me always that this is the most firm and secure disposition my spirit in the upper part is in a most simple unity it is not united because when it would perform acts of union which it often sets about it finds difficulty and clearly perceives that it cannot unite but be united The Soul would make use of this union for the service of Mattins the holy Mass preparation for the Communion and Thanksgiving and in a word it would for all things be always in that most simple unity of spirit without reflecting on any thing else To all this the holy Father answered with approbation perswading her to persist and putting her in mind that the repose of God is in peace 91. Another time she wrote to the same Saint these words Endeavouring to do some more special acts of my simple intuition total resignation and annihilation in God his divine goodness rebuked me and gave me to understand that that proceeded only from the love of my self and that thereby I offended my Soul. 92. By this thou wilt be undeceived and know what is the perfect and spiritual way of Praying and be advised what is to be done in Internal recollection Thou 'lt know that to the end Love may be perfect and pure it is expedient to retrench the multiplication of sensible and fervent Acts the Soul continuing quiet and resting in that inward Silence Because tenderness delight and sweet sentiments which the Soul experiences in the Will are not pure Spirits but Acts blended with the sensibilitie of Nature Nor is it perfect Love but sensible Pleasure which distracts and hurts the Soul as the Lord told the venerable Mother of Cantal 93. How happy and how well applied will thy Soul be if retreating within it self it there shrink into its own nothing both in its Center and superiour Part without minding what it does whether it recollect or not whether it walk well or ill if it operate or not without heeding thinking or minding any sensible thing At that time the Intellect believes with a pure Act and the Will loves with perfect Love without any kind of impediment imitating that pure and continued Act of Intuition and Love which the Saints say the Blessed in Heaven have with no other difference than that they see one another there Face to Face and the Soul here through the Veil of an obscure Faith. 94. O how few are the Souls that attain to this perfect Way of Praying because they penetrate not enough into this internal recollection and Mystical Silence and because they strip not themselves of imperfect reflection and sensible pleasure O that thy Soul without thoughtful advertency even of it self might give it self in Prey to that holy and spiritual Tranquility In bis Confess lib. 9. cap. 10. and say with St. Austin Sileat anima mea transeat se non se cogitando Let it be silent and do nothing forget it self and plung into that obscure Faith How secure and safe would it be though it might seem to it that thus unactive and doing nothing it were undone 95. I 'll sum up this Doctrine with a Letter that the illuminated Mother of Cantal wrote to a Sister and great Servant of God Diviâ—â— Bounty said she granted me this way of Prayer that with a single View of God I felt my self wholy dedicated to him absorpt and reposed in him he still continued to me that Grace though I opposâ—â— it by my Infidelity giving way to fear and thinking my self unprofitable in that state for which cause being willing to do something on my part 〈◊〉 quite spoil all and to this present I find my seâ—â— sometimes assaulted by the same Fear though 〈◊〉 in Prayer but in other Exercises wherein I am always willing to employ my self a little though I know very well that in doing such acts I come oâ—â— of my Center and see particularly that that simpâ—â— View of God is my onely remedy and help still 〈◊〉 all troubles temptations and the events of thâ—â— Life 96. And certainly would I have followed my internal Impulse I should have made use of no other means in any thing whatsoever without exception because when I think to fortifie my Soul with Arts Reasonings and Resignations then do I expose my self to new temptations and straights Besides that I cannot do it without great violence which leaves me exhausted and dry so that it behoves me speedily to return to this simple Resignation knowing that God in this manner lets me see that it is his Will and Pleasure that a total stop should be put to the operations of my Soul because he would have all things done by his own divine Activity and happily he expects no more of me but this onely View in all spiritual Exercises and in all the pains temptations and afflictions that may befal me in this life And the truth is the quieter I keep my Spirit by this means the better all things succeed with me and my crosses and afflictions suddenly vanish Many times hath my blessed Father St Francis of Sales assured me of this 97. Our late Mother Superiour encouraged me firmly to persist in that way and not to fear any thing in this simple View of God She told me That that was enough and that the greater the nakedness and quietness in God are the greater sweetness and strength receiveth the Soul which ought to endeavour to become so pure and simple that it should have no other support but in God alone 98. To this purpose I remember that a few days since God communicated to me an Illumination which made such an impression upon me as if I had clearly seen him and this it is That I should never look upon my self but walk with eyes shut leaning on my Beloved without striving to see nor know the Way by which he guides me neither fix my thoughts on any thing nor yet beg Favours of him but as undone in my self rest wholly and sincerely on him Hitherto that Illuminated and Mistical Mistress whose Words do Credit and Authorize our Doctrine CHAP. XIV Declaring how the Soul putting it self in the Presence of God with perfect Resignation by the pure Act of Faith walks always in virtual and acquired Contemplation 99. THou wilt tell me as many Souls have told me that though by a perfect Resignation thou hast put thy self in the Presence of God by means of pure Faith as hath been already hinted yet thou doest not merit nor emprove because thy thoughts are so distracted that thou canst not be fixed upon God. 100. Be not disconsolate for thou do'st not lose time nor merit neither desist thou from Prayer because it is not necessary that during that whole time of recollection thou should'st actually think on God it is enough that thou hast been attentive in the beginning provided thou discontinue not thy purpose nor revoke the actual attention which thou hadst As he who hears Mass and says the Divine Office performs
of Friends Relations and spiritual Children because it makes him never remember 'em but when they are speaking to him This is the onely sign to know the Disinterestedness of a Master and therefore such a one doth more good by being Silent than thousands of others that make never so great a noise with their infinite Documents CHAP. IX Shewing how a simple and ready Obedience is the onely means for walking safely in this inward Way and of procuring internal Peace 66. IF thou do'st in good earnest resolve to deny thy Will and do God's Obedience is the necessary means whether it be by the indissoluble knot of thy Vow made in the hands of thy Superiour in thy Religion or the free tying of thy self by the Dedication of thy Will to a spiritual and expert Guide that hath the Qualities shewn before in the precedent Chapters 67. Thou wilt never get up the Mountain of Perfection nor to any high Throne of Peace Internal if thou art onely Govern'd by thy own Will This cruel and fierce Enemy of God and of thy Soul must be conquered thy own Direction thy own Judgment must be subdued and deposed as Rebels and reduced to Ashes by the Fire of Obedience there it will be found as in a Touch-stone whether the Love thou followest be thine own or Divine there in that Holocaust must thine own Judgment and thine own Will be Annihilated and brought to its last Substance 68. An ordinary Life under Obedience is worth more than that which of its own Will doth great Penance because Obedience and Subjection besides that they are free from the Deceits of Satan are the truest Holocaust which can be sacraficed to God on the Altar of our Heart Which made a great Servant of God say That he had rather gather Dung by Obedience than be caught up to the third Heaven of his own Will. 69. You will know that Obedience is a ready way to arrive quickly at Perfection 't is impossible for a Soul to purchase it self true Peace of Heart if it doth not deny and overcome its own Judgment and Rebellion And the means of denying and overcoming ones Judgment is to be willing in every thing to Obey with Resolution him that stands in God's Place because the Heart remains free secure and unburthen'd by all that which goes from the Mouth with true Submission to the Ears of the spiritual Father Effundite coram illo corda vestra Ps 61. The most effectual means therefore to advance in the Way of the Spirit is to imprint this in the Heart that a man's spiritual Director stands in God's Place and whatever he orders and says is said and ordered from the Divine Mouth 70. The Lord often times manifested to that venerable Mother Ann Mary of S. Joseph a Franciscan Nun That she should rather Obey her spiritual Father than Himself History of her Life § 42. To the venerable Sister Catharine Paulucci the Lord also one day said You ought to go to your spiritual Father with pure and sincere Truth as if you came to Me and not enquire whether he be or be not Observant but you ought to think that he is Governed by the Holy Ghost and that he is in My stead Her Life Book 2. Ch. 16. adding When Souls shall Observe this I will not permit that any be Deceived by him O Divine Words worthy to be imprinted in the Hearts of those Souls which desire to advance in Perfection 71. God revealed to Lady Marina of Escobar That if our Lord Christ would have her Communicate after his mind and her spiritual Father should say Nay she was obliged to follow the mind of her spiritual Father And a Saint was lower'd down from Heaven to tell her the reason of it which was That in the first there might be Cheat but in the second none 72. The Holy Ghost advises us all in the Proverbs Ch. 3. that we take Counsel and trust not in our own Wisdom Ne innitaris prudentiae tuae And says by Tobit That to do well thou never oughtest to govern thy self with thine own proper judgment but always must ask others mind and judgment Ch. 4.14 Consilium semper a sapiente perquire Although the spiritual Father Err in giving Counsel you can never Err in taking it and following it because you act wisely Qui judiceo alterius operatur prudenter operatur And God doth not suffer Directors to Err that he may preserve though it should be with Miracles the visible Tribunal of the spiritual Father from whence is known with all Safety what is the