is the principal and none of our Offerings are acceptable without it Fili mi da mihi cor tuum 'T is from the Interiour proceeds the pure Love of God and of our Neighbour the Purity of Intention the Zeal of the Glory of God and whatever Riches the Soul possesses And yet we too often neglect this to make a fair outward show in exteriour actions which are ordinarily sullied with impurity by a mixture with the Interests of corrupted Nature Too many pass away the greatest part of their Life in Impurity and Imperfections for want of Light and they want Light because it is not ordinarily obtained but by Prayer and they neglect Prayer under specious pretences of gaining time to do good to others and advance the glory of God and so want this Light and thereupon fail in their corresponding to the Grace of God A Soul must be constant to her Times of Prayer if she intend to nourish the Life of Grace in her and not to pray only then when she has nothing else to do that is good and commendable which is but an artifice of Satan by other Exercises of Charity to withdraw well-meaning Souls from Prayer and this we must have a gseat care of being a subtile Temptation If hereby he can weaken the vigour of the Soul 't is that he lookt for and then he will soon induce us to fall into such Defects and Imperfections which will bring great Prejudice to a spiritual Life How many Souls are there who endanger their Ruine even by Works of Charity either by over-doing or not doing them according to the order of God and Grace We must have a generous Fidelity to the Exercise of holy Prayer by means whereof we approach to the Divine Source from whence the Soul rceives all Strength and Vertue Prayer is a holy fire to which who draws near has warm affections for God who shuns it must of necessity fall into Tepedity and Lukewarmness Whatever our condition be whether in Sickness or Health in Abjection or Honour in Poverty or Abundance let us never fail of our Duty to God by Prayer in the best manner we can being the Powerful means to procure and advance our union with God our only Happiness I canot possibly wish a greater Good to any person I love than the Gift of Prayer knowing that thereby we enter into the Cabinet of the Secrets of God and are made partakers of his Graces Prayer then is the Source of all Grace in the Soul without which by degrees she tends to ruine No affairs whatsoever could ever hinder the Saints from their constant Devotions Jesus Christ himself has shew'd us this by his example spending whole Nights in Prayer and Contemplation Our Disorders proceed much by too lightly engaging our selves for want of Circumspection in humane affairs to which we have no Call from God and therefore are not favoured by him with Success whereby we fall into many Defects and become too often indispos'd to Prayer and Prayer failing us we want all things The first Wheel that must set all a going in our Spiritual Life is this Maxim That our perfection consists principally in our Interiour But it cannot go well with our Interiour without Fidelity to Grace which works in us a Love of Mortification and Austerities an Inclination to Solitude and a kind of Abhorrence of Sensual Pleasures and such Vanity as the World admires Now this Grace that brings forth these good Fruits in us is not obtained but by Prayer nor ordinarily augmented but by Prayer nor well known so as to correspond to its motions but by Prayer But 't is very difficult and in a manner impossible to preserve the Spirit of Prayer in the Multiplicity of Affairs which for the most part are instrumental to divert our Thoughts from God and so few Souls attain to Perfection because few dispose themselves to pure Prayer neglecting it too much under a pretence of gaining Time to do good to others A Soul that would be wholly for God must discreetly shun the Obstacles of Perfections though never so specious with Courage and Fidelity Who is weak in Prayer must not lay out himself too much in Action for then he will profit little in the wayes of God and his Interiour will not advance in Vertue When we see many great Servants of God to do glorious things for the Love and Service and Honour of their great Master with high Commendation this sometimes raises an emulation in us to follow their Examples but our Fidelity does not consist herein it being our Duty to make the best we can of the Grace we have received and admire without envy the Gifts of others Methinks I have a Desire to be but as God will have me neither more nor less either interiourly or exteriourly in Nature or Grace I see others Perfect and my self Imperfect without discouragement I behold even with Content others commanding their Passions and my self fighting for Victory others doing much for God and I in a manner doing nothing others Strong and Couragious in the Service of God and my self nothing but Weakness and Misery I am comforted in considering the Designs of God concerning me and acquiesce in his good Pleasure For God refuses us not sometimes to take unprofitable Servants into his house who only serve to set forth his Bounty and Magnificence as we see with us some great Persons do show their Grandeurs When we have nothing to do but only to pray we seem to some to be but unprofitable and do God but
by Jesus Christ there being no other Means to attain Salvation 6. That the Sacred Trinity which consists in the perfect Knowledge and pure Love of the Divine Persons is the true Model of Perfect Prayer These deeply consider'd are very instrumental to elevate a Contemplative Soul to so high a pitch that sometimos she in a wonderful manner participates of that Life Eternal which is in God himself I have made a Resolution to desire of God that my Prayer may be altogether Intellectual to the end I may not feel such sensible Gusts of Heavenly Consolations which prejudice Nature These are but sweet Baiâ—s for self-Love which sullies the Purity of Prayer and diminishes the Contemplative Attention which continues more strong and vigorous when kept on the point of the Spirit whereby the Fire of Divine Love burns brighter and with more constant Flames This is that continual Union which is the Object of Perfection and whatever hinders this ought to be suspected as are sensible Gusts of Devotion in Inferiour Nature O my Soul let us therefore entirely give up our selves to God in Prayer to receive from him such impressions as he thinks best let our chief care be fully to submit our selves to him and to be disingag'd from all worldly things and accept with Thankfulness whatever he gives us If he gives us nothing let nothing content us and peaceably acquiesce in Union with his Divine Will A Soul faithful in the state of Privations will sooner or later as God sees best be raised to pure Union and Enjoyments on the lofty Wings of Contemplation CHAP. IX Of the Prayer of Faith THis Prayer is a bare reflection or simple remembrance of God who is believed by naked Faith as he is seen and known by the Light of Glory 'T is the same Object here and there but known by the Soul in a different manner The way of knowing God here is but learned Ignorance Earth is the Land of Believing Heaven of Seeing To see God as we are seen of Him and understand all Divine Mysteries is reserv'd for the Light of Glory here we must walk by the obscurities of Faith This Faith must be naked without Images or Representations simple and without Discourse universal without a distinct consideration of particulars The operation of the Will is conform to that of the Understanding Naked Simple Universal Spiritual Independant on the Senses We must expect great Combats in this way from our Spirit which will still be working and rely on Creatures But though it be much distasted by the understanding part of the Soul yet she must strive to die to her own operations and willingly entertain what helps her in this Combat as Aridities Privations Desolations which at last leave the Soul in exercise of pure Faith whereby God is known in a higher manner than those Lights which serve as a Medium between God and the Soul for this Union of our Spirit with God by pure Faith is immediate