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
the Father as that he cannot beget another like him O my Jesus how this Verity discover'd to me the Riches the Glory the Grandeurs of your Person What Prodigious blindness has seis'd on men as not to see this and not to esteem you above ten thousand Worlds You appear poor humble and abject in their eyes and nevertheless 't is true the whole World is less than an Atomn in your presence I took for the subject of my third Prayer this admirable Truth That the Eternal Father is the source of the whole Divinity which he Communicates to his Son begotten of his substance yet without any Superiority or Authority over him by his Paternity And the Son who receives all from his Father owes him nothing of thanks of service or obedience Not but that he knows his Father well deserves all these returns But being of the same Substance and Authority with him he is not capable to render these Submissions But the Infinite love he has for his Father made him go out of himself and put himself into an Inferiour state by his Incarnation that he might render those thanks praises and services which he merited descending to those wonderful Humiliations and profound annihilations whereby he might do homage to the Infinite Grandeurs of his Father Teaching us by his example that as the Son of God had no other means to honour his Father than by Humiliations and Sufferings so we should take up our Cross and follow him that God may be Glorified My last Prayer this day was a profound consideration of this verity That all the works of the adorable Trinity in relation to the Creatures are common to the three Divine Persons The Father Son and Holy Spirit did concur in the same design of Creation and Conservation of the World though the Father alone begets the Son and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both But all three united imploy'd their Power to do us good as if We had been the object of their Beatitude Is it then true O my God that all the Orders of your Providence by your united forces tend to our good and shall we not have an eye to you Alas we little think on you although the most serious Affairs of the World are nothing in comparison of our concern to consider your Infinite Perfections and love your incomprehensible Goodness St. Arsenius saw this very well when he quitted the Emperour and would not so much as write to him Those who are thus nobly imploy'd cannot be taken up with Worldly Vanities You see a poor Hermit in the Desarts of Thebais ill Clad abject and unknown who seems to the eyes of Flesh the scorn of men however his Soul is wholly taken up with God which is of more worth than the whole Universe You see a great Prince glittering with Gold and precious Stones with a great Train of Courtiers Honoured and Respected of all and in the Interim his Life being only taken up with Worldly concerns is guilty of the greatest Folly and of no esteem in the eyes of God Ninth Day IN my Morning Prayer our Blessed Saviour plung'd me into the Abiss of our own Nothing and Vileness insomuch that this exercise was wholly taken up with my own annihilation Thereupon I said None but the Eternal Father can give to his Son none but the Father and the Son can give to the Holy Ghost and these Presents made to each other are Infinite There pass among them Communications Ineffable and proportion'd to their Grandeurs I consider'd them in my Thoughts and rejoyced plunging my self in the Abiss of my own Weakness in that I could do nothing for God nor give him any thing The best present I can make him is to acknowledge I can give him nothing worth acceptance and this acknowledgment I receive also from the hand of his bounty 't is the effect of his Grace for of my self I cannot do it O the depth of the Nothing of a Creature If I should give my Life for God 't is less then if a Pismire should give hers for a King there being an Infinite distance between God and a Creature All the Angels and Saints that ever shall raign in Glory can add nothing to the Divine Grandeurs The Abiss of my Nothing is beyond expression God only knows it and I see nothing of it but by his Grace O my God if all the Angels and Saints are as nothing before you I that am infinitely below them what I can give is less than nothing My second Prayer went on in the same Thoughts and Considerations And I was much astonish'd in that being acquainted with many Persons and seeing their examples I was so far behind them in Virtue But looking narrowly into my self I must needs acknowledge that the least pittance of Grace the least degree of Prayer the least part I can have in the states of Jesus is infinitely above my deserts 'T is true that a Soul inflamed with Divine love is confounded at the sight of her own unworthiness and suffers a kind of Martyrdom For in that she loves she would do something for her Beloved and being conscious what a Nothing she is of her self and that she can do nothing being in suspense between will and weakness seeing in effect she can do nothing of her self she breaths sorth her desires in such like amorous expressions If I was God and you my God a Creature I would willingly be a Creature that you might be God But seeing this is an imagination of a thing not possible her Martyrdom of love increases and she languishes in that she loves and can do nothing for her Beloved That which comforts her is that being able to do nothing for God she sees that he is all and wants nothing and taking a complacency in this she reposes