have so great a vertue as to cure that disease What then having no better I prayed to God for his blessing upon that if it might be for his glory and the good of the Patient God did it for coming to visit her again I found her well recovered The Prioress asking him if he did thus often he answered Yes when he was desired it for these being poor people have no other help neither have I any better remedies I know my Saviour is not tyed to Medicines we must have faith in him where we can do nothing our selves and that out of his bounty he hath bestowed on me She replyed but this is then a miracle And doth not he work miracles for us every day said he And do you such for the poor said the Prioress To which he answered with great humility and well beseemingness in these words My Lady Prioress calls that a miracle which our Lord hath wrought for my part I have no share in it but onely by bestowing on the poor such as I have make what you please of it all my reflection thereupon is onely to return praise to my Saviour Christ when the cure is done If the Holy Scriptures command us to honour the Physician for our necessity of him Undoubtedly those are much more to be honoured who proceed in their cures not so much according to the method and direction of Galen and Paracelsus as that of God SECT 4. His zeal for the Salvation of his Neighbour THis part of Charity will appear greater and more ardent in Monsieur Renty than the former as being the most sublime and noblest degree of it as saith S. Thomas And the first in regard of its object the Soul which is incomparably more excellent than the body And secondly in regard of the things bestowed in this way of Charity which infinitely surpass those other as much as an eternal possession in the heavens conveyed by the one superlatively exceeds bread silver health supplied by the other Wherefore his holy prudence clearly perceiving a difference was transported with far other affections to the one than to the other And being continually inflamed with the love of God and his Son Jesus Christ uncessantly sought all ways and used all means to make them known and beloved both here and eternally by all men preventing what he could any offence or sinning against them daily pondering with himself the inexplicable goodness and tenderness of God towards the souls of men which have been so dear to him and cost him such an invaluable price He entred into the same affections loving and desiring their salvation according to that Model This zeal of his was admirable having all the qualities to render it perfect Being in the first place universal extended to all in France out of France yea all the world over Insomuch that he said to one of his Familiars that he was ready to serve all men not excepting one and even to lay down his life for any one upon occasion He earnestly desired to convert to enlighten with the knowledge of God to inflame with his love to sanctifie and save the whole world if it had been in his power of which Paris being as it were an Epitome he went through all the quarters and streets of that vast City searching out what he could remove or bring in for the glory of God and salvation of souls And the same Spirit of God that conducted him in this inquiry blessed his endeavours and gave him the favour to rectifie what was out of course to confirm the wayering to strengthen what was in order to root out vice and plant vertue Which he did in so many several ways as a man would think it impossible but what cannot a man do that is zealous disinterested and full of God He performed what possibly he could in his own person not sparing any cost nor losing one minute of time and wherein his power and strength of body or minde falling short of his desires proved deficient he engaged others Whereupon he procured Missions at his own charge in his own Countreys of Normandy and Brie and by joynt contribution of others erected the like in many other Provinces where he had no Land as in Burgundy Picardy Chartrain and elsewhere And here it will not be amiss to take his own words concerning these out of a Letter my self received from him relating to a Mission in his Lordship of Citry in Brte The Mâ—ssion was begun here on Whitsunday a day that bringeth with it an extraordinary benediction the peoples hearts are touched with great sense of repentance which they manifest by abundance of tears Many restitutions and reconciliations are made common and publique prayers are made in Families swearing and cursing are redressed And this Reformation extends it self to three or four leagues round about us Amongst many others there came a young maid whose life had been very vâ—cious who returned home a real Coâ—vert giving an ample testimony of her repentance relinquishing her former acquaintance Whereby I finde that this was the very end for which my Saviour brought me hither and ingaged my abode in this place These operations of grace filled him up with unspeakable joy which often distilled into tears for having to do in that which made for the glory of God and benefit of souls We have it from an eye-witness who hath seen tears stand in his eyes and demanding the cause received from him this answer I profess they proceed from that excessive joy I take to see so many touched with remorse evidencing their conversion by making restitutions by being reconciled to their enemies burning their idle and vain books â—uitting their former occasions of sin commencing a life altogether new We have seen him likewise in the Church of Citry so transported with zeal that he hath swept the Church carried out the dirt himself rung the bell to assemble the people thither In all his Missions he commonly imployed some Secular Priests of his acquaintance living in community and settled at Caen for