and so more elevated The Will also must die to what ever is not God To live only in Him and to him by pure Love For the Life of the Will is this Death and this Death is not ordinarily wrought but by Privations This kind of Prayer is uniform and not much lyable to alterations nor brings any damage to the Body For Nature has nothing to do in it being not procurable by greatest endeavours of Humane Industry but depending purely on the Will of God who alone gives it when and to whom he pleases 'T is true this pure and naked Contemplation of God by Faith is given but rarely and to those who have past through many Purgatories and states of Penance to fit them for it In the beginning it darts into the Soul but Transient Irradiations like flashes of Lightning if at any time they continue about half an hour 't is very much However they work in the Soul very great Effects One of the principal is that this Light of Faith discovers to us the verity of Divine Mysteries Imperfections and the Perfections we want and practical Virtues And all this at once not successively one after another by discourse which could never arrive to produce a knowledge so clear and universal But indeed the understanding has much ado to die to its own operations and not act by Humane Lights by being wholly given up to the obscurity of Faith However this must be done to be rightly disposed for Divine Operations There are divers degrees of Contemplations but what God is pleas'd to give us must be received with submissive Thankfulness While we live in Mortal Bodies we shall have always something to purifie and therefore always something to suffer Three parts of our Life pass away in a Suffering condition In a state of obscurity the Soul is intimately united to God although she be not sensible thereof I am much taken with the way of pure Faith in Prayer whereby the Soul knows God as much as she can do in this Life and though it be obscure it matters not being sure and certain For my part take as much as you will of my Light of Reason if the Light of Faith increase thereby O how Beautiful is pure and naked Faith It much conduces to Spiritualize a Soul to live continually by Faith to esteem and love nothing but what we ought to esteem and love Man rarely will relinquish his Reason and nevertheless he must raise himself above it or drag on the Earth with Imperfections Faith is a participation of the Eternal Wisdom she only conducts us with true assurance for her Lights though dark are certain and their obscurity does incomparably transcend the clearest evidence of Natural Reason Moreover to make Prayer more Intellectual and that Nature may have no hand in it we must leave off some things which usually did raise our hearts to God with a sensible Devotion As Musick Rich Ornaments Devout Pictures in Churches and the like This is good and profitable in the beginning of a Spiritual Life and some time after but when a Soul has attained purity of Prayer there 's no need to take her nourishment that is her Knowledge and Love but from pure Faith and Supernatural Lights infused into her When we take not good heed we keep not our selves sufficiently passive to the Operations of God but we go a beging for the Life of the Soul to sensible Objects when God himself would nourish her with more purified Knowledge and Diviner Love Why should we hanker after sensible Gusts of Devotion seeing Nature is commonly too much taken with them to the damage of naked Faith and the hindrance of our pure Union with God which requires a total denudation of all Creatures Notwithstanding when God tryes us with Derelictions and gives us not admittance into his presence but by things sensible and Discoursive Prayer we must humbly comply with this state and not pretend to higher elevations in our Addresses to him Yet if a Soul in
Light into the Understanding sometimes more Love into the Will so that one Faculty seems to be lost in the other The Soul must be content with either as God pleases and cease her own Operations to be passive to the Actings of God in her by his gracious Motions A great deal of Work is done for us by this means in a little time towards Christian Perfection The Soul that is in this state must carefully shun two things the Activity of her own Spirit and the Impurity of her Affection As for the first our Spirit is very unwilling to dy to it self but will be acting and discoursing we loving much our own Operations so that we have much ado to conquer our selves that we may enter into an entire Passivity as to be only susceptible of Divine Motions The long Habitudes of acting with Liberty hinders this Annihilation but we must fight for the Victory and Grace at last will make it easy As for the second the Impurity of Affection we must be perfectly dead to whatsoever is not God so as to seek nothing but him and his good Pleasure without any mixture of Self-interests The infinite Love of God to us obliges us to be faithful to him and the Love we ought to have for our own good obliges us to spare no pains to attain to Perfection CHAP. XIII Of Pure and Perfect Prayer IT much disposes a Soul to attain to pure and perfect Prayer to give her self up into the hands of God with an entire Submission to his holy Will touching this Exercise to bestow upon her what state he pleases A Soul that finds Attracts from God to depend on his Providence the Matter and Manner of her Prayer must receive thankfully what comes from God whether it be Contemplatio or Meditation be it with Delight or Difficulty with Sweetness or Aridities A Soul so purely united to the Divine Will and dead to all things else possesses God in a wonderful manner not only in Consolations but Interiour Crosses Purity of Prayer as the present Light I have tells me consists in a simple View of God by the Light of Faith without Discourse or Imagination Reason and Imagination have their part in Meditation but not in pure Prayer It seems to me that the Soul ought to be absorpt in God and remain there in repose being dead as it were to her own Operations This Repose in God is by Knowledge and Love whereof sometimes this sometimes that is more abundant and affects the Soul as God pleases When God elevates a Soul above ordinary Prayer to converse with him alone she must make it her business to comply with him The Virtues and Dispositions which another time would be the Life of the Soul are not now when she must live no Life but the Life of God that is of his sole Knowledge and Love without any Reflection on her self God then takes the Care himself of such a Soul furnishing her with all necessary Dispositions Think on me and I will think on thee said Jesus Christ to St. Catherine In Prayer God infuses into her practical Lights of no long Durance but efficacious and out of Prayer she receives the same to be applyed to the Practice of most excellent Virtues on all occasions Pure and Perfect Prayer does not consist in Gusts of Devotion but in the supreme part of the Spirit in a peculiar manner that is ineffable For this supreme Region of the Soul is the sacred Temple where God is pleas'd to dwell where she feels and tasts a Sweetness above all created Entities The Soul conducted by Faith and attracted by these Divine Perfumes finds God in this his Sanctuary and converses with him with such a Familiarity as astonishes the Angels to behold it 'T is here where she makes pure Prayer seeing there 's nothing but God and the Soul without any Creature to interrupt this sacred Interview God working all that passes by Himself without Representations or Discourses or Gusts of Devotion This supreme part of the Soul being not capable of sensible Objects God alone takes Possession thereof communicating his Illustrations and Sentiments which are necessary for a pure Union with him Perfect Prayer then is a certain experimental Manifestation which God gives of Himself of his Goodness Peace and Sweetness An admirable Gift that is not imparted but to the purest Souls and ordinarily is but of small Continuance But the Condition of Mortality will not permit of more where we must live in Humility Patience and Sufferings The Soul returning