her self quietly in the bosom of the Divinity with full resolutions to abide there for ever In my third Prayer I apply'd my self to consider the Divinity it self without forming any distinct thoughts thereof but though so I saw nothing yet I knew God more then when I see him in his Creatures They are always finite and limited and therefore the knowledge they afford of God is narrower than that which I have of him beheld in himself Oftentimes when we apply our selves to God to know him we become stupid and as it were without understanding 'T is our duty then to give our selves up into the hands of God who does justly chastise us for our sins by withdrawing himself from us God is very merciful unto us to give us patience in this state During which we must continue our Exercises of Prayer and Retirement and rest as well content with these Insensibilities and dryness as with illustrations from Heaven and gustful Devotion seeing a Soul in either state is well pleasing to God A suffering Life is our Portion on Earth that we may be conform to Jesus Crucified For the union with Jesus Glorified is a Life more proper
which the World would take from you against my will O how miserable am I if I set my affections on any thing beside you knowing that this is my duty and my Happiness O my God from this moment I for ever forbid any Creature to possess my heart Hark hither my will I now give thee this express command that thou open not the door of my heart but to my Well-beloved whose infinite love has prevented us from all eternity The sixth Day The Justice of God TO take a prospect of the Divine Justice is not less pleasing to good men nor less admirable Thou wilt see it O my Soul governing the whole universe The throne of this Divine Justice is establish'd in Heaven the arrests are pronounc'd on earth and the execution thereof in the regions of darkness 'T is Divine Justice that sets a Crown upon heir heads who have fought the battles of the Lord of Hosts with courage and fidelity And for these momentary and light afflictions rewards them with an eternal weight of Glory O Justice crowning and glorifying us how lovely art thou 'T is Divine Justice that thunders Comminations against sinners on earth to bring them to repentance by the terrours of everlasting sufferings and sometimes chastises them with temporal afflictions that they may not be tormented to all eternity O amiable Justice that treats so here poor sinners as to make them Penitents and not miserable But O how terrible is the Divine Justice which in hatred of sin does punish eternally those who will not be brought to any amendment O how does a severe but just Sentence condemn such to everlasting flames always devouring and never consuming them which the breath of Gods anger has kindled and shall never be extinguished O my God you did not spare your own Son taking our sins upon him to show us the better how to detest sin O who can but tremble considering your severity O who dare provoke the Almighty to anger Quis novit potestatem irae tuae O my God I do consider this and flie for refuge to your Mercy The seventh Day The Mercy of God O Divine Mercy how dost thou ravish my heart 'T is to thee my Soul will sing eternally Miserecordias Domini in aeternum cantabo In my retired thoughts I look upon this World as a great Hospital fill'd with some sick some maimed some lame some blind some languishing some incurable and Divine Mercy goes a visiting of them These she encourages those she comforts binds up the wounds of others and offers remedies proper to each misery not absolutely abandoning any one though never in so desperate a condition O amiable Mercy of our God into what corner of the World dost not thou go to exercise thy goodness Are there any miserable Sons of Adam who have not tasted the sweets of comforts Who ever made his addresses to thee that hath not found most tender compassions in thy bosom O my Soul what must we pant after but the more then material embraces of this adorable Mercy In what canst thou put thy hope and confidence except in the source of this inexhaustible goodness The whole World is full of the Mercy of God and wilt thou O my Soul afflict thy self and be discourag'd with temporal miseries and momentary sufferings It is the work of Mercy thus to punish thee Do not the Sufferings of this life work for us a far more eternal weight of Glory Art thou O my Soul terrified with the remembrance of thy sins Consider God is a God of infinite Mercy and desires not the death of a sinner He who refuses to throw himself into the arms of Gods Mercy is ignorant or else layes not to heart that Mercy attends the greatest sinners to the last moment of Life for their Conversion Miserecordia tua subsequetur me omnibus diebus vitae meae O my God as your Mercy has prevented me so grant that it may follow me all the days of my Life Soli Deo sit Gloria The End of the Third BOOK BOOK IV. Of Solitude and the practice of two excellent Retreats of ten Days CHAP. I. Of the Beauty of Christian Solitude WE ought to have an esteem of all sorts of Professions whereof God is the Author who though he be but one doth nevertheless afford to his Church different states of living It concerns us therefore to think very honourably of them all and manifest as much by our words but to betake our selves only to what God calls us The excellency of other ways ought not to withdraw us from our proper Vocation A Soul then may delight her self in beholding the Church as a most beautiful Medow replenish'd