obscurity of Faith She must therefore keep her self in an Indifferency rising and falling according to the conduct of Gods Holy Spirit Always esteeming her self unworthy of the least Grace and never pretend by forcing her Spirits to the extraordinary favours of high Contemplation But when she has a call to such elevations in Prayer the way to arrive thither is by a perfect death to all things and a Faithful imitation of Jesus Christ in his Crucified states of Abjection and Poverty with a Love of Solitude as much as our condition will permit There 's a great deal of difference between that Light and Fervour which is imparted to a Soul in the elevations of passive Prayer and that Light which is procured by the ordinary Grace of Meditation That is more in time and piercing and full of Heavenly Benedictions This however suffices to acquire Virtues and serve God in the state of our Vocation 'T is our duty to attend to our present condition with Peace and Humility and submission to the Divine Will and let God alone to order as he pleases the time of his Visits and our manner of Prayer Sometimes this will be by simple Thoughts sometimes by Discourse sometimes by Faith alone and sometimes by passive Illuminations But whatever is given us we must receive from the hand of the Divine Goodness with great respect and Thankfulness acknowledging our selves unworthy of the least good Thought That which a Soul ought to do both in and out of Prayer is to be very attentive to Gods Holy Inspirations and follow them with Courage and Fidelity If she find that God elevates her to extraordinary Contemplation let her yield to those Divine impressions If she be kept in an ordinary way let her there abide If she be left in Aridities let her also sit down without complaining The great secret of a Spiritual Life is for a Soul to purifie her self so as to comply with the motions of God who is our Alpha and Omega our Origen and final end There are things sufficiently declared as the Commandments of God and the Church the Duties we owe to Obedience Charity or Necessity There 's no need to expect immediate Light from God for the performance of these things But only in such which are neither commanded nor forbidden And in these great Purity of Soul is necessary to discern the motions of Grace for fear we be deceiv'd by our own imaginations Those Saints who by the Impulses of Gods Holy Spirit have writ Spiritual Treatises to direct Interiour Christians in the wayes of God oftentimes affect us with their Thoughts and Sentiments because they Pray in Heaven for this Blessing on their labours on Earth and therefore t is Beneficial to read their Books to advance our Devotion But do what we can we shall never know what that Prayer is by what those Books write of it unless by the practice and Light of the same Prayer We know well enough in general that Prayer is the source of all Virtue in the Soul who leaves that off falls into Luke-warmness and Imperfections Prayer is a Holy Fire that warms the Heart and Affections which without it must of necessity grow cold in Devotion In Health or Sickness Joy or Sorrow we must always Pray except we have a mind to fall from Grace to our utter ruin CHAP. III. That we ought to be indifferent to what manner of Prayer God is pleased to give us WE ought to shun two Extreams equally vitious The one is to covet more Grace and Perfection than God intends us so as to be troubled and disgusted to see others more elevated in Gifts of Prayer than our selves The other is not to co-operate faithfully with the Grace vouchsaf'd us either for want of Courage in the Difficulties that occur in the practice of Virtue or of Attention to observe the Motions of Grace or being observed by too easily diverting our selves to other matters and so neglecting the Mercies of God When a Soul is well purified and hath experience of the Impulses of Grace in her and can distinguish them from the motions of Nature she must give free ingress to the rayes of this Light from Heaven that she may be throughly illuminated and warm'd in her Devotions For to do otherwise under a pretence of Humility and fear of deception is not to yield to the Conduct of God's Spirit who inspires when and whom he pleases 'T is then our Duty to be entirely passive that God may fully work his Will in us When these Divine Illuminations are withdrawn from a Soul for the Glory of God and her good and so left in darkness or when her own Imperfections have made her not so capable of supernatural Lights she must rest contented with these privations till it pleases the Sun of Righteousness to shine upon her A purified Soul is satisfied and resign'd on such occasions because God only is her joy and not his gifts which he by his infinite Goodness communicates to her when he pleases And this is the reason that she loves not her inward peace and joy when she is deprived of heavenly Irradiations and Gifts in Prayer He who gives himself up to his Prince for his sole interest and satisfaction without seeking his own peculiar concerns and contentment does not much matter what Service he renders and what Rewards he receives provided his Prince be well pleased and satisfied If he keep him near his person to caress him he is content not that he is caressed but because it is his Princes pleasure If he imploy him afar off in troublesome Affairs he is content not to be so far from his Person and in a hazardous Employment but because this is the Pleasure of his Prince whose Content he only had an eye to in giving himself up unto his Service This is the true case of a Soul that desires to serve God purely for the Love of God If God caress her in Prayer with Visits full of Sweetness she is content because this is his Pleasure if he affords not his Presence but leaves her in Darkness she is content because 't is the good pleasure of God If God call her to the exercises of Charity in a life more active and laborious than the contemplative she is content because this is the good pleasure of God which is the only thing she seeks and desires in his Service This indifferency disposes a Soul to receive great Graces for by this means she sometimes arrives to a total oblivion of her self and all creatures without any reflection on her own Interests Temporal or Eternal haveing nothing in her eye but the good pleasure of God and desiring him alone insomuch that if any thing of self creep in at any time as soon as she discovers it 't is distasteful to her This is a state of great Nakedness and entire Mortification and a perfect disposition to most sublime Prayer whether God elevates a Soul whom he sees ready to submit
have inflamed affections for you is my greatest work but to bring my heart to such a temper it must become like dry wood being emptyed of humidity by a seperation from all Creatures This desire of inflamed affections puts me upon purifying my heart and the expectation of enjoyment makes me eager in the practice of Mortification by embracing Evangelical Councels and maxims of Christianity Seeing poverty contempt and crosses increase the flames of Divine Love they are welcom to me for I ardently desire to see them arise to their highest elevation I know a good Religious man who in his Solitudes is in continual Prayer not only by the elevation of his Spirit but by union with God in a wonderful manner My Soul finds great contentment in his discourse and conversation In sickness his enjoyment of God is not so vigorous nor his Peace of Soul so savorous though always great Worldly conversations seem but as dreams to him and when past they did only leave confus'd Idaeas in his memory A blessed man doubtless while here on earth And conversing with me in simplicity of heart by obedience he declar'd to me what wonderful enjoyments God was pleas'd to vouchsafe unto him He told me that to attain Purity of Heart we must divest our selves of all affections to Creatures and not satisfie our natural desires which is a great Mortification when 't is continual In sickness we must stand very much upon our guard for we easily relax and yield too much to nature Not to correspond to a known inspiration is gross infidelity and much retards our advancement in a Spiritual Life A principal point of Devotion is by a punctual fidelity to omit no occasion to practice virtue whether of humility patience abjection or any other This Contemplative told me that the choicest effect wrought in us by Revelations or Visions is this punctual fidelity to Gods calls 'T is an affair will take up the whole Soul to free her self from any engagement with Creatures and conquer her own natural Inclinations that she may enter into the states of Jesus crucified and into his ways with his Spirit that is with his intentions and dispositions Let us O my Soul in the profound silence of our Solitude often say to Jesus O Divine Jesus despised for me contemptible poor for me a poor Creature annihilated for me a meer nothing Terms which in some sort express the perfect union that the Soul ought to have with Jesus Crucified And this union is the grand occupation of Solitaries In the Court of Kings the Cooks and Bakers and other meaner Officers labour more than a Gentleman of the Chamber who has little to do but to attend his Majesty as a Companion rathen then a Servant A Favourite has yet less employ being admitted into his Prince's Closet to converse freely with him and entertain each other with mutual caresses In the House of God they who are appointed most for action are not the greatest Favourites those to whom God vouchsases extraordinary visits in Contemplation labour less and yet are more accepted by him T is not for us to apply our selves too much to Exteriour actions of Charity but to correspond to Gods Holy Inspirations if he call us to Solitude to attend on himself alone out of the noise of Creatures Is it not great pity that Temporal affairs should take up the best days of our years and the choicest hours of our days leaving us little time in comparison to apply our selves to the one thing necessary the work of our Eternal Salvation 'T would be better for us if we would allot more time to our Holy retirements to converse with God by Prayer and Contemplation and begin on earth what we must continue without end in ever Blessed Eternity CHAP. V. How we may put our Soul and Senses into a Solitude LEt us not deceive our selves in being content to receive the seed of Divine Inspirations without bringing forth any fruit according to the designs of God If we have a discerning Spirit in the ways of Grace we shall soon discover that this our only affair and all the rest is but amusement and folly To nourish this Divine Seed in us we must shun the conversation of Worldly wisemen who are guided only by Carnal Prudence and so being strangers to the Procedings of Grace leave in us more or less by their Discourse some Impression of their ill opinions which will retard our advancement in the ways of God To put the Soul into Solitude we must retire from all Creatures and put our selves absolutely in the hands of God to do with us what he pleases and apply our selves to him alone with all possible endeavours To be faithful herein we must resolve to suffer much for we cannot abide Peaceably in this Divine Hermitage without leaving Parents Friends Worldly Entertainments Affairs and to suffer almost a continual Persecution on every side For one tells you that it is an Hypocritical and unprofitable Life Another that so much Solitude cannot be good in that we ought to have some Charity for our Neighbour But let them talk on every one is to follow his own work and the will of God according to their vocation The best and most noble imployment in the World is to converse with God and do that on Earth which the Saints and Angels do in Heaven How the Devil persecutes a Soul in this state under fair pretences But she must stop her ears and quit all to adhere to her Soveraign good when he vouchsafes to call her to attend on him alone When God says he will lead a Soul into a Solitude Ducam eam in Solitudinem 'T is a singular Mercy For we shall find but few in the World prepar'd for the Cross and resolv'd to go through all the difficulties of a Life so supernatural A Soul that is in such a happy disposition will live Solitary not troubling her self with the cryes of others When God once speaks Powerfully to the heart 't will make more impression on us than all the noise of the World It comes into my mind that to be Faithful to the Call of God which I have to Solitude requires of me to spend six hours a day in Prayer and to comply therewith to retire my self about five in the Afternoon and eat little at night Methinks also I ought to observe a general Solitude not only in relation to my Soul but to my Interiour and Exteriour Senses yea when I shall converse with my Friends and behold her I conceive this may be done Sacred Solitude consists in being alone with God in a vacancy from Creatures and whatevet is not God It seems to me then when we discourse of God and his affairs we make our tongue Solitary and so speak like a Hermit When we will not give ear to any but Divine Discourses our ears turn Hermits When we will not allow our eyes any Objects but such as are pleasing to God we put them into
for ever-Blessed Eternity O my Soul let us not follow our own Fancy but serve God in what manner he will have us by a perfect resignation of our selves to his good pleasure The Eternal Song of the Saints in Heaven was the subject of my fourth Prayer I consider'd with great delight that all the Angels and Glorious Saints shall Eternally Glorifie the adorable Trinity with this Sacred Trisagion Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath Me-thought the first of the Seraphins began this Anthem with an admirable Air and all the Choirs of Angels joyn'd their Voices all Singing with a Tone more or less elevated proportion'd to the degree they possess in Glory And this innumerable multitude of Angelical Voices made a most Melodious and admirable Harmony wherewith the Divine Persons were much delighted It came into my thoughts that the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ the noblest of all created Entities the Sacred Virgin Mother of God and Queen of Angels with all the multitude of Holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and Virgins did bear a part in this Sacred Harmony with great contentment And my Soul being much delighted therewith desir'd to Glorifie God as much as possible I saw that the Church Militant in a Holy emulation of the Church Triumphant did use to the Glory of the most Sacred Trinity a like Canticle repeating in her Divine Offices on all occasions Gloria Patri Filio Spiritui Sancto Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost And so Heaven and Earth did Eccho forth incessantly the Glory of the adorable Trinity I heartily wish'd that all Creatures had Voices to Praise God continually and with much affection I often repeated Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Tribus honor unus Amen Tenth Day THis day beginning my Prayer I felt my Soul prevented with an extraordinary Sweetness I represented my God in the fund of my Heart as my Beloved and I return'd him Thanks for his manifold Visits My Disposition was then as a Spiritual Spring-time I scented the Odour of the Flowers of Virtue perfuming my Interiour and I made thereof a Crown for the Bridegroom of my Soul and set it on his Head and he seem'd to be much pleas'd with it and my Soul took great complacency therein I observ'd that when the Spiritual Bridegroom comes to Visit his Spouse whether it be in the Holy Communion or by any Visit extraordinary 't is with different effects Sometimes the Soul is as it were inebriated with Divine Love at other times she has a feeling of great variety of Virtues wherewith the Interiour is Beautified as a Garden with Flowers The Soul is is not then taken up solely with the Sweets of Love but being adorned with variety of Virtues sometimes she presents this sometimes that sometimes altogether to her Beloved My second Prayer was a continuation of the same Thoughts And I perceived that every step the Divine Bridegroom of our Souls made in the Garden of his Spouse gave a new Birth to different Flowers This is no small contentment to the Soul but what ought most to affect her herein is that her Beloved is pleas'd to take with her his recreation who delights to be sometimes with the Children of men Then 't is He refreshes us with the Perfumes and Odours of his Graces as Glorified and we must give our selves up to his Divine Will Other times he Visits a Soul in this Crucified state bringing with him nothing but Thorns and Nails and Bitterness and Sufferings But a Soul must not think that her Beloved is not then well pleas'd with her because of this rough usage for this is his Will and 't is best for her I was much astonish'd to see the excess of Gods goodness to me who deserv'd to have been treated as an enemy But he was pleas'd to unite me to himself with such ravishing transports as transcend expression O that I had a heart so full of love as might be answerable to the greatness of his Mercies vouchsafed unto me O Jesus the Love of my Heart if you continue thus I shall die of Love for you O amorous flames consume my heart to ashes that nothing may be found there but Love and Humility O my Friends come and see what great things God has done for my Soul My third Prayer was taken up with the amiable Communications that the most Sacred Trinity is pleas'd to have with our Souls The Divine Nature unites the three adorable Persons in the Sacred Trinity The Person of the Son unites two Natures in Jesus And Grace unites Jesus to purified Souls And this unions of Grace and Love is perfected by exercises of Prayer and wonderful communication in contemplation This union sometimes is so high and elevated that Jesus and the Soul seem to be but one thing one Spirit one Knowledge one Love and is in a manner the Soul of our Soul And in this state she Glorifies God in a transcendent way being wonderfully united to that Love and Glory Jesus renders to the Divinity and the Divinity to it self The design of the Son of God by communicating himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament is to augment this gracious union that as he Prayed to his Father we may be one as they are one By which wonderful union he gives unto us a fulness of Grace and Divine Love imprinting on us unless we be refractory the like inclinations he received from his Father to keep us continually united to him by Love and Honour him with the grateful Sacrifice of our Humiliations My last Prayer was an amorous repose of my self in Jesus Finding my self in this disposition I dwelt upon it knowing well that a Soul united to Jesus is transformed into him by amorous affections and so Glorifying God does Love and Honour and Adore the Divinity by the Love and Adoration of Jesus Christ The Soul in this amorous repose finds all her wants supply'd As Courage in Adversity Humility in Successes Perseverance in Good Actions and Grace to practice all those Virtues which God commands on all occasions By how much the more the Soul is thus amorously united to Jesus in Prayer by so much the more does she participate of his Spirit and Dispositions and consequently is more in love with the Cross and Sufferings To have union with Jesus Christ in Prayer and to be divided from him in our Life and Actions is an illusion for one principal effect of pure Prayer is to imprint in us a love to follow the Life of Jesus There now comes into my mind an excellent Observation of a Father of the Church That the Holy Spirit having visibly descended to us as well as the Son did not as the Son visibly return to Heaven but takes up his Mansion with us here on Earth to unite our hearts with our Heavenly Father as in the Divinity he is the union of the Father and the Son
another as I have loved you which was the subject of my second Prayer I then found that when a Soul has made a good entrance into the heart of Jesus Christ and by the light of Prayer sees the infinite love of God towards men Grace then discovers how this divine charity is free generous and magnificent Free having a love for us when objects of his just displeasure Generous surmounting all difficulties and conquering all resistances Magnificent in giving his own life for our Redemption This is a Zeal truly Divine for the Salvation of Souls Now his pleasure is that the charity we have for our Neighbour be regulated by this divine Model that we love them to do the will of God and obey his Commands That we love them generously without any regard to natural aversions or injuries they have done us or any temporal advantages we may receive from them but after the example of Jesus to love and do good even to our greatest enemies O how many great Saints considering the ardent love of Christ to us have burn'd with the flames of a holy Zeal and spent themselves in labours to do good to those Souls for whom Christ died But alas we have little zeal for God for our Neighbour or our selves My third Prayer passed in considerations of the prodigious goodness of Jesus to men who seem'd to forget himself and depose the grandeurs of his Majesty to debase himself in the search of our Souls to indulge and love them with as much affection as if they did contribute to his felicity He prevents them with wonderful mercies and though they be unworthy of his love he gives them sensible feelings thereof by speaking to the heart in this or such-like manner My Sister my Spouse my love takes a delight in thee knowest thou well who I am 'T is I that am thy God thy Creator thy Saviour 'T is I who came from the bosom of my Father into this world to find thee being lost and tell thee how I love thee and I demand nothing but love again My Soul thus prevented with the blessings of this sweetness and powerfully touched with a sense thereof wanted words to express my thankfulness However I said O my God! You are my love I love you and will love you eternally with all my heart for what else have I to return but love for love 'T is a wonderful love for you to debase the grandeurs of your Divinity to search after poor sinful Souls Nor is it less wonderful for you to draw these Souls out of themselves to free them from their miseries and advance them to your embraces and place them in your heart as some rich Treasure This is the wonderful excess of the love of Jesus Zelator of Souls This love that so humbled Jesus does elevate a Soul to these amorous exercises and makes her see her own unworthiness and the incomparable beauty of her well-beloved In my fourth Prayer I had a deep impression of Jesus humbled and doing Penance for us I beheld him as it were annihilated in the presence of his eternal Father to honour his eternal Beeing by sacrificing his humanity which he continued his whole life and consummated on the Cross I beheld also how being charged with our sins he did continual Penance for us to satisfie the divine Justice and give content to that infinite love he has for our Souls Let us love then O my Soul our Jesus as he has loved us and imitate his sufferings by a spirit of penance and annihilation I am a great sinner and therefore ought to entertain a spirit of penance and thereby make advantage of all evils and infirmities which happen to me My principal affair in this world ought to be to annihilate my self and to suffer to annihilate my self to pay homage to the infinite grandeurs of God and to suffer as a just punishment of my sins After Confession having but one Gloria Patri for my penance it came into my thoughts that no penance is little when 't is united to the sufferings of Jesus Christ who by them has done penance for our sins It seemed to me that one only Ave Maria united to the sufferings of the Son of God which are of infinite merit and did infinitely satisfie his eternal Father becomes a penance which wonderfully satisfies for our sins My Soul was comforted with this truth and I had no more to do than to unite my little Crosses to the Cross of Jesus Sixth Day Jesus contemplating and enjoying OUr blessed Saviour did fill my Soul with such super-abundant consolation in my morning Prayer that I seem'd to have some part of that state of enjoyment which is reserv'd for the Saints in Glory O amorous enjoyment how wonderfully dost thou purifie our Souls Thou takest our hearts off from the World thou dost Crucifie us with a delightful Martyrdom thou dost enlighten thou dost purifie thou dost inflame thou dost mortifie thou dost fortifie thou makest us live and die together A small tast of this Ocean of delights will inebriate the Souls of men and the Angels in Glory This is that Blessed Life which is granted to some Servants of God honouring him by continual enjoyments which he pours into their Souls 'T is a great secret of the Interiour Life to be passive to the operations of God in us whether he visits us with dolorous and crucifying or joyful and beatifying impressions Our fidelity consists in a pure correspondence to his designs without reluctance If he please to make our Soul a Garden of Delights embrace his Favours All the ways of God are good in themselves but that which he puts us in is best for us O how the state of Jesus suffering is adorable O how his state of enjoying is admirable We must apply our selves to one or other according to the designs of the Divine Wisdom I found an Image of Jesus in Contemplation his Look and Posture ravish'd me and this took up my second Prayer I was not satisfied with beholding his Divine Aspect I admir'd and ador'd him Considering the profound attention he had to the Grandeurs of his Eternal Father and how he was absorp'd in the Divinity I made it my work to contemplate also by him and in him uniting my self to the utmost of my Power to his Divine entertainments O Jesus contemplating Jesus taken up with your Father with whom you pass in Prayer whole nights made as bright as the days of Eternity Jesus living a retir'd life in the Divine Essence You are the object of my Love I see nothing so beautiful as you are in this state My Soul hath no greater delight upon Earth than to have an eye to Jesus to think of him to speak of him to sigh after him O how happy is that Soul which Jesus makes his Mansion I know not how Jesus comes into a Soul but he 's there sometimes sooner then perceiv'd filling her with Blessings and making her to find that