from these Divine Embraces carries away with her great Love and a high Esteem of God a profound Knowledge of her own Imperfections and finds her self altogether disposed to act and suffer and practise pure Virtues on all occasions Few persons arrive to this Purity of perfect Prayer because few make themselves susceptible of those Divine Motions by an entire Annihilation of their own Powers These great Favours would be more frequently bestow'd if we had Hearts prepared to recive them Favours which are of more worth than the whole World and cannot be known but by Experience For my part I know nothing I only have heard say that in this pure and perfect Prayer there are admirable Unions most intimate Embraces Ardours of Love so Pure as may almost compare with the Flames of Seraphims We come to a perfect Union with God by a perfect Denudation of all Creatures and this Denudation is acquir'd by continual Mortification and sometimes by Divine Infusion We must therefore pray much and dye daily to our selves and all Creatures Since that Original Sin hath depraved our Nature we cannot live a Life of Grace without dying a continual Death When God acts with us in the Practice of Mortification we shall soon dye to our selves for he breaks us all to pieces on a sudden with wonderful Contrition of Heart and kills our Corruptions unknown to us so that a Soul dies more in one day by the loving Stroaks of his powerful Hand than she would in some years by ordinary Mortifications Let us therefore adore this Divine and loving Hand which kills us to make us live and never complain but of the little Returns we make for his gracious Favours The Loss of Goods of Friends of Honours of Consolations do much conduce to bring a Soul to this living Death for commonly we quit such allurement when we lose the materials of those Fetters In this Divine Exercise the Soul is wholly taken up with God without diverting her Thoughts on any other Object And though then to reflect on the effects of Prayer would be a kind of Distraction yet without her thinking God leaves powerful Impressions in her and pregnant Dispositions to practise great Virtues and above all a love of the Cross and Humiliations seeing he cannot possibly please God more than by suffering for Him CHAP. XIV Of the Hungring of the Soul after GOD and of her being Satiated with Him I Sometimes find my self in
The Soul thus conducted into the Cabinet of her Heart receives a great discovery of the motions of Nature and Grace not only ordinary but those which are most hard to be discerned Knowing very well that God Communicates himself unto her by Infusion she corresponds to his motions and becomes passive to his operations The Truths she sees by this infused Light makes deeper impressions then when discover'd by Meditation And the Soul conceives far otherwise of Virtues of Reformation of Manners and how to Act and Suffer for God It seems to her that now she begins to quit her Natural Inclinations wherein she continued with much Imperfection and becomes more strong and generous and more resolv'd to act for God Except I deceive my self God has been pleas'd to put me in this state by his actings in me But withall he makes me know that more Purity and Fidelity is required than ever by dying to our selves and the World to do his Will and more Humility by acknowledging our selves unworthy of his Graces and to return to ordinary Prayer when he leaves us in Aridities and to bear them with content and resignation I have seen but a small glimmering of this elevated Prayer to make me the more to aspire after a fuller view to abandon all to possess this entirely to enjoy this Happy hour one moment whereof is worth a thousand Worlds Seeing God is pleas'd thus to favour us why should we refuse his Mercies by detaining our selves in lower Exercises I have now no more difficulty to understand how the knowledge of many Verities are imprinted in a Soul that is unlearned and not verst in acquir'd Sciences And how by an Interiour Light she sees things without her a far off And how she can know the Perfections of God and her own Imperfections Here is the Cabinet of God all the World does not enter into it neither is the door always open Come my Soul let us knock at the door thereof with an humble confidence if God is not pleas'd to open it let us wait there with content and quiet and practice Patience The times of Gods Visits depend only on his good pleasure If the Interiour of the heart be not well purified it will not be disposed to receive these Infusions and Divine Communications for Purity and Impurity cannot agree I was never so convinced as now that all things are to be forsaken to attend to God alone and for this end to love Contempts Poverty and Sufferings and that Grace requires of me to obey this Divine Call with Fidelity not fearing the Inconveniencies of Poverty but depending confidently on the support of Providence After that a Soul has received the impression of the Divinity in Infused Prayer she sees and finds God every where by a secret of Love only known to them who have experience thereof Love has wonderful piercing Eyes which rests not on the outside of Creatures but passes through to the Divinity that lyes there hidden In like manner when the Soul has impressions of Jesus in Infused Prayer she sees and finds him every where For that intimate Communication which Jesus makes of himself to the Interiour Powers of the Soul so takes them up that the Soul sees Jesus in all things who is the only Object of her Love to whom she is so united as never to suffer a separation O how great is the Grace of Infused Prayer and how Happy is that Soul who is partaker thereof CHAP. XVI Of Prayer of quiet BEhold what our Blessed Saviour has made me understand by Experience of this manner of Prayer In my Prayer I found all my Powers in a Calm and fill'd with great Peace and Sweetness which proceeded from the Presence of God in my Interiour whom there I beheld residing and working many Graces Whilst this holds the Soul as it were asleep in quiet she rejoyces and this Joy is infus'd into her and hardly knows how she rejoyces feeling only in her Interiour a Sweetness and delightful Tranquillity yet well perceiving God works this in her by his Presence God likewise gives her great Assurance of his Presence and experimental Knowledge that he is infinitely Good Powerful Merciful her only Soveraign and final Happiness The Soul perceives well enough that she now conceives these things in a more eminent manner than by Discourse being in a Region of Light above her Reason The sacred Repose she takes in God now present gives her such an Interiour way of knowing and loving God that she tasts his Sweetness and so finds by Experience what he is A taste of honey teaches better to know what honey is than the most learned Discourses of its Nature and Properties so the Relish we have of God in this sacred Repose makes us know better what he is than any Discourse in Meditation A Soul that has tasted the Sweetness of God does not find a Relish in Creatures as formerly Whilst the Soul tastes the Creature she ceases to taste God and this Cessation is troublsome to a loving Soul In this sacred Repose the Soul is taught efficaciously how to mortifie her Passions and practise Virtues for the good of her Neighbour when Charity requires it And 't is no small Mortification to her to quit this admirable Enjoyment to go about exteriour Acts of Charity The Soul that does not taste the Sweetness of God knows not this kind of Mortification In this state where the Will is taken Captive as St. Teresa says the Soul fears nothing more than to return to her Liberty And I can truly say I know it is a Punishment that does not a little affright the Soul In the Sweetness of this Prayer of quiet the Soul learns a sublime way to embrace the Bitterness of Sufferings to become indifferent to Peace or War to Action or Contemplation in a word to desire nothing but God alone So that other things though good and convenient at other times now are troublesome unto her She conceives that these words in the Canticles Do not awake my Spouse till she please do signify thus much as spoken by Jesus Christ to a loving Soul Do not put my Spouse out of this sacred Slumber into which she is cast by my Presence And though she much desires the Continuance of this sacred Quiet yet it is with a perfect Resignation to the Will of God to do with her what he pleases What she fears most is least for her Infidelity God should leave her for another Lover When thou feelest O my Soul God thus working in thee infusing his Sweetness in a plentiful manner dilate thy heart to receive it and be respectfully attentive to his Operations in thee for 't is then he is pleased to treat thee magnificently and of thy Miseries to make a Throne for his Goodness and Mercies The sensual man has no Experience of these Mercies he may indeed have some Idea of them in his Fancy but they are real things in a well disposed Soul and
