not its worth from doing this or that but from an exactness in doing that which he requireth of us giving up our selves wholly to his good pleasure I see there is need of a great death to our selves and a great depth of Self-annihilation to follow so purely the conduct of grace and not to be for own forms but those of God In another of the 12. of August thus he saith I daily continue my toiling here which takes up much of my time and almost all but I dare not look aside but onely abase and submit my self to the Divine Ordinance It was a work very gross and mean for Jesus Christ to converse with men who had more of rudeness than these stones I deal with and more of opposition to his purity than they have to my workmens hands And yet he suffered all he bore all and in fine converted but a few I beseech you obtain for me a part in his obedience and his patience to the orders of God his Father And writing to one of his friends he spake to him in this sort I am here in this Countrey in the midst of four or five companies of workmen to repair a Mansion House on the Demesn of my Family which was ready to fall What can our spirit act in this work which following the Spirit of Faith ought to be a Pilgrime and Stranger upon earth without doubt it groans much not at the order of God but after its own Countrey in the midst of its occupations as things opposite to its liberty We must do penance by labouring it is so decreed by God upon the first transgression These were the Meditations which this excellent man had while he was building and which all Christians who are made to settle not on earth but in Heaven in an Eternal Mansion ought to be enlivened with when they are about the like works CHAP. 3. His Humility POverty followed the Austerities and Mortification of the body as having much connexion with them and Humility follows Poverty yet considering withal that according to S. Austine the poverty in spirit spoken of by our Lord in the first Beatitude is nothing else but humility in very deed there is no people in the world more poor in spirit than the truly humble because they account themselves to be nothing to have nothing to be able to do nothing and to be worth nothing to be the refuse and off-scourings of the earth and to have need of every thing not assuming any praise to themselves for any thing whatsoever Monsieur de Renty came to this pitch and possessed this Vertue in a most Eminent degree And in truth if Humility as the all Saints tell us be the foundation of Vertue God having a design to raise up in him a magnificent and sublime Palace for Vertues and Perfection it was necessary the foundation should be laid very low and his humility be very profound He was rooted in this vertue so solidly that it was a thing wonderful and therein performed a number of so remarkable actions that those persons who lived many years with him and singularly well knew him have assured us that it were impossible to relate them all He had in an excessive esteem this important vertue he loved it with all his heart desired it with extream ardor prayed urgently and conjured his friends to beg of God and obtain it for him And as we see the stone descend with violence and the waters fall down impetuously the same motion made he towards Humility as to his centre Out of this Sentiment he wrote thus to one of his Confidents Have pitty on me I am more unfaithful than any creature of the world Upon my knees I beg of you to believe it If our Lord did not shew me what I am Lucifer would not be a little rich but this benign Lord shews me daily through his mercy my Nothingness it is thither his grace leads me To another he wrote thus All my resolution is in these words of David Elegi abjectus esse in domo dei mei I have chosen to be little and abject in the house of God To another also thus I am carried to demand of God a life much humbled suffering and unknown to men I finde a great attraction thither And I have a Paper written with his own hand and all of it with his blood which contain these words I give you my Liberty O my God and beg of you that Nothing which every Christian must arrive at to rise purely towards you Gaston Jean Baptiste Dominus Jesus semetipsum exinanivit usque ad mortem crucis propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum This 3 of December 1644. Amen Our Lord Jesus emptied himself to death even the death of the cross wherefore God also hath exalted him You see here his inclination and attractive and not without good reason for considering first that he had propounded to himself our Lord as a pattern for his life with a determinate resolution to follow him in whatsoever he could And that secondly Humility is the proper Vertue of Jesus Christ as S. Bernard after S. Paul calls it he therefore embraced this Humility with his whole affection gave himself up to it with all his forces and practised it in its urmost latitude as we are going now to see by that which follows But before we behold him in the actions of this Vertue let us listen to what he teaches and the light he gives us concerning it Humility said he he is the Basis which carries and upholds the whole work of God in us it makes the creature so naked and so separated from it self that it leaves it not the power to make any cast of an eye upon it self but renders it so taken up in the greatness of God that it becomes lost in reverence of him in self-abasement and annihilation This is the grace of Christians in their Pilgrimage who divested and spoiled of all esteem themselves but a Nothing and very puff of being which haivng nothing but what it received from God hath no instinct or inclination but for God It s a brave humility to see nothing in ones self but Nothingness and he that sees not there nothing sees not there any thing at all So the soul which sees nothing in it self findes nothing in it self to bottom on and by this means always points towards God like a needle touched with a Loadstone that having been encombred with all sorts of trash and trifles and afterward disingaged of them would forthwith turn towards her North and thitherward remain always fixt although the tempest of the sea and winds should turn upside down the Vessel Thus have we his disposition and the aspect of ae soul truly humble beholding nothing in it self and God in his Majestie SECT 1. His Humbleness of Heart HUmility may be divided into three sorts The Humility of the heart of the words and of the works And seeing the humility of the heart
alliance he hath contracted with us in Jesus Christ This knowledge produceth in me as much astonishment as love And to tell you my sense of it a man possessed with these verities remains no more a man but becomes annihilated and all his desire is to be lost and melted on purpose to change his nature and enter into this Spirit of Jesus to act no less in him than by him I have conceived such great things of our Saviours Humanity united to the Divinity as cannot be uttered How hath this alliance of the Divinity most deeply abased the sacred Humanity into a self-annihilation and a sacrifice of love upon the sight of the greatness of God What an honour is this to the Humane Nature to be thus predestinated and What a glory to us to be chosen and called to an entrance into his favour and a rising to God and the everlasting enjoyment thereof through him It would spend me this whole day to write to you the view that I have had of the wisdom and bounty of God touching this mysterie of Love which he hath opened unto us in his Son And though he was truly devoted to all the mysteries of our Lord yet in a most special manner to that of his Infancy The occasion whereof was thus Being constrained to make a journey to Dâ—jon by reason of a suit of Law beforementioned he heard much talk of Sister Margaret of the blessed Sacrament a Religious Carmeline of the Covent of Beaulne on whom our Saviour had conferred particular favours who led a life very extraordinary grounded upon true and solid vertue And as our Lord hath several ways to sanctifie a soul and fit it for his sacred purposes so he was pleased to exercise this choice woman absoluâ—ely in the mysterie of our Saviours Infancy and through