he ought nor lov'd with thankfulness He loves us so as to die for us and we make no reciprocal returns O the prodigious insensibility of men Is then Jesus Christ a stranger to us and not our God and Saviour Does the History of his holy Passion pass with us as a profane or indifferent thing Ought not the bloody Tragedy of Calvary fill all Christian hearts with love and sorrow For my part I could hide my head with shame that I have so little compassion and love for Jesus dying on the Cross for our Salvation O my Jesus I confess my fault in that I have so little known my infinite obligations to you But seeing your Grace discovers now to me more clear than heretofore what you are I will never more lose sight of you I will love nothing more than You and esteem nothing more than to do you honour You are my true Father my true Brother true Friend true King true Redeemer O how great a truth is it that you are all in all unto me O that I have been so long without knowing you aright O Jesus how Happy am I that I have found you O let me never so much loose my self as to forsake you For my fourth Prayer I stood at the Sepulcher of Jesus and seeing his precious Body dead and covered with Wounds I made this Epitaph Here lyes Love Yes yes here lyes Love indeed for his excessive Love to us brought him to this state and condition A state full of horror and wounds Blood and Infamy But a state well pleasing to God as satisfying his Justice for mans Redemption I embraced his precious Body and kiss'd his Sacred Wounds I adored Jesus in this state and said O my Soul we must either cease to Love Jesus or die with him seeing Love equalizes Lovers and makes them alike My Soul then chose to die with Jesus and after many sighs and desires to please her Beloved she died with Jesus never willing more to live a Natural and Humane Life but a Life Divine and Supernatural as that of Jesus And I made for her this Epitaph Here lyes a Soul dead of Love Behold in what consists the death of my Soul 't is to live no longer according to the natural Inclinations but according to the motions of Grace which are the Love of Poverty Contempt and Sufferings While these dispositions live in a Soul she is dead to Sensual desires and lives a Life of Grace a Life Supernatural Therefore for the future I will never hunt after Honours or Pleasures or Riches willingly and by Election but I will either heartily forsake them or if I use them it shall be upon Divine Motives for the good of my Neighbour or for pure necessity seeing That is the Will of God the surest rule of all our Actions Tenth Day Jesus risen from Death and Glorious IN my Morning Prayer I consider'd the Glory of Jesus Christ in the state of his triumphant Resurrection O Jesus how Glorious are you How well does this become you Verily 't was a strange state whither your Love had brought you A state of Misery Shame and Sorrow This was well for us Criminals but in no sort agreeing to you who are Innocence it self For what belongs to you is Majesty and Glory What joy did swell my heart to see Jesus Glorious My Tongue cannot express what my Heart feels This great Feast of the Resurrection is to be celebrated by all Creatures seeing 't is the day wherein Jesus appears as God O Feast of the Glory of Jesus O Feast of the Glory of Mary 'T was a Miracle she did not die of Sorrow at the Death of her Son and 't is another Miracle she did not die of Joy at his Glorious Resurrection O my heart be thou enlarged with Joy for 't is a general rule without exception that the Interest of the Creator is to be preferr'd before all Creatures And therefore O triumphant Jesus I more rejoyce that you are Glorious then that I hope to be Glorified with you Yea though I should never be raised your Glory does ravish me It glads me when I consider that damnation only concerns the Creature for the Interest of Jesus suffers not thereby seeing God is Glorified by the Reprobates as well as by the Saints in Glory 'T is also a certain rule that the Elect O Divine Jesus are Images of you and so necessarily must resemble you in your Sufferings if with you they will be Glorified 'T is a folly to think not to suffer here some way or other more or less seeing the way to Glory is by Sufferings O my Soul be thou united to Jesus Crucified and then thou shalt have part with Jesus Glorified To this end thou must love the Cross and desire of Jesus to die or suffer O World thy way is meer folly and nothing else In my second Prayer I was taken up with these words of Divine Jesus Ought not Christ first to suffer and so to enter into Glory I discover'd how all the Divine Perfections did wonderfully shine forth therein But above all the Wisdom of God doth ravish those hearts which contemplate the works of Grace and Mercy O Divine Wisdom how well is the Oeconomy of your Mysteries order'd to work our Salvation and bring us to Glory Every Mystery which I consider'd did raise a new Fire in my breast to inflame my affections with the Love of Jesus Sometimes they altogether did as with so many arrows pierce my heart and made me languish with Divine Love For seeing my self so Belov'd of good Jesus how could I but Love him again O Infinite Love of Jesus for whom shall I have a heart if not for thee O Love 't is for thee my heart is reserved Thy attracts are powerful enough do not redouble them so sweet and charming 't is enough my heart is for thee O Love except thou wilt have me die do not wound me any more Yet I will die willingly if thou wilt have it so on the Cross of Interiour and Exteriour Suffering that I may be conform to my Loving Saviour My third Prayer was a continuation of the Sentiments of the Love of Jesus I made use of the words of great St. Austin in his Confessions O my Jesus you have wounded my heart with the arrows of your Charity and I have devoted it to your Love Since that you have scatter'd my Darkness and made your self known unto me I have not forgot you Since I had the Happiness to know you I have imprinted you in my memory there I find you and I tast perfect Delights and receive extreme Joy and Contentment when I remember you My Soul feeling Divine Fires within her which did fill her with Pleasures I did sing extempore Canticles to my Beloved and though not methodical yet they better express'd her amorous languishings Though alone in my Chamber I spake of Jesus aloud as if I had had many Auditors to be partakers of my
THE Interiour Christian OR THE Interiour Conformity WHICH CHRISTIANS Ought to have with JESUS CHRIST Divided into Eight BOOKS which contain most Divine Meditations Extracted out of the Writings of a great Servant of God of this Age. Non magna loquimur sed vivimus St. Cyprian Not our Tongues but our lives speak the Excellency of Christianity Translated out of the 12th Edition in French Antwerp Printed in the year 1684. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Christian Reader IN this unhappy Age of Contentions about Religion wherein the heat of Controversy hath so much cooled the fervour of true Devotion among us that even some great Pretenders to Piety have only an outward form of Godliness without the inward Power like guilded Sepulchers full of dead-mens Bones it cannot but be very seasonable to teach all those who believe in Jesus how to be real and Interiour Christians Now in my Judgment this Book written in French and often Printed for its Excellency has so well presented to the eye this Heavenly Lesson that I would not let so precious a Treasure lie hid to the greatest part of our Nation in an unknown Language but have taken Pains to expose it to the publick view for a publick Good and God give a Blessing to my Endeavours If you ask me What is it to be an Interiour Christian I 'le briefly tell you An Interiour Christian is one who being well grounded in Faith walks with God in simplicity of Heart and Purity of Intention loves him above all things serves him Faithfully endeavours to please him constantly and had rather die than willfully by mortal Sin break friendship with him There 's no Devil he hates worse than Hypocricy his chiefest care being to be really in the sight of God what he appears to be in the eyes of Men Yea he is more inwardly then he seems outwardly as well considering that God who sees our hearts will reward us accordingly We may say of the Interiour Christian what our Blessed Saviour said of Nathanael Ecce verè Israelita in quo non est dolus Behold Joh. 1. a true Israelite in whom is no deceit And he may truly say of himself with good Hezekiah O Lord I have walked before thee in Truth and with a Perfect Isa 38. Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight And he may say also with St. Paul Herein do I exercise my self to have a Conscience Acts 24. void of Offence towards God and towards Men. And therefore may safely say with the same Saint else-where Vivo ego jam non ego vivit verò in me Christus 'T is not so mueh I that live as Gal. 2. Christ who lives in me Making me a new Creature by Internal Sanctification whereby I become Crucified to my Lusts and dead to the World that I may live to him who died for me Now we must know that there are infinite degrees of Internal Sanctification and the least degree is sufficient to put us in Gods favour and the state of Salvation and make us really Interiour Christians As the least Pigmy is as much essentially a man as the greatest Gyant This I mention least some timerous and well-meaning Souls who really endeavour to please God in sincerity of Heart reading in this Book and other Spiritual Authors more sublime and elevated wayes of advancing our union with God then they experience in themselves or perhaps ever shall in this Life should he discourag'd and tortur'd with scruples as if they did not serve God as they ought and were not truly Interiour Christians I must put such Souls in mind of what St. Paul tells us That there are diversities of Gifts but the 1 Cor. 12. same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will and pleases Some indeed are wonderfully elevated Saints rapt with St. Paul into the third Heaven ravish'd in an extatical manner with the Glimmerings of Glory and those joyes which may be felt but are inexpressible Such Contemplations and Unions with God are rare and admirable Others in their Re-collections and mental Prayer receive from Heaven Divine Visits and wonderful Illuminations which direct them how to purifie their Hearts more and more and to advance in Piety and Godliness These are great Proficients and walk in a region of Light above ordinary Christians But if Gods Holy Spirit has not vouchsaf'd us these special Gifts and Graces we ought not to be discourag'd in our Pious Endeavours but rest contented with our present state in the course of our Devotions if upon severe examination of our Conscience we find that with Zakariah and Elizabeth we really endeavour to walk in all the Commandments of God blameless and dayly make it our work to conquer our selves to mortifie our Passions to kill our Inordinate Desires and to make a progress in the wayes of Holiness This is sufficient to entitle us to Heaven and make us Interiour Christians though without raptures and extasies without visions and unions extraordinary without wonderful irradiations in mental Prayer which God only vouchsafes to some special Favourites Think upon this and be content with what measure of Grace Heaven bestows upon thee walking with God in true Humility of Soul and Spirit 'T is not much material good Reader in what order thou readest these excellent Instructions every Treatise containing a Compleat Subject independent on each other But my advice is to make those more familiar to thee wherein thou findest most gust and Spiritual profit to thy Soul This I am sure of whatever order thou observest they will highly conduce to the end they were written namely to withdraw our hearts from the Love of the World and to advance our Union with God by taking up our Cross to follow Jesus This is the Spirit and Soul of this Book and I heartily wish it may work these effects in every Reader In the perusal whereof Remember in thy Prayers Thine in Christ Jesus A. L. ADVERTISEMENTS I Thought good Courteous Reader to explain some terms frequently occurring in this Treatise to prevent mistakes in such who are not accustomed to such expressions The word Annihilation is not to be taken Physically but Morally Now a Moral Annihilation is to acknowledge our selves as St. Paul tells us Not able so much as to think a good thought as of our selves But that all our sufficiency is of God for whom is both the Will and the Work in Meritorious Actions Gratia Deisum id quod sum By Grace we are saved Our nothing our ruine self-destruction Poverty of Spirit are terms which for the most part signifie the same thing as Annihilation So that to ruine or destroy our selves is to bring our selves to this Annihilation Annihilation in some places signifies to be content to be thought of by others as of no worth or good for nothing an unworthy person of reputation And in this Sense 't is often applyed to our Blessed Saviour But that the Reader may the better
me forthwith to set upon the practice of this life hidden crucified despised which you have taught us by your example that I may truly say with St. Paul Absit mihi gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Your Cross dear Jesus is my Glory and I will glory in nothing else Honours Pleasures Riches I declare my mortal enemies seeing your property is to incline me perpetually to deviate from those ways to which Jesus calls me I abhor you as enemies of my Perfection Ah dear Saviour make me partaker of your life humble poor despised or let me live no longer in this life of mortality When Heaven shall be my Habitation I shall be content to be in Glory because there you are also in Tryumph but seeing that on Earth you would not be but in an abject condition I desire there to be with you also Alas I march but slowly to arrive at Perfection however in reality I would fain be wholly humbled both interiourly and exteriourly as your Divine wisdom sees best for me If it was your will I would search after external humiliations for I find no better food for a Christian Soul Perhaps they will prove hard of digestion to me yet for all that they may become by use profitable and delicious O dear Saviour seeing it is said of you by the Evangelical Prophet Saturabitur opprobriis Give me my fill of opprobies and abjections Ravish with your sweetness and consolations those who know well how to use such favours As for me let my repast be with Gall and Vinegar because by their relish I shall be rendred more like unto you O Jesus why was you circumcised O Mary why was you purified Your hearts were not sullied and yet you submit your selves to the abjections of sinners because to be despised was the object of your most tender affections There were never two hearts more full of the love of God and never more inflamed desires after humiliations Seeing then that one is the measure of the other if we will testifie that we love God we must also love to suffer for him How unjust are our complaints against those who undervalue us and how unreasonably are we disquieted when we are scorn'd by others We ought rather to be troubled because we are not despised enough and thus it would be with us if we had a heart entirely Christian 'T is true Grace can only infuse such inclinations into our Souls Nature eggs us on to the contrary And 't is my unhappiness that I who write this shall I fear fall short hereof in time of trial For I am altogether frail and good for nothing and for ought I know what I have said or done which appears so beautiful may be rotten within witness my often relapses which sufficiently tell me what a poor abject Creature I am and how much I deserve to be despised CHAP. II. The foundation of true Christian Humility WHen I consider that God is all in all that he possesses in himself incomprehensible perfections that he has created and provided for us infinite good things I cannot but acknowledge that all Honour all Glory all Praise all Adoration is due unto him O how just a debt is all this from us to the Divine Majesty When I consider O God that I am a pure Nothing that I have in my self an inexhaustible Mine of imperfections and miseries that I have committed great offences and am yet liable to more unless prevented by Grace I acknowledge that I deserve to be the scorn of men all sorts of opprobries and disgraces all maladies of Soul and Body Darkness punishments Temporal and Eternal to be afflicted mocked persecuted by all creatures as Executioners of Divine Justice And I look upon my self as the Mark whereat should be aimed these Arrows of deserved indignation God can never be sufficiently honoured loved exalted glorified and I can never be enough debased hated despised and persecuted I ought to have not only this humility of Spirit but likewise a will and affection to suffer for God always esteeming my self worthy of all scorn and contempt though never so publick if it may conduce to God's glory and the good of others For if I be honour'd as my condition requires if I do not debase my self below the meanest Vassals 't is because the Order of government forbids it and would not be expedient for those who might abuse this condescension However as for me I ought to have this will and inclination and believe 't is the place is due unto me Alas dear Saviour I cannot be acceptable in your sight unless I have an humble heart and this I cannot have but by your grace For if all natural good proceeds from your bounty much more must all supernatural grace flow from the pure Fountain of your Mercy and if you are the Giver of all grace doubtless principally of true humility which is so repugnant to nature that there 's nothing she more abhors than Humiliation Seeing dear Saviour all good proceeds from you the glory thereof ought solely to be rendred to you I ought to take no complacence but in you rejoycing in that you glorifie your self enriching my poverty with your abundance When I see persons afflicted poor distressed lame deformed I confess dear Saviour these humiliations are my due and if you should inflict any of them on me I would adore and love your Justice and for what you have bestowed upon me I adore and love your mercy I will never complain because no Creature can do me an injury I ought not to look on the designs of men whose intentions oftentimes are only to hurt to revenge and solace themselves with others miseries but to have an eye to the purposes of God which are to chastise me to better me and to humble me The Jews put Jesus Christ to death out of revenge and envy and God the Father had a design thereby to save Mankind I will not hereafter hunt after Applause and Honour for I am resolved not to follow the inclination of depraved Nature but following the example of Jesus Christ who suffered for me I will desire poverty contempts pains and uniting them to his sufferings I will earnestly beseech him according to the multitude of his mercies to have pity on me If we would once seriously endeavour to know our selves the beams of Divine Grace would make wonderful discoveries in our Souls without which 't is impossible for us to see the depth of our miseries In this Dungeon lies a prolifical Seed of Treason ready on all occasions to conceive and bring forth all sorts of iniquity O that 't is not sufficient to be without the black tincture of actual sin We have the source thereof within us and certain vitious inclinations deeply rooted even as we find some Weeds in Gardens so fixed that their roots seem to reach the very centre which will never hardly be entirely pluck'd up but daily they appear a-new and keep us in
action CHAP. III. That the Centre of the Creature is his own Nothing OUr blessed Saviour gives me so clear a sight of my own Nothing and Unworthiness that I am convinc'd this is the place of my abode which I neither can nor ought to abandon When it pleases God to vouchsafe me no Heavenly influences in my Prayers and Recollections I have no cause to complain if the Dews of Heaven mollifie my heart they only flow from his pure mercy O how well-pleas'd am I with this view of my own weakness and unworthiness In this I acquiesce as in my Centre If it be your will my God to leave me in this place I am content for this is only belonging to me Provided you be in your place O my God it is enough that is to say in your own Being your Power your Grandeur your Glory Soli Deo honor gloria O how well are you in your place and I in mine Rest there then O my God and if you vouchsafe to prevent me with any of your graces I will abide contentedly in my place because I shall be surrounded with your mercy remaining in my Nothing my Weakness and Unworthiness Seeing I know it is God's pleasure that I continue in my place 't is evident I cannot forsake it without displeasing him 'T is my duty to abide fixed in my Nothing by a free acknowledgment that I can do nothing and can merit nothing for this is truth To forsake this and pretend to what I am not is but to live in deceit and vanity Vt quid diligitis vanitatem quaeritis mendacium Truth commands to shrink into our Nothing and rest there contentedly to please God who is Truth it self God to bring man back into his place and guide his feet into the way of truth did leave his own that is the grandeur and splendor of his Majesty and came to us in weakness in poverty in annihilation to shew us the way we ought to walk in out of which all is but deceit and vanity Man then must imitate the life of Jesus in the ways of annihilation and abjections O Jesus despised persecuted crucified do you vouchsafe to put your self in my place Alas this only belongs to Me a wretched sinner and 't is for You to live in Glory What is man become since the fall of Adam A very Nothing infirmity and frailty it self What is man in his sinful condition An Abyss of pride of blindness of aversion from God and conversion to the Creatures a mass of corruption of poverty and inability to good What then ought he to do He must humble himself annihilate himself plunge himself into the Abyss of his own Nothing and live in perpetual fear of his own frailty We shall never find God unless we lose our selves in self-contempt and abjections If in our retreats we profit so far as to rest convinced that the true way to come to God is to follow Jesus Christ in poverty and abjections and abnegation we gain what can be got by recollection When I see God affords me no great occasions to suffer contempt or pains or poverty I ought to be humbled in my own eyes because this is a sign I am but little in the sight of God who sees here nothing of grandeur which has not a great conformity with Christ crucified God has not design'd me for any great example of Virtue because he gives me so small a part in the profound abjections of his only Son which is all the portion he gave him here upon Earth having reserved for him in Heaven the full possession of his infinite Grandeurs and Perfections CHAP. IV. That the greatest Saints have attain'd to Perfection by a singular love of self-contempt and abjection COntempts and abjections are the dearest delights of the Friends of God Although exteriourly they may possess Riches yet their heart is well advanced in the esteem and love of Poverty If they live in Honours 't is but in appearance their hearts having an affection to be despised Nature indeed does not relish this kind of life because it fights continually against our sensual inclinations Human reason finds little or no gust herein seeking God only by her own light but Grace elevates a Soul above sense and reason pushing us on to supernatural actions Jesus Christ himself having resolv'd to embrace the folly of the Cross did not do it but by a supernatural impulse as is manifest by his combat with the inferiour part of his Soul in the Garden Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Those who seem to us most wonderful Saints are such who have been super-eminent in self-contempt and abnegation Who does not admire the generous Spirit of holy Paula that Roman Lady who being enamour'd on the poverty and humiliations of Jesus forsook Rome and all her Relations to embrace a poor and abject life She that could have done very much for others with her Riches in that capital City did prefer the Stable at Bethlehem before sumptuous Palaces Elegi abjectus esse in domo Dei Alexius might have done God good service in a marriage life yet he was so ravish'd with the beauty of a life hidden and despicaple that he forsook Father Mother Wife Friends Possessions Honours which may be kept with a good conscience but having a Divine call to the eminency of an abject life by a wonderful miracle of grace he amidst his dear Relations would not suffer natural though lawful affection to take a lodging in his heart he afflicts himself with hunger in a House which belong'd to him he becomes the scorn and sport of those Servants to whom he was Master his heart continued constant and faithful to desire nothing but abjections and no batteries of human reason could conquer or weaken his resolutions O how this way is elevated above the low designs of our nature which is too much enamour'd on flattering vanities Many fly from abjections and sufferings thinking to glorifie God in a more noble manner by actions more glorious and profitable to others but this is rather to follow our own inclination than the example of Jesus Christ For we ought to serve him after his model and not according to our fancy and we see his life was a life of sufferings and humiliations 'T is wonderful to consider the elevated Soul of St. Armogastus a Count and great Seigneur condemned by the King a Persecuter of Religion to keep Beasts all his life and die by miseries and poverty in this employment 'T is wonderful to consider what a Kingdom and Sovereignty abjection had erected in the heart of this great Saint manifesting it self daily by supernatural actions For he loved nothing more dearly than to see himself buried in deep Oblivion and to be despised by all Creatures and the miseries he suffered in this low condition were the delights of his Soul Whilst other Nobles his Countrey-men and Contemporaries liv'd glorious with their Tryumphs in