Divine Will. 73. Besides that this is the common Doctrine of all the Saints of all the Doctors and Masters of Spirit Christ our Lord gave credit and security to it when he said That the spiritual Fathers should be understood and obeyed just like Himself Qui vos audit me audit St Luke 10. And this even when their Works do not correspond with their Words and Counsels as is manifest by St Matthew Chap. 1. Quaecunque dixerint vobis facite secundum autem opera eorum nolite facere CHAP. X. Pursues the same 74. THE Soul which is observant of holy Obedience is as St. Gregory says 35 Lib. in Job Cap. 13. Possessour of all Vertues It is rewarded by God for its Humility and Obedience illustrating and teaching its own Guide to whose direction it ought as being in God's place to be every way subject discovering freely clearly faithfully and simply all the thoughts all the works inclinations inspirations and temptations that it knows of it self In this manner the Devil cannot deceive it and it becomes secure of giving an account of its actions to God without fear as well those actions which it doth commit as those it doth omit Insomuch that whoever would walk without a Guide if he is not deceived he is very near it because Temptation will seem Inspiration to him 75. Thou oughtest to know that to be perfect it is not enough to obey and honour Superiours but it is also necessary to obey and honour Inferiours 76. Obedience therefore to make it perfect must be voluntary pure ready chearful internal blind and persevering Voluntary without force and fear Pure without worldly interest and respect or self-love but purely for God Ready without reply excuse or delay Chearful without inward affliction and with diligence Internal because it must not only be exterior and apparent but from the mind and heart Blind without ones own judgment but submitting that judgment with the will to his that Commands it without searching into the Intention End or Reason of the Obedience Persevering with firmness and constancy unto Death 77. Obedience according to St. Bonaventure Tract 8. Collationum must be ready without a delay devout without tyring voluntary without contradiction simple without examination persevering without resting orderly without breaking off pleasant without trouble valiant without faint-heartedness and universal without exception Remember O blessed Soul that although thou hast
a mind to do the divine Will with all diligence thou wilt never find the way but by the means of Obedience When a man is resolved to be governed by himself he is lost and deceived Although the Soul have very profound signs that it is a good Spirit that speaks to it yet unless it submit to the judgment of the spiritual Director let it be esteemed an evil Spirit So says Gerson Tract de dist verar. Num. 19. and many other Masters of Spirit 78. This Doctrine will be confirmed by that case of St. Teresa The holy Mother seeing that Lady Catherine of Cardona led a Life of great and rigid Penance in the Wilderness resolved to imitate her contrary to the judgment of her spiritual Father who forbid her Then the Lord told her in her Life 366. You must by no means do this Daughter the good way thou hast secure thou seest all the Penance that Catherine doth but I value more thy obedience She from that time forward vowed to obey her spiritual Father and in the 26th Chapter of her Life we read that God often told her that she must not omit to acquaint her spiritual Father with her whole Soul and the graces that she had done her and that she should always take care to obey him in every thing 79. Thou seest how God hath been willing to secure that heavenly and important Doctrine by the holy Scripture the Saints the Doctors by Reasons and by Examples a-purpose to root out altogether the deceits of the Enemy CHAP. XI When and in what things this Obedience doth most concern the interior Soul. 80. THat you may know when Obedience is most necessary I will advise thee that when thou shalt find the horrible and importunate suggestions of the Enemy greatest upon thee when thou shalt suffer most darkness anguish drowth forsakings when thou shalt see thy self most beset with temptations wrath rage blasphemy lust cursing tediousness despair impatience and desolation then 't is most necessary for thee to believe and obey an expert Director resting thy self on his holy Counsel that thou may'st not suffer thy self to be carried away by the strong perswasion of the Enemy who would make thee believe in affliction and heavy desertion that thou art lost and abhorred by God that thou art out of his favour and that Obedience is past doing thee any good 81. Thou shalt find thy self encompassed with troublesome scruples griefs anguish distress martyrdoms distrusts forsakings of the Creatures and troubles so bitter that thy afflictions shall seem past comfort and thy torments unconquerable O blessed Soul how happy wilt thou be if thou dost but believe thy Guide and subject thy self to him and obey him Then wilt thou walk safe by the secret and interior way of the dark night although thou may'st seem to thy self to live in Errour and that thou art worse than ever that thou seest nothing in thy Soul but abomination and signs of condemnation 82. Thou wilt think verily that thou art possessed by an evil Spirit because the signs of this interior exercise and horrible tribulation seem as bad as the invasions of infernal Furies and Devils Then take care to believe thy Guide firmly for thy true Happiness consists in thy obedience 83. You must consider that when the Devil sees a Soul totally denying it self and submitting to the obedience of its Director he makes a strange uproar all Hell over to hinder this infinite Good and this holy Sacrifice Full of envy and fury as he is he uses to make strife between the two inspiring the Soul with wearisomness anger aversion resistance distrust and hatred against the Guide and sometimes he makes use of his Tongue to bespatter him with many Reproaches But if this Director be an expert one he laughs at these subtle Snares and diabolical Craftynesses And however the Devil may perswade the Souls of such a state with divers suggestions not to believe their Director that they may not obey him nor profit under him yet nevertheless they may believe and they do believe enough to obey though it be without their own satisfaction 84. Thou wilt ask of thy Guide some Liberty or wilt communicate to him some Grace received If in denying thee that Liberty or rejecting that Grace that thou may'st not grow proud thou withdrawest thy self from his Counsel and leavest him it is a sign that the Favour was false and that thy Spirit walks in danger But if thou dost believe and obey although he do soundly displease thee 't is a sign that thou art alive and unmortified nevertheless thou wilt profit with that violent and working Medicine Because though the inferiour part be troubled and do resent yet the superior part of the Soul doth embrace him and will be humbled and mortified because it knows that this is the divine Will. And though thou dost not know it yet satisfaction goes on emproving in thy Soul and so doth the confidence that thou hast in thy Guide 85. The means of denying self-love and of laying down ones own judgment you must know is subjecting it altogether with true submission to the Counsel of the spiritual Physitian If he hinders you your pleasure or demands what you desire not thousands of false and idle reasons do presently get about his holy Counsel where it is presently known that the Spirit is not altogether mortified nor his own judgment blinded which are irreconcileable Enemies to a ready and blind obedience and the peace of the Soul. 86. Then 't is necessary to overcome thy self and thy quick sentiments to despise those false and lying reasons by obeying holding thy tongue and executing his holy Counsel because that is the way to root up thy appetite and thine own judgment 87. For this reason the ancient Fathers as expert and skilful Masters of Spirit did exercise their Disciples in divers and extraordinary Ways To some they gave order to plant Lettice with the leaves downward to others to Water dry and withered Trees to others to sew and unsew again many times their Cloaths all marvellous and effectual stratagems to make tryal of simple obedience and to cut by the roots the weeds of their own Will and judgement CHAP. XII Treats of the same 88. KNow that thou canst not fetch one step in the way of the Spirit till thon endeavourest to conquer this fierce Enemy thy own judgment And the Soul that will not know this hurt can never be cured A sick man that knows his Disease knows for certain that although he is adry yet it is not good for him to drink and that the Physick prescribed him though it be bitter yet is profitable for him Therefore he believes not his Appetite nor trusts in his own Judgment but yields himself up to a skilful Physitian obeying him in every thing as the means of his Recovery and Cure The knowledge that he is sick helps him not to trust to himself but to follow the wise judgment of
Sacrament that thou dost not mortifie thy self as thou promisest to God daily that Prayer and Communion without Mortification is meer vanity herewith would he make thee distrust of the Divine Grace telling thee of thy misery and making a gyant of it and putting into thy head that every day thy Soul grows worse instead of better whilest it so often repeats those failings 128. O blessed Soul open thine Eyes suffer not thy self to be carried away by the deceitful and gilded tricks of Satan who seeks thy ruine and cowardise with these lying and seeming reasons Cut off these discourses and considerations and shut the gate against these vain Thoughts and diabolical Suggestions lay aside these vain fears and remove this faint-heartedness knowing thy misery and trusting in the Mercy Divine and if to morrow thou dost fall again as thou did'st to day trust again the more in that supream and more than infinite Goodness so ready to forget our faults and receive us into his Arms as dear Children CHAP. XVIII Treateth of the same Point 129. AT all times therefore thou oughtest when thou seest thy self in fault without loosing time or making Discourses upon the failing to drive away vain Fear and Cowardise without disturbing or chiding thy self but knowing thy fault with Humility looking on thy misery rowling thy self with a loving Confidence on the Lord going into his Presence asking him Pardon heartily and without noise of words keep thy self reposed in doing this without discoursing whether he hath or hath not forgiven thee returning to thy Exercises and Retirements as if thou had'st not Sinned 130. Would not he be a meer Fool which running at Turneament with others and falling in the best of the Carrier should lie weeping on the Ground and afflicting himself with discourses upon his Fall Man they would tell him loose no time get up and take the Course again for he that rises again quickly and continues his Race is as if he had never fallen 131. If thou hast a desire to get to a high degree of Perfection and inward Peace thou must use the Weapon of Confidence in the Divine Goodness night and day and always when thou fallest This humble and loving Conversation and total Confidence in the Mercy Divine thou must exercise in all faults imperfections and failings that thou shalt commit either by advertence or inadvertency 132. And although thou often fallest and seest thy Pusillanimity and endeavour to get courage and afflict not thy self because what God doth not do in forty Years he sometimes doth in an instant with a particular Mystery that we may live low and humble and know that 't is the Work of His powerful Hand to free us from Sins 133. God also is willing of ineffable Wisdom that not onely by Vertues but also by Vices and the Passions wherewith the Devil seeks and pretends to strike us down to the bottomless Pit we make a Ladder to scale Heaven with Ascendamus etiam per vitia passiones nostras says St. Austine Serm. 3. de Ascens That we may not make Poison of Physick and Vices of Vertues by becoming vain by 'em God would have us make Vertues of Vices healing us by that very thing which would hurt us So says S. Gregory Quia ergo nos de medicamento vulnus facimus facit ille de vulnere medicamentum ut qui virtue percutimur vitio curemur Lib. 37. c. 9. 