that pipe to convey into her soul a torrent of grace and extraordinary gifts not onely for herself but others as may be seen in her life now in writing by a person most worthy of such a work Monsieur Renty had a desire to go to Beaulne being but seven leagues from Dijon to recommend himself to the prayers of this holy Virgin And though when he came thither he neither spake to her nor saw her she having by a particular conduct of our Saviour been retired for thirteen years from the speech of any secular person yet notwithstanding he received much benefit from his journey as he expressed in a Letter writ back from Dijon to the Prioress of that place I want words to express the mercies I received by my journey to Beaulne Sister Margaret hath marked me out in the holy Infant Jesus such a divesting of my self of all worldly things that it appears to me my rendezouz where I must strip my self naked of all things else The year after he made a second journey where God having altered her resolution for speech and converse with others he had the happiness to discourse with her and contracted at that time a very intimate alliance of grace receiving great gifts by means thereof The chiefest and source of all the rest being that our Saviour engaged him as he had done her in a more particular devotion to the mysterie of his Infancy and imprinted in him the lineaments of the like Graces and Spirit This holy man whose judgement may be highly esteemed by us considering his extraordinary insight into spiritual matters greatly valued this Religious woman approving exceedingly her directions and testifying how great a blessing he reckoned her acquaintance and what benefit he had reaped from her even after her death To which purpose he writ thus to me the eighteenth of June 1648. the year of her death The holy Infant sweet Jesus hath taken to himself our good Sister Margaret whose death was consonant to the dispositions of her life and miraculous graces I have received from her since her death great comfort That grace I reâ—eived according to my present estate and weakness to enter into the Infancy of our Saviour hath since been renewed to me and I have understood it more solidly About a moneth after I received these lines from him I had yesterday by the singular bounty of God a view of his Divine Majestie of S. John Baptist and Sister Margaret of the B. Sacrament so clearly represented to me in my spirit that I cannot suspect the truth of it O what effects were produced by their presence and what love by these sights I am wholly renewed in my respects to that great Saint my Patron and to that glorious servant of God who honoured him very much whilst she was living and from whom without doubt since her death she hath beggâ—d to be my Protector It is mâ—st certain that the work of God in her was one continued prodigie of grace and a master-piece of his hand But let us return to his application made to the Infancy of our Saviour chiefly begun in his second journey to Beaulne Of which we may understand something from this Letter written to a Father of the Oratory Confessor to the Carmelines there I must needs tell you that upon my first journey which I made to you above a year agoâ— I brought back with me a great esteem and devotion to the Infancy of our Saviour but I was not yet well settled in it I attempted it from time to time but could not yet make it my principal food Since which the holy Infant by a supernatural grace hath manifested and opened himself to me and now I finde every thing in him and am remitted thither for all And to the Prioress he writ thus I must acquaint you that the holy Infant Jesus will grant me the favour to apply my self pâ—rticularly to his honour to give my self to him and to his holy dispositâ—ons ordering my life and the sacrifice of my self by the conduct of his Spirit In order hereunto he cousecrated and gave up himself thereto in these terms a copy whereof written with his own hand and in his own blood he sent to Sister Margaret which is kept with great devotion in that Covent And another something more inlarged to his Ghostly Father to which he wrote his name onely in blood in these words To the honour of my King the Holy Infant Jesus I Have consecrated my self this Christmass-Day 1643. to the holy Infant Jesus offering up to him my whole Being my Soul my Body my Free-will my Wife my Children my Family the Estate which he hath given me and finally all that I am concerned in having beseeched him to enter into full Possession Property Jurisdiction of all that I am That I may live no more but in and to him in the quality of a Victim separate from every thing of this world and challenging no more share thereof than according to the applications which he shall give and shall allow me Insomuch that from henceforward I shall look at my self meerly as an instrument in the hand of the holy Infant
not onely from evil but even from our ordinary way and manner of doing that which is good undertaking what the Divine Providence presents to us by making our way by God to them and not by them to God which is a course more naked unengaged and abstracted which sees nothing but God And not so much if I may so say as the things she doth of which nothing stays in her neither choice nor joy nor sorrow for their greatness or for their littleness for good or bad success but onely the good pleasure and order of God which ruleth in all things and which in all things sufficiently contenteth the soul which adheres to him and not to the vicissitude of affairs whereupon she is constantly even equal and always the same in the midst of all changes In another he writ thus to the same purpose An absolute abnegation will be necessary to all things to follow in simplicity without reserve or reflection what our Saviour shall work in us or appoint for us let it be this or that This way was shewed me in which I ought to walk towards him and hence it is that all things to me ordinarily are without any gust or delight Moreover in another thus I apprehend great matters concerning the verity and simplicity of the annihilation I ought to have and I had for the twinkling of an eye the sight how simple this should be that the soul it self cannot take notice of it This is the state of Death and Annihilation without regard to any thing save our being wholly to God by Sequestration Faith and Affiance Lastly to another Assure your self there is no security in any estate but this of Dying and Annihilation which is to be baptized into Christs death that we may live the life of Mortification not that other ways may not be good but not secure especially any thing we do of our selves Our best way is therefore to divest our selves of all that the Holy Infant Jesus govern all He used the word All because this death must be universal thorow every part of old Adam even as a dead body is not onely dead in an eye or ear or hand but in every sense and member so much we dye to riches and poverty to pleasure and pain honour and dishonour praise and dispraise being affected with none of these because we are dead to all Moreover the spirit must be dead not onely to one faculty as the Understanding or Will but to all and to every thing onely the difference is this that the body being once deprived of her life cannot naturally recover it again but the Spirit will easily live again and the malignity of the old Adam return upon us if great heed be not taken because we are not able by this death to reach the very centre of nature Just as in your Garden you may either suffer a noysom weed to grow if you meddle not with it but give it liberty to spread its leaves and encrease or if you would not have it appear you may cut it or pluck it up by the roots but after all is done you cannot prevent that the earth should not produce the like if it be thereto disposed naturally Even so it is in your power to permit unruly affections to live in your soul producing therein disorders and exercising their tyranny or you may mortifie them so that they get not head although the root remains or further may root them up as heroick spirits do changing their nature and turning the course thereof introducing contrary inclinations