produce in her admirable effects To have tasted of them once or twice is sufficient to make her rich by infusing into her Understanding a certitude of the Mysteries of our holy Faith and inflaming the Will with ardent and solid affections to practise Virtue And thus she knows more of God in a Moment than before she did in many Months By these extraordinary Graces a Soul is more convinc'd and dispos'd to suffer Contempt and Poverty and leave all things to follow Christ than by a thousand discursive Meditations However God does not cease to communicate these effects by other wayes as by spiritual Lectures holy Conferences Meditations c. But when God is pleas'd to work all by himself in a Soul he does much for her in a little time One of the principal Virtues that this state imprints in the Soul is To draw her to God and keep her with him so that she 's more in Him than her self Divine Love being a weight that alwayes carries her to her Well-beloved Amor meus pondus meum If a great Prince should send some magnificent Present to one of his poor Subjects this would give him more Knowledge of his Prince's Royal Grandeurs and Bounty than to send him all the Oratours of his Realm to set forth his Greatness by their Eloquence So a Soul knows more of God by the aforesaid Favours than by the large Discourses of Famous Preachers These extraordinary Favours are not necessary to Salvation nor yet to Perfection but very advantagious to confirm us in Grace For these more special Communications work in the Soul this admirable Repose and sweet Calmness to dispose her for the Receipt of great Graces which bring her to a more intimate Union wherein she sucks from the Bosom of the Divinity a Sweetness ineffable Strengthening Purifying and Comforting When the Soul is not in this Quiet let her do what she can no endeavours of her can procure it If God sends it let us receive it if he send it not we must be patient and prepare our selves thereto by the exercise of Mortificacation and pure Virtue according to the Grace betstow'd upon us Having been in this Prayer of Quiet many days it seem'd to me to be taken from me for contesting a little with my Friend to perswade him to prevent another with a charitable courtesie O my God how nice and delicate a thing is Grace and the greater the Grace it is the more delicate I learn by this Substraction how poor a thing a Creature is how unable we are of our selves to retain Your Graces and to see that this also proceeds from Grace I will hereafter make it my work to love pure Virtue and practise perfect Mortification CHAP. XVII Of the intimate Vnion of the Love of the Soul with God in Prayer THe wonderful Secrets of this Disposition of the Soul in Prayer can hardly be expressed only we may call it The Prayer of Vnity of Love because herein the Will feels no other Love in her Affections than that which God has for Himself One only Love seems sufficient for God and the loving Soul it being enough for her to adhere to him with great Simplicity and Unity with this only Love which God has for his infinite Beauties and Perfections The particular Love of the Soul is absorpt like a Drop of Water in the infinite Ocean of his Love by a Union inexplicable and being so lost is found more perfect as a Spark of Fire in a little Coal cast into a Furnace gives a heat infinitely greater than what it had of it self alone It seems to the Soul that she does not love but God loves himself in her and in this manner her Will having such Impressions of the Divine Love has no other Sentiments nor Interiour Dispositions than those which God has for Himself When she loves God in this manner as he loves Himself she also hates Sin in the same manner as God hates it by this ineffable Union In this state of Prayer the Soul receives wonderful Discoveries of the admirable Wisdom of God in his Proceedings about the Redemption of Mankind by the Life and Death of his Son so full of Sufferings and Abjection God loving Himself cannot but love the Cross which satisfied his Justice and the Soul cannot but have a Will to suffer seeing she is in the Unity of Love with God which Unity must needs elevate the Soul above Nature And as the Soul of Jesus wholly absorpt in the Love of his Father did rejoyce in his Sufferings and Humiliations so if we be in the Unity of this Love Contempts and Mortifications Dolours and Death it self will be lovely and desireable though quite contrary to our Natural Inclinations This Vnity of Love does so powerfully constrain us to love Sufferings that I make little difference between Love and the Cross and I see so clearly that all the Counsels of Jesus Christ do so wonderfully advance the Purity of Love that no natural Aversion shall deterr me from them I find in my Heart a tacit Consent of Love to abandon my self to Divine Providence and not to disquiet my self about Perfection For I must pacify all the Emotions of my Heart as well good as bad to be in so profound a Peace as to attain this Union When God is pleased to communicate to a Soul this Purity of Love he disposes her to so great a Favour by some Sufferings Crosses and Humiliations He that knows the Riches of true Love knows these also for they are inseparable so that he who will not suffer cannot arrive to Purity of Love My Prayer then tends to unite me intimately and continually to the only Love wherewith God loves himself and my Soul has at present Attracts to nothing else In this Love it seems to her she finds the Practice of all Virtues in a more excellent manner than in themselves I know very well that Love is a weight that continually carries the Soul towards her beloved Object and my Will bending always towards God it moves thither by a longing Inclination full of Love and Sweetness It seems to me that my Understanding herein does not with its Lights assist my Will for I find my Affections all on fire and panting after God without any previous Illustrations I found me thought Divine Love immediately working on my heart by such most secret Touches as put me in a state of perfect Union I find nothing to explicate this better than a Needle touched by the Adamant which then turns continually by a secret Virtue to the Pole and is unquiet till there it fix Thus it stands with my Soul being touched I know not how by Divine Love having no repose but by fixing on God and parting with all Creatures she gently tends to her Divine Center without any Violence being sweetly attracted to a perfect Union My Understanding in this state sees well enough what passes in my Will and Affections but it seems to me to contribute