those employments who have quitted themselves herein with great benediction and notable success He writ divers Letters to their Superiour earnestly entreating and conjuring him to promote this business seriously and heartily giving him account of what Missions were established and what were in a hopeful way what he had done in them himself and to whom else he had spoken with such courses as were to be taken to make them effectual The year he dyed this was written in a Letter to the same person concerning a Mission he had projected in the Town of Drieux of the Diocess of Chartres I have sollicited soveral persons to joyn in setting up a Massion every year and I shall go my self along with it as oft as I can to serve and obey your orders in visiting the sick and giving alms to the needy And for the same design to assemble some companies of people whom God hath wrought upon by your preaching
beams and treading in their steps gave himself to this exercise with such care and diâ—igence that we may aver this to have been his ordinary employment and his whole life a trade of praying I mean not here his vocal Prayers having spoken of them before I affirm that his affection was exceeding great to mental Prayer understanding well the necessity thereof as that whereby we come more intimately to know and reap the benefit of all Christian verities which until they be known are not at all beneficial and the utility thereof to learn a man what he is and enable him to exercise the real acts of vertue in the inward life and spirit of them elevating the soul to a familiar conference with God an honour more incomparably glorious though but for one quarter of an hour than is the most intimate communication with the greatest Monarchs for whole years together like as we esteem it a greater honour to discourse freely and familiarly with a King the space of one hour than many years with a Peasant Moreover he well understood the different manners of this Prayer and how it ascends by four steps The first is Prayer of Reasoning and Discourse The second that of the Will and Affections The third that of Union or Contemplation which divides it selfe into two branches viz. in Contemplation active or acquisite and Contemplation passive or infused which passive Contemplation is the fourth and highest round of this ladder of Prayer Prayer of the Understanding and of Discourse or Meditation is an application of the Spirit to understand some vertues of his salvation which he apprehended not before reasoning and discoursing thereon within himself ruminating upon its causes effects and circumstances of time place manner and persons belonging to it to draw from thence arguments of good life going from one circumstance and point to another from the causes to their effects and so backward which is called reasoning and because our minde is quick and ready in this operation not onely nimble to go but run in it therefore it is termed also discourse He began at this step and made some stay upon it where indeed every one ought to begin and rest until he is called by God to another because the most proper and naturall way that God hath given men to come to understand and affect any thing is that of Consideration and Reasoning wherefore each one must serve himself herewith till he be advanced higher The ordinary subject which he took for these meditations were the Life Passion and Death of our Saviour Which without all contradiction is the most profitable of all others since he is set before us for our pattern in the imitation and expression whereof consists our perfection and life eternal After some time having been faithful in this first stage he passed to the second that of will and affection being called with an Amice ascende superius Friend fit up higher Not unlike a Scholar who becoming a good proficient is set up to a higher class of deeper learning For he spent not all his days in Grammar but studied to proceed from one Science to another till he arrived to perfection This Prayer of Affection is a familiar and passionate treaty betwixt Christ and the Soul wherein very little or no discourse is used or a sincere communication with God as present and resident within us in which the soul quitteth all reasonings and disputes and by a simple direct contemplation and thinking upon God is carried on to him and enflamed with the desires of praising blessing adorning and glorifying him with several elevated acts of grace oblation petition and above all of Love the Queen of other Vertues most acceptable to and most glorious in the sight of God most advantagious to our selves enabling us with power to surmount all difficulties to practice all good works and uniting us more intimately to God This I say the Soul performs without discourse in regard that the understanding being sufficiently furnished with light from her former meditations hath no need to study new arguments or motives to produce love and other necessary affections but may serve herself of the former store The way to practise this is first of all to retire into the secret cabinet of our heart applying our selves to God who resideth there not by reason and discourse but by faith stedfastly believing his Divine presence with all his perfections And in order to this firm assurance to present our selves before him with profound reverence and adoration abasing our selves out of respect to his infinite greatness and the sense of our own vileness in the light of those words of David Domine quis similis tibi Quid est homo quod memor es ejus Lord who is like unto thee What is man that thou art mindeful of him or that he should dare to appear before thee Keep your self before him with these affections of Reverence and Humility and remain there for some considerable time the better