from evil to good from vice to vertue yet although these generous spirits arrive to this height yet will their nature continue still rotten at bottom ready to bear the same cursed weeds without our daily vigilancy SECT 1. Of the same subject TO decypher particularly the mystical death of this renowned person we may aver That in the first place he was dead to riches and all the wealth of this world in which he so absolutely divested himself both of any affection to them in his heart and of the real possession of them that he quitted as we have formerly mentioned all property to them using them no otherwise than in the quality of a very poor man with an ardent desire that he might also be deprived of the very use of them I acknowledge before God saith he in a Letter to his Director his great mercy to me through his Son in freeing me from the things of this world and my constant thoughts are that if his order did not oblige me otherwise in that condition he hath set me to give away and quit all I have This is my earnest desire after which I long exceedingly not out of presumption of my own strength but in the power of Jesus Christ in imitation of his life And to another person he writ All that can be imagined in this lower world is of small concernment though it were the losing of all our goods and the death of all the men in it This poor Antchill is not worthy of a serious thought had we but a little faith and a little love how happy should we esteem our selves in giving away all to attend no more save on God alone and to say Deus meus omnia My God and my all In his suit of Law at Dijon he acted with so little shew of interest and so like a mortified man to gain or loss that he could not be perswaded not onely to solicite the Judges but not so much as to commend his case to them himself not out of any faulty supine indifferency or neglecting what he thought absolutely necessary but because by an heroick vertue he had lost the sense of all these earthly things entirely committing the success thereof to God and knowing that these things succeed better by our prayers to and affiance in him than with our addresses to men through the multitude of solicitings many times fruitless Secondly he was dead and crucified to all recreations and pleasures of this life having renounced them at the beginning of his Conversion remaining constantly in the condition of a sacrifice of body and soul no God which was his great exercise and his usual phrase making no further use of his senses and their objects than what was of absolute necessity following herein the pattern of our Saviour He was so wholly taken up with God as we have said before in his soul that when he had very grievous pains in his body and was very sick he scarce thought upon them but accounted it a trouble to speak or complain thereof as appeared notably in his last sickness Thirdly he was annihilated and dead to honour his great birth and nobility wherefrom he solemnly degraded himself in the arms of our Saviour to render himself the more humble He was dead also to all esteem and praise of men and to disgrace likewise of which he gave a notable testimony to a familiar friend who told him
the spirit which is never so compleat as when it is alone Giving notice to a friend of the death of the Countess of Castres for whose spiritual good and perfection he had taken very much pains He writeth thus I was not in Paris but at Citry when she departed I was sent for post the day of her death which was Saturday but came two hours too late Entring the Town I understood the news from them that spake openly of it in the streets Presently I fixed my self to the will of God whereupon I found no more alteration in my soul than if she had been alive I see his order in this that I assisted her not at her death and make no doubt but that he permitted it for her advantage To a friend that had lost his Spiritual Director he writ thus Touching the remove of your Ghostly Father it would without question prove a great loss to you and all the Countrey from whence he went if the providence of God herein did not rather sanctifie and establish than destroy and if oftentimes by removing these petty visible and sensible supports he did not make way to settle us more firmly in our progress to which he designs us which is to dwell and to hold our selves in God together with Christ Jesus where we finde all truth and all power and who is so neer to us that he is even in the midst of â— and proportionably as our dependence upon creatures faileth through his providence he makes it appear aâ—d we experimentally finde that we are not left destitute thereby but that supply is made either by his Spirit that resideth continually in us for our relief or by the conduct of his Ministers which the fewer they are the more is that grace dilated and multiplied which we receive by them So great is the providence of our Heavenly Father as to take care of the meanest necessities of all his children who to him behave themselves as children Neither indeed ought we to be further engaged to those persons who assist us in our Spiritual conduct than as to Gods instruments whose help it is his will we should make use of but no longer than he pleaseth and when his will is either by death or otherwise to take them from us we ought not to be afflicted nor lose our courage but with submission and gratitude resign all to him which will be a good means to move him to provide others who perhaps with more advantage to us may understand the pulse of our souls In fine he was dead to all love of himself which he had so perfectly subdued that being naturally quick and hasty as we have formerly hinted he became so staid and equal in all his demeanor as caused admiration in those that knew him being naturally of a high spirit he had acquired a most profound humility of heart whereof he produced most evident actions exteriourly at all times and in all places And though his genius inclined him to wit and scoffing yet he so corrected it that none was more respectful and courteous to all even the meanest As for his passions those were so perfectly subdued and regulated that they never broke loose upon any occasion so that you might say he had none at all He had arrived to a perfect death in the superiour faculties of his soul his memory so emptied of all worldly things that it never presented any Idea's sufficient to distract his Devotions He made not any imperfection upon what was past as we have observed and our Saviour had endowed him with this singular grace not to be busied in his thoughts about those actions in which he was conversant which after they were done were obliterated wholly as to any care for them and quite blotted out of his memory that they might be no hindrance to what was in hand This Letter was writ to a familiar friend relating hereunto It is some while ago that finding my self in the midst of a world of people my spirit was enlightned and affected neither to desire to know any body nor to be known to any This hath wrought in me a wonderful separation from every thing and methinks herein consisteâ—h one of the chiefest points of a Spiritual Life which requires great purity of spirit wonderful estrangement and distance from the creature and which placeth the soul in this world as if it were no part of it in a state of perfect oblivion and ignorance of things which do not concern her that is no longer able to endure but onely what is necessary He was dead to his spirit reason and judgement living onely the life of Faith which is a Christians proper death It may be gathered from what hath been mentioned already that he acted nothing by this faculty of its self no more than if he had had no such power but wrought all by the moving of Christ Jesus who lived in him and operated by him Lastly he was annihilated and dead to his own will which we have placed after all as being the most important faculty in relation to Moral actions This therefore he had entirely resigned in conformity to Gods will not desiting absolutely any thing but in order thereto I adore saith he in one of his Letters so affectionately the will of God in whatsoever he pleaseth to make out