with great variety of Flowers of singular virtue and so taking complacency in all states of Life to apply her self only to that which she has a call from Heaven and this also because God requires it from her A Solitary retired life is so beautiful and has such charming attractives that when the Soul has once experience of it she finds there her Heaven upon earth Being to take a farewell of one of my Friends who was returning home and having parted with him this thought forthwith strongly ceaz'd my imagination Alas my God! when shall I return home to my self that is to you Seeing your goodness is more manifest in affording me a place in the Idaeas of your understanding from all eternity before time gave me an existence among created entities now I am your Creature let me consider my self daily as in you who are my inheritance and everlasting possession To be be at home O my Soul is not to be with thy self but with God thy Creator O how great is the blindness of men not to understand that they have no other Country but the Divinity from whence they proceeded by their Creation Inconsiderate Creatures whether are you going For my part I will return home to the Fountain of my Being my true home who is great beautiful admirable eternal and incomprehensible O what joy is it to consider that my true home is such as he is Is it possible O my God that you are the home and center of my Soul Why do we not readily go out from the clogging crouds of Creatures where we are in perpetual banishment to return to our home the bosome of our Creatour What can I desire in Heaven or in Earth besides you my portion and Inheritance for ever Comfort thy self O my Soul considering that thou shalt return to the Divinity thy glorious home and in the interim rest content with Jesus thy crucified home and repose O how amiable also how great and admirable is Jesus crucified My Soul can find no Peace but by resting in him where nature tasts a bitterness a thousand times more sweet than all Worldly delicacies Without him all other pleasures are but dreaming fancies O Jesus crucified the World knows not your sweets the beauty of your sufferings is hid from their sight they
wherein consists their Felicity The Father is the source of Being the the Son the term of his Knowledge and the Holy Spirit of his Love The Son and Holy Ghost are from the Father The Father and the Holy Spirit know the Son The Father and the Son love the Holy Ghost These are the wonders that make Heaven Happy Firmly to believe them is our Blessedness on Earth and to Contemplate them continually brings solid consolation to the Soul I saw clearly that to dispose my self for this incomparable Happiness I was to purifie my Interiour and to mortifie some natural resentments which yet live in me As namely too great a fear about the loss of Worldly things or to be despis'd by others or ill success of Affairs besides too great a sense of humane respects and a backwardness to follow the instincts of Grace for worldly considerations I know God sometimes suffers these Imperfections to live in us for the exercise of Virtue and the Tryal of our Fidelity However his will is that we strive to be dead to the World and our selves having our affections so fix'd on Heavenly things as to live a Divine Life in Mortal Bodies Believe me 'till our Interiour be throughly purified we shall not not be capable of high contemplation nor arrive to much knowledge in the secrets of God Fourth Day IN my first Prayer I was principally taken up with the adorable Person of the Eternal Father Methought I saw how he was ravish'd with Infinite Joy in Himself with the Son and the Holy Spirit And what complacency he also took in the Suffering of the Humanity of Jesus Christ though he loves him with the same love wherewith he loves himself And because these sufferings were pleasing to his Divine Father as satisfactory for our sins he did thirst to suffer more to fulfill his will And therefore after such variety of dolorous sufferings dying on the Cross he cryed out Sitio I Thirst It much rejoyc'd my heart to see what Infinite Complacency the three Divine Persons took in the Divinity and said within my self O Sacred Trinity enjoy eternally these Infinite delights But I desire as much as I can to add to your Exteriour Contentments by imitating the suffering of my Blessed Saviour And herein I will not have so much an eye to the reward to please the Sacred Trinity whom I adore Behold then what hereupon it seems to me God put into my mind 1. To eat neither Fish nor Flesh but in case of Sickness 2. To Discipline every day 3. To be pleas'd with occasions of Contempt 4. To despise all Temporal things to follow the attracts of Divine Love 5. To lie down upon a hard Bed 6. To cut off all Worldly Visits and retire my self into a Solitude where the World may despise me I consider'd in my second Prayer that the Son of God in the bosom of his Divine Father in possession of Infinite Delights and Joys unspeakable out of love to his Father did quit his bosom and cloath himself with Mortal Flesh to plunge himself in the depth of Miseries abjection and sufferings that he might glorifie his Divine Father by his humane and suffering Life and teach us Men his Brethren that the way to enter into the Love and Glory of his Father is by the gate of Sufferings Is it You O only begotten Son of the Eternal Father is it You born in a Stable working in a Shop dying on a Cross You that are all Splendor and Glory the Light of the World and the Delight of Heaven