to imprint them upon your soul for such time will be very well spent and continuâ— it yet longer if you finde your heart dilated and melted with these affections After this shutting out all ruminating and reflection upon the subject you desire to be employed upon as for example suppose it be this that God is all in all and your self are less than nothing that he is your Soveraign Lord and ultimate end that he hath a particular care of every thing that concerns you that our Saviour dyed for you and the like employ your self hereon by faith in a most simple naked manner reiterating acts of a lively faith of such a truth which the Church hath taught you and after this an act of Hope or of Praise or Thanksgiving or Contrition for your sins or of any other passion the soul shall be more disposed to but especially of love taking care that these affections have an influence upon your will and manners to produce in them a happy alteration These are the directions we are to observe in this second degree of Prayer which therefore is called Prayer of Gods presence and of Fâ—ith and of Affection Wherein also two things are carefully to be marked First that it is not requisite in this prayer to exercise at the same time several passions but rather one as Hope Love or any other well-grounded and prosecuted is sufficient And the rea on is plain because so long as God gives to the soul the grace to produce acts of any one vertue in such a manner as that she findes herself disposed and pressed thereto and to exercise the same with ease this is an evident token that it is his will that she should serve and honour him should sanctifie and perfect herself by the same and that she ought to continue therein so long as she findes that succour graciously assisting her Moreover on the souls part it would argue want of discretion to quit so good and profitable an exercise
that did open to him a way to the splendors of the world And as he was naturally resolute firm and constant succoured by the Divine affistance to whose will and pleasure he gave up himself as an absolute Sacrifice after he had duely examined and ordered his design he put himself upon the execution which passed in this manner Being one day upon Nostre-Dame Bridge with the Lady his Mother he desired leave to go forth of the Coach to buy something which being granted he stole presently out of her sight and slipping with cunning and diligence from street to street he gets out of Paris afoot in the moneth of December the year 1630. and takes the way to our Lady of Ardilliers and a few days after this escape advertised his Father thereof by this following Letter SIR I Nothing doubt but this alteration will bring with it some affliction to you the first motions of Passion being not in the power of men and indeed nature also enclining us to bemoan the loss of what she loves But fince that there is something of God in this business I most humbly beseech you to lay aside all passion out of your soul and consider that in it which is on Gods part Thus it is Sir that after I had combated two years with my self and resisted all the enspirations that God had given me during that time I was at last constrained to break off so long a delay in the quitting of the world avowing that I have not strength enough to undertake the working out my salvation in a place where is practised the contrary to what I would effect this is too perilous a matter for afceble person that hath a desire to march on sure ground and therefore I have judged that it would be more to the purpose to strangle the evil in the birth than to stay till it become greater and I not able afterwards to master it For so unlike are the maxims of the world to those of Jesus Christ that I cannot at all believe a soul that fears to offend him can live long in it and especially at the Court but that she shal soon be forced to abandon it when she shall see herself oblig'd to comply with the corruptions of the time which would not beseem me now to talk of since for a good while ago my design hath been rather to hide and bury in oblivion its fooleries than to recal them into my memory I am minded therefore to unwinde my self out of this Labyrinth although I know it will be said that I might well enough enjoy the world and and yet keep my self frow its enormities I confess it but let a man consider what comes after a man must resolve then to be the table talk of the Rabble of our Masters of the Mode that will give out that one 's a Bigot Pecisian a sour Fellow not fit for discourse and company a very burthen to the world with a thousand such like sayings whereof I have had already but too much experience In effect a pleasant thing it would be to see a young man of my inclinations enter the Court and there act the Reformado should you Sir but see it would not you your self in good truth be the first to laugh at me for my labour I therefore humbly beseech you to consider what a grief it would be to a Father to see his Son in the Court and great Meetings there onely to be contemned and set at nought not but that for all this a good Conscience counts it a great honor to suffer all these things for Gods sake but I believe it will make more for your contentment that I retire my self for at the Court a man must live as at the Court and being not able to serve two Masters I conclude with the Gâ—spel that he that serveth God ought to follow and attend on God I have always seen this practis'd in the world that when one hath a quarrel with another that mans friend is so far from offering his service to his adversary that he even shuns his company and conversâ—tion in like manner God and the world being in terms of hostility I should believe it a great offence not to do that for God which I would be sure to do for a