for me that Hell it self should be my Paradise if he decreed me thither And in another thus Far be it from me to act in this business by my own spirit I would have it wholly annihilated that it might know no other language but Nothing and continually Nothing to follow in all the footsteps of the Divine will according to its measure and manner And to a third thus My Saviour hath graciously brought me into such a state of indifferency for every thing that I could be very well cortent all my life to be fixed to my bed a Paralytique not able to stir without making any reflection upon any service I might render to my neighbour or that I could render him no more all things according to the will of God being equal to me And in a fourth thus Of late I have been busied in such occasions both Exteriourly and Interiourly as were sufficient to have gravel'd such a weak mean spirit as mine had it not been absolutely resigned to the will of God It is upon him alone by this way of Abnegation that I bottom my self adoring with you and by your instruction the decrees of his Sacred and Divine Will who holdeth all things in his own hands to keep us subyect unto him by his justice and to sanctifie us also by love If the effects thereof upon us do evidence us to have the hearts of children that is 〈◊〉 Spirit of Christ Jesus to sigh after our heavenly Father and cry Abbâ— Peter SECT 2. Continuation of the same subject MOnsieur Renty was so absolutely resigned to God having quite lost and annihilated his own will into thâ—â— of God
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
aniting of our selves to this Son contiruing that life of his upon earth within this of ours by the direction of his Spirit Thus also in another Letter Let Jesus Christ be in each of us our bond our soul our life as he is our pattern Le ts take a nearer view of this Holy Original enter into his Principles lay hold on his desires execute his works and let men know that we are Christians Writing to another he spake thus I adore and bless with all my heart our Lord Jesus Christ for that he opens you his heart to possess wholly yours he will make it to dye and will reduce it to a Holy Poverty which shall cause you to taste the true Life and compleat Riches and to avow that it is a great mercy to belong to Jesus Christ I beseech him to bestow on you his most sanctifying graces and that we may beth dye well and live well by his Spirit Let us enter into this Spirit which will give us the Sentiments and the Energie of the Children of God All other presence and application to the Divine Majestie which is not by this union of the Soul to Jesus Christ is onely of the creature towards the Creator which carries indeed respect but gives not the life and approaches of children towards God their Father where being united to the Interior operations of Jesus Christ we finde there the affections of true children which we canâ— not have but by being united to the true Son Let us end with that which a person to whom he unbosom'd himself confidently in this matter reports of him This rare man said he appeared touched with a verie tender and fervent love towards our Lord Jesus Christ I have observed that his Conversations and Discourses did shoot alwaies at this mark to imprint in souls the knowledge and love of our Lord with true soliditie In discourse with him I had often from him these words I avow that I have no gust in any thing where I finde not Jesus Christ and for a soul that speaks not of him or in which we cannot taste any effect of grace flowing from his Spirit which is the principal of operations both inward and outward that are solidly Christians speak not to me at all of such a one Could I as I may so say behold both miracles and wonders there and yet not Jesus Christ nor hear any talk of him I count all but amusement of spirit loss of time and a very dangerous Precipice And at several other times he said Let us love Jesus Christ let us unite our selves to his Spirit and Grace miserable sinner as I am who love him not yet should I be much joy'd at least to see my defects supplied by others that love him fervently but I am too unworthy to obtain a matter so great and wherein my self do bear so small a part Seeing then this faithful servant and follower of Christ Jesus had so strong an application and intimate union with his Divine Lord as 't is easie to gather from what hath been spoken we cannot but ascribe to this application and union all his vertues which we are going now to speak of in several and to look upon them as effects of this cause streams of this Fountain and branches of this Stem PART II. His Vertues in particular and first the Vertues which did perfect him in regard of himself CHAP. 1. His Penances and Austerities AS our flesh and senses are by their nature and more by their corruption very opposite to a Spiritual Life and among the enemies of our weal and perfection none more importunate or more violent than they so God useth when he intends to elevate any to the accomplishment of vertue and to make them Saints to inspire in them at the beginning of their conversion a spirit of Penance and mortification of their bodies Monsieur de Renty being destin'd by God to this glory and quickned by this Spirit encounters his body with rigorous Austerities thereby to reduce it to its duty and hinder it from annoying him in his Interior Exercises He begins therefore to fast every day making but one meal which he continued divers years until he was enjoyned otherwise and to take more nourishment to be the better able to undergo the great labours he undertook for his neighbour Some days in the week he wore an iron Girdle set with a double rank of long prickles and a bracelet of the same on other days he disciplin'd himself rigorously at some times wore haircloath having continually on his breast a brass Crucifix reaching to the bottom of his stomack the nails whereof being very sharp entred into his flesh When he went into the Countrey and was come to his Inn he would go into the Kitchin to eat there if it might be among servants and other mean persons and that for two ends both there to morâ—ifie his body and to speak some good thing to those poor people and when night constrained him to take his chamber he dismissed his servants to lie in other rooms and himself past the night in a chair or cast himself on a bed in his cloathes and boots which was his custom till death Being come to Amiens where I was and a Lady one of the chief of the Town having prepared a stately bed in a brave Chamber for him in honour of his vertue and cuality he was much troubled and would not at all use it but laid him down upon a bench and the day after as being much asham'd complained to me of the Lady for it so that to enjoy the blessing of lodging him at her house she was fain to change his chamber and bed and to accommodate him after his own mode that is to say where he might not be so much at his ease His Mortification in diet was very great eating little and always of the worst as not forgetting that our misery came not but by eating of delicious fruit Dining in company on a Fish-day one of the guests that noted his actions observed that all he eat was some Pears onely and that with so great modesty and recollection that one might easily discern that his minde was on God and not upon his meat When one of his friends a man of piety at Caen entertain'd him one day at dinner with some little ceremony as a person of quality he ate very little became much mortified and ashamed as he declared afterwards that Christians should be Feasters adding that a little would suffice and what a torment it was to him to be where there was so muâ—h chear as a thing quite contrary to the poverty of Christ who notwithstanding should be to us for our rule He would tell his friends that a little bread a little lard and butter was sufficient Hereupon his friends acquainted with this grace of Mortification in him took no more thought concerning his diet knowing his best entertainment to be the meanest fare The perfection