that you withdraw from me your Divine Illuminations in Prayer and Recollection so as to be in a manner void of understanding sicut equus malus quibus non est intellectus Provided dear Jesus that I be but content with these humiliations it is sufficient I shall be happy Let others ask of you what they please as for me my desire is to be entirely annihilated and that my portion may be to honour your Divine humiliations We are not couragious enough to fight as we ought to destroy in us our sensual inclinations for we are too feeble against our selves and too indulgent to our defects in this spiritual combat But O my God put too your helping hand and work in us your will that we may be humbled and contentedly submit to your operation CHAP. VIII That the Soul is Rich when she possesses the love of self-contempt GOD has infus'd this thought into my Soul that the love of self-contempt and the desire of humiliation may be that hidden Treasure mention'd in the Gospel Thesauro abscondita in agro Matt. 13. 'T is really a great Treasure to love abjection yea a Treasure that contains abundance of inestimable Riches but they appear not outwardly being hid on purpose to preserve with more security And he only has this Treasure who keeps well hidden what he possesses 'T is a Treasure hidden and unknown to the world For who would imagine that there should be any thing so rich and precious in Sufferings and Humiliations Should our senses or carnal prudence or human reason make enquiry would they search here to enrich themselves and satisfie their desires We could never have thought that a hidden Treasure was here enshrin'd if Jesus Christ who put it there himself had not reveal'd this great secret to our Souls by his peculiar favour and merciful illuminations If we will have this Treasure we must buy it and give for it whatever we possess that is to say we must lay down our whole Patrimony the fatal Inheritance left us by our first Parents namely affection for Honours for Pleasures for Riches too much seeking our selves and our own interests the love of our own excellence and all the other wretched movables which we possess by being conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity If we will not be content to part with all yea the utmost farthing we cannot be enriched with this Treasure O how rich and happy is he who does possess it For it is a Treasure which as the world cannog give so it cannot take it from us and as long as we are in quiet possession thereof we find God in our Souls and such a profound peace as passeth all human understanding When one has purchas'd a good Estate in Land we are ready to say He is in a good condition what need he fear now having a sure foundation of subsistence If a War happen the Enemies can't carry that away with them they may indeed deprive him of his Money and Goods but for his Land that is fix'd and immovable 'T is the same case with this precious Treasure when once the Soul hath it in possession and will not part with it she need not fear she has sure hold of subsistence for her spiritual life Neither the World nor the Devil nor all the Enemies of our Salvation let them make never such furious on-sets can rob her of it it surpasses their power and belongs not to them 'T is true they may deprive her of some moveables as sensible consolations the love of austerities the desire to undertake brave actions for the Glory of God as to go to Canada or England for the conversion of Souls to the Catholick Faith in a word all the fair Idaea's of Spirituality The Devil the World Nature has a mind to these movables and a Soul that possesses only these has nothing but what may be taken from her but whosoever possesses this Treasure of the love of abjection and self-denial is rich for ever And when God is pleased to discover to a Soul the value thereof Prae gaudio illius vadit vendit universa quae habet emit agrum illum she joyfully parts with all she has to get it in possession We have a double right to pretend to the possession of this Divine Treasure The first is our natural inability to good the second is our criminal sinfulness These two lay upon us a continual obligation to endeavour after self-denial and annihilation and this endeavour is very pleasing to God who delights to see a Creature acknowledge what is due to it self and render to him his deserved Glory The Son of God began as a Gyant to run in this way of self-contempt by his Incarnation for 't is a wonderful humiliation for God to become Man and he finished this course by his Death on the Cross which was as low as humility could descend For God-Man to die an infamous death between two Thieves as a Malefactor and his whole life besides was but as one continued humiliation and yet alas we pass away our days in vanity calling our selves Christians tho' all for exaltation of our selves destitute of self-denial and true humility O wonderful blindness O Jesus poor and abject when will you draw me after you by the powerful attracts of your mercy Your ways are pure and pleasant and odoriferous to those whose Souls are enlightened with the Rays of Grace You O Jesus establish your Empire in humble hearts and reign there in peace as the Devil sets up his Kingdom in proud Souls and there domineers with intolerable Tyranny CHAP. V. What profit we draw from humiliations PAins and Miseries humble the body Poverty Riches Contempt Reputation and Honour Death Life aridities in Prayer spiritual Consolations all these conduce to purifie Virtue and sacrifice man wholly to God Some glorifie him by action some by suffering others by privations and humiliations and these last are the greatest Saints though here despis'd and known to God alone We ought to resign our selves to the conduct of God's spirit but if it was left to our own choice the way of abjections is best and safest Job did more glorifie God on the Dunghil than in his Palace Happy is he who in glorifying God follows the call of his holy inspirations in a way which the world neither does nor can well understand 'T is a great misery not to be willing to acknowledge that human wisdom is but folly before God which continually eggs us on to get out of the happy state of abjection upon the fairest pretences imaginable as the salvation of souls to help our Neighbours and the like Notwithstanding 't is safest to yield our selves up to the sole conduct of God's holy Spirit the order of whose providence we cannot shun God glorifies himself in Heaven by the exaltation of his Creatures on Earth by their Humiliation Let no person complain then that he cannot be instrumental to the glory of God for
let him but heap up his own miseries and lay himself thereon as Isaac was on the Altar and then sacrifice himself by a voluntary annihilation with the fire of Divine Love and God will be glorified thereby When a Soul is left to her self in Prayer so that aridities and desolations do darken her wonted light and deprive her of the usual feelings she had of God and Goodness she may make her address in these or such-like words My God! I am nothing and I am contented with all my heart with this dealing with me it is your pleasure thus to mortifie me and I have no other will but yours You have sometimes vouchsafed unto me illuminations and consolations which were dear unto me but now you are pleas'd to deprive me of them blessed be your name I am contented with your pleasure If poverty or ill success or sickness afflict us let us apply our selves to God with these or such-like words My God! I can do nothing of my self but I am well pleased with what you do unto me sacrifice me wholly to the grandeur of your Majesty whatever reluctance I find in Nature upon the Altar of my miseries and imperfections Little Isaac ready to be sacrificed by his Father's hand might have said these or such-like words I had hopes that in after-times I might have been signally instrumental for the glory of God and that according to his promise out of my Loins by continued Generations should come the Messias but I sacrifice all this before-hand and reflect on nothing but the Burnt-offering God is pleased to make of me by my Father's hand St. Lewis had hopes to establish the glory of Jesus Christ in Palestine but seeing his Army defeated he might comfort himself in saying O my God! seeing 't is not your pleasure to have it so but have humbled me and my Army by the Pestilence and Sword of your Enemies your will be done I submit unto it I behold the generous Enterprises of your Servants and their great Attempts and bless you for them but my comfort is in the consideration of my objections which have brought me to a state wherein I see God alone and possess Him in the denudation of all Creatures after the example of Jesus Christ Christus non sibi placuit whose work was only to do your will Let us not then so much disquiet our selves with our imperfections They are indeed but an ill brood and deserve not to be loved but we must bear them with patience seeing they serve to debase our selves in our own eyes and to conform us in some sort to the infinite humiliations of Jesus Christ crucified for us Man was created in the state of innocency now he is born in a sinful condition He has then had two opposite ways to conduct him to Glory The first was a state of Exaltation happy and enjoying all Creatures freely but the second is a state of Abjection in misery and denudation of all Creatures He that will walk a third way attempts above the condition of that from whence he is fallen and that provided for us after this life CHAP. X. The way how to arrive to perfect humiliation I Conceive three deprivations necessary to effect this First the deprivation of all exteriour things as Riches Honours Pleasures This is the first advance a Soul must make to draw near to God for as long as there remains the least inordinate affection to these things she can never make any great progress in finding God being fetter'd as it were by other affections and so cannot have perfect possession of God being excluded by the Creatures which more or less take up the heart When necessity or charity require it we may have the real possession of these things and live only in disposition of spirit and affective poverty However it will be matter of joy to be freed from them because for the most part they rather hinder than advance us towards union with God And if we have not a great care Nature will cheat us with a pretext of Charity and helping others which is but a good illusion for sometimes they who have the less Riches have the more charitable hearts 'T is good counsel to forsake Riches and Honours when it may be done conveniently but when by secret tracts of Divine Providence they forsake us 't is our duty to possess our Souls in patience and be contented which is in a manner better than if we our selves had left them especially when we believe these losses happen'd by our own fault and imbecility for this brings us to a greater abjection and self-contempt which is the centre whither we ought to tend If there was nothing else good in poverty but this that it mortifies our liberty and independance whereof naturally we are so amorous 't is a great happiness to be enrich'd therewith When we are out of Employment and Honour in the world we are look'd upon as unprofitable and easily forgotten and forsaken by our best Friends 't is so much the better for our humiliation This is the second deprivation that we must suffer O the great Grace that is necessary to carry on a Soul to God when we are despised by our Friends whereby they become rather the subject of affliction than affection to us Without doubt we have a strong inclination to them to whom we are so glew'd that without some great and special grace we can never mortifie our selves therein without some attach to conserve such friendship They are happy occasions whereby we are depriv'd of our Friends without sin in losing them we lose a great upholder of self-love in us St John Baptist when very young left his Father's house to live in a Desart with God alone Great Saint they are Saints whom you forsake I know that very well says he but they are my Relations that have an affection for me O what a violence is this to nature For when an attach to Friends especially if virtuous seems more spiritual and reasonable than any other affection to mortifie our selves in this is an extraordinary Sacrifice to God and only granted to such Souls whom he carries on to great perfection But we must pass further yet For there 's a third deprivation to lose our selves which is to be esteem'd as Fools for Christ's sake according to that of St. Paul Nos stulti propter Christum To love to obey and be in subjection to have no reason and yet to renounce our own reason and to enthrone Faith in our Souls for direction O how the pure light of Faith discovers to us that we ought to be well pleased to have no great natural parts but to be as it were good for nothing For the view thereof if it come to the heart does powerfully annihilate the natural inclination we have to be esteemed To consent willingly to be abject and despised is a great means to empty us of this self-love and according to the measure of this evacuation
interests to advance God's glory A Soul ought to be well-pleas'd that her body shall be crumbled to dust and as it were reduced to nothing to exalt the Glory of God and glorifie his Justice A holy person much wondred how the Saints who are powerful with God kept their bodies so long entire not obtaining that they might be humbled by putrefaction because they knowing the inestimable value of humiliation which most glorifies God ought as it seems to have procur'd it to their bodies But if God think best to glorifie himself by preserving them from corruption his Divine Will is and must be the Rule of their desires Sometimes I have desired death as amiable because it would give me free access to enjoy God but at present I have the spirit of annihilation This annihilation is a state above that of death and by it we offer a perfect Sacrifice A Soul which seeks the Glory of God desires death to enter into this perfect annihilation What is most horrible in Death paleness deformity noisomness putrefaction pleases her best for these are companions of a perfect annihilation to humble her as much as possible O death how lovely art thou to such a Soul 'T is a strange thing that the fire of Divine Love burns no brighter in our hearts upon the frequenting of the Sacraments Oftentimes we exercise our selves twice a day in mental Prayer sometimes by holy Conferences daily Lectures and Considerations Now I think the cause of this is that we are sad dejected with abjections which so chills the heart that the fire of Divine Love is stifled thereby but when once humiliation is a joy unto us the heart presently becomes enflamed My Soul having a great degust of this life feels a wonderful desire of death she never was more sensible than now of her Captivity and Prison in this mortal body She sighs after the liberty to see God and enjoy him without any disturbance whatsoever for all created things do divert this happy exercise in which consists her felicity Being a Prisoner in this Body she is yet in darkness and distractions by eating sleeping several affairs and accidents O how is she crucified in being deprived of the full Embraces of her Beloved Quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus This made St. Paul earnestly desire to be freed from the Prison of this mortal body I admire the happiness of those who die in our Lord and do wonder at the blindness of of such who passionately desire this present life and are taken up so much with the care of the Body Goods Employments which are so many impediments of our converse with God and Christian Perfection O how importunate is sensuality with us and yet how contemptible is every thing that is not God! We ought not to be discomforted at the loss of temporal things because thereby some chains of our Captivity are broken Much less ought we to be troubl'd to see our Body the Prison of our Soul to weaken by degrees and threaten death Take courage we shall soon see our desires accomplish'd and shortly we shall enjoy God in full possession This state of desires and languishings after God is a state whereby we honour him as our final happiness and being so he deserves by reason of his excellence that we should continually sigh after him Such as have no love for their final end make no matter of it and give too much evidence that they find their repose in something else which is a most dreadful disorder But considering our happiness by death methinks I see nothing more lovely than crosses and abjections which can only refresh a Soul panting after the full possession of God and sometimes so content with it that she forgets the pain of her banishment seeing her self in a state wherein she may glorifie God in so transcendent in a manner which is what she chiefly desires aspiring to enjoyment without having regard to her proper satisfaction CHAP. XVIII Considerations upon the natural inclinations we have to evil A Stone held in the Air if let go falls naturally to the ground by its own weight and 't is no more matter of wonder when we fall into imperfections If God leave us to our selves we are presently in our own nothing weakness and infirmity And if the Grace of God was not very great unto us we should fall more often They may be thought valiant who bear up stoutly against the blast of strong temptations Alas take us at the best we are as frail as Glasses on a Cupboard If some are sooner broken 't is because they are more used and found in the hand of an ill manager Those that stand still on the Cupboard if they had reason would not brag of their strength but only acknowledg that they have not been tryed by occasions When the Grace of God keeps us from falling we ought not to take complacence therein as if we were better than others by reason of such Divine Favours but our content ought to be in the good pleasure of God who is so munificent to his Creatures yea the most unworthy To be thus pleas'd only with God's will is also very necessary when it is God's pleasure to leave a Soul to combat with some singular imperfection a long time without victory For it being the will of God to leave a Soul thus to fight it out she ought to be as well content as if she was more elevated by Grace seeing in this state she meets with the Divine pleasure which is the object of her complacency Insomuch that the Soul has no more inclination for one Grace than another but indifferent to all being content to have her faults made known to glorifie God by the love of abjection Secret faults do us the greatest hurt when manifested if we make good use of it they may bring no small advantage to us I have at present a wonderful distast of this Life which is hardly a Life but a continual Death because it deprives us of knowledg and and love in perfection O how this mortal life is a great punishment and full of Crosses Here we sin here we forget God and run a hazard to lose him eternally Love here finds little nourishment being fed with slender knowledg sometimes much clouded and continual propensions to evil Dear Saviour when will you deliver me from the body of this death This was the desire of St. Paul which I take the courage to make being so much out of love with this miserable life The End of the first BOOK BOOK II. Of the Supernatural Life which is the Life of all true Christians CHAP. I. The Idaea or description of the Supernatural Life WE can never attain Perfection by the sole conduct of human reason which is the light of Philosophers Faith is the light of Christians which teacheth us to renounce the ratiocinations of carnal prudence to follow in simplicity a Jesus Crucified To observe the Commandments of God as
the Treasures of the Earth We ought daily according to our abilities to examine our selves to the end to purifie our hearts from all affections that tend not to this supernatural Life It resides in the superiour part of the Soul and therefore we must not wonder if the inferiour part has degusts and aversions from it We must expect that Nature Sense Friends the World and ordinary Christians will keep a noise and trouble our ears with many Arguments against it But to all this it is enough to answer in few words with St. Blandina Christiana sum Christiana sum I am a Christian Let us say to such who endeavour to divert us I have undertaken to lead this supernatural Life I will never abandon it maugre all the contradictions of worldly Maxims and the repugnances of sensual Nature I know to become a perfect Christian I must be turn'd up-side down destroy'd annihilated according to my natural inclinations hate in a manner all that the world naturally loves Riches Honours Pleasures yea though innocent and love what the world naturally hates Poverty Contempt and Sufferings This is a great attempt but we have powerful helps for we can do all things through Christ strengthening us CHAP. III. That we ought with St. Paul to convert our selves wholly to God I Am now resolv'd in good earnest to convert my self wholly to God to be taken solely with his Divine Beauty and Infinite Goodness forsaking all Creatures which heretofore have too much taken up my time and affections O my God! deal with me as you did with your Apostle strike me down to the ground humble me make me blind to all things but to You who are in the interiour of my heart beaming forth Lights which discover sufficiently your Divine presence This makes me ask you O my God what you will have me to do And methinks you answer That this manifestation of your presence in me should make such an extraordinary impression on me as to change my life and conform my self wholly to your Divine will and pleasure Behold it seems to me this is what you would have me to do First Not to persecute the sentiments and inclinations I have to a Christian Life by taking part with the struglings of old Adam in me St. Paul persecuted Jesus Christ in persecuting the Primitive Christians and I also persecute the same Jesus when I stifle the motions of Grace in me and will not suffer my Soul to live his life which he did lead here for me to follow Pardon me good Jesus I will no longer persecute you by stifling your holy Inspirations I desire to be a Christian and your Disciple I will profess Christianity in the face of the Sun and only be asham'd to live after the Law of old Adam To be a Christian this is my Glory this is my Life this is my Delight Poverty Contempts Pains Humiliations I will no more be affraid of you but make much of you seeing Jesus hath loved you even to death To live this Life we must become blind and have no other light than what the rays of Faith afford us For Nature cannot teach us the Grandeur Excellence and Eminency of Christianity St Paul after his Conversion suffered a thousand hardships He was whipt banish'd despis'd mock'd imprison'd tormented us'd as if he was the filth and off-scouring of the world which is as much as to say St. Paul after his Conversion was a Christian to death nothing could deter him from living the life of Jesus Christ Let us then O my Soul be true Christians that is let us be content to live in Sufferings Persecutions Mortifications and the Ignominies of the Cross of Jesus Christ Let us embrace the wisdom of the Word Incarnate and become as Fools in the eyes of the world who persecute true Christians that is those who die to themselves and all things else to live to Jesus Poor Christian Life little art thou known how ill art thou treated in the world Thou dwell'st in the lips of many but few afford thee a place in their heart I am fully persuaded that a Soul truly converted loves God entirely that this entire love of God is a perfect union with his goodness that such a union implies a universal detachment from the Creature that such a detachment cannot be got without the profession of Virtues and among the rest Poverty and Self-denial by which we are interiourly disengaged from earthly things and exteriourly when God pleases contentedly suffer miseries sickness loss of Goods and whatever the world naturally abhors as evil but by the work of Grace are for our greater good because they advance our union with God When we abound with Riches and Honours we live in a continual fear of having too great an affection for them but in sufferings a Soul possesses a stronger assurance of Divine Love Nothing but Grace can teach us these verities and a greater Grace can only make us relish and practice them the weight of our natural inclinations still hindring us from rising to so great Perfection When we give up our selves to God with resolutions daily to advance in Virtue we can more easily conceive what this perfection is than practice it However let us take courage nothing is impossible to God and we shall find doubtless this Jewel by a perfect abnegation that is possessing nothing not the very means of serving God but with a spirit of resignation To follow Jesus naked on the Cross we must divest our selves of all Creatures that we may be solely united to him Yea dear Jesus my desire is only to be for you my resolution is to serve you and in what manner you please be it by action or by suffering or contemplation I will be attached to nothing but You my desire is to be dis-engag'd from all Creatures to find You and possess You as my only happiness CHAP. XV. Of the Alliance we must make with the holy Folly of the Cross AFter many illustrations of Grace which have cleared up to me the beauty of the sacred Folly of the Cross after many proposals and reviews I have at last espous'd it saying with fervour the same words which Christ us'd to his Spouse in the Canticles Sponsabo te in aeternum My Friend my Spouse my Sister I have espoused thee for ever Methinks I say these words for ever but yet faintly my infinite frailties making me fearful I may become an inconstant Lover Notwithstanding I say for ever with a real heart in hope that by virtue of that immense Love whereby the Divinity hath for ever espoused our human Nature and this same Humanity hath espoused the Cross sufferings and abjections our blessed Saviour will vouchsafe me some part of the Grace of this Divine Alliance to enable me to walk his way and live his life in annihilation humiliations and self-denial Let us then O my Soul live this life of the Son of God any other life is but a real death Jesus