he pleases without her knowledge or discovery Before the Soul can fix in this state she must suffer much from her imagination which will be still proposing her Representations Lights and Sentiments according to her usual practice but the Soul must quit all these to yield her self passive to the operations of God Yea even Spiritual Lecture at this time proves hurtful because it keeps up the ordinary way of working in the Soul Neither is this to tempt God seeing he will have the Soul to treat with him in this manner and her present disposition thus requiring she ought to be Faithful in complying with it There be many degrees of this denudation whereof I speak The first takes from the Soul what Lights and Affections she got discursive Meditations to give her in lieu thereof a more noble knowledge and love of God The second evacuates this knowledge by infusing particular and distinct notions of God The third after our way of conception is a pure and general knowledge of God by Faith The Soul must pass through these several dispositions as it pleases God to conduct her therein and remain in a perfect denudation adhering only to God and his good Pleasure We must not be discourag'd at the difficulties we shall meet with in this sublime exercise but prepare our selves to bear the Cross they must endure who are call'd to this state and contentedly loose our selves to be found in God Doubts frequently arise for although the Soul in this Prayer hath often assurances of her well doing yet this sometimes does not appear and the humane Spirit which is wholly blind herein is much terrified But when the Soul thus dies to her self and the World not by her own but the operations of God in her she is not idle as she may fear but disposes her self to receive the Divine enactions altogether extraordinary and Super-natural which are hindred in her by her own operations For the Humane Spirit must die before a new Super-natural Life can arise in her The Soul begins this passive Prayer by having an eye to God in himself confus'd and general After which she receives Divine Infusions as God sees good or remains suffering in a total denudation desiring nothing else but to suffer seeing she finds at present that this is the will of God The Soul cannot well give an account of what passes in her in this state of Passivity God working in her and by her what she knows not Only she sees obscurely that all goes well with her in her Interiour and that God is hers and that suffices And indeed she need not fear seeing a Soul thus passive and given up totally into the hands of God is more under the Sacred wings of his Protection than ever and belonging in a singular manner to his Providence Nor is it expedient the Soul should always know this work of God in her who would but hinder it by her reflections and complacences and therefore God keeps often from her knowledge for her good This passive Contemplation cannot be understood but by experience For God takes posseossin of the Soul in a much other manner than in active Prayer 'T is God that works his wonders as he pleases and the Soul receives the Divine operations co-operating therewith in a sort very sublime and Spiritual For the Soul is not idle but acts with a real activity elevated above her ordinary manner of working This is possible for the Blessed in Heaven are perfectly passive and yet very active their Powers working in a most sublime manner By how much the more our Prayer is pure it appears more passive in respect of us who apprehend not things Spiritual but by the service of our Senses The Soul in this state has daily experience of Divine impressions not only in Prayer but in many other matters according to that of St. Paul Spiritualis homo judicat omnia The Spiritual man discerns all things And this is wrought in a different manner for sometimes God immediately infuses his Light and Love into the Soul without any previous disposition sometimes by the looking on an Image sometimes by bringing to mind some passage in Scripture we have read before sometimes by a Sermon sometimes by Conference c. But 't is God always who works powerfully in the Soul these Exteriour things being only subservient to his Grace The Soul then makes no Acts but is wholly taken up with God and his Perfections or with Jesus and his states or the subject given her in Prayer I understood not this before this Light was Infus'd into me and now my former Exercises in Prayer seem nothing in comparison What is it that the Soul pretends to by her Meditations and Affections but to unite her self to God But when she does already possess him she needs not but to repose her self in him and live in him and of him as she desires And all the Sacraments especially the Holy Eucharist serve only to establish and plunge her more deeply in God Oh how rarely does a Soul free her self from all her own operations And yet that hinders her perfect union with God She leaves him to come to him again when she had nothing to do but to keep close to him I observe that upon my waking my Soul has an eye to Jesus Christ and reposes her self as in his bosom by whom she finds her self attracted to the Contemplation of the Divinity by the Light of Faith This Divine Idaea of Jesus Christ eclipsed all the Images of Creatures and at last my Soul was insensibly lost in a general and amorous knowledge of God and afterwards she perceived no more of what God wrought in her being then environed with Darkness which clouded the Light of her understanding I also laid aside all Exteriour occupations except such as I saw clearly God required of me Spiritual Entertainments Actions of Charity Visiting the Poor c. To intermedle much with such like things does take up the time for Prayer and Contemplation which is my chief and principal affair And as I ought to serve God in a denudation of all Creatures so I ought to be dis-engaged from too many Exteteriour occupations to treasure up time enough with Mary Magdalen for the one thing necessary And because Solitude and Retirement from Worldly Conversation do much cherish this manner of Life I must embrace it as much as possible But however with a high esteem of the Exercises of the Active Life which are excellent in the order of Divine Providence Sometimes the string is to be slakned a little to divert my Thoughts by Recreation or Exteriour Actions I have known Solitaries that have done so for the preservation of their Health and advancement of their Spiritual Exercises I know very well that my Life has been too much taken up with amusements and therefore now I ought to be more Solitary and retir'd otherwise I shall not be Faithful to the Grace of my Vocation nor conform my self to
Sin but even from Passions and occasions thereof and whatever may induce us to evil In a word we detest Sin above all things detestable in our selves and others also interiourly bewailing the Unhappiness of our mortal Condition in which we so often offend God and are in danger to lose him I knew a virtuous Soul whom God had made so sensible of the horrour of Sin because injurious to God that she perfectly detested it with ardent Desires never more to commit any She did with continual Prayers and Tears implore the Divine Majesty to preserve her from it offering her self to suffer any thing yea the pains of Purgatory or Hell it felf if it was necessary rather than commit a Mortal Sin to which no evil can be compared She understood that Sin is a Rebellion against God and injurious to him but that all the Pains we can endure either in Time or Eternity are but evil to the Creature and all Creatures being as nothing in comparison of God all the evil of Punishment they are capable to endure has less Malignity in it than one only Sin And seeing the Divine Justice has not ordained the pains of Purgatory or Hell but for the Chastisement of Sin committed she desired they might work in her this good effect as to serve her for a Remedy against Sin so as never to commit it saying to God Lord you justly punish Sinners because they have offended your infinite Majesty punish me in mercy that I may not offend you In others the pain is the Punishment of Sin preceding and the greater is the Sin the greater is the Punishment but dear God of your great Goodness grant me this singular Favour that the pain in me may prevent Sin so that the Chastisements which I should have deserved for my Offences if I had committed them I may suffer before hand not because I have committed them but to preserve me from offending your sacred Majesty By this means O my God your Interests are secured you shall receive neither Offence nor Injury the Creature only shall suffer something But what is all the Interest of the Creature in comparison of yours If the pains be too few which such Sin would have merited inflict on me what