touched him so near in that he never spake word to me of it nor of his mother save onely to desire that they both might be recommended to God And from the beginning that I had the honour to speak to him when I gave him notice of the offers that divers persons had made us to ferve him he thankt me most heartily for my good will with great acknowledgment towards those persons and without speaking any more thereof he fell upon discoursing of God never after opening his mouth about that business which evidenced a wonderful disengagement and death to every thing though of never so sensible an interest There past also many other things at Dijon and since at Paris during these differences even to the death of his mother yea and after which required an extream deal of patience and which he practised in an Heroical perfection even to the astonishment of those who were acquainted with the business But it is enough of this matter we have spoken sufficiently and I doubt not Monsieur de Renty who is now as his eminent vertues give us sufficient ground to believe in the place of perfect Charity doth approve of my design in not speaking more thereof and of using reservedness towards that Lady to whom all his life he bore so much love and respect CHAP. 6. Of his Mortification WHat we have spoken hitherto in this Second Part of the Austerities of the Poverty Humility and Patience of Monsieur de Renty makes appear evidently to what height he was mortified and that he was a true grain of that mysterious wheat mentioned by our Saviour which by dying brings forth much fruit yet besides all this we shall touch here some other effects of his Mortification The grand secret of Christian-life consists in the destruction of what our nature hath in it vitious the better to give way to grace in crucifying the old man that Jesus Christ may live there who hath taught us that this is not acquired but by continual Mortification and to that end hath told us that if any man doth not take up his Cross and that dayly he cannot be my disciple This excellent Scholar of that great Master having well learnt his lesson employed all his care in the beginning of his Conversion to mortifie himself in every thing to subdue his passions to regulate his motions Interior and Exterior to annihilate his desires and to dye to all the inclinations of corrupt nacure with so great faithfulness and constancy that as soon as he perceived her to carry him to any thing with some imperfection and that his natural will enclined one way he did the quite contrary And he told an intimate person that having undertaken the endeavour to oppose his nature in each thing by the grace of God he had always surmounted it insomuch that in all things he proceeded with a spirit of death and continual sacrifice making no further use of his passions senses nor of any thing in him but with an eye always open to hinder the operations of malign nature and whatever she brought thereto of her own following the conduct of our Lord saying that a man must disengage himself from himself and every creature that God onely may be his object And accordingly he performed it exactly for when in his sickness he endured most sharp pains he was so taken up with God and abstracted from them that he thought not of them It was impossible to finde a man more reserved in speaking of that which troubled him than he For as he knew that nature is apt to seek and comfort it self in discoursing of that which hurts her so he deprived her of that satisfaction and content lifting up in the mean while his heart to God and offering him his pain without otherwise dwelling upon it being glad that Gods work went forward that the body of sin was in destroying his sacrifice advancing He that is baptized said he ought to be dead in Jesus Christ and to lead a life of suffering and in this suffering of application to God let us march on to our end which is sacrifice in each thing in the manner that God will have it upon the bottom of obedience to his orders and of the annthilation of our selves in the imitation and by the Spirit of Jesus Christ Let us be so many Victims entertained and taken up with these Interior dispositions and sentiments that Christ had from his conception to his death and to the last period of his offering up Hence it was he had often in his mouth these words Sacrifice Vnion minding to say thus that we ought to study and enforce our selves to dye in each thing to our selves and for the attaining thereof to sacrifice to God our spirit our judgement our will our thoughts our affections our desires our passions and all in the union and after the manner of Jesus Christ In these apprehensions he wrote to a person that he had great devotion to these words which the 24 Elders sang in the Revelations to the Lamb which is our Lord prostrate before his Throne Thou hast made us Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon the earth In that this divine Lamb causeth that God establisheth his Kingdom in us by reigning in our souls and in our bodies by his grace that we are Priests to offer up our selves to him in sacrifice and that by this means we shall reign for ever with him in the land of the living So that this excellent man in all occasions where it behoved him to deny something to his nature and to dye to himself cast his eyes upon this estate of sacrifice and of victime to offer up himself to the glory of God by the pattern of his Son our Lord. This great and continual care which he had to mortifie himself in each thing brought about that he had so tamed his passions so regulated the motions of his soul and body so changed his inclinations and subdued his nature that at length he came to such a point of Mortification passive and of death that he felt no more in the spirit any opposition to any thing painful and was not mortified with any thing whatsoever From thence came it that writing to his Director concerning his disposition he said that he understood not that which they call Mortification because that where there is no contradiction nor resistance there is no mortification and when there befel any thing of a much mortifying nature and would have touch'd him much if he had been as yet alive to himself if any familiar person spake to him of the pain thereof he said smiling that the thing went well and that we must gain upon our selves that nothing may mortifie us any more and that we be as it were insensible to each thing He came to this pass not by the goodness of his nature nor by a kinde of stupid indifferency which sometimes is found in certain sleepy spirits but by
There is need of zeal and severity and yet withal sometimes of Clemency where there is promise of amendment with appearance of repentance 9. A Chief Justice may upon good information without form of Process commit a man to Prison for 24 hours with bread and water for blasphemy or any other notorious vice and afterward admonish him that if he continue he shall be proceeded against according to form of Law 10. Some persons are reclaimed sooner by a mulct of the purse than by corporal punishment such are to be fined without remâ—ssion when found guilty 11. Scandalous offenders ought to be deprived of the priviledges and favours of the Court yea and are to be burthened in taxes and other cases where they are in a common condition with their neighbours that they may understand thereby that they speed the worse for their vâ—cious life On the contrary vertue is to be cherished and countenanced with priviledges and publique favours and protection 12. Offices ought to be bestowed gratis that thereby fit and able Officers may more easily be chosen and be prevented from the least pretence of Bribery and Injustice 13. Lords should give good example by refusing presents from their Tenants for freeing such from common services or from those who have business depending before them or from the poor shewing themselves disinterested noble and uncorrupted whereby their Authority may be preserved and both their Officers and Tenants kept in strict obedience and respect For Royalties 1. They ought to recommend it to the Gentlemen their neighbours and observe it themselves not to hunt or hawk unseasonably to the prejudice of poor mens corn 2. They ought not to introduce any such custom upon Countrey people of keeping