134. By means of small failings the Lord makes us know that his Majesty is that which frees us from great ones and herewith he keeps us humbled and vigilant of which our proud Nature hath most need And therefore though thou oughtest to walk with great care not to fall into any fault or imperfection if thou seest thy self fallen once and a thousand times thou oughtest to make use of the Remedy which I have given thee that is a loving Confidence in the Divine Mercy These are the Weapons with which thou must fight and conquer Cowardise and vain Thoughts this is the means thou oughtest to use not to lose time not to disturb thy self and reap good this is the Treasure wherewith thou must enrich thy Soul and lastly hereby must thou get up the high Mountain of Perfection Tranquility and internal Peace THE Spiritual Guide Which brings the Soul to the getting of Inward Peace The Third Book Of Spiritual Martyrdoms whereby God Purges Souls of Contemplation infused and passive of Perfect Resignation Inward Humility Divine Wisdom True Annihilation and Internal Peace CHAP. I. The Difference between the Outward and Inward Man. 1. THERE are two sorts of Spiritual Persons Internal and External these seek God by without by Discourse by Imagination and Consideration they endeavour mainly to get Vertues many Abstinences Maceration of Body and Mortification of the Senses they give themselves to rigorous Penance they put on Sack-cloth chastise the Flesh by Discipline endeavour Silence bear the Presence of God forming him present to themselves in their Idea of him or their Imagination sometimes as a Pastour sometimes as a Physitian and sometimes as a Father and Lord they delight to be continually speaking of God very often making fervent Acts of Love and all this is Art and Meditation by this way they desire to be great and by the power of voluntary and exteriour Mortifications they go in quest of sensible Affections and warm Sentiments thinking that God resides onely in them when they have ' em This is the External Way and the Way of Beginners and though it be good yet there is no arriving at Perfection by it nay there is not so much as one step towards it as Experience shews in many that after fifty Years of this external Exercise are void of God and full of themselves having nothing of Spiritual Men but just the name of such 2. There are others truely Spiritual which have passed by the beginnings of the Interiour Way which leads to Perfection and Union with God and to which the Lord called 'em by his infinite Mercy from that outward Way in which before they Exercised themselves These men retired in the inward part of their Souls with true Resignation into the Hands of God with a total putting off and forgetting even of themselves do always go with a rais'd Spirit to the Presence of the Lord by the means of pure Faith without Image Form or Figure but with great Assurance founded in tranquility and rest Internal in whose infused meeting and entertainment the Spirit draws with so much force that it makes the Soul contract Inwardly the Heart the Body and all the Powers of it 3. These Souls as they are already passed by the interiour Mortification and have been cleansed by God with the Fire of Tribulation with infinite and horrible Torments all of 'em ordained by his hand and after his way are Masters of themselves because they are intirely subdued and denied which makes 'em live with great Repose and internal Peace and although in
many occasions they feel Resistance and Temptations yet they become presently Victorious because being already Souls of Proof and indued with Divine Strength the motions of Passions cannot last long upon 'em and although vehement Temptations and troublesome Suggestions of the Enemy may persevere a long time about 'em yet they are all conquer'd with infinite gain God being he that Fights within ' em 4. These Souls have already procured themselves a great Light and a true Knowledge of Christ our Lord both of his Divinity and his Humanity They exercise this infused Knowledge with a quiet Silence in the inward entertainment and the superiour part of their Souls with a Spirit free from Images and external Representations with a Love that is pure and stripped of all Creatures they are raised also from outward Actions to the love of Humanity and Divinity so much as they enjoy they forget and in all of it they find that they love their God with all their Heart and Spirit 5. These blessed and sublimated Souls take no pleasure in any thing of the World but contempt and in being alone and in being forsaken and forgotten by every body They live so disinterested and taken off that though they continually receive many supernatural Graces yet they are not changed no not at those inclinations being just as if they had not received 'em keeping always in the in-most of their Hearts a great lowliness and contempt of themselves always humbled in the depth of their own unworthiness and vileness In the same manner they are always quiet serene and possessed with evenness of mind in Graces and Favours extraordinary as also in the most rigorous and bitter Torments There is no News that chears 'em no Success that makes 'em sad Tribulations never disturb 'em nor the interiour continual and divine Communication make 'em vain and conceited they remain always full of holy and filial Fear in a wonderful Peace Constancy and Serenity CHAP. II. Pursues the same 6. IN the external Way they take care to do continual Acts of all the Vertues one after another to get to the attainment of 'em They pretend to purge Imperfections with Industries proportionable to Destruction they take care to root up Interests one after another with a different and contrary Exercise But though they endeavour never so much they arrive at nothing because we cannot do any thing which is not Imperfection and Misery 7. But in the inward Way and loving Entertainment in the Presence Divine as the Lord is he that Works Vertue is established Interests are rooted up Imperfections are destroyed and Passions removed which makes the Soul free unexpectedly and taken off when occasions are represented without so much as thinking of the good which God of his infinite Mercy prepared for ' em 8. It must be known that these Souls though thus Perfect as they have the true Light of God yet by it they know profoundly their own miseries weaknesses and imperfections and what they yet want to arrive at Perfection towards which they are walking they are afflicted and abhor themselves they exercise themselves in a loving Fear of God and contempt of themselves but with a true Hope in God and Disconfidence in themselves The more they are humbled with true contempt and knowledge of themselves the more they please God and arrive at a singular respect and veneration in his Presence Of all the good Works that they do and of all that they continually suffer as well within as without they make no manner of account before that Divine Presence 9. Their continual Exercise is to enter into themselves in God with quiet and silence because there is his Center Habitation and Delight They make a greater account of this interiour Retirement than of speaking of God they retire into that interiour and secret Center of the Soul to know God and receive his Divine Influence with fear and loving reverence if they go out they go out onely to know and despise themselves 10. But know that few are the Souls which arrive at this happy State because few there are that are willing to embrace Contempt and suffer themselves to be Refined and Purified upon which account although there are many that enter into this interiour Way yet 't is a rare thing for a Soul to go on and not stick upon the entrance The Lord said to a Soul This inward Way is tread by few 't is so high a Grace that none deserves it few walk in it because it is no other than a Death of the Senses and few there be that are willing so to Die and be Annihilated in which disposition this so soveraign a Gift is founded 11. Herewith thou wilt undeceive thy self and perfectly know the great difference which there is between the external and internal Way and how different that Presence of God is which arises from Meditation from that which is Infused and Supernatural arising from the interior and infused Intertainment and from passive Contemplation and lastly you will know the great difference which is between the outward and inward Man. CHAP. III. The means of obtaining Peace Internal is not the Delight of Sense nor Spiritual Consolation but the denying of Self-love 12. IT is the saying of S. Bernard That to serve God is nothing else but to do Good and suffer Evil. He that would go to Perfection by the means of Sweetness and Consolation is mistaken You must desire no other Consolation from God than to end your Life for his sake in the state of true Obedience and Subjection Christ our Lord's way was not that of Sweetness and Softness nor did he invite us to any such either by his Words or Example when he said He that will come after me let him deny himself and let him take up his cross and follow me St Matth. 24.26 The Soul that would be United to Christ must be conformable to him following him in the way of suffering 13. Thou wilt scarce begin to relish the sweetness of Divine Love in Prayer but the Enemy with his deceitful Craftiness will be kindling in thy Heart defires of the Desert and Solitude that thou mayest without any bodies hindrance spread the sails to continual delightful Prayer Open thine eyes and consider that this Counsel and Desire is not conformable to the true Counsel of Christ our Lord who has not invited us to follow the sweetness and comfort of our own Will but the denying of our selves saying Abneget semetipsum As if he should say He that will follow me and come unto Perfection let him part with his own Will wholly and leaving all things let him intirely submit to the Yoke of Obedience and Subjection by means of Self-denyal which is the truest Cross 14. There are many Souls dedicated to God which receive from his Hand great Thoughts Visions and mental Elevations and yet for all that the Lord keeps from 'em the Grace of working Miracles understanding hidden Secrets foretelling future