according to Nature and must employ all means and Motives to this effect I will set down some of them 'T is a good Motive or means to renounce all Creatures and our selves by a spirit of denudation saying with great fervour and affection Away Creatures get hence from me and leave a place in my heart for God alone 2. 'T is a good Motive to do this by a spirit of Poverty for it is not possible to follow Jesus poor and abject unless in due circumstances we be willing to leave all things for Jesus sake and become poor to follow him Let us therefore be content to quit all things joyfully and be glad to have nothing to possess God himself alone 3. ' Tisae good Motive to die to all things by a spirit of abjection What greater happiness is there O my Soul than to live in humiliation seeing this was the life of God upon Earth To be despised with Jesus is a state of beatitude Worldly Prosperity is a hindrance to our happiness 4. 'T is a good Motive to abandon all things by a spirit of oblation sacrificing and annihilating our selves sincerely to pay homage to the Infinite Majesty of God with such a confidence in him so as to rely never more on any Creature Quid enim mihi est in Caelo aut à te quid volui super Terram Deus cordis mei O my God! shall any Creature take part of my heart with you when all is yours If it was possible to love you too much I might give place to something else but seeing I am infinitely below my duty in that particular what Creature can pretend to have the least part with you CHAP. IX Of the liberty we enjoy by the exercise of the Supernatural Life 'T Is wonderful to see the great liberty which a Soul enjoys by the exercises of a supernatural life When the illuminations of this state irradiate a Soul throughly she enters into a new region of light full of Peace and Love marvelous large and spatious in which she lives in high union with God A union which is not so liable to vicissitudes and disturbances as formerly because accidental occurrences as sickness disgraces c. do not hurt such a Soul by reason they make no strong impression in her and by consequence being become less sensible she is not easily diverted from the supernatural Object of her love Yea such a Soul improves hindrances and divertisements to her greater recollection and increase of Divine Love because in this state she is dis-engag'd from the Creature and so freed from fear of miseries which she can chearfully embrace as the occasions of her happiness whereby she enters into a perfect liberty and great purity of Virtue I could never well understand what that is which is called Purity of Virtue but now I see 't is the state of a supernatural life wherein the Soul lives no more in her self and of her self and for her self but in God and of God and for God being wholly separated from the Creatures and united to God Alas how is this poor Soul afflicted to do things so much below her self in this high condition For oftentimes she must act according to her natural inclinations and the dictates of pure reason which affords her matter of sighs and languishings after her Beloved This is that which kindles in her breast an ardent desire to be dissolved and leave this earthly Tabernacle wherein by the common misery of mankind she lives a life displeasing to her self for being not wholly for God as she desires it seems to her a kind of death And seeing she cannot continually live this supernatural life without vicissitudes it is as it were a death unto her A Death unknown to sensual men but such that are spiritual are very sensible thereof O Jesus deliver me from this life of mortality seeing here I cannot live your life of purity in comparison of which all other lives are but death and corruption To see so clearly the excellencies of a life so lovely and not to be able to live but little of it considering my frailty makes me resent my misery and acknowledge dear Jesus how necessary your Grace is for me O how great is the dependence which my Soul hath on your mercy 't is so mighty and essential dependence that words cannot sufficiently express it However this comforts me herein that it gives you all the Glory of the Interiour beauty in the Soul which is a work more magnifies your Power Bounty and Wisdom than the whole outward work of the Creation Your greatest wonders dear Saviour are secret and hidden A Soul that lives this supernatural life above her inclinations does more set forth the great power of God than to elevate the Heavens above the Earth for this is as miraculous as to elevate the Earth above the Heavens This makes me O my God desire to live this blessed life that I may thereby bring greater Glory to your Name Assist me powerfully with your Grace for if I be once left to my self I shall relapse into my natural weakness which is but a meer Nothing and Infirmity Some trouble themselves too much in philosophising on this spiritual life which is needless it being enough to say The Spirit of Jesus must be the Spirit of my Interiour 't is He by whom I must live this life and act accordingly and so free our selves from other considerations which may hinder our liberty to follow this light and fall faithfully to practice on the occasions of Crosses Contempts and Disgraces which happen to us in this life I ought daily to endeavour after purity although I cannot attain the highest practice because the course of my life wherein God has placed me will not permit it nor does exact of me to attempt of my self the grand effects of purity lest I should be discourag'd by failing in the enterprize This is only the perfection of the greatest Saints and herein we must give our selves up to the conduct of the Spirit of Jesus Christ who being infinitely wise we need not fear having him for our Leader But as we ought not to be too rigorous so we must not be too faint-hearted in the ways of perfection but apply our selves with love and resolution to all occasions by suffering peaceably and with contentation whatever injuries we may receive from others in seeking too much their own interest All sufferings are to be entertain'd with love but especially what we suffer by Injustice For is not this that which the Son of God hath done principally upon Earth by suffering innocently Do not therefore say I would suffer this injury if he that does it had the least reason for it for this proceeds from self-love and passion It may well be that he has no reason to do you this injury but Divine Reason and the spirit of Christianity teach you to bear it patiently 'T is good to suffer thus and in this to imitate Jesus is
of God and his Divine perfections Let such a Soul be in light or darkness in peace or war elevated or dejected she is still the same because God's will is hers and she desires nothing but what pleases him Her chief care is to give her self up wholly to Gods will in so great variety of Interiour states And why should a Soul be concern'd at this variety For if I purely desire to please God 't will be all one to me whether I do it by suffering or enjoying CHAP. X. That we ought to give our selves up with confidence to Divine Providence DEar Lord draw the passions and affections of my heart wholly after you O that I could go out of my self to abide only in you Oh that I had no love but for you no fear no desire no joy but in you and that my affections were only for you O that your Grace would mortifie in me the fears hopes sadness and desires of nature that you might be the sole Object of my love This is the purity we must aim at or else we possess our Soul in vain Our blessed Saviour saith in the Gospel That one Sparrow shall not be forgotten of God Why then have we such fears to want who are chiefly call'd upon to rely on Providence If God permits us to be in want 't is to bring us to perfection by sufferings God is pleas'd to give us daily his precious Body and will he deny us Bread I cannot believe it All thoughts to to the contrary are from the Enemy or nature sollicitous for the things of this Life My confidence ought to be in God alone Though it happen that we fall into troubles temptations or sickness which seem to deprive us of the good temper of Soul to attend to our devotions we ought to abandon our selves to the good pleasure of God and say God only and his holy Will If the Idaea of some state of perfection presents it self to the understanding if we make some resolutions upon the feelings of an actual favour we ought the more entirely abandon our selves to God and say I desire God only and his holy Will This abandon makes a Soul peaceable and content and dead to the World to which though she may feel some motions of affection yet they are troublesom and gain no consent In this state she is wholly absorpt in God finding her repose in him alone and out of him is no contentment It seems to her that whatever accidents may happen they shall not disturb her quiet she is grounded in God her Soveraign peace And though she may feel some emotions in the inferiour part they do not reach the Superiour Faculties We must be perfect as God will have us not as we will have it the ways of God are far different from the judgments of men The World believ'd that King Lewis must be Sainted by conquering the Holy Land God made him him a Saint indeed but not by his Victories but his Captivity not by his Triumphs but his Sufferings We intend to Sanctity our selves by actions and God will do it by afflictions We must give our selves up to his conduct absolutely abandon our selves to his Will and only love his designs When shall I be so mortified to my own endeavours as to abandon my self wholly to Divine Providence I must follow purely the designs of God love only his good pleasure put my confidence in him and he will have a care of me in such a way as shall be best to advance his Glory Doubtless 't is an effect of Grace in us not to rely on our own Providence but to depend chiefly on Gods assistance We must therefore elevate our selves above nature which relies on Creatures and fears wants and abhors sufferings that we may put our sole confidence in God Whoever trusted in him and was confounded There be as well Martyrs of Providence as Martyrs for Faith They are more hidden and sometimes suffer little less than the other being content with all occurrences of Providence which deprive them of their Goods or Honours or call their Lives in question for Conscience sake And sometimes to enjoy God in a more perfect way they despise and forsake the accommodations of this life that they may Sacrifice themselves to God with the flames of Divine Love in Pious Exercises Or if Providence has so order'd that they should be born subject to Deseases and Miseries they bear them with perfect resignation There be also Spiritual Martyrs whom Providence has order'd to suffer much by Interiour pains O how advantagious is it for such Souls to have an eye to Gods designs upon them and be faithful therein As for me the love of Gods will shall hereafter be the rule of my actions and undertakings I will abandon my self and all Creatures and put my confidence in God alone If our imperfections disturb our inward Peace and union with God we must repair it without too much disquieting our selves for our pass'd faults Union with God is never without love and love will blot out our Offences and bring the Soul to repose in her wonted center CHAP. XI To be indifferent to all things but Gods good Pleasure ONe excellent effect of the Presence of God in the Soul is to make us as it were insensible of all things but Gods will A Soul that is enrich'd with this indifferency can desire nothing else yea not Virtues themselves except in order to Gods pleasure We must strictly examine our selves concerning this general disengagement from Creatures and not easily believe we have it except on several occasions we find so by experience Our blessed Saviour vouchsafes me extraordinary attracts to be wholly his He puts me into a state of wonderful Interiour peace and quiet so that it cost me little to do Virtuously I aspire after dear Solitude and holy Poverty My Health is but feeble and in probability my Life here cannot be long and therefore I endeavour to live so disengag'd as if in effect I was already dead My dear Jesus infuses into my Soul a Spirit of denudation and I do cherish it that I may live no more in my self but my continuance in this Pilgrimage may be beneath me and I without any gust or affection to it So that at present I suffer not a little to see my self so far from God amidst the distractions and necessities of the body and other affairs incumbent on me For when God manifests himself to a Soul experimentally tasting his infinite goodness to live here below is a pain unto her However she continues in great Peace because in her Interiour she is purely resign'd to Gods good pleasure I am so habituated to have an eye to God alone and not to please my self but in him and to have no joy but for him that I cannot rejoyce to see my self perfect nor be sad at my Imperfections God is my all his will his pleasure and nothing else All reflections on my self seem to fully
vast spaces of nothing 't is by It the Heaven and Stars observe their motions without deficiency the Elements and Plants and Animals are constant in their Productions Without the influence of this Omnipotency no Creature could subsist one moment or have any operation In a word so great is this Power that in an instant it could by one silent word produce a thousand new Worlds out of nothing O Divine Omnipotency how little art thou considered and yet how able to ravish all considering hearts O my Soul let us consider that we are always in the hands of an Omnipotent God Shall we then be discouraged with the difficulties we meet withall in this Life of Miseries Shall we be afraid of our own frailties and weaknesses and the Power of our Adversaries Is not Omnipotency able to uphold us Who can pluck us out of our Heavenly Fathers hands If God be for us who can be against us This is our hope this our comfort O my God I am very sensible what a weak Creature I am and how Potent are my enemies but this does not terrify me because You my strength and supporter are Omnipotent in whom only I put my trust Omnia possum in eo qui me comfortat I can do all things as St. Paul assures us through Christ strengthning me The third Day Of the Wisdom of God O My Soul let 's this day contemplate the Wisdom of God which is able to ravish us if we consider a right the beautiful order of the Vniverse O what admirable Oeconomy is there in the order of Nature of Grace of Glory O how all the dispositions of the Divine Wisdom do appear therein most wonderful We cannot seriously reflect or meditate on any of Gods works but we shall find his Wisdom to be incomprehensible and this does ravish a devout Soul and makes her often cry out O my God how well is this done how wisely is that ordained If my Soul fixes her thoughts in Heaven to contemplate there the admirable order of that Holy City in the various ranks of Angels the several Glories of the Holy Patriarchs Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins who are themselves transported in admiration of the Divine Wisdom herein can we but cry out O infinite Wisdom how profound art thou in thy dispositions If from Heaven we descend to Earth how is the Soul ravish'd to observe the unspeakable bounty of Divine Wisdom in the order of all things bringing about the great work of mans Salvation so infallibly and sweetly To see God himself in a manner annihilated to purchase for sinful Creatures Infinite Grandeurs by his Humiliations to behold the triumphs of the Cross of Jesus Crucified over the World sin and hell and the powers of darkness to see and consider these things must needs make us cry out in admiration of the Divine Wisdom incarnate O sapientia quae de Caelo ad terram descendisti O Wisdom which descended from Heaven to earth what wonders have you wrought for mans redemption What Praises what Thanksgivings O my Soul wilt thou render what returns wilt thou make to God for all his benefits and ordinations concerning thee We must conform our selves to the Divine Will and say O my God righteous are you in all your ways 't is well done because so order'd by your Infinite Wisdom Do we live or die are we afflicted or comforted Sit nomen Domini benedictum Seeing God will have it so his Name be blessed The consideration hereof O my Soul will teach us patience and resignation in all the events and changes of Mortality The fourth Day The Patience of God O My God how long is your Patience how profound and unsearchable Who but a God of Infinite Patience could suffer daily such provocations and contradictions from mortals and yet continue to do them a thousand favours to perswade them to amendment O patience of God how art thou unspeakable how art thou unconquerable O my God you know those who will hate and Blaspheme you eternally and yet you bear with them vouchasafing them your Sun and Light and daily Mercies still calling upon them with your holy inspirations to return unto you for their everlasting good Sustinuit in multa patientia vasa irae Your patience is wonderful to sinners we must blame our selves when we perish eternally On what side soever I cast my eyes from one Pole to th' other I see God every where offended contemned contradicted provoked blasphemed and in all the infinite triumphs of his patience sweetly working the Salvation of Sinners O what a long series of patience do I observe in the course of my Life To bear with me so many years wallowing in the mire of my sins when I deserved by Justice to have been cast into Hell To pass over all the resistances I have made to his holy inspirations To have waited and conducted me by his mercy to repentance O ye infinite Patience of God towards me 'T is to you I owe my Salvation or else I had been long since a lost creature for ever Are we not ashamed to see our passions and impatience with others when God notwithstanding our manifold provocations is so long-suffering towards us A single word and sometimes our sole imagination does put us in choler and we contend in heat without containing our selves 'till our anger be over O my God of Infinite patience if you should thus deal with us what would become of us poor creatures The fifth Day Of the Love of God COme my Soul let us walk this day in the pleasant and vast extensions of Gods love the holy love of our merciful God a love incomprehensible which is from eternity to eternity as large as his Essence and the self-same thing with it where ever I am I find my self surrounded with the effects of this infinite Love O my God I sometimes contemplate you as good to us and consider you as in your Creatures which you vouchsafe me for my use and delight But now I have an eye to you as you are in your self and I find my self so in you that I cannot go out of you for you environ me on every side you are in me and out of me and I cannot go from you but I must go to you How art thou beloved O my Soul how art thou beloved of God with an affection surpassing the love of a Mother to her Children The most she can do is to carry them in her bosome with a tender affection which is sometimes wanting But God does lodge thee in the midst of his heart and will never forsake thee O what benefits and mercies dost thou receive from this Infinite goodness Alas when shall I live in God alone and not in my self that he may only reign in my heart O my God I confess and acknowledge that you have the sole right to possess my heart entirely and 't is most mine when 't is wholly yours but be pleas'd dear God to defend your right
which the World would take from you against my will O how miserable am I if I set my affections on any thing beside you knowing that this is my duty and my Happiness O my God from this moment I for ever forbid any Creature to possess my heart Hark hither my will I now give thee this express command that thou open not the door of my heart but to my Well-beloved whose infinite love has prevented us from all eternity The sixth Day The Justice of God TO take a prospect of the Divine Justice is not less pleasing to good men nor less admirable Thou wilt see it O my Soul governing the whole universe The throne of this Divine Justice is establish'd in Heaven the arrests are pronounc'd on earth and the execution thereof in the regions of darkness 'T is Divine Justice that sets a Crown upon heir heads who have fought the battles of the Lord of Hosts with courage and fidelity And for these momentary and light afflictions rewards them with an eternal weight of Glory O Justice crowning and glorifying us how lovely art thou 'T is Divine Justice that thunders Comminations against sinners on earth to bring them to repentance by the terrours of everlasting sufferings and sometimes chastises them with temporal afflictions that they may not be tormented to all eternity O amiable Justice that treats so here poor sinners as to make them Penitents and not miserable But O how terrible is the Divine Justice which in hatred of sin does punish eternally those who will not be brought to any amendment O how does a severe but just Sentence condemn such to everlasting flames always devouring and never consuming them which the breath of Gods anger has kindled and shall never be extinguished O my God you did not spare your own Son taking our sins upon him to show us the better how to detest sin O who can but tremble considering your severity O who dare provoke the Almighty to anger Quis novit potestatem irae tuae O my God I do consider this and flie for refuge to your Mercy The seventh Day The Mercy of God O Divine Mercy how dost thou ravish my heart 'T is to thee my Soul will sing eternally Miserecordias Domini in aeternum cantabo In my retired thoughts I look upon this World as a great Hospital fill'd with some sick some maimed some lame some blind some languishing some incurable and Divine Mercy goes a visiting of them These she encourages those she comforts binds up the wounds of others and offers remedies proper to each misery not absolutely abandoning any one though never in so desperate a condition O amiable Mercy of our God into what corner of the World dost not thou go to exercise thy goodness Are there any miserable Sons of Adam who have not tasted the sweets of comforts Who ever made his addresses to thee that hath not found most tender compassions in thy bosom O my Soul what must we pant after but the more then material embraces of this adorable Mercy In what canst thou put thy hope and confidence except in the source of this inexhaustible goodness The whole World is full of the Mercy of God and wilt thou O my Soul afflict thy self and be discourag'd with temporal miseries and momentary sufferings It is the work of Mercy thus to punish thee Do not the Sufferings of this life work for us a far more eternal weight of Glory Art thou O my Soul terrified with the remembrance of thy sins Consider God is a God of infinite Mercy and desires not the death of a sinner He who refuses to throw himself into the arms of Gods Mercy is ignorant or else layes not to heart that Mercy attends the greatest sinners to the last moment of Life for their Conversion Miserecordia tua subsequetur me omnibus diebus vitae meae O my God as your Mercy has prevented me so grant that it may follow me all the days of my Life Soli Deo sit Gloria The End of the Third BOOK BOOK IV. Of Solitude and the practice of two excellent Retreats of ten Days CHAP. I. Of the Beauty of Christian Solitude WE ought to have an esteem of all sorts of Professions whereof God is the Author who though he be but one doth nevertheless afford to his Church different states of living It concerns us therefore to think very honourably of them all and manifest as much by our words but to betake our selves only to what God calls us The excellency of other ways ought not to withdraw us from our proper Vocation A Soul then may delight her self in beholding the Church as a most beautiful Medow replenish'd with great variety of Flowers of singular virtue and so taking complacency in all states of Life to apply her self only to that which she has a call from Heaven and this also because God requires it from her A Solitary retired life is so beautiful and has such charming attractives that when the Soul has once experience of it she finds there her Heaven upon earth Being to take a farewell of one of my Friends who was returning home and having parted with him this thought forthwith strongly ceaz'd my imagination Alas my God! when shall I return home to my self that is to you Seeing your goodness is more manifest in affording me a place in the Idaeas of your understanding from all eternity before time gave me an existence among created entities now I am your Creature let me consider my self daily as in you who are my inheritance and everlasting possession To be be at home O my Soul is not to be with thy self but with God thy Creator O how great is the blindness of men not to understand that they have no other Country but the Divinity from whence they proceeded by their Creation Inconsiderate Creatures whether are you going For my part I will return home to the Fountain of my Being my true home who is great beautiful admirable eternal and incomprehensible O what joy is it to consider that my true home is such as he is Is it possible O my God that you are the home and center of my Soul Why do we not readily go out from the clogging crouds of Creatures where we are in perpetual banishment to return to our home the bosome of our Creatour What can I desire in Heaven or in Earth besides you my portion and Inheritance for ever Comfort thy self O my Soul considering that thou shalt return to the Divinity thy glorious home and in the interim rest content with Jesus thy crucified home and repose O how amiable also how great and admirable is Jesus crucified My Soul can find no Peace but by resting in him where nature tasts a bitterness a thousand times more sweet than all Worldly delicacies Without him all other pleasures are but dreaming fancies O Jesus crucified the World knows not your sweets the beauty of your sufferings is hid from their sight they