their Hounds 3. That Coney-warrens be not maintained or erected to the prejudice of their Tenants except such as are of ancient standing For payment of Taxes 1. They are to take care that the rich lay not the burthen upon the meaner sort 2. That their Officers and Bailiffs be not unnecessarily multiplied to the burthening of their Tenants 3. That they set not Lands at too high rents upon pretence that by their power they can remit their taxes A thing very much to be considered by reason of some priviledges Lords have in this kinde whereof the excess tends to great injustice 4. That the taxes be equally assessed according to mens abilities it being usual with Assessors to receive money of the meaner sort to return them insufficient and non solvent To prevent which they should give order that the tax be laid so justly that what returns are afterward made of insufficiency in any be imposed upon the Assessors themselves For the Church 1. It were convenient for the Lords often to visit the Pastors that the people might thereby take notice of the respect they give him and learn thereby their own duty And likewise to know of them if any abuses be committed to be remedied by the Civil power of which there are some things mentioned in the Articles for Officers and in particular what reverence is observed in the Church whether the people are attentive at the prone whether they send their children to be catechized and come themselves at which also you and your family shall be present 2. Whether the Church stock be improved and the Church-wardens quit themselves well in their accompts clearing them at the years end and that the Churches stock be not made use of for paying of taxes or other publique charges and in case it be so to prevent such abuses by complaint to the Bishop 3. To review the former accompts and provide necessaries for the Church a Chalice of silver a decent Tabernacle for the B. Sacrament with comely Ornaments 4. To learn of the Curate who are the poorest in the Parish to take a note of them and consider them in the first place 5. I would never take place of the Priest especially in sight of the people These are such Instructions as I have collected rudely and think fit to be observed besides which the bringing in of Missions is most excellent for the planting of the Spirit of Christianity in the hearts of the people to which every one should contribute their best assistance Moreover the Gentlemen of the Countrey shall do well to meet once a moneth to confer about their duty and encourage one another in the service of God who may also settle in Villages petty Societies of well devoted persons to take care for preventing abuses and the occasions of sin and to relieve and comfort poor people who are ashamed to beg There might be found also a way to settle amongst good Women an association of Charity for instructing comforting and succouring the poor and sick But above all a company of pious Clergy who may meet once a moneth to confer about the faithful discharging of their weighty function upon which depends the universal good of the people Certain Directions for Ladies and Gentlewomen THe way of God is to cause grace to superabound where sin hath abounded The first woman brought death into the world and the Virgin Mary hath given the Church occasion to sing that it was a happy fault since by it was occasioned our alliance with her Son and his union with the Deity But this is not all for if the first woman brought so much evil into the world it seems to have pleased God to make use of women for the reparation thereof having by his wisdom ordained that they should have the education of children and care of the family whilst men being of a stronger constitution are more employed abroad they more sedentarily disposed attending within doors where they have the knowledge and oversight and conduct of all From whence it follows since all orders of Clergy Nobility Magistracy and people are raised out of private Families as their common Nursery that to this Sex is deputed by God a business of the greatest consequence in the world viz. The nurturing of souls in the spirit of their Baptism preserving them unspotted tables to receive the impressions of Gods will and holy vocation to what future estate he shall design them for his glory and their own eternal good Wherefore it highly concerns them to make frequent reflections upon this since the greatest good and most eminent evil of mankinde in part depends on them for which they must render one day a strict account 1. Wherefore they ought to take great care of the education of their children in their tender years correcting by vertue and a gentle hand what nature discovers in them reprehensible Remembring that for the most part vice grows up through their esteeming it to be little and out of taking pleasure in whatever they see children do by which compliance their errours grow up with them until heat of blood and youth render them uncapable of correction 2. That they be vigilant in instructing their domesticks shutting the door against all blasphemy impurity all unlawful games
that he neither desired noâ— feared any thing in this world And in fine enjoyed such a sweet tranquillity of spirit and repose which nothing could disturb or alter that from thence arose a wonderful and invariable equality shining forth in his Exterior at all times in all places upon all occasions One of his intimate friends desirous to try one day whether he had an affection to any thing questioned with him about every thing he could think of to put him to the rest and among other things asked him whether he desired not that these works which he had undertaken for the glory of God might succeed and take effect To whom â—he replied that he had no other aim in all his actions and enterprizes than the accomplishing of the will of God and that although he used his utmost endeavour that such things might succeed yet notwithstanding he was perfectly resigned in all things to his Majesties good pleasure adding many other expressions testifying his Mortification to all desires and a perfect transformation of his will into that of Gods This discourse was not quite finished but there hapned an occasion to put it to the tryal for one came running in crying that all the Heaven was on fire which news usually very frightful made no alteration in him at all who most calmly and composedly looking up to the heavens said the fire is here in Paris without any further distance though he understood presently that it was so violent that the street he lived in was in danger to be burnt down and his neighbours said it was necessary to quite forsake their quatters by reason that the fire was not far off and was likely in a very short space to reach them In this publique fright he keeping his ordinary equality and referring all to the will of God went into his Chappel where he continued long time in prayer offering up himself in sacrifice to God and resigning up his own will unto him some persons looking upon him with great admiration in this posture whilst so many hundreds were at their wits end and preparing for a speedy flight He professed to another secret and familiar friend that he felt himself through the mercy of God in such an absolute state of death to every thing that neither Angels nor men the loss of all he had the subversion of his family nor any other accident could remove him from his settled tranquillity And this he said not hyperbolically or by way of ostentation but out of a solid experimental establishment in that fortitude common with him to all great Saints Such was the mystical death and annihilation of this man of God by which his soul was enriched with a vast treasure of spiritual wealth causing him to lead a most perfect life and uniting him most intimately to God to which this death is absolutely necessary because no being can arrive to that which it was not formerly without ceasing first to be what it was as wood cannot pass into the nature of fire as long as it keeps its former nature this must be quitted and the matter be divested of all the form of wood both in substance and accidents and reduced into a state of privation