precept of the Church always looks at the benefit of the faithful and so great is our luke-warmness and the frailty of our times that a precept of Daily Communion would be an occasion of sin and ruine and therefore the Church does not injoyn Christians by precept any more than one Communion in a year though the desires that through devotion men would Communicate every day Many men shift off their coming daily to this Divine Banquet that they may not be taken notice of for it and that they may give no occasion to others to grumble and the Ministers hearing this reason hold their tongues and rest satisfied O hurtful silence must they permit for worldly respects that the faithful should lose so great a benefit Is it possible that they should let 'em live at a distance and separate from God and his sweet and loving friendship because the world should not censure ' em if there should be any great account made of what the world says not only the Soul would be lost but also the judgment Is it not known that the world makes it its business to speak ill of what good is and to persecute those that do not take part with it All those that serve great men do make open shew of the degree of their office greatness and dignity and shall a Christian think it a shame to himself to Communicate and be seen in the service of Jesus Christ If it were an evil work to Communicate every day it might breed scandal but if it be the best work that a Christian can do why should he keep from it through an idle fear of offending his neighbour The Jews were offended at the good works of Jesus Christ but for all that his Majesty never left off doing ' em He that doth ill and interprets the good that others do in an evil sense 't is he that gives cause for the scandal but to do well was never a scandal much less can so great a good as Communicating be one If a man should take offence by seeing us eat surely we would not for all that be such fools as to starve our selves We ought to take great heed of following vanities and worldly pleasures that we may not by them offend or scandalize our Neighbour from these vices we ought to keep our selves not from Daily Communion because this cannot cause scandal but will rather edifie our Neighbour and by our good example it may be he may come to change his life and resolve himself to frequent the Sacraments O how many people are there that are cheated by these worldly respects O unhappy men they are not ashamed to be base in their lives and yet they are ashamed to be Christians and to be known for such CHAP. III. Wherein are shewn some of the great benefits of which a faithful man is deprieved by being prohibited the Communion when he is sufflciently disposed for it THat the Minister may see and take good notice of the hurt which he does by deprieving the faithful of the Communion that desire and ask it without the guilt of Mortal Sin it will be necessary to lye before him some of those infinite benefits of which he defrauds 'em onely in one Communion that he may undeceive himself that deprieves 'em of infinite good for mortification sake First he deprieves such a one of the increase of grace and glory which he receives in the Communion whose effect is infallible ex opere operato though he should have venial sins about him He also deprieves him of the mortification of all his five senses and powers which he therein performs whilst his Eyes his Smelling his Tast his Touch his Imagination his Understanding and all his knowledge and capacity do tell him that that Host is Bread by all this he is humbled mortified and subdued whilst he believes that it is not that which he feels and tasts but that his God and Lord is in it He deprieves him also by taking the Communion from him of the cleansing of his sins and evil habits and being preserved from 'em for the time to come of many helps which are therein administred to him for the performance of every good thing and avoiding every evil one and it may happen that the Eternal Salvation or Damnation of a Soul may depend upon one of these helps He deprieves him of the lessening the pains of Purgatory which is participated in every Communion He deprieves him of the high acts of faith hope and charity which he exercises by believing that he receives that God whom he sees not nor feels and hoping in him whom he has not seen and being united with him by love God is goodness it self and he is willing to be communicated through love to Souls by means of the Divine and Sacramental Bread Is there a greater happiness in the world can there be a greater felicity and shall there be any Minister to deprieve the Soul of this benefit In this wonderful Sacrament Christ is united to the Soul and becomes one and the same thing with it In me manet ego in illo St. John 5. which fineness of love is the most profound admirable and worthy of consideration and gratitude because there is no more to give nor to receive and what Minister shall deprieve the Soul of this boundless grace All Blessings do here meet together in this precious Food here all desires of God are fulfilled here is the loving and sacramental Union here 's the Peace the Conformity the Transformation of God with the Soul and the Soul with God. By receiving Jesus in this Sacrament the Eternal Father and the Divine Spirit is also received here are all the Vertues Charity Hope Purity Patience and Humility because Christ our Lord begets all Vertue in the Soul by means of this heavenly Food and what a Heart must the Ministers have to forbid the Soul so great a Happiness If one onely degree of Grace is a gift of inestimable Value and so precious that 't is not to be bought for a thousand Worlds being a particle of God himself and a formal participation of the Divine Nature which makes us his Children and Friends Heirs of Heaven and the Habitation of the most Holy Trinity and if never so little Grace be worth more than all the Vertues Alms and Penances and the removing Mountains as St. Paul says and giving all away to the Poor is a meer Nothing without Grace How then can it be well to deprive the Faithful of the increase of Grace which he might find onely in one Communion How can the Minister deprive him of that and of many others that follow it without giving 'em other things equivalent to those they lose What can be of equal value with habitual Grace which a faithful Man might receive neither can the Humility which he may exercise nor the Reverence nor the Mortification upon the account of which he leaves off the Communion be worth so much
Recollection or Acquir'd Contemplation The first is of beginners the second of Proficients The first is sensible and material the second more naked pure and internal 2. When the Soul is already accustomed to discourse of Mysteries by the help of imagition and the use of corporal Images being carried from Creature to Cteature and from Knowledge to Knowledge though with very little of that which it wants and from these to the Creator Then God is wont to take that Soul by the hand if rather he calls it not in the very beginnings and leads it without ratiocination by the way of pure Faith making the intellect pass by all considerations and reasonings draws it forward and raises it out of this material and sensible state making it under a simple and obscure knowledge of Faith wholly aspire to its Bridegroom upon the wings of Love without any farther necessity of the perswasions and informations of the Intellect to make it love him because in that manner the Soul's love would be very scanty much dependent on Creatures stinted to drops and these too but falling with pauses and intervals 3. By how much less it depends on Creatures and the more it relies on God alone and his secret documents by the mediation of pure Faith the more durable firm and strong will that Love be After the Soul hath already acquired the knowledge which all the meditations and corporal images of Creatures can give her if now the Lord raise her out of that state by stripping her of ratiocination and leaving her in divine darkness to the end she may march in the streight Way and by pure Faith â—et her be guided and not love with the scantiness and tenuity that these direct but let her suppose that the whole World and all that the most refined conceptions of the wisest understandings can tell her are nothing and that the goodness and beauty of her beloved infinitely surpasses all their knowledge being perswaded that all Creatures are too rude to inform her and to conduct her to the true knowledge of God. 4. She ought then to advance forward with her love leaving all her understanding behind Let her love God as he is in himself and not as her imagination says he is and frames him to her And if she cannot know him as he is in himself let her love him without knowing him under the obscure veils of Faith in the same manner as a Son who hath never seen his Father but fully believing those who have given him information of him loves him as if he had already seen him 5. The Soul from which Mental Discourse is taken ought not to strain her self nor sollicitously seek for more clear and particular knowledge but even without the supports of sensible consolations or notices with poverty of spirit and deprived of all that the natural appetite requires continue quiet firm and constant letting the Lord work his work though she may seem to be alone exhausted and full of darkness and though this appear to her to be idleness it is only of her own sensible and material activity not of God's who is working true knowledge in her 6. Finally the more the Spirit ascends the more it is taken off of sensible objects Many are the souls who have arrived and do arrive at this gate but few have passed or do pass it for want of the experimental guide and those who have had and actually have it for want of a true subjection and entire submission 7. They 'll say that the Will will not love but be unactive if the Intellect understand not clearly and distinctly it being a received Maxim that that which is not known cannot be loved To this it is answered that tho' the Intellect understand not distinctly by ratiocination Images and Considerations