friend which is but a mortal man And seeing when we love a thing we go not about to search out just the contrary to it so the means to avoid sin is to fly the occasions of it and shall it be said that for so wretched a thing as to make a little shew and to be talk'd of a man should endanger the loss of his soul No no and they that think so now will be of another minde when they must give an account to God for what is past then it will be that they will know what it is to live well or ill but then it will be too late and therefore leaving the dead to bury their dead according to the small illuminations we have let us labour to reform our life and to do something for the love of God who hath told us so expresly and so often that we must deny our selves for sake all and follow him which thing I believe you would not be willing to gainsay You are the cause of my demurring and retardment and since the time of my dayly praying for this retirement I have had many thoughts of your affliction which yet for all that will soon be mitigated when you shall consider that God doth all for the bâ—st and that it may be he hath sent you this tribulation to produce out of it some good effects I leave this to his secret dispensations and beseech you to believe that I am able to serve you at least as much in this new Profession as in that which you had design'd me to God give me the grace to do it I acquaint you not yet with the place where I am fearing least now at first your passion should cause you to come hither but within a short time when I shall know the state of things a little better I will not fail to gâ—ve you notice In the mean while I shall uncessantly pray him whom I am resolv'd to serve to abide with you and make you know how passionately I am Sir Your most humble Son and most obedient Servant Gaston de Renty Thus you have the Letter he sent to his Father wherein we may read his Spirit his Devotion and the pure and solid Illuminations that already shone in his Understanding His Father extreamly afflicted at his absence sends abroad every way to seek him and God who gave him this desire though not to take effect would so have it that he was found at Amboise although in disguise having chang'd a Gold-lac'd Suit into a poor mans habit He was brought back thence to his Father at Paris who thought it not amiss to carry him along with him to his Castle or Mannor House of Beny where he
the delicious fruits that are produced from this mysterious grain of wheat when it is dead PART III. CHAP. 1. His application to our Lord Jesus Christ in regard of his Neighbour WE have observed in the first part of this History that the grand exercise of Monsieur Renty was to apply and unite himself to our Saviour and from that union and his example to derive all his vertues and good works This was the general course he held in them all to mould himself after him for the composition of his Exterior and Interior never taking his eye off this Divine Copy but endeavouring to draw each line exactly and pensil his true lineaments making him his native and perfect Original This was the scope of all his designs and cares and particularly of his charity to his neighbour for which he propounded our Saviour as his grand Exemplar marking what he had done and what he had suffered for men weighing those affections and tendernesses he bore towards them how he sought after and conversed with them how he instructed comforted and encouraged them sometimes reproving otherwhiles bearing with their infirmities and at all times carrying them in his most dear embraces and most intimate inclosure of his heart He pondered what he had delivered concerning this vertue of charity that it was it that he had established as the ground and perfection of his new Law having left us this one command more expresly which with special propriety he had termed his own and the execution whereof he had inforced above all other he much thought upon it how that this Master had charged us to love our neighbour according to the model measure and fashion that he had loved us And finally that he had made this vertue and no other the distinctive character betwixt such as possessed his Spirit in truth and those that had it onely in appearance Wherefore having well-weighed these actions and doctrines of our Saviour and resolved to do his utmost to render himself a good Christian and his perfect Imitator he determined as far as he could both to embrace this doctrine and follow his actions and to love his neighbour with the bent and spirit of of such a divine Master Writing to Sister Margeret a Carmelite of Beaulne he said I sigh after my Saviour Jesus desiring to imitate and follow him whither he pleaseth I beseech you by your prayers obtain for me his Spirit to be my life my whole life sigh and groan for me after my God that I may be wholly for him in his Son that I may follow him and not live but by his Spirit And to another person he writ thus I have so great a view of the love and of all the effects of the love of the most Holy Soul of our Lord that this Interior so full of clemency bounty and charity makes me conceive far otherwise than ever how that we ought to live of this Divine love even in our deportment towards men and how in effect it is in him that the whole Law is accomplished in its perfection Furthermore to the same party thus Since God hath manifested himself to us by his Son and hath admitted us through him into his grace and made us partakers of all his actions both towards God and man how can we ever quit this his dear Son He that hath Jesus Christ hath a key which opens many doors it discovers unto us large prospects it enricheth us with vast treasures and breaks open the prison of mans heart as being too strait for his Immensities And to the same