Punishments You please provided you preserve me from falling into Sin so injurious to You. This so noble and generous a Resolution could not proceed but from the pure Love of God and from the perfect hatred of Sin and in both respects must needs be in a high degree well pleasing to God and we may very well believe that God bestowed on such a Soul very wonderful Graces CHAP. II. To keep an even pace with Grace neither out-running it nor following too slowly IT is our Unhappiness that either we do not act answerably to the full power of what Grace we have received by the repugnance of our Sensuality or by our natural Levity and Inconstancy of Mind or on the contrary when the Heart is heated with the Fervour of Devotion we will force Grace beyond her strength by undertaking extraordinary Exercises and Austerities prejudicial to us 'T is our duty to shun both these Extremities to correspond faithfully to what the Grace we have can do and also to be humbled in consideration of that little we have received offering up to God those motions of natural Love which carries us to things extraordinary above our Abilities Not but that we ought daily to desire the Increase of Grace and Divine Love in us but it must be with Humility and Resignation without Interiour Disquiet well knowing that we can never advance in Grace by the strength of nature What hinders us from fully corresponding to the motions of Grace are some secret attaches to Creatures our affections being not throughly purifyed For when Grace acts in a Soul wholly dis-ingaged from the world she gives up her self fully to God's Conduct and moves towards him as her Center with more violence than a stone held in the Air being let go would descend to the Earth I say with more violence for God being a Center of Infinite Goodness has more powerful attractions than the finite Center of the Earth The nearer any thing approaches to its Center the faster it moves so the Soul hastens to the greatest Union with God by how much the more she approaches to him with inflamed Affections But we must have a care not to advance too speedily to the elevated states of Perfection whether as yet the Grace we have does not invite us Oftentimes we would rather regulate our selves by the Graces we see in others than our own for observing them do wonderfully well in perfecting themselves and profiting others we will needs follow their example and this may sooner proceed from a natural desire of our own excellence and esteem then from a motion of Grace and to please God And so we put our selves out of the way going rather back than advancing we will be following their wayes and not walk in that where Grace has put us It concerns us therefore every one to observe and follow faithfully the Attracts of that Gracethey have received for what have we to do with the Graces of others which make a glorious show and to which we have not a Call from God The Beauty of Christianity is not in the Outside for the greatest Saints seem sometimes more despicable than others but interiour Graces Omnis Gloria Filiae Regis ab Intus which working wonderfully in them makes them in love with Contempt and Poverty with Pains and Sufferings whereby they become like to Jesus poor despised suffering and forsaken Behold herein the Essence Life and Heart of Christianity For 't is in his Suffering Saints that God works the most admirable effects of Grace and he takes the greatest delights in them because they are so many Copies of his Well-beloved Son in small Characters But here lyes the mystery that a Soul suffer her self to be in the hand of Grace as soft Wax plyable to her Impressions and faithful to follow her Directions To be faithful I say to be faithful to the Motions of Grace is all in all in a Spiritual Life CHAP. III. That a Soul must wholly give her self up to God IT highly concerns us to keep close to the Conduct of God's holy Spirit and not confide in our own abilities which may quite destroy the work of God in us What can a poor creature do if the Soveraign Creatour work not his will in us All the Solicitudes and Contrivances on our part are not so prevalent as to abandon our selves wholly to God by whose Grace we are what we are and without which we are nothing but Frailty and Infirmity It is best with us when we have in our Prospect and Affection God alone and his good Pleasure being content with whatever he pleases to give either for Soul or Body In this state a Soul goes on very well in all affairs for an indifferency to
the good pleasure of God does not at all hinder her Co-operation whether it be to act with God in Prayer or exteriour Imployments God by this means works in the Soul a disposition to enjoy or suffer of Action or Contemplation of Darkness or Light as he pleases For then she desires to do nothing of her self but to follow entirely the Attracts and Motions of God's Holy Spirit A Soul that sets her self a work without an eye to God and her Interiour is imprudent for what she so undertakes is of no value in that she does not the will of God but withdrawing her self from her necessary Dependance endeavours as it were to conduct God when she ought only to be conducted by him If we were sensible of our misery herein we would be afraid of our selves Self-confidence is a thing so formidable and we should discover a continual disorder in all proceedings except in those wherein we have an eye to God and are industrious to conform our selves to his Divine Pleasure When a Soul has fully given up her self to God she receives Interiour Irradiations from Heaven by which she discovers what she ought to do and what God requires of her and so is not disquieted with solicitous Thoughts but walks on securely in the ways of Perfection For this Abandonment preserves this Interiour Light which daily directs her in the Knowledge of God's Will to do her Actions with Interiour Purity As the Light of the Sun guides us in our wayes without which we should take one thing for another so the rayes of Grace discover to us what God would have us do and if the Soul should not be thus enlightned she would wander in the dark and our poor Life go on without the Conduct of God in Mysts of Misery and Infidelity The common Life of Christians is more guided by the Light of Reason than the Light of Grace but those that live by Faith are Interiour Christians CHAP. IV. We ought to make it our Business to be content to Suffer IF we will follow the ways of Virtue in this earthly Pilgrimage we must be content to suffer continual Mortifications lead what Life we will be it Active or Contemplative In the Active Life spending our selves for the good of others if we be not in a Disposition to sacrifice our own Wills with a Spirit of Resignation while we would profit others we shall endammage our selves for we must expect to meet with Crosses and Occasions of Patience for which if we be not prepared we shall without doubt fall into many Imperfections Yea in the Sweets of Contemplation we shall find some Thorns as well as Roses to put us in mind of our Suffering Condition In a word the Union with Jesus Christ crucisyed is the perfectest Union we can attain in this Life When Jesus Christ conducts his Saints to Mount Tabor they in a manner are out of themselves being ravished with the Glimmerings of Glory but upon Mount Calvary they receive the best Impressions of Perfection 'T is requisite a Soul should have a view of the Beauties of Jesus before she see and feel the Horrours of the Cross lest she should be scandalized at this last state and her Palate should not relish the bitterness thereof Spiritual Infants stand in as much need of Milk as Corporal Our heavenly Father does not take his Children from the Breast 'till he sees them strong enough and capable of more solid Food He lays the first Dispositions of a Spiritual Life in the Sweetness of Enjoyments but he compleats it in the Bitterness of Sufferings That which makes us profest Christians is Faith and Baptism but the Cross and Sufferings make us practical Christians and the greater they are being born with the Christian Patience and Resignation they advance us higher in