wherein consists their Felicity The Father is the source of Being the the Son the term of his Knowledge and the Holy Spirit of his Love The Son and Holy Ghost are from the Father The Father and the Holy Spirit know the Son The Father and the Son love the Holy Ghost These are the wonders that make Heaven Happy Firmly to believe them is our Blessedness on Earth and to Contemplate them continually brings solid consolation to the Soul I saw clearly that to dispose my self for this incomparable Happiness I was to purifie my Interiour and to mortifie some natural resentments which yet live in me As namely too great a fear about the loss of Worldly things or to be despis'd by others or ill success of Affairs besides too great a sense of humane respects and a backwardness to follow the instincts of Grace for worldly considerations I know God sometimes suffers these Imperfections to live in us for the exercise of Virtue and the Tryal of our Fidelity However his will is that we strive to be dead to the World and our selves having our affections so fix'd on Heavenly things as to live a Divine Life in Mortal Bodies Believe me 'till our Interiour be throughly purified we shall not not be capable of high contemplation nor arrive to much knowledge in the secrets of God Fourth Day IN my first Prayer I was principally taken up with the adorable Person of the Eternal Father Methought I saw how he was ravish'd with Infinite Joy in Himself with the Son and the Holy Spirit And what complacency he also took in the Suffering of the Humanity of Jesus Christ though he loves him with the same love wherewith he loves himself And because these sufferings were pleasing to his Divine Father as satisfactory for our sins he did thirst to suffer more to fulfill his will And therefore after such variety of dolorous sufferings dying on the Cross he cryed out Sitio I Thirst It much rejoyc'd my heart to see what Infinite Complacency the three Divine Persons took in the Divinity and said within my self O Sacred Trinity enjoy eternally these Infinite delights But I desire as much as I can to add to your Exteriour Contentments by imitating the suffering of my Blessed Saviour And herein I will not have so much an eye to the reward to please the Sacred Trinity whom I adore Behold then what hereupon it seems to me God put into my mind 1. To eat neither Fish nor Flesh but in case of Sickness 2. To Discipline every day 3. To be pleas'd with occasions of Contempt 4. To despise all Temporal things to follow the attracts of Divine Love 5. To lie down upon a hard Bed 6. To cut off all Worldly Visits and retire my self into a Solitude where the World may despise me I consider'd in my second Prayer that the Son of God in the bosom of his Divine Father in possession of Infinite Delights and Joys unspeakable out of love to his Father did quit his bosom and cloath himself with Mortal Flesh to plunge himself in the depth of Miseries abjection and sufferings that he might glorifie his Divine Father by his humane and suffering Life and teach us Men his Brethren that the way to enter into the Love and Glory of his Father is by the gate of Sufferings Is it You O only begotten Son of the Eternal Father is it You born in a Stable working in a Shop dying on a Cross You that are all Splendor and Glory the Light of the World and the Delight of Heaven Is it You that are so poor and abject so void of Friends so full of Disgraces so scorn'd and despis'd Is it You whom they esteem as the out-cast of men and not worthy to live on the face of the Earth O the Love of the Son towards his Father O the strange invention of the Son to advance the Glory of his Father O my Jesus how admirable are you in your Divinity But how amiable are you in your Humanity I desire O dear Jesus to follow you all the days of my life and seek no other Glory than in your Cross and Poverty your Humiliations and Sufferings Absit mihi gloriari nisi in Cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi The Cross of Christ is my Crown and Glory We ought not to possess Honours Riches and Worldly Preferments without Fear and Humility Have we not cause to fear that in a state of Worldly greatness Nature will seek her self and not follow Jesus poor and humble which ought to be done either effectively or in affection A state of Suffering under the Cross is truly Glorious and full of Interiour Consolation In my third Prayer I consider'd that the union of the Father with the Son and of the Son with the Father is by the Holy Ghost a union Infinite and adorable O Holy Spirit seeing 't is your property to unite unite my heart so intimately to the adorable Trinity present in me that I may never suffer a seperation and that this adorable union may be frequent in my Thoughts and Meditations Blessed be your Holy Name my God that you are pleas'd to be so merciful unto me as to take up my thoughts with this incomprehensible Mystery O how do I begin too late having been too long amuz'd with vain trifles My past Life displeases me and the course of the World is troublesome unto me seeing it hinders me from conversing with you as I desire Natural Necessities as to Eat to Sleep to Recreat are burdensom unto a Soul quickened with your Spirit strongly inclining us to live here on Earth as in Heaven in a perfect and perpetual union with your Goodness The consideration which took up my thoughts in my fourth Prayer was that the Eternal Son and Holy Spirit seem'd to have more commerce with men then the Eternal Father because they appeared to us by external Missions the Son being made Man for to die for us and the Holy Spirit taking divers forms for the Service of man and to enflame our hearts with Divine Love The Eternal Father seem'd always to remain in himself ravish'd with his own Infinite Beauties and Perfections O adorable Mansion of the Eternal Father within himself O wonderful Missions of the Son and Holy Spirit towards us Men and for our Salvation eternal matter of Adoration O my God when shall I go out of my self to elevate my heart to you and converse with you I see very well that to enter into a Spirit of Prayer Retirement is requisite Abstinence and Spiritual Exercises And to conserve the same temper of Soul we must practice silence as much as our condition and affairs will permit If the Son of God and Holy Spirit did appear here upon Earth only for our good certainly we ought to endeavour to have our Conversation in Heaven and adore the most Sacred Trinity for these Infinite Mercies Fifth Day MY first Prayer past in acknowledgment and admiration of the Fulness of
things else are but deceit and vanity 3. They considering the Mysteries of Jesus begin to discover the beauty of his Humiliations and Sufferings which yet is shadowed with some obscurity 4. Their eyes being more open'd they behold distinctly the Beauty of the Sufferings Contempts and Poverty of the Word Incarnate and thereupon conceives a great contempt of the World 5. In persuance hereof they contemplate the Divine Mysteries and if they be Faithful to imitate Christ Crucified they will arrive to a great knowledge of the Divinity 6. Then if they keep close to Purity of Heart they are wholly in a manner taken up with the Divine and Humane Mysteries of Jesus being very sensible what an Infinite Mercy it is to be deliver'd from the darkness of that ignorance which is in carnal men who have no feeling in the things of God or their Salvation 7. Their Light increasing they more and more discover the Perfections of God in the Creatures more clearly without comparison in the Sacred Humanity of Jesus but yet more transcendently in their Source the Divinity sweetly applying themselves thereto with much Felicity Behold this is what God gave me to know â—n a little time and this Light will increase if I be Faithful to practice the Virtues of Jesus Crucified who is the True Way to the Divinity the center of the Soul and her perfect repose In my third Prayer I found my self in a disposition to admire the operations of the Holy Spirit in our Souls God our Creator works in them what he pleases he having endowed them with a certain capacity extraordinary to receive his extraordinary Divine operations This must needs be extraordinary to our Faculties which before had great difficulty in believing the Mysteries of Faith and with great obscurity and with little or no gust But no sooner is this Light darted into our Souls but we see and tast them with great delight not as in Glory but in a very sublime and extraordinary manner The Meditations of many years cannot attain to this 't is a special gift we must receive from the Father of Lights to which we can only dispose our selves by Humility and Mortification O what Happiness is it for a Mortal man to be thus elevated and Spiritualiz'd by the Holy Ghost Let us therefore O my Soul humble our selves profoundly for the Spirit of God takes not up his Mansion but in a humble heart I know we ought to go whither God is pleas'd to Call us and not refuse his Gifts under the pretence of a counterfeit Humility But I know also that 't is not displeasing to God for us to be careful how we entertain extraordinary attracts least we be too ready by innate Pride of heart to walk in ways above our capacity In my fourth Prayer I consider'd the admirable preventions of the Holy Spirit in the conduct of Souls How he awakes us from the sleep of sin and draws us from the love of the World to unite us to himself by undeserved preventing Graces What wonders are there unknown to Carnal men which pass in these preventions I know nothing that may work in us more Love or more Humility For would any but a God of Infinite Goodness look with an eye of Mercy upon a Soul all black with Sin Ingratitude and Infidelity This miserable Creature is beloved of God having nothing to invite him but on the contrary to avert him from us and if his exceeding love had not surmounted the Infinite hatred God has of sin we had perish'd for ever without a Saviour To Love us Redeem us and prevent us with such Mercies does only proceed from his incomprehensible Goodness I am astonish'd to see that any Soul believing these admirable preventions should not be enflam'd with Divine Love What can more humble a poor Creature than to consider that we are nothing but Misery from which we can never free our selves unless God prevent us with his Grace and Favour What can more enflame us with Divine Love than to consider that God then loved us and prevented us with his unspeakable Mercies when we were just objects of his Eternal Hatred O my God who can comprehend the riches of your Infinite Goodness O my Soul acknowledge with thankfulness the great obligations thou hast to Love God with all thy Powers and Loving him to Praise him to all Eternity Eighth Day IN my first Prayer this thought presently possess'd my mind that all Power is attributed to the Father all Wisdom to the Son and all Goodness to the Holy Ghost And seeing these three Divine Persons are in each other by a Communication of the same Substance and Infinite Perfections the Eternal Father is the Power of the Son and Holy Ghost the Son is the Wisdom of the Father and Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is the Goodness of the Father and the Son A pure Soul that lives in the sublime exercises of a Supernatural Life becomes a Mansion for the Divine Persons and receives from them the impressions of Power Wisdom and Goodness The Power of the Eternal Father dwelling in her gives her strength and a Christian generosity to conquer all the obstacles of Perfection and she discovers that many difficulties are rather imaginary than real insomuch as the Principal and the most difficult of Christian actions is to believe that they are possible and that nature shall not suffer so much thereby as is imagin'd The Wisdom of the Son cummunicated to her affords her Light and Overtures to defend her self against the apparent reasons of sensual nature which damp many excellent Spirits that they can make no great advancement in the ways of God because they have too much of humane consideration and too little of this Divine wisdom which discovers to us the Beauty of Contempts and Sufferings in following Jesus The Goodness of the Holy Spirit imprinted on her makes her conquer the Inclinations of corrupted nature which is more or less according to the degrees of Grace in us He that is Holy let him be Holy still but we shall never rise to the heighth 'till we come to Glory In my second Prayer I considered that the adorable Trinity is the Treasury of all Beings Increated and Created That in respect to the Divine and Uncreated Beeing the Eternal Father is a Treasury that is exhausted by communicating all his Infinite Perfections to the Son and Holy Ghost But in respect of Created Beings the Sacred Trinity is an inexhaustible Treasury because all the whole World or ten thousand more cannot exhaust or diminish the least drop of his Infinite Power and Goodness I was almost equally taken up with both these wonders That a Million of Worlds drawn out of the Treasury of Gods Omnipotency should not make the least diminution of his Power is certainly matter of admiration But much more that the Grandeurs of the Eternal Son should be so elevated above the World as to exhaust the whole Substance and Perfections of
of Joy and Peace and It then seems to her that heretofore she was wandring in darkness In effect it seems to her that she now lives in another World with other Lights and other Principles and other Proceeding and another tast of Spiritual things She now seeks occasions to mortifie her Senses obedience dependance contempts losses do relish with her and she 's pleas'd only to live a Life of Faith making no matter of the mockeries of Worldly men who judge not but by Sense or at best but according Humane Reason Second Day Jesus an Infant BEginning my Morning Prayer these words of the Prophet were presented to my Thoughts Consideravi opera tua expavi I have considered your Works O my Saviour and stand amazed with admiration And how could I be otherwise affected to see the Eternal God an Infant To see that Immensity which the Heavens cannot contain lie Swadled in a Manger Eternity but one day old Omnipotency become weakness The joy of Angels in a suffering condition O God of Love who can but fall into an Extasie to see these wonders this excess of Goodness above the comprehension of Men and Angels But Blessed Saviour 't is your Glory to have nothing and do nothing but what is altogether incomprehensible I observ'd a great silence in Heaven and Earth where the whole Creation seem'd to be struck dumb with admiration of the great Mysteries then brought to pass I beheld how the Virgin Mary and good Joseph fixing their Eyes on the Infant God-man lying in a Manger spake not one Word being transported with Love and Admiration and wholly astonish'd at an Humiliation so Prodigious and I wonder'd all Creatures did not stand immoveable for a whole Age at the sight of so incomprehensible a Mystery All Expressions are below this excess of Love and Condescention Let us O my Soul be silent with a respectful attention loveing adoring admiring these great things God has done for us Methinks I have a desire to stand always in silence at the feet of Infant Jesus I apply'd my self in my second Prayer to consider the universal denudation of all things that seem'd most necessary at his coming into the World To be born as an Exile out of his Mothers House to have no lodging usual for men but a Stable which is prepar'd for Beasts to be his Bed-chamber and a Manger for his Cradle to suffer the rigours of Winter for want of Fire what poor miserable Creature could be reduced to a greater denudation Notwithstanding this is that which ravish'd both Heaven and Earth and the Glorious Angels found nothing in Heaven of equal admiration and therefore hither they came to contemplate these wonders and to bring the glad tidings thereof to men making the Air to eccho with their joyful Melody and without any mention of the Divinity declare only to them that they shall find an Infant wrapt in swadling Cloaths lying in a Manger And hither the Shepherds ran transported with Joy and the World has followed them When the Wise men demanded of Herod Where he was born who was King of the Jews This Idaea of Royalty did much afright him and in rage he design'd a Cruelty more Barbarous than what as yet the Sun did ever behold 'T is a great Truth that Grandeur and an elevated condition though in the Person of God himself made man is attended with many evils and commotions but abjection and Humiliations in the Infant Jesus has force enough to win our hearts And yet we will not understand this In my third Prayer I discover'd that since the Mystery of the Incarnation which is the wonderful union of the Creator with the Creature then Sons of men are called to a higher degree of Prayer and Converse with God then formerly The gift of sublime Prayer is one effect of this Divine Mystery and we ought to value and preserve it as a Treasure The heart of Jesus is the center of men and when a poor Soul is distracted she must gently lead her self to the heart of Jesus to offer to the Eternal Father the holy dispositions of that adorable heart to unite that little we do with that Infinite service Jesus renders to his Eternal Father Thus our little will be made great by Jesus Christ O my Soul let this Divine heart of Jesus for the future be thy Oratory 'T is in him and by him thou must offer all thy Prayers to God to make them acceptable to the Divine Majesty Make this thy School to learn there the supereminent knowledge of the Love of God which is quite contrary to that of the World Thou wilt find there Principles sublime and pure a Treasure which will enrich thee with Purity Love and Fidelity and what is very plentiful in this Treasury Humiliations Poverty and Sufferings The love and esteem of these things is a precious Jewel which principally and originally is found in the heart of Jesus Other hearts how noble soever have more or less of it according to the measure they receive from this exhaustible Treasury In my fourth Prayer I had a strong Idaea of the dispositions which the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph had towards the Infant Jesus 'T was revealed to a Holy Soul that the Blessed Virgin passed all the time in Prayer while her Sacred Womb was the Tabernacle of the Son of God and never ceas'd to adore the Word made Flesh That St. Joseph entring with the Holy Virgin into the Stable at Bethlehem was elevated in high contemplation upon the Mysteries there to be Accomplish'd and in this Prayer was so replenished with the Holy Spirit that his desires for the coming of the Messias were more pure and more ardent then of all the Holy Patriarchs before And that next to the Holy Virgin he was enlightned with the wonders of the Mystery of the Incarnation At the moment of the wonderful Nativity of the Infant Jesus such Rayes of Glory and admirable Splendors were darted from his Soul as pierced the Spirit of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph and discover'd to them the Infinite Grandeurs of that Babe through all the weaknesses their eyes were witness of And in deep silence and contemplation they offer'd to him a pure and amorous offering of their whole Being as to their God O who can comprehend the wonderful effects that his presence caus'd in their Hearts These considerations did sweetly possess my Soul during my Prayer and I found my self in a disposition of great Love for Internal Prayer in Silence and Solitude with Infant-Jesus Third Day Jesus Poor and Abject IN my Morning Prayer I found in my self a great esteem and love for Poverty seeing Jesus had so esteem'd and lov'd it and we have an obligation to be conform to him And I said within my self O Poverty of Spirit what riches dost thou bring to a Soul Thou givest her possession of a Kingdom of Peace Thou dost purifie her to unite her to Jesus in his Humiliations which
The poorer we are in Spirit the richer we are in Grace the more a Soul is nothing in her self the more God is all in her and is pleased to work great things for her Jesus presented himself to my spirit in my second Prayer discovering to me in general the different states of his life passive in his Sufferings active in Virtues and how he is the Origen and Source of all purity to which we aspire by a spiritual life I conceiv'd first That there 's a purity of suffering which is great indeed when we suffer without seeking relief carrying this Cross for God's sake as long as he pleases There is a purity of action when we act not whether interiourly or exteriourly but by the motion of God's spirit with pure intentions Here arguments of humane reason are cut off and we stir not without some impressions of Grace working only for God by his working in us We must labour hard and be perfectly dead to the world before we can come to this state of purity There 's a purity of intention when we have only an eye to the will of God to do what pleases him without acting upon other Motives though good and laudable wherein seems to be some self-interest as fear to offend to be faithful to God's call to be more loved and rewarded A Soul in this state has no regard to her self but solely to the will of God her End and Object There 's a purity of imployment when a Soul will not divert her thoughts from God but by Order from God himself by some motion of his holy Spirit Hence we shun unnecessary visits unprofitable words superfluous occupations and that is superfluous to one Soul which is not to another by reason of the different degrees of Grace imparted to them We must suffer many mortifications to attain this purity and such a Soul must fear nothing more than Infidelity This is but a branch of the purity of action There 's a purity of Virtue when we practice only what God will have us to do There 's a purity of spiritual delight when the superiour part of the Soul receives no consolations willingly from any Creature or sensual things but stands upon her guard to keep them out And there 's a purity of Prayer when the Soul elevated above her self by the workings of God in her is in extasie of spirit and united to God alone by contemplation A Soul that once has had a feeling of God in her sees an infinite difference between Him and the holiest Creatures and entring into a great interiour solitude converses with God alone All these sorts of purity appeared to me in the Interiour of Jesus as in their Source In my third Prayer I came to know that the mysteries or states of Jesus Christ are not only the exemplar but also the efficient of our states so that we suffer not only to imitate Jesus in his sufferings but because Jesus by his sufferings imprints on us the virtue of his spirit to give us the grace to suffer for him When we pray 't is not only to imitate Jesus in contemplation but because he infuses into our hearts the gift of Prayer by his holy Spirit And if a Soul arrive to that heighth as to possess Jesus Christ in an extraordinary manner he then does all in her and for her she being only pliable to his Divine Operations We cannot continue in this state without wonderful purity the least sally of immortified Nature will much endamage it How often has God been pleas'd to give me experience of this when Jesus uniting himself unto me in the holy Communion annihilates all my thoughts words and affections to become to me all things in me He is my Thankfulness my Offering my Humility my Charity my Prayers and I do nothing but remain united to him who works all for my Soul as it were annihilated in his presence Words as well as thoughts fail us in the presence of the WORD who pleads to his Fathers for those Souls he possesses in such a mysterious manner What marvels are there hidden beyond expression In my fourth Prayer I consider'd that being a Christian I had a strict obligation to follow Christ but besides that general tie I had a special vocation to imitate Jesus in his humiliations To follow him in this way with purity I must forsake all grandeur and be content with poverty and objection and labour stoutly for a perfect abnegation of my self Since God has given me a generous resolution to sacrifice my self wholly to his service I will follow his call though I die for 't Methinks I am enabl'd to do it with great peace and liberty of Spirit What evil can happen to me if I die for God who died for Me Those who choose to be poor out of desire to follow Jesus are peculiar Objects of God's care and providence which extends it self to all men but especially to those who are the lively Images of his Son He is their Father in a peculiar manner and sets a watch about them more than others For is it possible he should not give Bread to them who leave all their Temporals to serve him better and love him purer Let us stifle all humane reasonings on this subject let us go whither Grace calls us and fear nothing If we die in the service 't will be happy for us 'T is a great favour from God when we breath out our Souls in the flames of Divine Love Fifth Day Jesus Zelator of Souls IN my first Prayer I apply'd my self to Jesus as Zelator of Souls for whom he gave his most precious Blood I beheld what I could not comprehend that this Zeal of Jesus for the good of Souls was infinite It seemed to me that my Soul receiv'd some small portion of this holy Zeal and I was powerfully inclin'd to lay out my self for my Neighbours good offering my self to God to do and suffer what he pleased But I perceiv'd this Zeal for Souls must be infused into us we must not run before we be sent otherwise we shall neither do good for others nor our selves but disturb our Interiour and commit many disorders When this Zeal is kindled in our Souls by the breathing of God's holy Spirit it puts nothing out of order but we go in Perfection and advance in Prayer However all must be regulated by Prudence lest we out-run our call and hurt our selves while we would do good to others For our care must be to procure the good of others according to the grace conferred upon us Some in an active life by Preaching and Instructing some by works of corporal Charity others by offering up to God their contemplative life their Solitudes their Austerities their Sufferings their Prayers There are many ways to be instrumental for the good of others Let every one imploy his proper talent Our blessed Saviour being near his Passion left us as a Legacy this divine Commandment Love ye one