thus also Ah how good is that desart when after Baptism we are conducted thither with our Lord by the Spirit of God Thence it was that our Saviour came out to converse with men to teach them and work their salvation Since therefore we together with him make up but one Jesus Christ as having the honour to be his members we should live his life take on us his Spirit and walk in his steps This was the ground that made this perfect Disciple apply himself with all his power to this admirable Charity which we are now coming to speak of at large endeavouring in all the commerce he had with men to unite himself most intimately to our Saviour rendring himself up as an instrument to be guided by his hand in the helping of others beseeching him to breath upon him this Spirit of Charity recommended so much to us in his word but more in his actions and to inflame him with this divine fire which he hath kindled in the midst of his Church to be wholly burnt and consumed with it he consulted him in all his doubts concerning it begging of him to inspire what and how and when he should speak and act for the good of his neighbour and that in him and by him these might all be done He look'd upon men not according to their natural qualities their beauty nobility riches dignities and wordly honors but according to their more noble relations and those common to all viz. as creatures divine the lively images of God created to praise and love him to all eternity as dyed and purpled in the blood of Jesus brothers and co-heirs with him his purchase and inheritance bought with the price of his life and a thousand dolours and who therefore must be infinitely dear unto him and most passionately beloved of him In this capacity it was that he beheld men loving and applying himself to their necessities and he arrived by the purity of this conduct to so far perfection that as on the one side he was extreamly useful to his neighbour and received therein wonderful blessings from God so on the other this communication with them did not distract nor bring any prejudice to himself but very much good There are that advise them who have to do with others in the matter of their salvation especially with such from whose converse any danger may arise to consider them as bodies without souls or as souls without bodies and as pure spirits The counsel is good and some make profitable use of it but Monsieur Renties view was to look upon God and Jesus Christ in every man and to consider that it was they that demanded succour of him and prepared his thoughts to talk to them and perform what was necessary for their souls and bodies believing truly that it was to God and Christ that he rendred these assistances and service And this same thought is much to be made use of that we may do good and take no hurt from others otherwise we shall hazard ourselves and do little good for when we proceed upon the inclination and motives of nature the effects have a relish of their cause proving no more but natural or vicious or at most indifferent viz. loss of time light discourses amusements engagement of affections which carry in them much of sense and degenerate afterwards into something worse whereby instead of purifying one another a
formerly and made them himself before them in the place Commonly he came thither alone somtime in company of some Noblemen of good quality who encouraged by such an example strove to imitate it in some sort and to have a part in such holy actions Neither did he onely visit the sick but they likewise sought him and would finde him out where ever he came if they were able to go abroad At Dijon they would come to him in troops for all sorts of sicknesses and distempers In the year 1642 going to his estate in Normandy he spent about four moneths in these works of mercy administring Physick and Chyrurgery to all sick of that Countrey in such sort that from all quarters they came to him and in such multitudes daily that one could scarce come near him This puts me in minde of that we read of our Saviour how from all parts they brought to him all that were sick of all diseases to be healed by him which seems to be represented in some measure by this his servant and true disciple in that the sick the weak the lame or otherwise in firm came to him from all sides and we have seen him compassed about with a throng of them some to be let blood some for his oyntments some for his powders or other medicines some for counsel or consolation some for an alms or for ease in some case or other Treating all with the like diffusive Christian Charity with the like bowels of pitty and compassion the like spirit of love as wherewith the Son of God of whom he received it had pitty upon us And stood in the midst of them with the like goodness and patience endeavouring to do good and minister comfort to them all SECT 3. A further prosecution of the same Charity and the success BEyond all these his Charity yet ascended higher even to the care and cure of such diseases as were very troublesome and which to nature carried much horror and aversion along with them At his Castle at Beny he entertained poor people infected with scall'd heads lodging them in a chamber fitted and furnished for them where himself visited them plucking off their scabs with his plaisters attending and feeding them till their recovery At Paris likewise he visited the same in the Suburbs of S. Germains which was their usual abode carrying them some collections of Alms joyning Humility also with his Charity forasmuch as he hath been seen standing in the midst of these noysome sick folks bare-headed attending to a Sermon which he had procured for them A credible witness testifieth thus of him I have seen Monsieur Renty in his Hall at Beny dressing a Cancre which a man would