to be made capable of the fires unitement to it And this is a general rule in nature admitting no exception that each subject must be predisposed to receive a new form and so much more as this form is more noble and this disposition consists in the privation of the subject and loss of other forms to gain a new one So also to make a spiritual man he must no more live according to nature but that he may be capable to be united to God must necessarily dye and be annihilated to himself And if fire require this total privation in the matter to communicate it self thereto with greater reason doth God who is altogether a spirit infinitely pure the first and soveraign entity require of a man this universal nakedness and privation this death and annihilation to himself and all created beings before he give and unite himself with him for in giving himself he giveth also the fruition of himself of his beauty goodness wisdom and his other perfections and by this union renders the receiver happy Hence also may be gathered what admirable purity is requisite in a soul for this union with God in Heaven in the state of glory that for this we must either conserve our Baptismal Innocence or if that hath been lost or fullied we must be purged here or in Purgatory by severe penances notwithstanding our other good works and the high degrees of sanctity to which we have attained And the same in proportion may be averred of the soul here in this estate of grace where it must be very pure to prepare it well for its union with God here in this life And seeing her pollution ariseth from her love to the creature and to herself and from the life of the first Adam according to the lusts and appetites of our own spirit it must dye to all these creatures and likewise to its self just as the body to be made perfect and to partake the true life of immortality and bliss must necessarily dye first so likewise must our souls if we will have them arrive to perfection consisting in this union with God to lead a holy and Divine life which alone can truly be called life To this purpose he writ thus to his Director I see clearly that the onely way to a Divine Union is to be perfectly divested of every thing that is not God and dead to our selves and every creature O that I well understood the importance of this nakedness and death and what is it that hinders the bonds of this Celestial love and union with his Divine Majestie and that Soveraign Beauty but a certain shew of and light adherence to some creature and shall we suffer that a thing so small and so unworthy should possess in the room of God and that Holy Spirit which is an all-consuming fire of love invirancing us on all sides should not have the power to work upon us the same effect which this elementary fire worketh upon wood Why should not I vicious and discontented creature in the midst of these my wretched plenitudes acquire happiness in the possession of God which I may do by his grace in separating my self gently from the creature by a single and affectionate application to the Creator To another person he writ thus When S. Paul saith You are dead and your life is hid with God in Christ Jesus He layeth death as the necessary foundation of a Christian whereby to remove from him all affection and inclination to the creature As we see that a dead man hath no more any motion or sense of any thing for though we are frequently sensible of the rebellious motions of corrupted nature yet they onely spring to be choaked and stifled in their birth To this purpose the
of a Christian life and the fulfilling of Gods will was to him after the example of our Lord as most exquisite and delitious meat and viands and when any gave him opportunity or left him to his liberty to practise this Mortification it pleased him exceedingly Often at Paris when some deed of charity had drawn him far from home that he could not return to dinner he would step in all alone or unknown to a small Victualling-house or some Bakers shop and make his dinner with a piece of bread and a draught of water and so very gay and chearfull go on with his business And what he pracrised for the mortifying of his gust was in like manner done for his other senses the sight the hearing the smell and the touch Being come to Pontois on a very cold day in winter and lodging at the Carmelite Nuns he desired earnestly the Nun that was the Door-keeper to have no fire made nor bed prepared for him and after he had discoursed with some of them he old the last that he must go make some little visits and that was to visit the Prisoners the poor that were ashamed to beg and to employ himself in some other deeds of charity which he never forgot at any time how little soever was his leisure He returned about nine a clock at night when the Nuns went to say Matins and without taking any thing to eat went into the Church to his prayers which he continued till eleven a clock and then retired into his chamber not suffering a fire to be made for him although by his own confession the cold did incommode him very much He constantly kept a vigilant eye over himself in every time place occasion and even in the meanest things for the mortifying of his body daily putting it to some hardship or at least hindring it from sense of pleasure And to that end had found out some very notable and ingenious inventions so bearing continually about him the mortification of the Lord Jesus in his body that the life of Jesus might live and shine forth in it well knowing as the same Apostle elsewhere saith That those that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust thereof And to say the truth the more a man is full of one thing the less room there is for its contrary the more one sinks into darkness the further off from light and as we said above there is nothing more opposite to the Spirit than the flesh so must we of necessity conclude the more a man pampers his flesh the more doth he indispose and estrange himself from the life of the Spirit Thus this illuminated person dealt with his body as with his enemy out of the design he had to lead a life truly spiritual Whatsoever might content and flatter his senses was insupportable to him whence it happened that one day there slipt from him this word to a confident that God had given him a great hatred of himself and this was advanc'd so far by his fervent and unsatiable desire of mortifying himself that beside the moderation that his Director was obliged to lay upon him a famous person of our days the Carmelite Nun of the Covent of Beaulne Sister Margaret of the Holy Sacrament who lived and dyed in a fragrant odour of Sanctity with whom he was most intimate in the bonds of grace did out of divine light she had in that matter much reprehend him for it and gave him her advice in the business whereunto for the confidence he had in her and that not without good cause being willing to yield he remitted something of his rigour although not without complaint which he testified to a person thus in writing I know not said he why one stould strive to keep in so lazy a beast that stands more in need of the spur than bridle For all he was thus held in he left not off the war which he made with his body in each thing he could but without transgressing the Orders he had received till he thereby came to such a point of perfect Mortification that his body became as it were dead and insenâ—ble in all things which now in a manner made no impression upon his senses eating without gust himself saying that all meats were to him alike seeing as it were without sight so that after he had been along time in some Churches most richly adorned with stately ornaments and those before his eyes when one asked if they were not very fine he answered plainly that he had seen nothing By reason of his Mortification he had no pain nor trouble at all from those things which make other men so fret and take on who are alive to themselves and enslav'd to their bodies neither was he onely without pain but which as Arâ—stotle saith is the highest perfection of a vertue he took great pleasure therein which came not to him so much from abundance of sensible consolations which may sweeten Austerities to