Perfection We ought not then to fear Crosses and Sufferings but rather embrace them with Peace and Affection And we must hold this for a Maxim that we advance in the way to Perfection according to the Degree of Mortification and Self-denyal which we cannot attain but by a Suffering Life Let us therefore above all things abandon our selves to the Divine Providence desiring nothing but by the pure will of God without troubling our selves at what happens to us 'T is no just matter of Astonishment to see in this world the wayes of the Just beset with Thorns and Bryars of Affliction and the wicked to abound with worldly Comforts in Beds of Roses Those who will have no portion in the Joys of Heaven have refreshments in this world and find here their Paradice to recompense that little good they have done among those many evils they have committed But such who are preserved from Eternal Pains have their Souls purifyed in this Life in the Furnace of Affliction from those stains they have contracted which else would somewhat darken the Beauty of their virtuous Actions Thrice happy are they who by the Sufferings of this Momentany Life have just Cause to hope they shall never suffer everlasting Burnings CHAP. V. To renounce our selves wholly and strive against our proper Inclinations WHosoever designs to be wholly for God must likewise endeavour to curb the Motions of his Interiour and Exteriour Senses which have not their Rise from Grace but Nature yea all such like Thoughts and Desires and the Objects of our own Will which we in Prayer mingle with those Communications God is pleased to work in us by heavenly Visits But above all we must have a care to desire nothing without an entire Resignation and Submission to the Will of God which ought to be the sole Rule of all our Actions and Intentions Hence it proceeds that we have no Will to serve God but as he pleases according to the manner and designs of his Providence and when God will vouchsafe us nothing extraordinary in a Spiritual Life we sit down content with Peace and Humility For we are dead to our Selves to be living only to God's good Pleasure which is the Soul of our Souls our Riches our Grandeur our Perfection and Blessedness To renounce our own Will and all means which our own Industry presents as most excellent and give our selves up purely to the Divine Guidance conduces very much to Perfection To renounce our Judgement and follow the sentiment of others as better in works of Piety so as voluntarily to act but with Dependance is a means to mortify by degrees our own Will and Affections If we be content that our Defects should be made known we shall glorifie God with the Love of Abjection We get no good but rather hurt by our Defects concealed but we may draw much good by their Manifestation if so be they work our greater Humiliation We ought to remain in a Disposition of Self-denyal and Humility in the Presence of God and desire nothing but the pure Ordination of his Will who can make us poor or rich in Grace as he pleases A Soul that receives excellent
to remain thus united is to do nothing for 't is the doing of all that God demands of us and the co-operating with him in the greatest work of Grace which is the Union of a Soul with the Divinity This Union is a repose of the Soul and it is found in several and different manners Sometimes it is diffus'd through all the Soul sometimes 't is only in the Superiour part thereof other while it restrains it self to the supream point of the Will and if the Soul be Faithful she does not considerably interrupt this Union For the trouble of the Interiour part or distractions of the imagination may indeed lessen the tranquility thereof but cannot destroy it The thing that weakens it the most and as it were smothers it are the Passions when violent Cares that touch one to the quick Troubles of mind Pleasures of Sense Wherefore one must be dead to all these and endeavour to die perpetually to them Another time Jesus entring into my Soul in Communion did not impart to it this Union so desirable but deprived it of it whether it were in punishment for her Imperfections or that he designed her at that time for other Imployments and required Exteriour Duties from her for the good of her Neighbour Her business was then to remain in Peace and to make a free offering of the most noble thing in the World to wit the enjoyment of God to God himself who takes an Infinite delight to see himself thus Honoured by his Creature And he is often pleas'd to be Glorified in this manner by perfect Souls and the Souls find themselves raised to a very sublime Purity by these sorts of Sacrifice wherein they renounce the most dear Caresses of God to abandon themselves more purely to God and to adhere to him only O how true is it that in the fund of the heart the most noble operations of Love are performed hidden from all the World and known to God alone Even the Soul it self does not know the Interiour Communications of God till after long experience which renders her self skilful in the secrets of the Super-natural Life whether neither Sense nor Reason can penetrate CHAP. VII The first Effect of Communion is to beget in us the Love of Crosses and Humiliations GOd in Himself and in his Eternity does nothing but Love Himself in contemplating his Divine Perfections For 't is his Essential occupation and he cannot but Love Himself and desire to be Beloved Wherefore since by the Hypostatical Union man is become God he takes upon him the same Sentiments the same Inclinations as God And by consequence Jesus Loves God as God Loves Himself and as he clearly saw that there is no way whereby God can be more Loved or more Honoured out of Himself than by Crosses and Annihilations which pay homage to the Grandeur of his Infinite Being he apply'd Himself to Love Crosses Sufferings and Contempt with all the Powers of his Soul Never man so passionately in Love with these things as Jesus Christ because never any one was transported with such Zeal as he to Love and Glorifie God his Father When therefore Jesus enters into us by the Holy Communion he brings with him all his Sentiments all his Inclinations particularly those which he affects most and desires to imprint them in our Souls for which purpose he gives himself to us under the form of nourishment because as the meat we take communicates to the Body all its principal qualities so he inspires the Soul withall its principal motions and operations And this is the reason that the oftner one Communicates the more one ought to be penetrated with the Sentiments and Inclinations of Jesus that is to say so much more one ought to Love Sufferings and Humiliations The property of the Communion which is the Living Bread which descended from Heaven is not to be changed into us as the inanimate Bread that comes from the Earth is but to change us into Himself And the Holy Communion should raise man above his Natural Love to lift him up to the Love of God and to a perfect union with his Will by Mortification and Destruction of Himself The most inward and most Perfect of all the Unions that a Creature can have with his God is the Personal or Hypostratical one which produced in the Sacred Humanity of Jesus a Love of the Cross and of the Poverty Insomuch that it was no sooner Divinely assumed but it was inflamed with the Love of Suffering and esteemed nothing next to the Divinity so worthy an bbject of Love as the Cross Now it is evident that we cannot arrive to any Union with God so much resembling the Hypostatical Union as that which we obtain by the Holy Communion Whence it follows that it ought to produce in us such Inclinations as very much resemble those which the Union Hypostatical produced in the Sacred Humanity that is to say it should incline us to Love the Cross Poverty Humiliations and all other manner of Sufferings O my Soul where are we How comes it about that we Communicate so often and feel still such repugnance to suffer Jesus Christ coming into us and as I may say again Incarnate in us would not he confer the most signal Grace of Love of the Cross if he found us well disposed to receive it He