yet it understands and knows by an obscure general and confused Faith which knowledge tho' so obscure indistinct and general as being supernatural hath nevertheless a more clear and perfect cognition of God than any sensible and particular notice that can be formed in this life because all corporal and sensible representation is infinitely distant from God. 8. We know God more perfectly says St. Denis by Negatives Myst â—â— Theol. c. 1. â— 2. than by Affirmatives We think more highly of God by knowing that he is incomprehensible and above all our capacity than by conceiving him under any image or created beauty according to our rude understanding A greater esteem and love then will flow from this confused obscure and negative than from any other sensible and distinct way because that is more proper to God and abstracted from creatures and this on the contrary the more it depends on creatures the less it hath of God. Second Advertisement Declaring what Meditation and Contemplation are and the difference that is betwixt them 9. Lib. 3. de fide c. 24. ST John Damascene and other Saints say that Prayer is a sallying out or elevation of the mind to God. God is above all Creatures and the Soul cannot see him nor converse with him if it raise not it self above them all This friendly conversation which the Soul hath with God that 's to say in Prayer is divided into Meditation and Contemplation 10. When the Mind considers the Mysteries of our holy Faith with attention to know the truth of them reasoning upon the particulars and weighing the circumstances of the same for exciting the affections in the will This mental Discourse and pious Act is properly called Meditation 11. When the Soul already knows the truth either by a habit acquired through reasoning or because the Lord hath given it particular light and fixes the eyes of the mind on the demonstrated truth beholding it sincerely with quietness and silence without any necessity of considerations ratiocinations or other proofs of conviction and the will loves it admiring and delighting it self therein This properly is called the Prayer of Faith the Prayer of Rest Internal Recognition or Contemplation Which St. Thomas with all the mystical Masters says is a sincere 2. 2. q. 180. Art. 3. p. 4. sweet and still view of the eternal truth without ratiocination or reflexion But if the Soul rejoyces in or eyes the effects of God in the creatures and amongst them in the humanity of our Lord Christ as the most perfect of all this is not perfect Contemplation as St. Thomas affirms ibidemâ— since all these are means for knowing of God as he is in himself And although the humanity of Christ be the most holy and perfect means for going to God the chief instrument of our salvation and the channel through which we receive all the good we hope for nevertheless the humanity is not the chief good which consists in seeing God but as Jesus Christ is more by his divinity than his humanity so he that thinks and fixes his contemplation always on God because the divinity is united to the humanity always thinks on and heholds
as formerly that the exercise of Prayer is not in thy power that thou losest time whilst hardly and with great trouble thou can'st make one single Ejaculation as thou was wont to do 7. How much confusion and what perplexities will that want of enlarging thy self in mental Discourse raise in thee And if in such a juncture thou hast not a ghostly Father expert in the Mystical Way thou l't certainly conclude that thy Soul is out of order and that for the security of thy Conscience thou standest in need of a general Confession and all that will be got by that care will be the shame and confusion of both O how many Souls are called to the inward way and the Spiritual Fathers for want of Understanding their case instead of guiding and helping them forwards stop them in their Course and ruin them 8. Thou oughtest then to be perswaded that thou mayest not draw back when thou wantest expansion and discourse in Prayer that it is thy greatest happiness because it is a clear sign that the Lord will have thee to walk by Faith and Silence in his Divine Presence which is the most profitable and easiest Path in respect that with a simple view or amorous attention to God the Soul appears like a humble Supplicant before its Lord or as an innocent Child that casts it self into the sweet and safe Bosom of its dear Mother Thus did Gerson express it Though I have spent Fourty Years in Reading and Prayer yet I could never find any thing more efficacious nor compendious for attaining to Mystical Theology than that our Spirit should become like a young Child and Beggar in the presence of God. 9. That kind of Prayer is not only the easiest but the most secure because it is abstracted from the operations of the Imagination that is always exposed to the Tricks of the Devil and the extravagancies of Melancholy and Ratiocination wherein the Soul is easily Distracted and being wrapt up in Speculation reflects on it self 10. When God had a mind to instruct his own Captain Moses Exod. 24. and give him the two Tables of the Law written in Stone he called him up to the Mountain at what time God being there with him the Mount was Darkened and environed with thick Clouds Moses standing idle not knowing what to think or say Seven days after God commanded Moses to come up to the Top of the Mountain where he show'd him his Glory and filled him with great Consolation 11. So in the Beginning when God intends after an extraordinary manner to guide the Soul inter the School of the divine and loving Notices of the internal Law he makes it go with Darkness and Dryness that he may bring it near to himself because the Divine Majestie knows very well that it is not by the means of ones one Ratiocination or Industry that a Soul draws near to him and understands the Divine Documents but rather by silent and humble Resignation 12. The Patriarch Noah gave a great instance of this who after he had been by all men reckoned a Fool floating in the middle of a rageing Sea wherewith the whole World was overflowed without Sails and Oars and environed with wild Beasts that were shut up in the Ark walked by Faith alone not knowing nor understanding what God had a mind to do with him 13. What most concerns thee O redeemed Soul is Patience not to desist from the Prayer thou art about though thou can'st not enlarge is Discourse Walk with firm Faith and a holy Silence dying in thy self with all thy naturaâ— Industry trusting that God who is he who is and changes not neither can err intends nothing but thy good It is clear that he who is a dying must needs feel it but how well is time employed when the Soul is dead dumb and resigned in the presence of God there without any clutter or distraction to receive the Divine Influences 14. The Senses are not capable of divine Blessings hence if thou wouldst be Happy and Wise be Silent and Believe Suffer and have Patience be Confident and Walk on it concerns thee far more to hold thy Peace and to let thy self be guided by the hand of God than to enjoy all the Goods of this World. And though it seem to thee that thou dost nothing at all and art idle being so Dumb and Resigned yet it is of infinite fruit 15. Consider the blinded Beast that turns the Wheel of the Mill which though it see not neither know what it does yet does a great Work in grinding the Corn and although it taste not of it yet its Master receives the fruit and tastes of the same Who would not think during so long a time that the Seed lies in the Earth but that it were lost Yet afterwards it is seen to spring up grow and multiply God does the same with the Soul when he deprives it of Consideration and Ratiocination Whil'st it thinks it does nothing and is in a manner undone in time it comes to it self again improved disengaged and perfect having never hoped for so much favour 16. Take care then that thou afflict not thy self nor draw back though thou can'st not enlarge thy self and discourse in Prayer suffer hold thy peace and appear in the presence of God persevere constantly and trust to his infinite Bounty who can give unto thee constant Faith true light and divine Grace Walk as if thou wert blindfolded without thinking or reasoning put thy self into his kind and paternal hands resolving to do nothing but what his divine Will and Pleasure is CHAP. III. A Sequel of the same Matter 17. IT is the common opinion of all the holy Men who have treated of the Spirit and of all the Mistical Matters That the Soul cannot attain to perfection and an union with God by means of Meditation and Ratiocination Because that is only good for beginning the spiritual Way to the end one may acquire a habit of Knowledge of the beauty of Virtue and ugliness of Vice Which habit in the opinion of Saint Teresa may be attained to in six Months time and according to S. Bonaventure in two 18. In prolog de Mist Theol. page 655. O how are in a manner infinite numbers of Souls to be pitied who from the beginning of their Life to the end employ themselves in meer Meditation constraining themselves to Reason although God Almighty deprive them of Ratiocination that he may promote them to another State and carry them on to a more perfect kind of Prayer and so form any years they continue imperfect and in the beginning without any progress or having as yet made one step in the way of the Spirit beating their Brains about the frame of the Place the choice of the Minutes Imaginations and strained Reasonings seeking God without when in the mean time they have him within themselves 19. St. Austin complained of that in the time when God led him to the Mystical Way