not look upon at some distance without aversion and horror which he having mastered all such squeamishness of nature did handle with pleasure and respect During his abode at Dijon he met with a Wench who had been taken with the Souldiers by whom she had gotten the foul Disease some charitable people had perswaded the Religious Nuns the Vesulines to take her into their care who lodged her in a poor neighbours house Her body was in a very sad condition even nothing but â—ottenness casting out such a stinking infectious smell that none could come near her and the house she lodged in were ready to turn her out of doors so that she was in a forlorn condition had not the Superiour there a woman of great vertue bethought herself to confer with Monsieur Renty to whom she bore a very great respect about the means of relieving this poor creature This good mans Charity like a perpetual motion giving him no rest or truce not for a moment carried him instantly to visit this poor creature and to provide for her extremity In the first place he hireth a woman to attend her and deals with her Host to keep her there after this he provides her Dyer-drinks and Physick proper for her disease bringeth her broths his own self with all other convenient nourishment stayeth by her a long time at each visit and whilst she was in a sweat wipes her with his own handkerchief using the same himself afterward a thing more admirable than imitable Moreover having as great a care of her soul as body instructs and comforts her taking the pains once in a day to read her a Lecture out of some Book of Devotion enduring with much courage and delight all the difficulties of trouble and inconvenience that so noysome a disease could present by its stench and rottenness at all which his heart leapt as if it had been entertained by some delicate perfume which was no doubt the sweet odour of Jesus Christ whom he look'd upon in these poor people as we have said before which perfumed all their infections and caused him to finde delicacies in the greatest loath-someness In fine by his care he retrived this poor creature from misery and the very jaws of death brought her into the state of a good Christian insomuch that she spent the rest of her time very vertuously and when ever she came to the Monastery of the Vesulines she could not hold from relating with great fâ—eling the unparalel'd Charities of Monsieur Renty together with her deepest obligations which she every where published with the highest recognition of her gratirude to so worthy a person Neither were these generous acts of his Charity enclosed within the walls of Dijon several other places and Hospitals bearing witness of the like which we have heard from divers and have good cause to believe To which we may add his ardent desire for the erecting of an Hospital for the infected with the Kings Evil there being none such in Paris nor in all France Thus did this great servant of God imploy himself about diseases and those the most noysome And now let us consider what blessings and success God gave to his endeavours and Medicines which will appear little less than miraculous Being in low Normandy much busied amongst his sick people men were astonished to see how he cured all diseases even the most desperate and extraordinary and that with remedies sometimes which scarce appeared to have any thing in them which made those that took notice of them apt to believe that the cures were wrought not so much by any natural power of the Medicines as by Grace and Miracle The same opinion they had at Dijon of the cures he wrought there that they were healed by some way supernatural To which purpose I cannot let pass the discourse he had with the Prioress of the Carmelites a great Confident of his whom he visited often to whom he related how a little before a woman in child-bed had been sick unto death and given over by all the Physicians whom he visited notwithstanding and tryed whether in so great extremity his remedies might minister any ease I went to her said he and made up the best Medicine I had yet such as I could not imagine to
deeply affected to see these things and came and fell down at his feet Monsieur Renty did the like to him continuing in that posture for a long time resolving not to rise before the poor man He used to receive them in his arms and embrace them with tender affection These actions proceeding from a person of his birth and quality and produced by the holy Spirit of God wrought wonderful effects And that first in these poor Passengers who astonished at such ardent Charity joyned with suth profound humility were exceedlingy moved thereby insomuch that tears of Devotion were seen flowing from their eyes and themselves falling down at his feet with signs of repentance for their sins and a design of a better life begging his counsel and assistance therein and beginning it with going to Confession and the Sacrament the next day Secondly in those Religious women that belonged to this Hospital who taking fire at his example resolved to do the like in daily serving the poor teaching them their Prayers and Catechism with the ten Commandments which offices they had never done before Together with many other good things conducing to their own attaining to perfection and the better governing of their Hospital which he infused into them and they do still continue with great Devotion he having several times told them that he hoped in time to see God greatly glorified and served among them as we see it is come to pass at this day and may truly affirm that this gallant man hath contributed not a little to so much good done there both within doors and without and doubt not but he hath already received the reward thereof in Heaven But let us further consider some other effects