Is it You that are so poor and abject so void of Friends so full of Disgraces so scorn'd and despis'd Is it You whom they esteem as the out-cast of men and not worthy to live on the face of the Earth O the Love of the Son towards his Father O the strange invention of the Son to advance the Glory of his Father O my Jesus how admirable are you in your Divinity But how amiable are you in your Humanity I desire O dear Jesus to follow you all the days of my life and seek no other Glory than in your Cross and Poverty your Humiliations and Sufferings Absit mihi gloriari nisi in Cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi The Cross of Christ is my Crown and Glory We ought not to possess Honours Riches and Worldly Preferments without Fear and Humility Have we not cause to fear that in a state of Worldly greatness Nature will seek her self and not follow Jesus poor and humble which ought to be done either effectively or in affection A state of Suffering under the Cross is truly Glorious and full of Interiour Consolation In my third Prayer I consider'd that the union of the Father with the Son and of the Son with the Father is by the Holy Ghost a union Infinite and adorable O Holy Spirit seeing 't is your property to unite unite my heart so intimately to the adorable Trinity present in me that I may never suffer a seperation and that this adorable union may be frequent in my Thoughts and Meditations Blessed be your Holy Name my God that you are pleas'd to be so merciful unto me as to take up my thoughts with this incomprehensible Mystery O how do I begin too late having been too long amuz'd with vain trifles My past Life displeases me and the course of the World is troublesome unto me seeing it hinders me from conversing with you as I desire Natural Necessities as to Eat to Sleep to Recreat are burdensom unto a Soul quickened with your Spirit strongly inclining us to live here on Earth as in Heaven in a perfect and perpetual union with your Goodness The consideration which took up my thoughts in my fourth Prayer was that the Eternal Son and Holy Spirit seem'd to have more commerce with men then the Eternal Father because they appeared to us by external Missions the Son being made Man for to die for us and the Holy Spirit taking divers forms for the Service of man and to enflame our hearts with Divine Love The Eternal Father seem'd always to remain in himself ravish'd with his own Infinite Beauties and Perfections O adorable Mansion of the Eternal Father within himself O wonderful Missions of the Son and Holy Spirit towards us Men and for our Salvation eternal matter of Adoration O my God when shall I go out of my self to elevate my heart to you and converse with you I see very well that to enter into a Spirit of Prayer Retirement is requisite Abstinence and Spiritual Exercises And to conserve the same temper of Soul we must practice silence as much as our condition and affairs will permit If the Son of God and Holy Spirit did appear here upon Earth only for our good certainly we ought to endeavour to have our Conversation in Heaven and adore the most Sacred Trinity for these Infinite Mercies Fifth Day MY first Prayer past in acknowledgment and admiration of the Fulness of
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
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
great so full of Glory you come to humble your self and to annihilate your self in a Soul so Criminal so Unfaithful 'T is true Abjections were not inconsistent with the condition of your Mortal Life But since now you are in Glory methinks you ought to be exempt from them If my Soul had any Love for your Interests she would not procure you such Humiliations and therefore she would do better not to Communicate so often for then she would not be the occasion of humbling you so often This Sentiment joyned with the knowledge of my own unworthiness would make me abstain from Communicating if I did not know withall that your Delights are to be with such Souls as desire likewise to take their Delights in you and that you have said in St. John That if we do not eat your Adorable Flesh we shall not have Life in you When I consider my Indignity and yet present my self to Communicate with a Soul that is an ever-flowing source of Vices and Sins I should be very much afflicted to see Jesus Christ so ill lodged in the midst of my Imperfections not knowing in what part of my Soul I might place him Where he might not see things unworthy of his Presence This sight would doubtless cause me a great deal of pain if another regard did not encourage me I consider that when the Sun enters into a stinking and and offensive Dungeon he is received there more in his own Brightness and Lustre than in the Dungeon it self and that so he is there without prejudicing his Grandeur or Purity When I have this Idaea before my eyes I say to my Lord 'T is true you enter into me all miserable as I am But it is true also that you are more in your Self in your Glory and in your Brightness Be therefore received in your Self O Divine Jesus in your Beauty and in your Grandeurs I rejoyce that the offensiveness and streightness of my Dungeon cannot prejudice your Beauties or your Greatness Enter therefore into me without going out of your Self Be received in me but more in your Self O bright Sun of Glory Live for ever in the midst of your own Splendours and Magnificence but do not cease to live also in the middle of my Obscurities and Misery Convert me unto you wholly and without reserve