an unmortified man but from the ground and bottom of vertue intirely acquir'd and possessed CHAP. 2. Of his Poverty SECT 1. Of his Poverty of spirit ONe of the most great and admirable Vertues that shone in Monsieur de Renty was this that in the possession of riches he was utterly disingaged from the love of them and possessed in a most high degree as we shall now declare the first of the Beatitudes which pronounceth Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven of grace in this world and of glory in the other A truth which served him for a powerful attractive to endeavour the gaining of this rich treasure Whereof writing to a person of Pietie he thus said I was the other day touch'd in reading the eight Beatudes and upon this word Beatitude I took notice that in effect there were no other Beatitudes but these for if there had our Lord would have taught them and therefore those ought to be our whole study But what shall I say we ground not our selves upon them nor desire the grace to do it but run after the Beatitudes of the world and our own Concupiscience quitting that which is clear and given us by our head Christ Jesus to be in a state of hurley-burley and confusion and consequently of trouble danger and unhappiness It was not to these kinde of Beatitudes that he ran but to those of the Gospel and in particular to the first concerning which le ts hear what one saith of him a person very credible and of his intimate acquaintance I never sew mâ—n said he in so perfect a poverty of spirit nor in so ardent a desire to feel the effects of it as was he And in the fervour of his desire he said to me Procure by your prayers that we may change this form of life when will you labour with God that this may be this habit and this wealth is to me most painful I have talked since his death
with a Father to whom he had communicated his inclinations to leave all who told me that one day he desired of him with many tears and on his knees his advice in the matter and that he was never more surpriz'd than to see Monsieur de Renty at his feet and in these sentiments of poverty And I have heard him say that the touch from God to separate him from the creatures and to make him quit the manner of living suitable to his birth was so powerful over his soul that if another touch from the same hand had not kept him back at the same time he had abandoned all and according to the example of S. Alexis had gone to live a poor life as he did but that God that imprinted this desire of poverty in him did hinder the effecting of it to keep him in the state wherein he had placed him which was to him no small cross because the desire torments and afflicts the soul in proportion to its vehemency when it cannot arrive to the possession of the thing desired But because he was absolutely conformable as it was his duty in all things to the will of God he bare this cross as contrary as it was to his affection with great peace and a perfect submission to what God had ordered Another witness of like authority gives him this testimony He told me said he often in the confidence we had together that he was ashamed when he entred into his house to see himself so well lodged in this world and that it was one of his greatest afflictions to have so much wealth and to be so much at ease that he should be ravished to see himself reduced to bread and water and to get the same by labour and the sweat of his bâ—ows Having one day asked him how he could be so quiet amongst all the faâ—idious accidents and incommodities that he suffered He answered me upon condition that I would keep it secret that through Gods mercy he found himself in a disposition of peace and state of indifferency in affliction as well as in joy and that he had no sentiments any more of fear or desire of any thing And of this my self hath seen the experience in some difficulties where the better part of his estate ran a great hazard without any appearance of the least commotion in him and his words were Seeing God hath given me the management of this estate I will do to preserve it what shall behove me and then it is all one to me what success shall follow Another reports thus He had the Evangelical poverty in its perfection being inâ—irely estranged in spirit and thought in heart and affection from all the wealth of the world and he told me that he fealt no greater cross than to have riches and that he should be extreamly glad to be a beggar and unknown if it had been the will of God Hence it came that he bare a kinde of holy envy towards the poor that he deemed them very happy that in beholding them he said sometimes with sighing but with a sigh that one might see came from the bottom his heart Ah! that I am not as they that he honour'd lov'd caress'd and kneel'd before them not onely in humility but in esteem of their estare in its disposing us so much to the perfection of the new Law and resemblance it hath with Jesus Christ Being one day visiting the poor in the great Hospital of Caen he was seen bare headed and on his knees upon the floor of the great Hall beating in a Morter some Drugs for the use of the poor sick people such was the respect and honour that he bore to those for whom he laboured that it put him into that posture But for an end let us hear him tell us himself his sentiments upon this matter and although he speak of himself le ts make no scruple to believe him as being a person most worthy of credit Behold therefore what he wrote to the Nun abovementioned Sister Margaret of the Holy Sacrament my most holy Sister I have it in my heart that the Holy Childe Jesus the Infancy of Jesus was one of the Mysterieâ— to which more particularly and profitably he applyed himself as we shall see in its due place would have something of me which he hath a desire I should beg of him and dispose my self for the obtaining of it And I avow to you that the more there comes to me of the riches of this world the more do I discover the malignity the eto affixed and that they produce nothing but garboil and trouble and afford not much means of doing good My heart is most strongly carried to an effective stâ—ipping my self of all and to follow him alone seeing he is my way as being the most poor and depressed amongst all his followers But that I know that it would be a presumption to believe my self capable of this estate and a temptation to put my self upon it being at present related as I am I â—ould pant and sigh thither ward very much that which I will draw hence is this that being ignorant of the coursels of God I cannot tell how he will dispose of me for the future and I offer my self up to whatsoever it shall please him knowing that with him I can do every thâ—ng as without him I have neither the power nor will for any thing My most dear Sister I have great need of doing penance and to be humbled I am greatly ashamed of my condition and of what I am I have the commodity and abundance of all things of this world but my family and estate of things permits it not to be otherwise and I see the Churches and the poor upon whom I would bestow it all at least as much as I may in justice part with or else to be poor as the poor are so that I may be no more ashamed of being better provided than they Thus you have his thoughts which by Gods permission are come to light to make us see what grace can do in a heart well disposed and to what a pitch arrives this perfect Poverty of spirit SECT 2. His outward Poverty THe high esteem and affection which this great servant of God had of the forsaking the goods of this world being not able to contain it self within the Interior of his soul appear'd outward and visible in a thousand effects and carried him on to the poverty Exterior in all ways possible for not to speak of the great Alms he gave to the poor far different from the course of many who though full of riches yet never think of using them according to Gods rule he divested himself of very many things to be impoverished as much as he could for he parted with some books because richly bound wore no cloaâ—hes but plain and close together used no gloves what season soever or at least a rare thing it was to see him have any in effect