of his zeal Going one day with a friend to visit the holy place of Mont-Matre to which he had great Devotion after his prayers said in the Church he retired into a desolate place of the Mountain near a little spring which as it is said St. Denis made use of where he kneeled down to his prayers which ended made his dinner of a piece of bread and draught of water Grace being said he took out the New Testament which he always carried in his pocket and read a Chapter upon his knees bareheaded with extraordinary reverence In this juncture of time came thither a poor man saying his Chaplet Monsieur Renty rose up to salute him and fell into a discourse with him concerning God and that so powerfully that the good man striking his breast fell down upon the ground to adore that great God making such evident appearances of the great impressions that were wrought upon his Spirit that struck Monsieur Rexty and his friend with much astonishment Immediately after this came a poor Maid to draw water at the well Whom he asked what she was She answered a Servant But do you know saith he that you are a Christian and to what end you were created Whereupon he took occasion to instruct her in what he conceived necessary for her to know and so to the purpose that she confessing her former ignorance told him ingenuously that before that hour she had never thought of her salvation but promised from thence forward to take it into serious consideration and go to Confession Let us still proceed a little higher on the same subject In his return from Dijon after his first journey thither accompanied with two noble pious persons about some four leagues He stopped three or four times by the way to Catechize poor Passengers and one time went far out of his way to do the same to some labourers in the field instructing them how to sanctifie their work they were about A young Maid in Paris having been very cruelly used by her Uncle fell into so great disorder and desperation that all in a fury she accused our blessed Saviour to be the cause of her misery in abondoning her to the barbarous usage of such a man without releiving her In this horrid plight of conscience she went to receive the Sacrament several times in a day at several Churches that she might not be discovered And this upon design to do despite to our Saviour to provoke him to finish her destruction as it was begun letting her to fall into the abyss of misery and hell for ever Monsieur Renty advertised of this sad accident and considering the great offence against God and mischief of this poor creature was transported with zeal speedily to finde her out Which after eight days pursuit from several Churches at length he did meeting with her in the very act of Communicating Taking witnesses he conveyed her to an Hospital for Mad-folks where he took so great care both of her soul and body that she returned to herself and gave ample testimonies of her conversion and repentance for those horrid enormities Neither did his zeal reach onely to those that were near him but such also as were absent and far remote to whom he had no other relation but what was contracted by his alliance to our blessed Saviour and his own Charity Understanding the news that was current some years since of a War the Turk designed against the Knights of Malta and to besiege the Island he so far interested himself in their danger that he recommended it twice by Letter to the prayers of Sister Margaret Carmelite of the B Sacrament at Beaulne whom he deemed to have great power with God His first Letter runs thus I commend to your prayers and of the holy Family the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem which is at this present in great danger and with them the whole Christian World What that common Potent enemy of our faith will do I know not one Our little Jesus who is all love and power knows how to vindicate his own glory please you therefore to commend it to him In the second Letter thus I beseech the Omnipotency of the holy Babe Jesus to preserve his children under the Cross and to purifie them for his own work This is it which I request for our Brethren of the Order of St. John Baptist of Jerusalem SECT 7. Certain other qualities of his zeal THe design of advancing the Salvation of mens souls is attended in this world with much doing and much suffering It is necessary therefore for him that undertakes the task to fortifie himself with courage and patience And both these were most eminently in Monsieur Renty being in the first place full of courage resolute and laborious imploying his body as if he had two more in reserve when that was spent dispatching more business in one half hour than others would have done in many days Very stout he was to undergo any difficulties and withal very quick and decisive A certain Lady of note made him her executor having disposed in her will very much to pious uses He was informed that her friends being persons of eminent power were displeased therewith To which he replyed with a