CHAP. II. To Communicate worthily we must put our selves in a state conformable to that of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament JEsus Christ chose to give himself to us in this stupendious Mystery in the state of Death as to any thing that concerns the life of the Senses but as a Fountain of Life in regard of the Interiour Life a Divine Life a Life of Grace a Life of Contemplation and of continual application of the mind to adore the Majesty of God his Father A Life I say poor and nothing to the Exteriour but shining with the Divinest and most awful Lustre and Infinitely rich under the vails of the outward Species that hid it from the eyes of the World Thus and with these dispositions he presents himself to us requiring that we likewise present our selves unto him with dispositions conformable to his His Sacred Humanity that he gives us in the Holy Communion was rais'd to a Divine Life by the Hypostatical Union So also must we be by Grace viz. Our understanding must be elevated above it self by a high illustration of Faith and our Will inflamed by a sublime Sense of the Love of God and so in fine our whole Soul must be animated with the Life of Grace O the Sublimity of the Life of Grace How Admirable art thou how High how Ineffable Thou raisest man from Earth to Heaven thou makest him live in God I and of God too since thou dost prepare him to live in this World upon the same Substance which nourisheth the Blessed in Heaven O great Life of Grace thou art poor to the Exteriour but most rich to the Interiour Thou appearest low but art most high I am ravished with thy Beauties I cannot live a moment without Thee who makest us live with a Life Divine who placest the Soul in the heart of God and disposest her to see God placed in her own Heart When the Charms and Beauty of this Life have once discovered themselves to the Soul she willingly quits all other things to imbrace them and whatsoever else seems to her no better than Death and Corruption she renounces the World Pleasures and Riches she condemns her self to Pennances Mortifications and Poverty to obtain this Divine Life and feels a Sacred hunger after this adorable nourishment that is her only support O that I did throughly know that I did Faithfully pursue this Divine Life a Life so little known so little practis'd in the World where People do not thirst after the Living Waters of your Eternal Fountain O my God! O Jesus draw me after you through all the Actions and Duties of the Life of Grace which is at its greatest height among Injuries and Miseries Draw me O Lord and I will run after you in the Odour of your Perfumes What a pleasure is it O my Soul to see you march like a Gyant in the ways of Grace nourished and strengthened in your course with the Bread of Heaven Ambulavit in fortitudine cibi illius usque ad montem Dei To live in Death as Jesus seems to do in the Blessed Sacrament to change Glory for Contempt to be most delighted when one is annihilated and even Sacrificed is the true Character of the Life of Grace It makes all things die to the Exteriour and live only to the Interiour and above all things it confers the Spirit of Prayer keeping the Soul almost in a continual exercise and elevation by fixing its regard upon that Infinite and incomprehensible Being which she adores and is not able to understand and therefore annihilates her self in his presence suspended with admiration of those Divine Grandeurs which she sees annihilated in the Holy Eucharist O my Soul how great is thy Vileness how extream is thy Poverty What is man that thou O Lord art mindful of him Dost visit him and takest pleasure to come and dwell personally in him His Soul is drawn out of nothing his Body is but a piece of Clay and still you vouchsafe to set your eyes upon him How can a Creature so filthy so wretched so gross receive within it the Infinite Majesty of God Sink and humble your self to the very center of your Nothing and confess your Indignities O my Soul Cast down your eyes and acknowledge that you are unworthy so much as to lift them up towards this formidable Grandeur and more than all be penetrated with the deep sense of Admiration Gratitude and love of this excessive Goodness which condescends in this incomprehensible Mystery to annihilate it self to come and give it self to you even in the state of your own Nothing We must needs be very much in Love with our
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
I quite forget my self and be no more and act only in you and you in me in me manet ego in eo and continue thus Absorped in you all the days of my Life Being thus united with you I shall learn your secrets discover your purposes and see with you and your Lights the ways that you take to Love Honour and Glorifie your Father which he revealed unto you at the instant of your Incarnation Ever since that Happy minute you are become the Light of the World he that will follow you shall not walk in Darkness Who can know the Secrets of the Father better than the Son or his Designs and Thoughts than he who being equal to his Father is privy to all the Sacred Councels of the Divinity These he teaches us by word of Mouth he opens them to us by the comportment and examples of his Life Let us see approve imitate Herein consists the right Transformation The Grace bestowed on us in the Holy Communion principally tends to annihilate in us all inclinations of Nature and in their place introduceth others most conformable to those of Jesus Christ according to the measure