he is her repose and true Felicity Alas when shall it be that Jesus possesses my Soul so as never to leave me This is what I sigh after and I will purchase it at any rate So to possess Jesus is a Heaven upon earth and all we have is too little to gain it Come O dear Jesus and make my Heart your Mansion for ever Of all your Graces and Favours I only desire you to be always present with me and that I make it my business so to serve you as in some sort to be made partaker of those admirable disposition of your contemplative Life I then had a sight of the Infinite difference between the service of Jesus between the Sensual and a Spiritual Life This cannot be discerned unless Jesus imprint his Maxims his Spirit and Sentiments in our hearts which will enable us to Crucifie our Sensuality and obey his motions I observ'd that my Devotion to the Sacred Humanity increas'd daily and felt in my Soul such Powerful attracts that no sooner was I in a Praying posture but Jesus possess'd my heart and discover'd something of his Grandeurs to me This Grace I received from his goodness in my third Prayer After which me thought I knew Jesus Christ in a new manner who though inaccessable to the Creature by reason of his Divine and Infinite Perfections yet sometimes he does most clearly manifest himself to special Favourites Such a view of Jesus is more to be valued than the whole World and a Soul that once has been vouchsafed this Grace esteems her self so rich that she looks upon all Worldly things as dross and dung adhering close to Jesus as her only Treasure We can never know what admirable effects this sight of Jesus works in a Soul but by experience 'T is true there 's a great deal of difference between the Visions of Jesus A Soul in the beginning of a Spiritual Life is taken up with the sensible part of the Sacred Humanity but in the progress she receives such pure discoveries of Jesus that she only relishes Jesus wholly Divinized but cannot express what she sees in him Souls thus dispos'd receive much of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and his humane states seem to them so elevated and transcendent that they find nothing more beautiful more precious or more charming to win their Affections O that we did know Jesus as he ought to be known O that we could see the inestimable riches the rare and precious Treasures contained in him My fourth Prayer was only to open the eyes of my Soul to see Jesus Christ as we behold any Object with the eyes of our Body to consider it attentively He was pleas'd so to manifest himself to my Soul as my joy was superabundant and I was dead to all things and my self to live in Jesus and love his Beauties I found my self in a manner like a drunken man who is not himself but as a dead man he knows not what he says nor is capable of any business nor can govern himself his drunkenness has possess'd him and made him fit for nothing else Enjoyment for the time it continues has the like effects in a Soul she is then capable of nothing but this enjoyment which is all in all unto her Such Souls are now and then put upon the rack by themselves or their directors fearing least this may savour of idleness They think it may be better to suffer and more profitable to help their Neighbour and that self-love may creep into this enjoyment This sometimes brings a Soul to quit this enjoyment so as to put her self out of the way where God has plac'd her except some particular Grace preserve her in the performance of Gods will A Soul capable of this Grace must be in a state of great Purity disengaged and dead to all things Exteriour and Interiour indifferent to all Divine Ordinations whatever and be in a perfect disposition to adhere to God and his Divine operations in what manner he pleases O how great is our humane weakness O how often do we resist the Designs of God by our Imperfections Seventh Day Jesus our Exemplar and Guide IN my first Prayer I consider'd how Jesus was a scandal to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness that the same Person should be God and Man and die upon a Cross to save the World the belief of this seem'd a pure extravagancy to poor blinded Creatures I consider'd also how a true Supernatural Christian Life seems but as folly to Worldly-wise-men who cannot understand it being elevated above sense and humane reason wholly Spiritual and repugnant to the Inclinations of depriv'd nature Alas how the practice of the true Christian Life is rare To love crosses and contempts and poverty and humiliations and to rejoyce in Persecutions by preferring the Maxims of Faith before humane Wisdom is a proceeding very extraordinary to Carnal men who in a manner are wholly guided by their Senses If Grace do not open the eyes of Faith in us our poor Soul has no director but Reason which casts a mist before us to hinder our sight from Christian Verities The same Grace also discover'd to me that as Jesus lived a Suffering Life we likewise should conform to his states and be content with crosses and contrarieties pains and deprivations and be pleas'd with whatsoever comes from the hand of God The poor retir'd abject Life I resolv'd to lead answerable to my Vocation without doubt will be accounted a folly by Worldly men and may sometimes so seem to my self But take courage O my Soul a lively Faith will discover the deceit by a Light from Heaven The Proceedings of a Spiritual Life are not govern'd by Humane Arguments but Divine and Supereminent Motives For we must suffer to do Penance and we must love Poverty to advance pure Love which despises all things to have God in possession In my second Prayer I clearly saw that Jesus took no pleasure without necessity to prescribe such rough Maxims to us He knew that the corruption of our Nature was great our inclination to things of this World was continual and therefore to live in his Love requir'd constant Mortifications and Contradictions to Nature And the degree of Love is according to the degree of Self-denyal and Mortification Jesus hath founded Christian Perfection upon two high Mountains Calvary and Tabor on the one we learn Perfection and Mortification on the other the Perfection of Prayer and on both the Sublimity of Divine Love To follow Jesus Christ upon one or th' other mountain we must die to the World and never let the love of the Cross and Mortification to languish in us Solitude must be dear to such Souls and they must take no imploy but what God will have them least interessing themselves and spending their Spirits in other matters they make themselves unable to follow vigorously the works of their Vocation My Soul would it not be a sad thing to quit thy Creator
Happiness I make Colloquies among many Lovers of Jesus I think I hear St. Romuald say My dear Jesus my sweet Love the inestimable Object of my Desires the Delight of Saints the Joy of Angels who will give me to Love you as much by my Self as they do altogether Another answered Seeing your Perfections O good Jesus have no limits the Love which all hearts have for you ought to be Infinite Another said O Saviour the Fruits are Testimonies of true Love your appear to me admirable in the effects of your Sufferings and that bloody Death you endured for me But what have I done as yet to testify my Love or make you Love me Another concluded and said Let us Love and Suffer and let us die by the hands of the same Love which made Jesus die upon the Cross O Sacred Love how kindly cruel art thou to those who fall into thy hands For thou dost cut and mortifie and humble and annihilate All thy Servants more or less carry the marks of thy Severity St. Philip Nereus in his Ribbs St. Francis in his Hands and Feet and very Heart But O Divine Love I fear not thy Cruelty Mortifie me Crucifie me Burn me Alive I desire to die by no other hand The conclusion of all the Prayers of my Solitude was an absolute abandon of my self to Jesus Christ to whom I gave my self up in a new manner irrevocably to live or die to act or suffer to be in such a state as best pleases him Ardently desiring that his Sacred Love would make me die to all things but himself The Martyrdom of Love is longer then that of Tyrants and sometimes more tormenting fighting against all our natural Inclinations breaking through all oppositions whatsoever to practice the virtues of the Word Incarnate Without doubt we suffer much to follow that Grace which calls us to die on a Cross poor contemned and abandoned But he that Loves finds sweetness in these Sufferings 'T is a great wonder to make a Creature of nothing But 't is a far greater to make a sinner a Saint And this O Jesus is the only work of your Grace 'T is you that are victorious and triumphant in all your Elect over the corruption and malignity of Sin O Jesus how great is the Power of your Grace How is your right Hand glorified by working wonders O Jesus the Infinite source of Power and Virtue of Grace and Sanctity of Beauty and Perfection O that I have as yet so little known you In Heaven they only see you clearly but yet 't is a Favour and Happiness beyond expression to have some knowledge of you in this Life When I behold Jesus my Soul wants words and can say nothing but Jesus and in saying Jesus it says all it would though it be ineffable O Jesus vouchsafe me some little sight of you in this banishment that my Soul may be comforted Jesus God and Man the eternal Splendour and Crown of Saints be you hereafter the only Object of my Desires and Love that I may be so united to you as never to suffer a separation When Jesus once possesses a Soul her Thoughts are on him her Words are to him and her Love is for him She then lives in a region of Light Beautiful beyond all expression and in her ardours of Love she seems wholly Passive to the operations of Jesus in her Jesus is enlightning enflaming Piercing and Consummating Jesus is more in the Soul then her self and lives more in her then her self all is converted into Jesus by a co-operation of Love which she feels but cannot explicate It seems to my Soul that hitherto she has been but in continual amusements How many vain Idaeas have taken up her Thoughts But at the sight of Jesus all Creatures appear'd but as Dreams and they fled before him as Owls at Sun-rising I know you then O amiable Jesus I see that you are Verity and all the World but Vanity O Divine Jesus reign for ever in my Soul establish your Empire in my heart and be absolute King there for it is yours Let all the Blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven and all Creatures Bless you and Praise you and help me to return you Thanks for all the Favours your Infinite Goodness has vouchsased me in this Retreat Add this also O most Merciful Jesus to your other Graces that I may have a perpetual dependance on your Holy Will and live in you and for you who lives and reigns World without end Amen The End of the Fourth BOOK BOOK V. Of Communion and its Effects CHAP. I. Of Preparation before Communion A Person that often receives his God in the Holy Communion ought to direct all the Actions of his Life to that end and render them a Preparation to it And as those Acts whereby we prepare our selves ought to be most Holy most replenished with Grace so by consequence the Life of one that does often frequent the Sacrament ought to be a continued exercise of Holy and Supernatural Acts. We ought to lead a Life worthy of the Divine Bread which is given us in this adorable Sacrament A common and material Bread supports the Life of Nature But he who is himself the Bread of Graces bestows on us a Life of Grace a Life Holy and Divine and Infinitely rais'd above the Humane Life And therefore is little known little sought by such as lead a common Life and are unwilling to leave themselves and their Temporal concerns to live to Jesus Christ who to that end gives himself to them that he may be their Life O my God how Ignorant and Earthly has my past Life been since I am so little acquainted with this Life more than Humane But now out of your Mercy you vouchsafe to bestow on me such Sentiments as incline me to enter upon this Life For I plainly see that a Soul well settled in the state of Grace ought to live no longer according to Nature but according to Grace The Motions Maxims and Designs of the Supernatural Life take their Original from Grace and are of a very different relish from such as affect Souls which move only by the impressions of Nature For the Soul actuated by this Life embraces Contempts Sufferings Abjection and her delight is to be annihilated in the esteem and love of Creatures so far it is from seeking those things never so little To live this Life is to live the Life of Jesus and to become one and the same with him and it is an excellent Disposition to live by him while the Soul receives him as its proper nourishment Qui manducat me vivet propter me Your Delights O Lord are to be with the Children of Men But these Delights ought to be Reciprocal that is to say That Souls ought to take their Delights in you in your state of Poverty and Abjection that so you may take your Delights in them What an excess of Goodness is this O Lord that being so
condition of Interiour Captivity where the Soul lyes bound and ty'd up in darkness and prison For this condition Honoureth the Captivity of Jesus confined to the narrow compass of a little Host This Divine Lord of ours shuts himself up in this strait Prison for the Love of us The King of Glory is contracted under these little Species and so renders himself a Prisoner to man yes he renders himself in appearance his Slave giving all of himself to man and still Sacrificing himself to his Eternal Father for man He still suffers as I may say and dies for man and communicates to him all the merits of his precious Blood and Passion O Divine Captive captivate my heart so strongly that it may never be able to re-enter into its natural liberty But that wholly destroyed and annihilated it may never be capable of any other Life than that which is more than Humane Never enjoy any other liberty than that of your Children Let the World look upon them as slaves And load them with all Indignities as the out-cast of men in despite of all contempt they are still your Children Every time we approach to this Sacrament wherein Jesus Christ gives himself to us whole and entire we enter into a new obligation and contract to give up our selves wholly entirely to him and to endeavour to render all our Actions Divine Wherefore a Virtuous Soul ought not to say I have not had time enough to prepare my self before Communion for she ought to aim at no other thing in all the Actions of her Life than to receive this Bread of Life to the end she may live the Life of Jesus and keep her self continually in such dispositions as she sees him in in the Blessed Sacrament CHAP. III. To receive the Communion Worthily we must imitate those Actions which Jesus Christ practis'd when he Instituted it I remark Principally three Actions that Jesus Christ was pleas'd to do for our example when he instituted the Holy Sacrament And we cannot make a perfect Communion without the practice of them 1. He never performed any Exteriour Act of such a profound Humility In Truth he annihilated himself in the work of his Incarnation Both according to his Humane Nature which he deprived of its Natural Substance in an extraordinary way of conception And according to his Divinity which he plunged into the Abiss of Humane Miseries Yet he debased himself farther when he chose a Stable to be born in as the most Poor and Abject of Men Still more when he condescended to take the Badge of Sinners in his Circumcision But the lowest Abiss and center of annihilation was in the Chamber where he made the last Supper and where he did a thing that is the most humbling of all Humane Actions washing the Feet drying them kissing them with his adorable Lips and this even to the greatest of his Enemies and most wicked Miscreant that ever lived even to Judas O my Jesus this is too much debasing of your Grandeurs 't is too profound a Humiliation of your Majesty 'T is my duty who am a meer Nothing by the condition of my Being and become less than nothing by the enormity of my sins 't is my duty to annihilate my self under the feet of the vilest of Creatures What an intolerable Pride would it be in me if having seen the God of Majesty humbling himself so profoundly to give example and having heard him tell me so with his own mouth Exemplum dedi vobis ut vos it a faciatis I have given you an example that you should do so as you have seen me do What a Pride I say would it be in me to approach to your Communion without the Sentiments of the greatest Humility that I can possibly exhibit in any Action of my Life The second Action our Divine Master practiced when he instituted this great Sacrament was a sublime Prayer one of the most perfect as well as one of the last that he made in all his Life lifting up his Hands Eyes and Heart to God his Father by an Act of a most respectful Reverence And though he was himself his own Heaven where his Father reigned he recollects himself into this most Sacred Humanity as into a new Heaven and there addresses his Prayers to his Father who was present to him and his first Petition is Glorifie me O Father which is to say give me the joy of Humiliations and Opprobries of the Cross which I have so long desired and sighed after Teaching his Church to look upon Contempts and Crosses as her Glory and the greatest Honour she can desire upon Earth He demands also the Institution of this ineffable Mystery of the Holy Eucharist which he was going to make in obedience to his Eternal Will and Decree knowing that it was to be unto us a Fountain of Eternal Life and unto himself the beginning of a perpetual Death as continuing there in quality of a Sacrifice even to the consummation of the World It is my Duty therefore after his Example to prepare my Soul to receive his Divine Mysteries by the most pure and most perfect Prayer as God shall enlighten and inspire me The most assured is to apply ones self to him by a simple regard of Faith accompanied with Respect and Love considering him full of Graces full of Mercies and Blessings in this awful Mystery and that he comes unto us with all his riches and gives himself without any reserve even rendring himself in a manner passive for all the designs that he intends to accomplish within us whether he comes himself in person to operate there the marvellous effects of his Love This sole regard of Faith in its simplicity contains all the Perfections of other Acts. 'T is sufficient to have God by Regard unto him and by Love this is to attain to the end where the heart rests All other Exercises of Meditation and Practices of Interiour Virtues are but only means to arrive unto God when he is once found the Soul is to repose there and rest satisfied The third and most endearing Action that I admire in our Lord when he Instituted the Blessed Sacrament and when he made his Love appear in its greatest Lustre and in its most Ardent Fervour as well towards God the Father as towards Men even his Enemies When he comes into the World his Love is a rising Sun But when he comes to leave the World in the vigour of his Life and in the excess of Charity that he shew'd in dying for us he is a Sun in the heat of Noon day The Gospel tells us That having loved his own that were in the World he kindled the flames of his Charity and raised them to the highest point imaginable when he Instituted the Holy and adorable Sacrament In finem dilexit eos But that which is most inconceivable in it which the most of any thing demonstrates the eminence of his Charity is that he did not
elevate his Heart by frequent Prayer to God and Contemplation of his Divine Perfections or that dissipates his Spirit abroad by the impulses of Nature engaging himself in Temporal Affairs without being called thereto by the Inspiration and guidance of Grace though something of zeal appear in the thing and as one thinks a good intention I say this Interiour Fire in such a Person is to be compared to these Meteors or Lambent Fires which are carried about with every motion of the Air and shine but do not burn CHAP. XII The fifth Effect of Communion is to give Strength and Perseverance in the Service of God ONe day as I entred into a Church I heard them sing these words in Honour of the Blessed Sacrament Ambulavit in fortitudine cibi illius usque ad montem Dei He walked in the strength of this Bread even to the Mount of God These words affected me and made me Hope that notwithstanding my Miseries and continual weakness I might be so strengthned by receiving this Divine Bread that at last I might arrive to the Mount of God might raise my self above the low inclinations of Nature and mount to the participation of the Spirit of Jesus and Perfection of a Super-natural Life which Life is a high Mountain which no body can climb by the meer strength of Nature I observed before that the peculiar intention of Jesus in Instituting the Holy Sacrament was to give us a foundation to Life and Strength and for that reason 't is the only Sacrament that is given in the form of Nourishment The rest are prescribed by way of Remedy to purge the Soul from Sin or conferr'd by Ceremony of Cousecration to dedicate the Person to the peculiar Duties of Religion and Holy Things and so others respectively But this is the only one given by way of Heavenly nurture to enable us to live by the Life of Grace a perpetual Life over which the death of Sin has no power For Jesus Christ among other effects of this Divine Food assures us that it bestows Eternal Life Qui manducat hunc panem vivet in aeternum And it seems very reasonable and conform to the Infinite Goodness of God that the most excellent of Sacraments should confer the most excellent of Graces which is that of Perseverance A Grace so Sublime so Divine so precious that we cannot merit it by any or all the good Actions we can do But how rare and how noble soever it be we have much subject to hope that the Father of Mercies and God of all Consolations will grant us it since he has already enriched us with that which is Infinitely more than this Grace the Prefence of his only Son in the Blessed Sacrament Corporal Nutriment is Elementary and Material and therefore no better than Corruption Yet if the Body could take it always in a just proportion and were perfectly well disposed to draw the strength it affords it would continue our Natural Life and we should never die How much more would the Heavenly Bread the Living Bread which contains in it self the ever-flowing sources of Life confer a perpetuity and infectibility of Spiritual Life by Grace if the Soul duly used and were disposed to receive the abundance of Graces Virtues and Super-natural strength that this adorable Food brings with it When we Communicate we drink of the same Fountain the Blessed do in Heaven But to them it is the Water of Life Everlasting and what else can it be to us but that of the Life of never failing Grace which is the pledge and assurance of the Eternity of Glory O my Soul dost thou think that any of the Blessed in Heaven after they have tasted the Delights of that Torrent of Pleasures can be oloy'd with them or be contented to be deprived of that Divine and Happy Life How then canst thou be so unconstant and irresolute in the way of Grace and unfaithful in the Union thou hast contracted with God who hast drank the Waters of Joy from the same Fountains of thy Saviour When he presents himself really and in Person and demands to be admitted into thy Heart say not to him as St. Peter did Retire from me O Lord But breath out the Sentiments of perfect Love saying with the Spouse Tenui eum nec dimittam I will never abandon him O what a pleasant Society how profound a Peace does the enjoyment of the Soveraign Good bring to the Soul But both imperfect till they are finished in Heaven The fullest possession thereof she can acquire on Earth serves only to inflame her thirst more the more she tasts God the more she desires him and since there is no possibility of satisfying her desire in this Life she suffers a continual Martyrdom that makes her both die and live together Her pain is full of sweetness and that sweetness begets a languishing and longing after her Beloved She is disgusted with all created things and forceably drawn off from them Nothing pleaseth her in this condition but that which augments her flame She cannot read with satisfaction unless there be some mention of her Beloved All Conversation and Discourse are burthen some and tedious unless the subject be his Love My God you see the bottom of my Heart I conceive things that I cannot utter 'T is true I suffer but I would not but suffer I can do nothing but aspire to a fuller possession of your Infinite Goodness 'T is very much that you vouchsafe to give your self unto me in the adorable Sacrament with such an immense Love but still you give me only a hidden Treasure I possess you indeed but do not enjoy you to my hearts desire I am in the condition of Holy Simeon who held you in his Arms in the Temple and yet dyed with a desire to see you It is time O Lord now permit my Soul to depart in Peace and quit this Mortal Life because I receive within me the Spring and Source of Immortality I know for certain that in Paradice I shall obtain the perfect accomplishment of all my Desires yet I do not desire it till it be your good will and Pleasure Your Love makes me press forward and tend incessantly to the Beatifical Union but 't is your Love too that stops my course that draws me back inspiring me with the highest indifference and absolute dependance on your Divine Will O Jesus how admirable is your Providence you open my eyes to see the comfortable and Blessed sight of the Power and Purity of Love which ought to possess the Soul that has the Happiness to receive you often in the Holy Communion I relinquish and resign my self more than ever into your Divine Hands guide me as it shall best please you There is nothing left to ask you more since you have unasked bestowed your self upon me and crowned me with Mercies even beyond all my Hopes My business is to remain annihilated in your presence and quietly receive your Divine