making particularly like discourses and about the Houshold Affairs of their Penitents before they come to Accuse themselves of their Sins whereupon that little Devotion which they brought along with 'em to the Sacrament becomes cool'd and good for nothing Sometimes it happens that many Penitents are fain to wait to be Confessed who are full of business of their own and when they see such a long Demur they grow weary and sad and fall into impatience losing the actual disposition of Mind wherewith they were before prepared to receive so healthful a Sacrament whereupon the medley of these distractive superfluous and vain matters not onely makes 'em lose their precious time but also prejudiceth the holy Place the Sacrament the disposition of the Penitent who is Confessed and that of others who wait to be Confessed all of 'em considerable mischiefs and worthy to be redressed 53. For Confession there are some good but for the Government of Spirits by the mystical Way there are so few says Father John Davila that in a thousand you shall possibly find one St Francis of Sales says One among ten thousand And the illuminated Thauler says That in a hundred thousand it was a hard thing to find one expert Master of Spirit The reason is because there are so few who dispose themselves to receive the mystical Science Pauci ad eam recipiendam se disponunt said Henry Arpius Lib. 3. Par. 3. Cap. 22. Would to God it were not so true as it is For then there would not be so many Cheats in the World and there would be more Saints and fewer Sinners 54. When the spiritual Guide desires effectually that all should be in love with Vertue and the love which they have of God is pure and perfect with few Words and few Reasons he will reap a very great deal of Benefit 55. If the interiour Soul when it is in the Cleansing it self of Passions and in the time of Abstraction has not a sure Guide to curb in the Retirement and Solitude to which its Inclination and great Propension draws it it will be unable and unfit for Exercises of Confession Preaching and Study and also for those of its own Obligation State and Calling 56. The skilful Director therefore ought to mind carefully when the Powers of it begin to be employed in God that there may not be given too free access to Solitude commanding the Soul not to omit the outward Exercises of its State as of Study and other Employments although they should seem distractive so that they be not contrary to his Calling because the Soul is so much Abstracted in Solitude is so turned Inward in its Retirement and is removed to such a degree from Exteriority that if it afterwards apply it self again it doth it with toyl and resistance and with prejudice to its powers and the strength and soundness of Head which is considerable hurt and worthy the weighing of spiritual Directors 57. But if these have no Experience they will not know when the Abstraction is formed and at the same time thinking it holy Counsel will encourage 'em to Retirement and find Destruction in it O how necessary it is that the Guide be Expert in the spiritual and mystical Way CHAP. VIII Pursues the same Matter 58. THose that Govern Souls without Experience go in the Dark and arrive not at the Understanding of the States of the Soul in their internal and supernatural Operations they onely know that sometimes the Soul is Well and that it has Light other times that it is in Darkness but what the State of all these is and what is the Root from whence these Changes grow they neither know nor understand nor can verify it by means of Books till they come to find it experimentally in themselves in whose Furnace the true and actual Light is made 59. If the Guide hath not passed himself through the secret and painful ways of the interiour Walk how can be comprehend or approve it It will be no small favour to the Soul to find one onely experienced Guide to strengthen it in insuperable Difficulties and assure it in the continual Doubts of this Voyage otherwise he will never get to the holy and precious Mount of Perfection without an extraordinary and singular Grace 60. The spiritual Director which lives disinteressed longs more for the internal Solitude than the Employment of Souls and if any spiritual Master is displeased when a Soul goes from him and leaves him for another Guide 't is a clear sign that he did not live disinterested nor sought purely the Glory of God but his own proper Esteem 61. The same loss and evil comes when the Director is secretly diligent to draw some Soul to his Direction which goes under the Government of another Guide this is a notable mischief for if he holds himself for a better Director than t'other he is proud and if he knows himself to be a worse he is a Traytor to God to that Soul and to himself during the prejudice he does to the advantage and good of his Neighbours 62. In like manner there is another considerable hurt that discovers it self in spiritual Masters which is that they do not suffer the Souls Guided by 'em to Communicate with others though they are more Holy Learned and Expert than themselves all this is Interest Self-love and Esteem of themselves They do not permit Souls thus to unburthen and vent themselves for fear they should loose 'em and that it may not be said that their spiritual Children seek that Satisfaction in others which they cannot find in them and for the most part by these imperfect ends they hinder Souls from being advantaged 63. From all these and infinite other imputations the Director is free that is once arrived at hearing the inward Voice of God by having passed through Tribulation Temptation and passive Purgation because that interiour Voice of God works innumerable and marvellous Effects in the Soul which gives place to it hearkens to it and relishes it 64. It is of so great Efficacy that it rejects worldly Honour Self-conceit spiritual Ambition the desire of Fame a wish to be Great a presumption of being the only Man and thinking that he knows all Thnigs it bids adieu to Friends Friendships Visits Letters of Complement Commerce of the Creatures Interest with spiritual Children Mastership and Business it turns away too much inclination to Confessorship the Affection that is disorder'd in the Government of Souls that makes a man think he is fitting for it it removes Self-love Authority Presumption treating of Profit making a shew of the Letters which a man writes shewing those written by his spiritual Children to make known what a great Workman he is it turns away the Envy of other Masters and Teachers and the procuring more Customers to his Chair of Confession 65. Lastly this interiour Voice of God in the Soul of the Director begets a mean Value and Solitariness and Silence and Forgetfulness
affection is not perfect and ordinarily it is given to weak and nice Souls 103. Thou wilt say that thou feelest thy self indisposed without devotion without fervour without the desire of this Divine Food so as to ask how thou must frequent it believe for certain that none of these things doth hinder or hurt thee whilst you preserve this purpose firm not to sin and your Will determined to avoid every offence and if thou hast confessed all those that thou couldst remember doubt not but that thou art well prepared to come to this Heavenly and Divine Table CHAP. XIV Pursues the same Matter 104. THou must know that in this unspeakaable Sacrament Christ is united with the Soul is made one thing with it whose fineness and purity is the most profound and admirable and the most worthy of consideration and thanks Great was the pureness of him in being made Man greater that of dying ignominiously on the Cross for our sake but the giving of himself whole and entire to man in this admirable Sacrament admits no comparison This is singular favour and infinite pureness because there is no more to give no more to receive O that we could but comprehend him O that we could but know him 105. That God being what he is should be Communicated to my Soul that God should be willing to make a reciprocal ty of union with it which of it self is meer misery O Souls if we could but feed ourselves at this Heavenly Table O that we could scorch ourselves at this burning fire O that we could become one and the same spirit with this Soveraign Lord who withholds us who deceives us who takes us off from burning like Salamanders in the Divine fire of this holy Table 106. 'T is true O Lord that thou entrest into me a miserable creature but true also it is that thou at the same time remainest in thy glory and brightness and in thy self Receive me therefore O my Jesus in thy self in thy beauty and Majesty I am infinitely glad that the vileness of my Soul cannot prejudice thy beautyâ— thou enterest therefore into me without going out of thy self thou livest in the midst of thy brightness and magnificence though thou art in my darkness and misery 107. O my Soul how great is thy vileness Job 7 Chap. how great thy poverty What is man Lord that thou art so mindful of him that thou visitest him and makest him great What is man that thou puttest such an esteem upon him being willing to have thy delights with him and dwell personally with thy greatnesses in him how O Lord can a miserable creature receive an infinite Majesty humble thy self O my soul to the very depth of nothing confess thy unworthyness look upon thy misery and acknowledge the wonders of the Divine Love which suffers it self to be mean in this incomprehensible Mystery that it may be communicated and united with thee 108. O the greatness of love which the amiable Jesus is in a small host who is there subject in some manner to man giving himself whole and sacrificing himself for him to the Eternal Father O Sovereign Lord keep back my heart strongly that it may never more return to its imperfect liberty but all annihilated may die to the world and remain united with thee 109. If thou would'st get all Vertues in the highest degree come blessed Soul come with frequency to this most holy Table for there they do all dwell Eat O my Soul of this Heavenly Food eat and continue come with humility come with Faith to feed of this White and Divine Bread for this is the Mark of Souls and from hence Love draws its Arrows saying Come O Soul and eat this savoury Food if thou would'st get Purity Charity Chastity Light Strength Perfection and Peace CHAP. XV. Declaring when Spiritual and Corporal Penances ought to be used and how hurtful they are when they are done indiscreetly according to ones own judgment and opinion 110. IT is to be known that there are some Souls who to make too great advances in Holiness become much behind-hand in it by doing indiscreet Penances like those who would sing more than their strength allows 'em who strain themselves till they are tired and instead of doing better do worse 111. Many have fallen into this Precipice for want of subjecting their judgment to their spiritual Fathers whil'st they have imagined that unless they give themselves up to rigid Penances they never can be Saints as if sanctity did only consist in them They say that he that sows little reaps little but they sow no other seed with their indiscreet Penances than Self-love instead of rooting of it up 112. But the worst of these indiscreet Penances is that by the use of these dry and barren Severities is begotten and naturalized a certain bitterness of heart towards themselves and their neighbours which is a great stranger to the true Spirit towards themselves because they do not feel the sweetness of Christ's Yoke the sweetness of Charity but only the asperity of Penances whereby their nature becomes imbitter'd and hence it follows that such men become exasperated with their neighbours to the marking and reproving much their faults and holding of 'em for very defective for the same reason that they see 'em go a less rigorous way than themselves hence they grow proud with their exercises of Penance seeing few that do after 'em and thinking themselves better than other folks whereupon they much fall in the account of their Vertues Hence comes the envy of others to see them less penitent and greater favourites of God a clear proof that they fixed their confidence in their own proper diligences 113. Prayer is the nourishment of the Soul and the Soul of Prayer is internal mortification for however bodily Penance and all other exercises chastening the flesh be good and holy and praiseworthy so as they be moderated by discretion according to the state and quality of every one and by the help of the spiritual Director's judgment yet thou wilt never gain any vertue by these means but only vanity and the wind of vain-glory if they do not grow from within Wherefore now thou shalt know when thou art to use most chiefly External Penances 114. When the Soul begins to retire from the World and Vice it ought to tame the Body with rigour that it may be subject to the Spirit and follow the Law of God with ease then it concerns you to manage the Weapons of Hair-cloth Fasting and Discipline to take from the flesh the roots of sin but when the Soul enters into the way of the Spirit imbracing internal mortification corporal chastisements ought to be relaxed because there is trouble enough in the Spirit the heart is weakned the breast suffers the brain is weary the whole Body grieved and disabled for the functions of the Soul. 115. The wise and skilful Director therefore must consider not to give way to these Souls to