that a Soul conforms to Jesus Christ proportionally she becomes more capable of Divine Communications For a Soul grows not more pure but in as much as she participates of the Spirit of the word Incarnate whose whole aim is to Crucifie us to all that is meerly according to the Inclinations of Nature How different is the judgment and discernment of true Christians from those of Worldly men How quite another thing are the Thoughts and Convictions of an Illuminated person and those of one who lives only according to Reason There are Souls upon which Jesus entring into them by way of Communion makes such admirable impressions that Lead turned into the finest Gold by the Philosophers-Stone would not be more changed than they are For in effect this Sacrament is the Mystery of the Omnipotence of God where the words of Consecration by a Miraculous Power change the substance of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ By which mutation we are instructed that under the weak and common Species lyes a secret Virtue which is able to transform the most Imperfect Souls into the greatest Servants of God One of the things in the World that most astonisheth me is that when we receive Jesus in the Holy Communion we are so little changed and his Presence so un-active in us We experience none of his wondrous operations He ought to be to the Soul a grain of good Seed that makes very great productions Jesus ought to do admirable things Jesus ought to form Jesus in us and produce by his Grace all his own Sentiments and fill our Life with all the States of his Yet he makes no change in me he does not strip me of my Humane Inclinations that I may live the Life of Jesus A thing which frights me very much and gives me reason to fear that I do not approach unto him with all the preparation requisite Whereupon I flee to the Mercy of God and beg it with all instance for in that alone is my Hope CHAP. X. The third Effect of Communion which is the Perfect and Consummate Vnion THe design of our Lord in giving us the Blessed Sacrament is layd open to us in the Prayer he made to God the Father while he was actually Instituting it Rogo Pater ut sint unum I ask you That they may be made partakers of the Vnion that is between us Wherefore the Union he enjoys with God the Father is the model of that which he desires we should contract with him by means of this Divine Sacrament Now He is so much one with his Father that whosoever sees Him sees also His Father And if we were transformed into Jesus Christ according to his intention in the Communion whosoever should see us would at the same time see Christ But this Consummate Alliance with God is not discernable in the most of those that receive the Communion Because that Consummation pre-supposes another which fails in the greater part of Communicants viz. The Consummation of the Soul in Jesus Christ which is then obtained when by the attractions of Grace she is wholly annihilated as to her Natural Inclinations and the Super-natural succeed in their place being cleared from all dispositions but those of the word Incarnate A Soul in this state receiving the Holy Communion ought to remain simply united to Jesus present and receive in quietness and tranquility such effect of Grace as he works in her which are to live no longer to or in her self but to enter effectively into the poor and abject state of Jesus to live like Him to live by his Spirit to live no longer as the World nor by the Spirit of the World Moreover the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the Person of Jesus Christ is another most expressive Image of the Union he assumes us to by the Virtue of this Sacrament For we assuredly believe that his Sacred Humanity is wholly absorpt and plung'd in the Divinity after such an unspeakable manner that there is no comparison which can be drawn from any Created thing may serve to illustrate it To compare it with the Stars which are lost and drowned in the Light of the Sun is a too weak and imperfect similitude and falls infinitely short for there is an immense distance and disproportion between Divine and Created things But the Soul needs not such allusions she is contented to behold it in God by the obscurer Light of Faith and thereupon falls into Acts of Admiration Adoration and Love and discerning that the intention of Jesus Christ by uniting himself to her in the Blessed Sacrament is to perfect her in himself she accepts of it joyfully and resigns her self entirely to the Divine operation and wishes she could say with St. Paul Vivo ego jam non ego vivit verò in me Christus I am no more I live no more but Jesus Christ is my Life and my Being Now it is evident that this high and Consummate Perfection is the effect of an eminent Love and that it cannot be raised to such a degree without destroying in the Lover every thing that is not God and by consequence it costs Nature dear and requires a firm and generous Soul and very Faithful to the impressions of Grace Light and Knowledge are ineffectual of themselves to this great work Nothing but the real and earnest practice of pure Virtue in the full extent of the Grace given us and as occasion shall afford the exercise can bring a Soul to this eminent Perfection Such a Soul cannot be more charmed and delighted than to observe the amorous inventions of the Wisdom and Mercy of God in deriving upon Christians the Fulness of his Divinity by means of the Blessed Sacrament where Jesus Christ presents us his Humanity to draw us into partake of his