VI. Of the Means that facilitate the Exercise of Prayer WHosoever is resolved to undertake the Exercise of Prayer must expect to suffer all sorts of Temptations from Satan who above all others hate the Praying Nation And no less from Nature which hath strange repugnances to so Crucifying a Life and such Exercises as elevate her above all her Natural Inclinations And also from the World which does not relish at all so much Solitude and Mortification But we cannot be true Servants of Jesus Christ Crucified without taking up our Cross to follow him A Poor Abject Despised Suffering Life contented with pure Necessities for Food and Cloathing is a good Disposition to Prayer It will very much dispose us to this Holy Exercise to keep our selves in a Conformity to the states of the Suffering Life of Jesus Christ and in the practice of pure Virtues on all occasions To esteem the Sacred folly of the Cross the greatest Wisdom and correspond to the Inspirations of Gods Holy Spirit against all opposition whatsoever that thwart the Designs of God and hinders the operations of his Grace in us 'T is a great help to Prayer to make it our sole and only business and doubtless of high concern seeing 't is to do that on Earth which the Saints do in Heaven to Contemplate and Love the Beauties of God However if we have other Affairs at least we must make this the principal to which the rest ought to give place and not as alas too many do regulate our Devotions by our Secular Affairs Why should we overcharge our selves with Imployments by offering our service to others on the pretence of Charity Martha who was very busie about the Corporal Service of Jesus Christ was reprov'd for troubling her self with so many distracting Offices and her Sister commended for attending to the only thing necessary the Love of God and Contemplation 'T is a good help to Prayer not to engage our selves in Worldly concerns nor in giving or receiving Visits without necessity such as the Oblations of Charity or of our place and condition requires of us If we be free to shun all entertainments that are dangerous or unprofitable and chuse to converse with such who commonly discourse about the one thing necessary which consists in the Service of God and the exercise of Prayer But all this must be so done as our Discretion may not be call'd in question nor Charity wounded 'T is an important help to Prayer to stand always upon our guard in the time of Sickness or Indisposition of Health so as not wholly to leave off our usual Exercises of Devotion Under pretence to cherish the Body we commonly yield too much to Nature and so sometimes in a short Sickness we loose long habits of Mortification which cost us dear in their acquisition Prayer is not to be laid aside at such a time but we must endeavour to keep up our Union with God by Interiour acts of Virtue which require no strength of Body nor gusts of Devotion but agree well enough with a state of Trouble and Dereliction 'T is a very profitable help to Prayer to accustom our selves to do nothing of concern without a motion from God The Holy Spirit is in us to conduct us and we may safely follow such a Leader This keeps the Soul in great Purity which knows the Inspirations of Grace by the Internal Peace Sweetness and Liberty that always more or less attend them And if she quit them to follow Nature the secret stings of Conscience tell her she has been Unfaithful to Gods Graces and retarded her progress towards Perfection 'T is a very necessary help to Prayer for a Soul to get a habit of being so dead to the World as to live only to God and in God her only center and true repose This is the end of our Creation and if she deviate therefrom to take a complacency in her self or any Creature she falls short of the Designs of God I know well enough that in the beginning of a Spiritual Life 't is very hard to bring our minds off from thinking on vain and Worldly matters and to habituate the Soul to strive against Imperfections and adorn her self with all Christian Virtues However she must then reflect on her Imperfections her good and evil Inclinations as she finds the motions of Grace to Dictate to her She is not as yet capable of a more elevated degree of Prayer and so her Thoughts are profitably imploy'd in this lower exercise But when God is pleas'd to enter into her as to make her enter into him by a more intimate Union her Thoughts then must be all upon God and for him seeing he is only her true rest and repose Many Spiritual Persons fail herein not well observing the method and ways of God in the conduct of Souls They have not an eye severe enough on their Interiour to discover all the motions of the Heart to examine and search and find out the least root of their Imperfections This must be done and is good and profitable in its season But when God calls us to higher elevations in Prayer we must follow the conduct of his Holy Spirit or we shall never advance in the ways of Perfection CHAP. VII That we must not presume of our selves to attempt any manner of Prayer but what is ordinary IN our Spiritual Exercises we must ordinarily prepare the Subject of our Prayer and converse with God This is the Practice of all holy Persons and to do otherwise is to fail in our respect to the Majesty of Heaven If we be to speak to a King or any Person of Quality we think thereon aforehand and shall we not have consideration of what we have to say to the King of Glory This preparing of the matter of Prayer must be done some little time before we set upon the Duty Then we must lift up our Hearts to God and desire him to put into our minds what may be most pleasing to him in our Recollections and what ever it be to entertain it in our Thoughts and dwell upon it unless God inspire us with some other matter that calls upon us for our Attention and Fidelity For to comply with this we ought to quit the Subject we have prepared for our Exercise Let us not soar above our Abilities but make choice of such matters for Prayer as are most suitable to our Spiritual State and we find by our Interiour to be most agreeable to the will of God Let us never begin our Prayers without asking God pardon of our Sins and imploring his mercies For to put our selves into his Sacred Presence and to converse with him without a detestation of these Imperfections wherewith we have displeased him is to make our selves unworthy of his Grace and Favour 'T is of very great importance to know how God usually conducts Souls to Perfection that we may the better comply with the Designs of his Grace All are not call'd
to the same sort of Prayer and without a special Vocation we ought not to apply our selves but to the more ordinary way of Devotion whether we converse with God by discursive Considerations to raise our Affections taking some Book to our Assistance or whether we call to mind some Subject wherein we formerly have found some Gust and Spiritual Advantage Let this be done with Humility Dependance and Fidelity for a Soul having no Call from God to a more elevated Prayer if she cease her own Operations she ceases to Pray and falls into Distractions or is guilty of Idleness But it is far otherwise with her when she is raised from Meditation by the workings of God in her to Prayer of Contemplation 'T is true that a Soul having plac'd her self in the presence of God and thinking on the Subject she has prepared ought to meditate thereon with great attention of Spirit but if God please to take her Thoughts up with something else she ought without any Disturbance leave her own to comply with the Operations of Gods holy Spirit For when God is thus pleased to possess a Soul by the operations of his Grace she ought to put no Obstacle thereto which we do too often by our Industries which seem to us necessary and without which we believe we should do nothing when as then we should give way to those Divine Operations to the end they may become more efficacious Otherwise we have less respect for God than we would have for some earthly Prince to whom we speak with much Reverence as long as he is pleased to give us Audience but as soon as he thinks good to speak we presently are silent and give ear to his words with much Attention and Respect not presuming in the least sort to interrupt him Our principal affair is to serve God the Vnum necessarium recommended to us by our Blessed Saviour and therefore it concerns us not to distract our selves with too many exteriour Imployments though good and lawful Because if the heart be bound with a Chain of Gold 't is no more at Liberty to converse with God than if it was fetter'd with Links of Iron Wherefore whatever we can do for the Service of God and Good of our Neighbour let us do it with Willingness of Heart according to our Talents and Abilities But above all we must have an esteem of Prayer and a desire to practise it being firmly perswaded there 's nothing whereby we can better serve God or more profit our selves in a Spiritual Life For my part I in some sort more value Prayer though imperfect than the best Actions that carry more of outward Splendour and and seem more Glorious in the eyes of men We must therefore never be disgusted with Prayer nor quit the frequent Exercise thereof because we to our thinking make little Advancement therein but persevere faithfully to practise it in the best manner we can and expect with patience the good pleasure of God If we do our Endeavours we have discharg'd our Duty and Obligation The Servant that had but one Talent was blamed by his Lord because he did not improve it by his Industry When my Soul is not in a temper for the Exercise of Prayer I use short Reflections to call to mind what is most distastful to me and I make a Resolution to do it or set upon it presently if I can as to converse with one from whom I have an Aversion or make some visit where I know I shall be much mortified that I may conquer my self in those things which raise a continual War within me I have oftentimes by this facilited the Exercise of Prayer God being pleased by so much the more to dispose our hearts by how much the more we offer Violence to our selves to surmount all Difficulties CHAP. VIII How to pass from Ordinary Prayer to Contemplation A Soul that does not nourish in her self any voluntary Imperfection having efficacious desires to live the Life of Jesus ought to be passive to the Conduct of God in Prayer and aspire after great Simplicity by giving a check to the Discourse of her Understanding and multiplicity of Acts in her Will and Affections I am not ignorant that she ought to exercise her self in Meditation and a lower degree of Prayer till God is pleased to raise her to Contemplation but withall she must elevate her self as soon as she feels interiour Attracts and shun a false Humility which hinders us to follow the Motions of God's holy Spirit who communicates his Graces to the Perfect to augment their Purity and to the Imperfect to purify their Souls from Terrene Desires In my judgment 't is of great importance in the Exercise of Prayer to receive with Humility the impression of the Rayes of the Divine Sun who rides in the Interiour of our Soul 'T is he that can enlighten us without the Succours of our Discourse who inflames us with Divine Love without troubling our Will with the production of a multiplicity of Acts and in a manner almost imperceptibly makes all Virtues to grow ripe in us and arrive to Perfection If a Soul makes it her work to mortifie all her Imperfections and desires to live a suffering life for Prayer she need not much trouble her self God will do her Work for her and in a manner above her Hopes and Understanding God does not work this but in such a Soul that freely puts her self into his Hands with all submissive Humility to be guided by Him In this state of Prayer the subject prepared for our Exercise sometimes may be useful sometimes God suggests some other matter as he sees best and the Soul must peaceably comply with his Communications We cannot give certain Rules to such who are in this state of Prayer God working in them as he pleases in different manners All the Counsel can be given is To keep themselves in an entire Indifferency to Illustrations or Privations to Sweetness or Rigour Nevertheless I believe we may profitably descend to a lower Degree of Prayer when we have no Overture to one more elevated but this is not to be done till we often knock at the gate of Mercy with a holy Importunity But if the Bridegroom of our Souls is not pleased to vouchsafe us a Kiss of his Lips by Contemplation let us keep our selves at his Feet by Conversing with him in Meditation It will much conduce to elevate a Soul to a more perfect Union with God to have in memory many universal Verities of the Divinity and Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ 1. As That God is Omnipotent and an Infinite Goodness 2. That his Love to us is from Eternity and the Eye of his Divine Providence is watchful over us to conduct us to Happiness 3. That God being Love requires nothing of us but Love and Affection 4. That God is the Center of our Soul which can find no true Repose but in him alone 5. That Grace and Truth is
by Jesus Christ there being no other Means to attain Salvation 6. That the Sacred Trinity which consists in the perfect Knowledge and pure Love of the Divine Persons is the true Model of Perfect Prayer These deeply consider'd are very instrumental to elevate a Contemplative Soul to so high a pitch that sometimos she in a wonderful manner participates of that Life Eternal which is in God himself I have made a Resolution to desire of God that my Prayer may be altogether Intellectual to the end I may not feel such sensible Gusts of Heavenly Consolations which prejudice Nature These are but sweet Baiâ—s for self-Love which sullies the Purity of Prayer and diminishes the Contemplative Attention which continues more strong and vigorous when kept on the point of the Spirit whereby the Fire of Divine Love burns brighter and with more constant Flames This is that continual Union which is the Object of Perfection and whatever hinders this ought to be suspected as are sensible Gusts of Devotion in Inferiour Nature O my Soul let us therefore entirely give up our selves to God in Prayer to receive from him such impressions as he thinks best let our chief care be fully to submit our selves to him and to be disingag'd from all worldly things and accept with Thankfulness whatever he gives us If he gives us nothing let nothing content us and peaceably acquiesce in Union with his Divine Will A Soul faithful in the state of Privations will sooner or later as God sees best be raised to pure Union and Enjoyments on the lofty Wings of Contemplation CHAP. IX Of the Prayer of Faith THis Prayer is a bare reflection or simple remembrance of God who is believed by naked Faith as he is seen and known by the Light of Glory 'T is the same Object here and there but known by the Soul in a different manner The way of knowing God here is but learned Ignorance Earth is the Land of Believing Heaven of Seeing To see God as we are seen of Him and understand all Divine Mysteries is reserv'd for the Light of Glory here we must walk by the obscurities of Faith This Faith must be naked without Images or Representations simple and without Discourse universal without a distinct consideration of particulars The operation of the Will is conform to that of the Understanding Naked Simple Universal Spiritual Independant on the Senses We must expect great Combats in this way from our Spirit which will still be working and rely on Creatures But though it be much distasted by the understanding part of the Soul yet she must strive to die to her own operations and willingly entertain what helps her in this Combat as Aridities Privations Desolations which at last leave the Soul in exercise of pure Faith whereby God is known in a higher manner than those Lights which serve as a Medium between God and the Soul for this Union of our Spirit with God by pure Faith is immediate and so more elevated The Will also must die to what ever is not God To live only in Him and to him by pure Love For the Life of the Will is this Death and this Death is not ordinarily wrought but by Privations This kind of Prayer is uniform and not much lyable to alterations nor brings any damage to the Body For Nature has nothing to do in it being not procurable by greatest endeavours of Humane Industry but depending purely on the Will of God who alone gives it when and to whom he pleases 'T is true this pure and naked Contemplation of God by Faith is given but rarely and to those who have past through many Purgatories and states of Penance to fit them for it In the beginning it darts into the Soul but Transient Irradiations like flashes of Lightning if at any time they continue about half an hour 't is very much However they work in the Soul very great Effects One of the principal is that this Light of Faith discovers to us the verity of Divine Mysteries Imperfections and the Perfections we want and practical Virtues And all this at once not successively one after another by discourse which could never arrive to produce a knowledge so clear and universal But indeed the understanding has much ado to die to its own operations and not act by Humane Lights by being wholly given up to the obscurity of Faith However this must be done to be rightly disposed for Divine Operations There are divers degrees of Contemplations but what God is pleas'd to give us must be received with submissive Thankfulness While we live in Mortal Bodies we shall have always something to purifie and therefore always something to suffer Three parts of our Life pass away in a Suffering condition In a state of obscurity the Soul is intimately united to God although she be not sensible thereof I am much taken with the way of pure Faith in Prayer whereby the Soul knows God as much as she can do in this Life and though it be obscure it matters not being sure and certain For my part take as much as you will of my Light of Reason if the Light of Faith increase thereby O how Beautiful is pure and naked Faith It much conduces to Spiritualize a Soul to live continually by Faith to esteem and love nothing but what we ought to esteem and love Man rarely will relinquish his Reason and nevertheless he must raise himself above it or drag on the Earth with Imperfections Faith is a participation of the Eternal Wisdom she only conducts us with true assurance for her Lights though dark are certain and their obscurity does incomparably transcend the clearest evidence of Natural Reason Moreover to make Prayer more Intellectual and that Nature may have no hand in it we must leave off some things which usually did raise our hearts to God with a sensible Devotion As Musick Rich Ornaments Devout Pictures in Churches and the like This is good and profitable in the beginning of a Spiritual Life and some time after but when a Soul has attained purity of Prayer there 's no need to take her nourishment that is her Knowledge and Love but from pure Faith and Supernatural Lights infused into her When we take not good heed we keep not our selves sufficiently passive to the Operations of God but we go a beging for the Life of the Soul to sensible Objects when God himself would nourish her with more purified Knowledge and Diviner Love Why should we hanker after sensible Gusts of Devotion seeing Nature is commonly too much taken with them to the damage of naked Faith and the hindrance of our pure Union with God which requires a total denudation of all Creatures Notwithstanding when God tryes us with Derelictions and gives us not admittance into his presence but by things sensible and Discoursive Prayer we must humbly comply with this state and not pretend to higher elevations in our Addresses to him Yet if a Soul in
this Interiour Poverty and Dereliction finds that she has a call to Interiour Sufferings she ought not to seek after sensible things to raise her to God but couragiously bear this Interiour Cross as long as it pleases her Divine Bridegroom to continue her Tryal This state is bitter indeed but withall purifying and makes a Soul capable of more intimate union with God CHAP. X. Of the Sacred Darkness of Prayer ON St. Mary Magdalen's day it seem'd to me that my Prayer chang'd and became more simple more strong and elevated My Spirit went on knowing God not by Lights or Gusts of Devotion but by a certain Darkness wherewith God is surrounded as with a Cloud This Darkness made me see that God cannot be known but is Infinitely above our understanding which cannot better know him then by acknowledging we cannot know him as he is At other times Gusts and Lights were instrumental to unite me to God but now this Darkness only was my Guide and my Soul finding her self lost in a profound Ignorance of God yet seem'd to me to know him better than ever and I had no difficulty to Contemplate God in this manner which leaving in me deep impressions of the Divinity did also augment my Interiour dispositions of the Love of God hatred of sin and such like matters It seem'd to me that at this time my Prayer became more continual And I was much encourag'd with that saying of St. Denis That this ignorance is the best and highest knowledge we have here of God I therefore readily made my Addresses to God in the aforesaid manner understanding well that the knowledge we have of God by this way is greater than that we learn by discourse or Lights or Gusts in Prayer To know we cannot know God is to know him as much as he can be known in this Life his Grandeurs being Infinitely above our Understanding And that our Understanding may live wholly to God it must die to whatsoever is not God whom we see by naked Faith in a Luminous obscurity By this way God is more known and lov'd than by many Lights and Affections all which are lost in the obscurity of this Sacred Darkness which makes a Soul see that the Perfections of God are incomprehensible Many good effects arise from hence As a profound Joy and Peace of Conscience a firmness in our good Resolutions and practice of Virtues a great love of Self-denyal in imitation of the unspeakable Humiliations of Jesus Christ One of the surest marks to know whether this Prayer of Darkness comes from God is to see whether it leave in the Soul the knowledge of our Miseries and Infidelities For the more we possess God the better we see the least Imperfections As for example whether our intention be pure or Nature has some Interest with Grace Whether we too easily leave the presence of God for other things Whether we comply with Gods Inspirations or commit Infidelities These and such like being clearly seen by this means do much humble us and make us careful to amend them The Soul in this disposition knows nothing of God but that he is Incomprehensible and looses her self in this Darkness that surrounds his Grandeurs This view with a view sees nothing distinctly of God in particalar but is a knowing Ignorance of what God is in himself For though the excessive Glory of this Divine Sun makes his Light inaccessable to our weak eyes yet this Darkness pierces our Interiour and we know God in a transcendent manner by strong impressions of the Divinity and are rais'd to a most intimate union with him God requires of a Soul great Purity in this state This then is an excellent manner to take up our Thoughts with God in our Addresses to him by annihilating all our Lights and Knowledge to get into this Sacred Darkness that surrounds his Glory that being thus dead to our own Abilities we may confess that God is as much above our Understanding as he is amiable above our Affections Thus to know God and confess he is above our Understanding and to love God and acknowledge we cannot Love him according to his Perfections is to live dead to our Selves and our Abilities and such God Loves best and knows with Approbation CHAP. XI Of the Lights of Prayer GOd sometimes in Prayer discovers himself to a Soul as the Sun filling her with Light by which and in which he is known and all other things she stands in need of or which the Omniscient is pleas'd to manifest to her We see well enough this Light by which we know God but God himself is inaccessable As we behold the Light of the Natural Sun and not the Body thereof which blinds our Eyes and by the benefit of its Beams the things of this World are made visible to us One born Blind imagins that if he could see the Light he might see the Sun But he would find by experience that this Light would only serve to make him clearly see that he cannot behold the Sun by reason of its excessive Brightness In the same manner when we are in Interiour Darkness we think we can know God better in the Light and when this Light comes it only serves to let us see that God cannot be known by us in Mortal Bodies When in Prayer I have a view of God or some of his Perfections of Jesus or some of his Dispositions or Maxims it seems to me that all these Objects have a particular Light in them which serves much to discover their excellency to the Soul But it seems to me that these Verities namely We must slee from Evil and do Good hate Sin and embrace Virtue and such like as considered barely in themselves have no particular Light in them to manifest their Goodness But their Beauty and Excellency are discover'd to us by help of the Light of Faith As those Bodies which are out of the Sun see not themselves but by the Light thereof For this reason I believe 't is best for a Soul to take up her Thoughts with God and those Verities that regard him or with Jesus and Christian Truths as resident in this Sacred Breast By this means the Heart and Affections will be much inflam'd with the Love of God to adore and serve him and imitate the Perfections of Jesus Christ This sort of Prayer is simple and does not put the Soul to the labour of much Discourse For any Divine Perfection and the Exteriour effects thereof are seen by her at once by a singular act of the understanding As she may consider the Omnipotency by its self or together with the Creation of the World she may behold and adore the Divine Providence by it self together with its admirable effects in the Government of the Universe The Soul herein needs not multiply Discourses but may behold all this at one prospect When we meditate on any Christian Verity as for example the Excellency of Poverty without the Relation it