is easie in the middle and becomes most sweet in the end 54. Thou wilt find thy self far from Perfection if thou dost not find God in every thing 55. Know that pure perfect and essential Love consists in the Cross in self-denial and resignation in perfect humility in poverty of spirit and in a mean opinion of thy self 56. In the time of strong temptation desertion and desolation 't is necessary for thee to get close into thy center that thou may'st only look at and contemplate God who keeps his throne and his abode in the bottom of thy Soul. 57. Thou wilt find impatience and bitterness of heart to grow from the depth of sensible empty and mortified love 58. True love is known with its effects when the Soul is profoundly humbled and desires to be truly mortified and despised 59. Many there be who however they have been dedicated to Prayer yet have no relish of God because in the end of their Prayers they are neither mortified nor attend upon God any longer for obtaining that peaceable and continual attending 't is necessary to get a great purity of mind and heart great peace of soul and an universal resignation 60. To the simple and the mortified the recreation of the senses is a sort of death they never go to it unless compelled by necessity and edification of their neighbours 61. The bottom of our soul you will know is the place of our happiness There the Lord shews us wonders there we ingulf and lose our selves in the immense ocean of his infinite goodness in which we keep fixt and unmoveable There there resides the incomparable fruition of our Soul and that eminent and sweet rest of it An humble and resign'd Soul which is come to this bottom seeks no more than meerly to please God and the holy and loving Spirit teaches it every thing with his sweet and enlivening unction 62. Amongst the Saints there are some gigantick ones who continually suffer with patience indispositions of body of which God takes great care But high and soveraign is their gift who by the strength of the Holy Ghost suffer both internal and external crosses with content and resignation This is that sort of holiness so much the more rare as it is more precious in the sight of God. The spiritual ones which walk this way are rare because there are few in the world who do totally deny themselves to follow Christ crucified with simpleness and bareness of spirit through the loansom and thorny ways of the Cross without making reflexions upon themselves 63. A Life of Self-denial is above all the Miracles of the Saints and it doth not know whether it be alive or dead lost or gained whether it agrees or resists this is the true resigned Life But although it should be a long time before thou comest to this state and thou should'st think not to have made one step towards it yet affright not thy self at this for God uses to bestow upon a Soul that Blessing in one moment which was denied it for many years before 64. He that desires to suffer blindfold without the comfort of God or the creatures is gotten too far onwards to be able to resist unjust accusations which his enemies make against him even in the most dreadful and interior desolation 65. The spiritual man that lives by God and in him is inwardly contented in the midst of his adversities because the Cross and Affliction are his Life and Delight 66. Tribulation is a great treasure wherewith God honours those that be his in this life therefore evil men are necessary for those that are good and so are the Devils themselves which by afflicting us do try to ruine us but instead of doing us harm they do us the greatest good imaginable 67. There must be tribulation to make a man's life acceptable to God without it 't is like the Body without the Soul the Soul without Grace the Earth without the Sun. 68. With the wind of tribulation God separates in the floor of the Soul the Chaff from the Corn. 69. When God crucifies in the inmost part of the Soul no creature is able to comfort it nay comforts are but grievous and bitter crosses to it And if it be well-instructed in the laws and discipline of the ways of pure love in the time of great desolation and inward troubles it ought not to seek abroad among the creatures for comfort nor lament it self with 'em nor will it be able to read Spiritual Books because this is a secret way of getting at a distance from suffering 70. Those Souls are to be pitied who cannot find in their hearts to believe that Tribulation and Suffering is their greatest Blessing They who are perfect ought always to be desirous of dying and suffering being always in a state of death and suffering vain is the man who doth not suffer because he is born to toyl and suffering but much more the Friends and Elect of God. 71. Undeceive thy self and believe that in order to thy Soul 's being totally transformed with God it is necessary for it to be lost and be denied in its life sense knowledge and power and to die living and not living dying and not dying suffering and not suffering resigning up and not resigning up it self without reflecting upon any thing 72. Perfection in its followers receives not its glories but by Fire and Martyrdom Griefs Torments Punishments and Contempt suffered and endured with gallantry and courage and he that would have some place to set his feet on and rest himself and does not go beyond the reason of reason and of sence will never get into the secret cabiner of knowledge though by reading he may chance to get a taste and relish the understanding of it CHAP. VIII Pursues the same Matter 73. YOU must know that the Lord will not manifest himself in thy Soul till it be denied in it self and dead in its senses and powers nor will it ever come to this state till being perfectly resigned it resolves to be with God all alone making an equal account of Gifts and Contempts Light and Darkness Peace and War. In summ that the Soul may arrive at perfect quietness and supreme internal peace it ought first to die in it self and live only in God and for him and the more dead it shall be in it self the more shall it know God but if it doth not mind this continual denying of it self and internal mortification it will never arrive at this state nor preserve God within it and then it will be continually subject to accidents and passions of the mind such as are judging murmuring resenting excusing defending to keep its honour and reputation which are enemies to Perfection Peace and the Spirit 74. Know that the diversity of states amongst those that be spiritual consists only in dying all alike but in the happy which die continually God hath his honour his blessings and delights here below 75. Great is the
do not seek themselves nor set any great value upon their own artificial knowledge but more if they can forget it as if they never had it and onely make use of it â—n its own proper place and time for preaching and dispucing when their turn comes and afterwards give their minds to the simple and naked Contemplation of God without form figure or consideration 181. The Study which is not ordered for God's glory onely is but a short way to Hell â—ot through the Study but the wind of Pride which begets it Miserable is the greatest part of Men at this time whose onely Study is to satisfy the unsatisfiable curiosity of Nature 182. Many seek God and find him not because they are more moved by curiosity than sinâ—ere pure and upright intention they rather desire Spiritual Comforts than God himself and â—s they seek him not with truth they neither find God nor Spiritual Pleasures 183. He that does not endeavour the total deâ—ying of himself will not be truly abstracted â—nd so can never be capable of the truth and the â—â—ght of the Spirit To go towards the mistical Science a man must never meddle with â—hings which are without but with prudence and in that which his Office calls him to Rare are the men who set a higher price upon hearing than speaking But the wise and purely mystical Man never speaks but when he can't help â—t nor doth he concern himself in any thing but what belongs to his Office and then he carries himself with great prudence 184. The Spirit of Divine Wisdom fills men with sweetness governs 'em with courage and inlightens those with excellence who are subject to its direction Where the Divine Spirit dwells there is always simplicity and a holy liberty But craft and double-mindedness fiction artifices policy and wordly respects are Hell it self to wise and sincere men 185. Know that he who would attain to the mystical Sceince must be denied and taken off from Five things First From the Creatures 2dly From Temporal things 3dly From the very Gifts of the Holy Ghost 4ly From himself 5ly He must be lost in God. This last is the compleatest of all because that Soul onely that knows how to be so taken off is that which attains to being lost in God and onely knows where to be in safety 186. God is more satisfied with the affection of the Heart than that of worldly Science 'T is one thing to cleanse the Heart of all that which captivates and pollutes it and another thing to do a thousand things though good and holy without minding that purity of Heart which is the main of all for attaining of Divine Wisdom 187. Never wilt thou get to this Soveraign and Divine Wisdom if thou hast not strength when God cleanseth thee in his own time not onely of thy adherencies to temporal and natural Blessings but further to supernatural and sublime ones such as internal Communications Extasies Raptures and other gratuitous Graces whereon the Soul rests and entertains it self 188. Many Souls come short of arriving to quiet Contemplation to Divine Wisdom and true Knowledge notwithstanding