that Communicates often and yet is unwilling to suffer without doubt Communicates but imperfectly For he does not receive the principal effects of the Divine union which are to make us love what Jesus loved the most of any thing in the World O my God how long shall we live in the low Sentiments of Nature Give me to suffer or to die O my Soul be ashamed to live without Suffering for That methinks is to live without Love The Fruit which we gather from the Holy Communion is not discerned by abundance of sensible sweetness or by reception of much Light in the understanding but by a firm and vigorous resolution of the Will to suffer and to mortifie it self and the more one advances in Mortification the more one also increases in purity of Love Jesus who is the nourishment of our Love in Heaven where Love will be Infinitely pure is likewise the nourishment of our Love upon Earth in the Blessed Sacrament which by consequence ought to be Soveraignly pure I mean without any mixture of any thing that is not God But this cannot be without dying to all Creatures and even to our Selves and this Death is not compassed but by Mortification and all that which Crucifies Nature CHAP. VIII Continuation of the same Subject AFter Holy Communion it seemed to me that as Jesus received of his Divine Father the Fullness of Light and true Love in the Hypostatical Union so he makes his Friends partakers thereof in the Sacramental Union and thereby lays an obligation upon them to live by the same Life to guide themselves by the Light and to enter into a
Comformity to all his States This Divine Light discovered to me a great many Verities very important for my direction and conduct 1. That we are never to be without Sufferings For the Spirit of Christianity is the Spirit of the Cross The Grace that feeds and supports it is the Fruit of the Cross and the adorable Bread so full of Delights inspires no other Sentiments then those of the Cross Venite mittamus lignum in Panem ejus 2. That as Jesus manifests the Purity of the Love he bears us by dying for us upon the Cross so ought we to prove the Sincerity of ours by nailing it to the Cross 3 That he worked our Salvation by the only means of Suffering Therefore it is a manifest deceit to hope that we can co-operate towards our Salvation by any other means than that of Suffering 4. That we must attend and harken very diligently to the Spirit of Jesus within us which of it self sometimes furnisheth us with Crosses of Providence or else inspires us to seek them of our selves We must embrace them all cheerfully or search them amorously 5. That no other Soul but what is in Love with Crosses can tast the ways of the Spirit and its Heavenly Sweetness For God who mixes the Pleasures of Worldlings with wormwood and Gall does often sweeten our Sufferings after an admirable manner Moreover I was taught in the Holy Communion that Jesus is a Sun which was Eclipsed during this transitory Life but now shines in Heaven full of Lustre and Glory And according to the measure Souls partake of his Eclipse and Darkness they shall proportionably share of his Splendours in Glory Why then flee we Poverty Contempt and the Cross For that which Eclipseth a Soul with Jesus Christ is the Seed of an Immense Glory in Heaven What is the reason that we see nothing but Crosses in Churches All the Altars are adorned with the Cross the Priest going to Celebrate weares the Cross in his Vestments while he is saying Mass while he is saying Mass he makes a great many Signs of the Cross when he is about to Communicate to us he first gives us his Benediction with the Sign of the Cross even the last Action he does holding the Blessed Sacrament in his Hand and ready to present it to us is forming the Sign of the Cross with the Sacred Host We are told also that in Antient times when Christians received it in their Hands they placed them in form of a Cross laying the Right Hand a Cross over the Left What can we learn from all this but that the Christian who Communicates ought to be Crucified and that as he receives his God among Crosses so he should take delight in passing his Life amongst Sufferings My Soul when shall I begin the practice of a Life wholly Crucified a throughly Christian and Supernatural Life When shall I love Poverty Contempt Affronts Injuries O my God that I might begin this very day to serve you and trample upon all the Sentiments of Nature which ought to be continually upon the Cross And therefore I ought not to be troubled at such things as impoverish and ruine me The more poor the more dead one is to the World I ought even exteriourly if People would believe me to live poorly and become vile and contemptible in the eyes of men following the example of Jesus Christ who lived thirty years in a Shop like a Servant Therefore it is my Duty to tend contrary to all that which the World with its Wisdom of the Flesh esteemeth And that suddenly for I am already grown Old and have not yet begun In becoming wretched according to the opinion of the World I shall answer the Grace of my Vocation who am called to Poverty and a Solitary Life I shall obtain Peace and become a man of Prayer Assist me with your Powerful Graces O Jesus and grant me Perseverance Let us follow Jesus O my Soul He from the very first instant of his Life walked like a Gyant in the ways of Humiliations and Sufferings the ways that his Father appointed him All his concern was to co-operate with his Fathers Eternal purposes which regarded himself Let us walk couragiously in the rough and Holy Paths which Jesus has traced out Let us not fear our Natural Weakness since he did not fear his Humanity but shew'd himself obedient even to Death and to the Death of the Cross Let us count every thing Folly that is contrary to this Wisdom and let us quit one for all every thing else to follow none but him CHAP. IX The second Effect of Communion is to Transform us THe following consideration after Communion entertained me long and continued a whole Morning That the principal Effect of Communion is to produce in us an intimate Union with Jesus This Union is a perfect Assimulation to his States and Mysteries And this Assimulation is the same thing which they call a Transformation into God and renders a person wholly Divine and devoted to the Interests of God insomuch that by Grace he becomes Divine as having no other Inclinations then those of God living by the Life of God and desiring nothing but the Love and Glory of God In this sight which appeared to me very clear I beheld the lowness and imperfections of such Sentiments and Actions as are meerly Natural I wondered at the blindness of men who set such a value upon an operation of Nature though it be of it self so infinitely vile and contemptible It seems they never understood the importance of advancing towards Perfection with all their sorce nor the miserable condition of an imperfect Soul This Light wonderfully separated me from Imperfection and I am now as full of Horror of it as I was formerly full of Sin It seemed to me that Jesus who so prodigiously debaseth himself in the Blessed Sacrament by a Miracle of Love of Mercy and of incomparable bounty did thus excite me to rise from Nature to Grace and and from a Humane to a Super-natural Life Towards which I felt in my self such strong Inclinations and such powerful Obligations by my frequent Communions that I had rather have died than have passed one moment of my Life in the state of Nature We ought to tend incessantly to the Purity of Jesus and if to enter into it more readily and more perfectly one must quit Honours Goods and Friends let us quit them my Soul and take in their places Poverty Contempts and Pains The Purity of Virtue charms me and animates me to pursue it I do not find any Creatures that I do not willingly abandon nor any difficulty that I do not easily conquer O my God separate me by your Holy Grace from every thing which hinders this Divine Transformation and grant that I may cease to be what I am according to Nature that I may become what you are by the power of Grace When shall I be wholly united and transformed into you When shall