hath to Jesus the Soul loosing the sight thereof falls into distraction being carried insensibly to a different matter But when she considers Poverty as inshrin'd in the heart of Jesus and practis'd by him she is taken up with Jesus which is much better And so this digression proves profitable and she gains by this loss 'T is the same when we meditate on any Perfection of God and falling from our first subject we are happily lost in the depths of the Divinity where we find no Love but of God himself O Happy loss There 's no knowledge more necessary for us than of our Miseries and Imperfections because that or nothing will well ground us in Humility without which we cannot raise Virtues to any height in a Spiritual Life We may get this knowledge two manner of ways Either directly by considering them in themselves Vir videns paupertatem meam Or by considering the Divine Perfections in the Light whereof by reflection we discover our own Miseries and Imperfections The first manner is somewhat like a Winters-day wherein we feel nothing but Cold and see nothing but Sterility yet it affords Light enough to work in us a low esteem of our selves But this Humility oftentimes causes in the Soul disquiet dependency and discouragement The other manner resembles a fair Summers-day which is more Warm and Lightsome and full of Refreshment The sight of our Miseries by this way is more advantagious and begets in us a more generous Humility and fuller of confidence in God For the view of the Divine Perfections which is the chief and direct work of the Soul raises in her a Holy Fire which inflames her Affections towards God in the midst of her Miseries Behold now the reason why 't is a great secret in a Spiritual Life to behold all things of God who is an Infinite Light and never to forsake him because in him and by him we can best know and do our Duty After that a Soul is habituated to march through the ways of Faith and Purity she gets so great a Facility to converse with God that 't is a trouble to her to descend to Creatures knowing by experience that he only is her center where she finds true repose and her only Light to conduct her to Happiness The Soul of Jesus Christ our Grand Exemplar did not only abide in God by Apostatical Union but all his Thoughts and Affections were absorpt in the Divinity which replenish'd this admirable Creature with Grace Light and Truth for the Execution of the Eternal Decrees of his Heavenly Father for the Redemption of Man He finish'd the Mysteries of his Mortal Life but still conversing with God and plung'd in the Divinity wherein he beheld what he came to do upon Earth Let us follow his example that we may receive from God a Light to conduct us which ordinarily is communicated to us in Prayer Accedite ad eum illuminamini Draw near to God and ye shall be Enlightned CHAP. XII Of Passive Prayer PAssive Prayer is after this manner We take a view of God in his Perfections or of Jesus in his states or of some Christian Verity by the Light of Faith and then the Soul abides in a perfect repose gently receiving the Divine Impressions which enter with so much Conviction that she is presently warm'd and inflam'd with all sorts of Vertues And though she does not distinctly practise their interiour acts yet she feels a delightful Joy by the sweetness of those impressions and finds her self well aispos'd to be faithful to them on all occasions In Meditation God works with us but we in a manner do all in passive Prayer we cooperate with God but in a manner the whole work is his We must not easily believe that we are in a state of passive Prayer To be disposed thereto requires great Purity and long Practice of Prayer with the advice of a good Director and in the interim to exercise our selves in Meditation A Soul elevated to the state of passive Prayer finds her self united to God without any Labour of her own and receives from him many Lights and Illustrations Desires and Affections according to his various Workings in her Then the Soul purely adheres to Grace holding close to the Infusions of God's holy Spirit and follows the Divine Motions by the Annihilations of her proper Operations When she is thus passive and dead to her self her state changes not although her ordinary dispositions may alter for then she receives with equal Contentment from the hand of God Darkness as Light Aridities as Comforts Poverty as Abundance in a firm Resolution to will nothing but what pleases God with an entire Indifferency and a perfect Death to her own Operations 'T is observable in this passive state that the Soul sometimes remains in Union with God and Contemplation of his Divine Perfections keeping her self in a profound Repose as it were without Action and at other times she acts by her own Faculties as it pleases God to excite her to these Acts her only business being to submit perfectly to the Motions of Grace and she acting as Grace excites her does not leave her state of Passivity seeing she only moves her self according to the Motions of God's Spirit A Soul cannot arrive to this passive state unless she be dead to her self unless she be advanced in Virtue unless her Interiour Peace be great and stable unless her Prayer be in a manner continual and unless she be purifyed from all voluntary Defects For how can God in such a gracious manner visit a Soul which is free from Disquiet and Ordinary Imperfections How can she hear the Voice of God amongst the Noise of Creatures if they live in her with any Affection To put our selves into the hands of God to do with us what he pleases in our Addresses to him we must be exactly attentive to his Orders which he will interiourly make known to us either by Illustrations in our Understanding or Instincts and Motions in our Will Perfect Purity of Heart requires that the Soul have no Eye to her own Interest but solely to do the Will of God Her principal Care must only be to regard him to love and serve him without curiously examining his Gifts and Graces she knows well enough that in passive Prayer there are many wayes to come to God and divers manners to sacrifice our selves to Divine Love Some spend themselves in doing Good to their Neighbour others in Suffering for their Faith by the Cruelty of Tyrants some by Mortifications and Penances others by Ardours of Love in Prayer The Soul must be indifferent to be sacrific'd by Love what way best pleases God the Divine will being the sole Rule of her Choice and not the Beauty or Perfection of the State so that when she knows it is God's Will a less elevated Condition is pleasing to her God is our Father and Directour operating in us in different manners Sometimes he infuses more
Light into the Understanding sometimes more Love into the Will so that one Faculty seems to be lost in the other The Soul must be content with either as God pleases and cease her own Operations to be passive to the Actings of God in her by his gracious Motions A great deal of Work is done for us by this means in a little time towards Christian Perfection The Soul that is in this state must carefully shun two things the Activity of her own Spirit and the Impurity of her Affection As for the first our Spirit is very unwilling to dy to it self but will be acting and discoursing we loving much our own Operations so that we have much ado to conquer our selves that we may enter into an entire Passivity as to be only susceptible of Divine Motions The long Habitudes of acting with Liberty hinders this Annihilation but we must fight for the Victory and Grace at last will make it easy As for the second the Impurity of Affection we must be perfectly dead to whatsoever is not God so as to seek nothing but him and his good Pleasure without any mixture of Self-interests The infinite Love of God to us obliges us to be faithful to him and the Love we ought to have for our own good obliges us to spare no pains to attain to Perfection CHAP. XIII Of Pure and Perfect Prayer IT much disposes a Soul to attain to pure and perfect Prayer to give her self up into the hands of God with an entire Submission to his holy Will touching this Exercise to bestow upon her what state he pleases A Soul that finds Attracts from God to depend on his Providence the Matter and Manner of her Prayer must receive thankfully what comes from God whether it be Contemplatio or Meditation be it with Delight or Difficulty with Sweetness or Aridities A Soul so purely united to the Divine Will and dead to all things else possesses God in a wonderful manner not only in Consolations but Interiour Crosses Purity of Prayer as the present Light I have tells me consists in a simple View of God by the Light of Faith without Discourse or Imagination Reason and Imagination have their part in Meditation but not in pure Prayer It seems to me that the Soul ought to be absorpt in God and remain there in repose being dead as it were to her own Operations This Repose in God is by Knowledge and Love whereof sometimes this sometimes that is more abundant and affects the Soul as God pleases When God elevates a Soul above ordinary Prayer to converse with him alone she must make it her business to comply with him The Virtues and Dispositions which another time would be the Life of the Soul are not now when she must live no Life but the Life of God that is of his sole Knowledge and Love without any Reflection on her self God then takes the Care himself of such a Soul furnishing her with all necessary Dispositions Think on me and I will think on thee said Jesus Christ to St. Catherine In Prayer God infuses into her practical Lights of no long Durance but efficacious and out of Prayer she receives the same to be applyed to the Practice of most excellent Virtues on all occasions Pure and Perfect Prayer does not consist in Gusts of Devotion but in the supreme part of the Spirit in a peculiar manner that is ineffable For this supreme Region of the Soul is the sacred Temple where God is pleas'd to dwell where she feels and tasts a Sweetness above all created Entities The Soul conducted by Faith and attracted by these Divine Perfumes finds God in this his Sanctuary and converses with him with such a Familiarity as astonishes the Angels to behold it 'T is here where she makes pure Prayer seeing there 's nothing but God and the Soul without any Creature to interrupt this sacred Interview God working all that passes by Himself without Representations or Discourses or Gusts of Devotion This supreme part of the Soul being not capable of sensible Objects God alone takes Possession thereof communicating his Illustrations and Sentiments which are necessary for a pure Union with him Perfect Prayer then is a certain experimental Manifestation which God gives of Himself of his Goodness Peace and Sweetness An admirable Gift that is not imparted but to the purest Souls and ordinarily is but of small Continuance But the Condition of Mortality will not permit of more where we must live in Humility Patience and Sufferings The Soul returning from these Divine Embraces carries away with her great Love and a high Esteem of God a profound Knowledge of her own Imperfections and finds her self altogether disposed to act and suffer and practise pure Virtues on all occasions Few persons arrive to this Purity of perfect Prayer because few make themselves susceptible of those Divine Motions by an entire Annihilation of their own Powers These great Favours would be more frequently bestow'd if we had Hearts prepared to recive them Favours which are of more worth than the whole World and cannot be known but by Experience For my part I know nothing I only have heard say that in this pure and perfect Prayer there are admirable Unions most intimate Embraces Ardours of Love so Pure as may almost compare with the Flames of Seraphims We come to a perfect Union with God by a perfect Denudation of all Creatures and this Denudation is acquir'd by continual Mortification and sometimes by Divine Infusion We must therefore pray much and dye daily to our selves and all Creatures Since that Original Sin hath depraved our Nature we cannot live a Life of Grace without dying a continual Death When God acts with us in the Practice of Mortification we shall soon dye to our selves for he breaks us all to pieces on a sudden with wonderful Contrition of Heart and kills our Corruptions unknown to us so that a Soul dies more in one day by the loving Stroaks of his powerful Hand than she would in some years by ordinary Mortifications Let us therefore adore this Divine and loving Hand which kills us to make us live and never complain but of the little Returns we make for his gracious Favours The Loss of Goods of Friends of Honours of Consolations do much conduce to bring a Soul to this living Death for commonly we quit such allurement when we lose the materials of those Fetters In this Divine Exercise the Soul is wholly taken up with God without diverting her Thoughts on any other Object And though then to reflect on the effects of Prayer would be a kind of Distraction yet without her thinking God leaves powerful Impressions in her and pregnant Dispositions to practise great Virtues and above all a love of the Cross and Humiliations seeing he cannot possibly please God more than by suffering for Him CHAP. XIV Of the Hungring of the Soul after GOD and of her being Satiated with Him I Sometimes find my self in
a Prayer of Desires which I may call a Hungring after God For my intellectual Will had a strong Appetite for God without any Production of other particular Acts of Love or Complacency c. as when we have a longing after Nourishment without a Desire of this or that but only we have a hungry Disposition In this state the Soul only Thirsts after God as known by Faith in a general manner This Prayer was very Intellectual my Natural Appetite had rarely any part in it I neither sent up Sighs nor Ejaculations and it seem'd to me to be compatible with some Affairs and did continue though the Soul had Distractions in the imagination and understanding Methought this Prayer was wholly Spiritual for I know not how it came into my Soul nor what it did there only I felt a Hungring and Thirsting after God and it seem'd to me that I might still hunger after him though I did possess him This Prayer may be of long durance without breaking the Brain but we must be dead to Nature whilst it continues I felt also in my self a Hungring after the states of Jesus Christ the possession whereof is absolutely necessary to the Purity of Love and Infallibly disposes us to it Whosoever desires pure Love must have a desire of them also the one not subsisting without the other Therefore at present instead of fearing Poverty I desire it Instead of Fearing to Suffer I have Inclinations to it And my delight is to take my Cross and follow Jesus This kind of Prayer did appease Interiour Combates and Struglings in me and I found in my self some assurance of a Suffering Humble state where God will have us live purely of Him and for Him What is more purely for God than that which has nothing of self in it Grace carries us to a Love of Poverty and what seems contrary to our particular good which we relinquish voluntarily that we may advance the sole Interests of God A Soul that lives this Life lives in Purity of Love and participates of the pure Virtues of Jesus Christ O what generous Resolutions must a Soul have to Love God purely She must deny her self to please God only There 's no living a Life of Grace without a continual violence to our natural Inclinations by taking up our Cross to follow Jesus We confess O good Jesus that except your Grace always prevent and follow us we shall never relish well this Sacred Hunger of Sufferings and Humiliations and Poverty which is some small participation of your Abjections It often comes to pass that God who opens his Liberal hand to fill all Creatures with his Blessings is pleas'd to satisfie this hunger he has rais'd in a Soul by communicating himself to her in such a manner that she finds her self wholly contented and full of God This fulness of God being once tasted the Soul is ravish'd with Joy and Sweetness This disposition sometimes so totally possesses all the Powers of the Soul Understanding Will Memory Imagination that there 's no room for other Thoughts to enter being wholly taken up with God Prayer then is a feeling of God filling the Heart with Joy and Contentment O when will it please your Infinite Goodness to infuse into Souls some little participation of this Fulness that they may purely rejoyce in you who only can give us this satisfaction This is a satisfying Fulness indeed that leaves no place for other desires This Prayer is rarely granted unless to Souls much mortified and well advanced in the ways of God For a Soul must be emptyed of all Creatures before God can fill it When a Soul finds her self thus satisfied with God she must yield her self passive to the workings of Grace and she will feel in her Interiour such a content and sweetness as will render disgustful to her whatever is not God I find this disposition different from that which ordinarily we receive by Union with God This satisfaction being a more profound and intimate possession of God making all Comforts from Creatures even most pleasing to us become distastful in comparison of those Joyes that ravish'd the Soul in this disposition This Satisfaction and Contentment does sometimes Exteriourly show it self the Senses being so affected therewith that if such persons imploy themselves about any sensible object they do it as if they were a sleep The Dispositions God is pleas'd to give me increase in me daily a new desire of Solitude and Contempt of the World where I find nothing but Impediments to my Union with God And seeing all my desires tend that way whatever diverts me from it is displeasing to me It seems to me I am now no more fit for Worldly Affairs and I look upon my self as an old piece of Houshold stuff that is good for little or nothing but the Fire for methinks God would have me do nothing hereafter but burn with the Sacred Fire of Divine Love Or like a poor Criple who cannot work for his Living I must die of Hunger That is my Soul having a continual Hunger and Thirst after God must die to all things but God himself her sole repose and satisfaction CHAP. XV. Of Infused Prayer OUr Blessed Saviour has been so Merciful as to give me to my thinking some understanding and experience of infus'd Prayer In my Morning Prayer I found my self in the presence of God in silence with Admiration Reverence and Peace This took me up a long time and though some Temptations arose in Inferiour Nature yet the Superiour part of my Soul remain'd united to God without any prejudice to her Interiour quiet This Peace and Tranquility was greater than ordinary more Solid and more Assured I conceive also that what God is thus pleas'd to infuse into us be it Light or Affection Peace or Love 't is hidden from Deceits of Nature the Temptations of Satan and the noise of Creatures For God immediately infuses it into the center of the Soul without the Ministry of our Senses and so is not lyable to their onfets and vicissitudes but always remains entire as long as it pleases God to continue his operations I also conceive very well that the Interiour of Soul is a Sacred Mansion where God resides and does his works Independant on all Humane Industry and endeavours There he sometimes manifests Himself and his Perfections sometimes Christian Mysteries after what manner he thinks best It seems to me that the least Ray from his presence is enough to make known to us what he pleases Illuminet vultum suum super nos This is a very great favour for God to converse with the Soul alone in her Interiour I am now no more astonish'd at what the Saints affirm that their heart is a Tabernacle where God dwells with him and they enjoy him in a wonderful manner Nor that Souls of much Prayer do this without labour and almost continually for receiving so much and labouring so little I do not wonder at the Facility
produce in her admirable effects To have tasted of them once or twice is sufficient to make her rich by infusing into her Understanding a certitude of the Mysteries of our holy Faith and inflaming the Will with ardent and solid affections to practise Virtue And thus she knows more of God in a Moment than before she did in many Months By these extraordinary Graces a Soul is more convinc'd and dispos'd to suffer Contempt and Poverty and leave all things to follow Christ than by a thousand discursive Meditations However God does not cease to communicate these effects by other wayes as by spiritual Lectures holy Conferences Meditations c. But when God is pleas'd to work all by himself in a Soul he does much for her in a little time One of the principal Virtues that this state imprints in the Soul is To draw her to God and keep her with him so that she 's more in Him than her self Divine Love being a weight that alwayes carries her to her Well-beloved Amor meus pondus meum If a great Prince should send some magnificent Present to one of his poor Subjects this would give him more Knowledge of his Prince's Royal Grandeurs and Bounty than to send him all the Oratours of his Realm to set forth his Greatness by their Eloquence So a Soul knows more of God by the aforesaid Favours than by the large Discourses of Famous Preachers These extraordinary Favours are not necessary to Salvation nor yet to Perfection but very advantagious to confirm us in Grace For these more special Communications work in the Soul this admirable Repose and sweet Calmness to dispose her for the Receipt of great Graces which bring her to a more intimate Union wherein she sucks from the Bosom of the Divinity a Sweetness ineffable Strengthening Purifying and Comforting When the Soul is not in this Quiet let her do what she can no endeavours of her can procure it If God sends it let us receive it if he send it not we must be patient and prepare our selves thereto by the exercise of Mortificacation and pure Virtue according to the Grace betstow'd upon us Having been in this Prayer of Quiet many days it seem'd to me to be taken from me for contesting a little with my Friend to perswade him to prevent another with a charitable courtesie O my God how nice and delicate a thing is Grace and the greater the Grace it is the more delicate I learn by this Substraction how poor a thing a Creature is how unable we are of our selves to retain Your Graces and to see that this also proceeds from Grace I will hereafter make it my work to love pure Virtue and practise perfect Mortification CHAP. XVII Of the intimate Vnion of the Love of the Soul with God in Prayer THe wonderful Secrets of this Disposition of the Soul in Prayer can hardly be expressed only we may call it The Prayer of Vnity of Love because herein the Will feels no other Love in her Affections than that which God has for Himself One only Love seems sufficient for God and the loving Soul it being enough for her to adhere to him with great Simplicity and Unity with this only Love which God has for his infinite Beauties and Perfections The particular Love of the Soul is absorpt like a Drop of Water in the infinite Ocean of his Love by a Union inexplicable and being so lost is found more perfect as a Spark of Fire in a little Coal cast into a Furnace gives a heat infinitely greater than what it had of it self alone It seems to the Soul that she does not love but God loves himself in her and in this manner her Will having such Impressions of the Divine Love has no other Sentiments nor Interiour Dispositions than those which God has for Himself When she loves God in this manner as he loves Himself she also hates Sin in the same manner as God hates it by this ineffable Union In this state of Prayer the Soul receives wonderful Discoveries of the admirable Wisdom of God in his Proceedings about the Redemption of Mankind by the Life and Death of his Son so full of Sufferings and Abjection God loving Himself cannot but love the Cross which satisfied his Justice and the Soul cannot but have a Will to suffer seeing she is in the Unity of Love with God which Unity must needs elevate the Soul above Nature And as the Soul of Jesus wholly absorpt in the Love of his Father did rejoyce in his Sufferings and Humiliations so if we be in the Unity of this Love Contempts and Mortifications Dolours and Death it self will be lovely and desireable though quite contrary to our Natural Inclinations This Vnity of Love does so powerfully constrain us to love Sufferings that I make little difference between Love and the Cross and I see so clearly that all the Counsels of Jesus Christ do so wonderfully advance the Purity of Love that no natural Aversion shall deterr me from them I find in my Heart a tacit Consent of Love to abandon my self to Divine Providence and not to disquiet my self about Perfection For I must pacify all the Emotions of my Heart as well good as bad to be in so profound a Peace as to attain this Union When God is pleased to communicate to a Soul this Purity of Love he disposes her to so great a Favour by some Sufferings Crosses and Humiliations He that knows the Riches of true Love knows these also for they are inseparable so that he who will not suffer cannot arrive to Purity of Love My Prayer then tends to unite me intimately and continually to the only Love wherewith God loves himself and my Soul has at present Attracts to nothing else In this Love it seems to her she finds the Practice of all Virtues in a more excellent manner than in themselves I know very well that Love is a weight that continually carries the Soul towards her beloved Object and my Will bending always towards God it moves thither by a longing Inclination full of Love and Sweetness It seems to me that my Understanding herein does not with its Lights assist my Will for I find my Affections all on fire and panting after God without any previous Illustrations I found me thought Divine Love immediately working on my heart by such most secret Touches as put me in a state of perfect Union I find nothing to explicate this better than a Needle touched by the Adamant which then turns continually by a secret Virtue to the Pole and is unquiet till there it fix Thus it stands with my Soul being touched I know not how by Divine Love having no repose but by fixing on God and parting with all Creatures she gently tends to her Divine Center without any Violence being sweetly attracted to a perfect Union My Understanding in this state sees well enough what passes in my Will and Affections but it seems to me to contribute