that they spend many hours in Prayer and receive the Sacrament every day because they do not subject and submit themselves wholly and intirely to Him that hath Light nor deny and conquer themselves nor give up themselves totally to God with a perfect devesting and disinteresting of themselves In a word till the Soul be purified in the Fire of inward Pain it will never get to a State of Renovation of Transformation of perfect Contemplation of Divine Wisdom and affective Union CHAP. XIX Of true and perfect Annihilation 189. THou must know that all this fabrick of Annihilation hath its foundation but in two Principles The first is To keep ones self and all wordly things in a low esteem and value from whence the putting in practice of this Self-devesting and of Self-renunciation and forsaking all created things must have its rise and that with the affection and in deed 190. The second Principle must be a great esteem of God to love adore and follow him without the least interest of ones own let it be never so holy From these two Principles will arise a full conformity to the Divine Will. This powerful and practical conformity to the Divine Will in all things leads the Soul to Annihilation and Transformation with God without the mixture of Raptures or external Extasies or vehement Affections This way being liable to many illusions with the danger of weakness and anguish of the understanding by which path there is seldom any that gets up to the top of Perfection which is acquired by t'other safe firm and real way though not without a weighty Cross because therein the High-way of Annihilation and Perfection is founded which is seconded by many gifts of Light and Divine effects and infinite other Graces Gratis datae yet the Soul that is Annihilated must be uncloathed of it all if it would not have 'em be a hindrance to it in its way to Deification 191. As the Soul makes continual progress from its own meanness it ought to walk on to the practice of Annihilation which consists in the abhorring of Honour Dignity and Praise there being no reason that Dignity and Honour should be given to Vileness and a meer Nothing 192. To the Soul that is sensible of its own Vileness it appears an impossible thing to deserve any thing 't is rather confounded and knows it self unworthy of Vertue and Praise it embraces with equal courage all occasions of Contempt Persecution Infamy Shame and Affront and as truly deserving of such reproaches it renders the Lord thanks when it lights upon such occasions to be treated as it deserves and knows it self also unworthy that he should use his justice upon it but above all 't is glad of contempt and affront because its God gets great glory by it 193. Such a Soul as this always chooses the lowest the vilest and the most despised degree as well of place as of cloathing and of all other things without the least affectation of singularity being of the opinion that the greatest Vileness is beyond its deserts and acknowledging it self also unworthy even of this This is the practice that brings the Soul to a true Annihilation of it self 194. The Soul that would be perfect begins to Mortifie its Passions and when 't is advanced in that Exercise it denys it self then with the Divine Aid it passes to the state of Nothing where it despises abhors and plunges it self upon the knowledge that it is Nothing that it can do nothing and that it is worth nothing From hence springs the dying in it self and in its senses in many ways and at all hours and finally from this spiritual Death the true and perfect Annihilation derives its original insomuch that when the Soul is once dead to its will and understanding 't is properly said to be arrived at the perfect and
nor are they equivalent to that Grace onely which he loses and which he might have had by receiving that Communion And now le ts make up this Account If Restitution ought to be as all the Doctors say conformable to the Good which was taken from one's Neighbour what can he restore which deprives a faithful Man of God himself Would it not be great want of Charity to take from a Man a Mount of Gold onely to gather up a little Grain Onely for one Grain of Mortification if yet there is any in it the Ministers do deprive a Christian of a whole Mount of Blessings which are heaped up together in the Communion If there were no other way to mortifie and try the Soul but this it ought not to be used because by this Mortification they deprive him of a greater good but there are infinite ways of proving and mortifying the Soul besides without doing it so great a Spiritual Prejudice The Blessings of this Sacrament don't end here because besides the increase of Grace it sustains and gives new strength to the Soul to resist Temptations it satisfies the desires takes away the hunger of temporal things unites with Christ and his Members who are the Just and Righteous breaks the power of Satan gives strength to suffer Martyrdom pardons the Venial Sins to which he that Communicates doth not stand affected and keeps from Mortal Sins by vertue of the aid which it doth contribute The Body of Christ says St. Bernard In Serm. Dom is Medicine to the Sick Provision for the Pilgrim fresh Strength to the Weary it delights the Strong it heals the wounded it preserves the Health of Soul and Body And whoever is a worthy Communicant is made more strong to receive Contempt more patient to suffer Reproof more fit to indure Troubles more ready for Obedience and to return the Lord Thanks St. Leo Pope de praec ser 14. de pass Domini says that when a man is Communicated Christ comes to honour him with his Presence to anoint him with his Grace to cure him with his Mercy to heal him with his Blood to raise him by his Death to illuminate him with his Light to inflame him with his Love to comfort him with his infinite Sweetness to be united and espoused with his Soul to make him partaker of his Divine Spirit and of all the Blessings which he purchas'd us by his Cross Dost thou seek says St. Bonaventure de praec where God is thou must expect to find him in this Divine Sacrament which being worthily received do's pardon Sins mitigate Passions gives light to the Understanding satiates the Soul revives Faith encourages Hope inkindles Charity increases Devotion fills with Grace and is the rick Pledge of Glory This Sacrament says St. Thomas Opusc 58. de Sacr. cap. 21. 22 23. drives away evil Spirits defends us from Concupiscence washes off the Stains of the Heart appeases Gods Anger illuminates the Understanding to know him inflames the Will to love him delights the memory with Sweetness confirms the whole man in Goodness frees him from Punishment Everlasting multiplies the merits of good Life and brings him to his Eternal Country The Body of the Lord as he pursues it cap. 24. produces Three principal Effects First it destroys Sin. Secondly it increases Spiritual Blessings Thirdly it comforts men's Souls and in Chap. 25. he says it satiates the Spirit to follow what is good it comforts and strengthens the Soul to shun what is evil it preserves the Life always to praise the Lord. As it is a Sacrifice it remits the Sins of those who are alive and lightens the punishment of those who are in Purgatory and augments the accidental Glory of those who are in Heaven Lastly the Body of Christ is called the Sacrament of Charity because it makes us partakers of the Spirit Divine of the sweet Abode of Christ himself and the rich Transformation of God. 'T would be an endless thing to relate the Blessings which according to the saying of Saints they do receive from this Sacrament who come to partake of it without Mortal Sin and of all these doth the Minister deprive a Christian when he onely forbids him one Communion But more than this deprieving 'em of the Communion he deprieves all the Saints of Heaven all the Angels the most holy Virgin and Christ himself of that accidental glory which accrues to them by every Communion received in grace If the Saints in Heaven have a special accidental glory by every good work though never so small that is done here below as many pious Authors are of opinion with how much more reason will they have it by a work so sublime as the Communion is wherein there is included an immensity of all the wonderful works of God Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum Psal 110. And if from one onely Communion there are so many blessings as are specified before to be obtained what will there be of the sacrifice of the Mass the gravest the highest work that is in Heaven or Earth And shall there then be Ministers who under pretence of Penance Mortification or the old way must hinder Priests so great so holy and so fruitful a sacrifice Saint Jerom said in Missis defunct Pavi c. 14 that at the least the Soul suffers not in Purgatory whilst Mass is said for it 't was well the Author did not point to us where this blind passage is in Saint Jeromes Works Saint Austin assures us Ballester in the Book of the Crucifix of S. Saviour f. 207. that the Divine Sacrifice is never Celebrated but one of these two things follow upon it either the Conversion of a sinner or the leting loose of some Soul out of Purgatory this is as much Saint Austins saying as t'other is Saint Jeromes William Altisiodorensis was not contented with one Soul but affirmed that by every Mass there were the Lord knows how many Souls that got away from thence Severus in Saint Martins Life gives an account that he set as many Souls at liberty with his Masses as persons assisted at the hearing of ' em Venerable Bede says that the Priest who being not lawfully hindred doth neglect to say Mass deprieves the most holy Trinity of glory and praise the Angels of joy Sinners of pardon the Righteous of grace and help the Souls in Purgatory of cooling and refreshment the Church of the heavenly benefit of Jesus Christ our Lord and the Priest himself of Medicine and help If every Mass therefore has all this of its own what Minister under the colour of zeal shall be so bold as to hinder and defraud the Trinity the Angels the Virgin the Church the Righteous Sinners the Souls in Purgatory and the Priests themselves that desire to celebrate so much glory and so much good without doubt though this be done with zeal yet 't is want of consideration and it will be well to premeditate and consider it better before any goes about to hinder it THE END THE CONTENTS CHAP. 1. No Minister ought to keep a faithful Person from the Communion that does desire and ask it whilst he doth not know his Conscience defiled with mortal Sin. Page 1 Chap. 2. Answering the Reasons which those Ministers give which hinder the Faithful from Communicating and the Priest from Celebrating having their Consciences free from Mortal Sin. Page 17 Chap. 3. Wherein are shewn some of the great benefits of which a faithful man is deprived by being prohibited the Communion when he is sufficiently disposed for it Page 31