world that you may have no part therein And above all my children that you may live in the fear and love of God and yield due obedience to your Mother On Saturday which was the day of his death about half an hour past ten in the forenoon being newly recovered out of a violent fit of a Convulsion which had like to have carried him away looking attentively on those that were present he made signs with his hands head and eyes with a pleasant countenance for a person of quality and his intimate friend to come neer him Which being done he spake thus to him Sir I have one word to say to you before I dye then pausing a little to recover his strength he testified his affection to him but in words that could not distinctly be understood at length raising his voyce and speaking more articulately and plainly he proceeded The perfection of Christian life is to be united unto God in the faith of the Church We ought not to entangle our selves in novelties let us adore his conduct over 〈◊〉 and continue faithful to him unto the end let us adhere to that one God crucified for our salvation let us unite all our actions and all that is in us to his merits hoping that if we continue faithful to him by his grace we shall be partakers of the glory of his Father I hope we shall there see one another one day which shall never have end The party ready to reply and give him thanks Monsieur Renty stopped his mouth saying Adieu this is all I have to say to you Pray for me Some time after this and a little before his death fixing his eyes stedfastly upon heaven as if he had discovered something extraordinary he said The Holy Infant Jesus where is he Thereupon they brought him his Picture which he kissed devoutly and asking for his Crucifix took it in his hands and kissed it most affectionately Then turning himself towards death presently entred into his last agony which held not above a quarter of an hour of which he spent the most part in pronouncing the Holy name of Jesus making as well as he could acts of Resignation and commending his spirit to God after which he expired sweetly and his holy soul as we have good cause to believe departed to its place of rest Thus lived and dyed Monsieur de Renty one of the most glorious lights that God hath bestowed upon his Church in this age and one of the greatest ornaments of true devotion that hath appeared this long time He died at Paris the 27 year of his age the 24 of April 1649. about noon neer the time of our Saviours elevation on the Cross of which a certain person having a particular knowledge in his prayers applied the merits of this passion to him at the instant of his death in such sort that this application together with his own acts of resignation and annihilation which he had made and with which he both honoured and embraced the Cross are piously believed to have perfectly purged his soul and put it into a condition of entring into its beatitude and enjoyment of God at the instant of its dissolution There are reports of several Revelations and Visions concerning his state of glory and how at the instant of his death a Globe of light was seen ascending from earth to heaven Certain miraâ—ulous cure are also related to be done by his intercessions and spiritual relief supernaturally afforded to several devout persons by his admonitions which things will not seem incredible when we consider his holy life and heroick vertues rendring him one of the miracles of our age Yet since I have not the like assurance of these as of what I have already written and that true Sanctity and Châ—istian perfection consists not in suâ—h things which are not at all imitable I shall not insist upon them I onely adde by way of conclusion that we have great reason to admire the secret counsels of God in taking out of the world a man so useful who being in his full strength and flower of his age and in such an eminent degree of credit reputation and capacity might wonderfully have advanced the honour of God and good of his neighbour But when I say it was the hand of God all things are therein concluded And hereby he is pleased to let us know that he hath no need of us for the advancing of his glory the execution of his designs which he can bring about without us and when he is pleased to make use of us his instruments therein we are to behave our selves with great humility in his presence He hath translated him to another place where he glorifies his Majestie with greater perfection to a place and state that truly deserves the name of glory and that not onely in consideration of what the Saints receive but of what they render to the King of glory Moreover we may affirm that these holy men great pillars of the Church and comforts of the faiâ—hful are frequently taken away before their time as a just punishment upon us for the little use and benefit we make of their conversation and example And truly when first I heard the news of his sickness and the danger that he was in I could not but make this reflection that considering so solid and compleat a vertue notwithstanding that great need the world had of him and the exceeding great good he might still have done in it it was very likely he might dye as being a fruit ripe for heaven even as fruit in its maturity is ready to be gathered and takes hurt by being plucked too soon or too late Thus did God gather this good man in the maturity of his graces and perfection of his vertues as a man perfect and compleated to place him in heaven there to receive his just reward where he waits for us to adore and glorifie and love together with him in all perfection God the Father the Son and H. Ghost to whom be Honour Praise Benediction and all sorts of Adoration and Service now and for ever Amen THE CONCLUTION OF THE WORK How we ought to read the Lives of Saints TO conclude this work and render it more useful to the Reader I think it will not be amiss to afford him some instructions how to read the Lives of Saints and Histories of persons eminent in vertue to the end that that fruit may be reaped by them for which they were compiled These eminent souls then are to be considered two several ways 1. As they have relation to God 2. As to our selves For the first as they relate to God it is certain that these Saints and Persons famous for Piety are the greatest Master-pieces the richest Ornaments the most precious Jewels the choicest Works and the greatest Instruments of Gods Glory that are upon earth For if the meanest righteous man is incomparably more noble and honourable than all sinners put together since