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
too much rely on the Creatures that is on the means we use for our proficiency as the reading of good Books Conferences Sermons Meditation c. All these are very good when they are done with great confidence in God and fervent Prayer for nothing but an Almighty hand can pluck us out of the depth of our Miseries and crown us with Glory God is an infinite good in whom all fulness dwells and whatever good is in the Creature are but emenations from Him the Creature of it self being but a meer Vacuum and privation of goodness As we cannot conceive a greater fulness than is in God so we cannot imagine a more extreme indigency than is in the Creature 'T is the same thing to be God and all Goodness and to be a Creature and Nothing the One is all Abundance the Other all Poverty Every one grants this truth but without serious reflection which is the cause we have no true self-denial and diffidence in our own abilities and as much as we rely on our selves we hinder the operation of grace in us O my God! I am content with my Poverty because it brings me to the knowledge of your Riches I should forget what I am if I were not full of wants and imperfections I am well pleased that you are All and I am Nothing but what you vouchsafe to bestow on me The three Divine Persons can only proportionally communicate to each other their infinite Perfections I poor Creature can give nothing to God nor do any thing for him The best I can do is to acknowledge my inability and weakness neither can I do this without his grace which also he gives unto me There is so infinite a disproportion between God and a Creature that if I should lay down my life for God's sake it would be less than if a Pismire should die for the greatest Monarch Whatever the glorious Angels or Saints in Heaven or his Servants on Earth can do for God adds nothing to him We cannot dive into the full depth of our Nothing God only knows it and what we discover by it is by the illuminating Rays of his Grace and Mercy To understand this well we must know that God is not glorified by our good actions but inasmuch as they are agreeable to his will from whence they receive the tincture of goodness and he magnifies his bounty and mercy by accepting and rewarding our small performances So that the graces and favours he bestows upon us in this life and the glory of the other are the effects of his pure goodness 'T is very advantagious for a Soul thus to know her own Nothing for it makes her a Martyr of Love and loving God will do any thing for him and by this knowledge sees that of her self she can do nothing So that hanging as it were between will and weakness she breaths forth such desires as did St. Austin If I was God and you a Creature I would willingly become a Creature that you might be God But perceiving this to be an impossible imagination this poor Soul increases her Martyrdom and dies of love because not able to do any thing for her Beloved Yet this one consolation does revive her in that though she can do nothing her well-beloved can do all and taking delight in what he is and that he hath no need of any thing she reposes quietly in the bosom of God who is her all and final happiness CHAP. VII That God is glorified by our annihilation NOthing but Divine Faith can teach us to love mortification and the annihilation of our selves Natural and worldly wisdom cannot relish it and therefore are not to be consulted or hearkened to being but blind guides in the practice thereof The sin of pride has ruin'd the Glory and Kingdom of God in our Souls and that cannot be re-established but by our ruine and by how much the more we are mortified and dead to our selves by so much the more God is revived in us Poor Creatures as we are we afflict our selves because we are so weak and good for nothing without talents without knowledge that left to our selves all things go wrong with us O that we would learn to be content with these miseries that we might thereby arrive to the happy state of annihilation we might then bring as much glory to God as by great performances for in all these privations the Soul finds no relyance or consolation in her self or in any other Creature but in God alone Holy Job never brought more glory to God than when he was plung'd in the Abyss of humiliations on a Dunghil God glorifies himself in Heaven by the exaltation of his Creatures here on Earth by their humiliation Do we not see that the Wisdom of the eternal Father did prescribe to his Son this way of honouring him on Earth Hath not our blessed Saviour taught us by his words and actions in the constant practice of self-denial And think we to find out a better way to glorifie God than what our Divine Master hath set before us There 's nothing wherein a Creature can more purely glorifie the Creator than by a willing submission to that self-destruction which God works in us for where there is the least of the Creature there 's most of God But in this God does in a manner work all and the Creature yields obedience to his operations To bear patiently the deprivation of light and sweetness and sensible influences in Heaven in our recollections may do us more good than the most illuminated and gustful Prayer To be abandon'd and forsaken by our Friends and bear it with patience and resignation may more profit us than their friendship and services And so it is in the loss of other things because in derelictions and deprivations we seek God with a more purified intention there being less of self in it having not the satisfaction to act but only to receive the loss of what is dear to us meerly because it pleases God thus to deal with us for his greater glory 'T is a sad thing to consider the blindness wherein I have lived O how hard a thing it is for human reason to apprehend the Doctrine of the Son of God! 'T is true it teaches us to crucifie and deny our selves which is what naturally we fear and dread The measure of God's love to a Soul is to be judged by its degree of humiliation which is a way without all exception seeing the Gospel tells us that whosoever does not deny himself and all worldly things cannot be the Disciple of Jesus Christ O dear Jesus humbled for us I see the way wherein you have walked and that I must take up my Cross to follow you I am content to accept it and am willing to be your Disciple Be it then that my Body be afflicted with sickness my Goods lost my Honour in the dust and I become as I deserve of little or no esteem and repute Be it
thee That is to say let thy care be to be lost in me and I will take order for thy affairs Such a Soul does not spend much time in the things of this Life but in the praises of God Her exercise being a pure consideration of Divine Providence in whose arms she quietly reposes her self fearing nothing but infidelity CHAP. XIV How the perfect abandon of our selves to God makes us find a Paradice upon Earth SO much as a Soul is faithful to this abandon so much doth she abound with consolation For she is content with the state wherein Providence has put her and is well-pleased with all God's Ordinations concerning her self as are most for his Glory and has a tender love for the Decrees of God's will who from all Eternity has determined to conduct her in this way which she would not change for one more elevared though one sigh would gain it Moreover such a Soul takes much delight in knowing that many Souls are conducted by more excellent ways whereby God may be more glorified For seeing she desires purely the Glory of God she is well-pleased that God is glorified by others and rejoyces at it saying with great resentment Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum Let every spirit praise our Lord every way every state This resentment somewhat resembles that of the Blessed in Heaven where the Angels rejoice more at the Glory which the Seraphins render to God than at their own service And that great difference which an Angel sees between himself and a Seraphin does not raise in him the least desire to be a Seraphin and his joy is greatest in that the Divine will has made him only in the Order of Angels Thus it ought to be with holy Souls on Earth who participating of one anothers good are content with the graces God bestows upon them and sees no good dispositions in themselves or others which does not comfort them O what profound peace is here There is but little difference to be in the state of blessedness or in a perfect abandon to God's good pleasure because there is nothing can afflict such a Soul and she can want nothing that contents the heart Great Saints do not wait for Paradice with impatience having in a manner found it upon Earth by a perfect abandon to God's good pleasure O holy Virgin how were you content that your Son should ascend into Heaven without your company Had not you as much right to follow him as the holy Fathers detained in Limbo They were his Servants only but you his Mother also and yet you remain upon Earth to partake of Miseries and they mount to Heaven to possess Joys eternal and a Crown of Glory How different is this distribution Your own dear Son holy Virgin vouchsafes to go to Limbo to assist the holy Fathers and carry them from thence with him and you who are so near him who have serv'd and accompanied him during his mortal life even in his Passions and Ignominies now he is full of Glory leaves you here And what I more admire you amorously acquiesce in this abandon and are content to want his corporal presence with spiritual joy O what marvels do pass in your Soul O admirable Mother which transcends our understanding All that we can discover is that you are as well content with the privation as presence of Jesus to remain in Jerusalem among his Crucifyers as the company of Angels who sing his Praises when 't is the good pleasure of God and the Eternal Father has so ordained O my Soul when shalt thou be perfectly abandon'd to God's good pleasure Dost thou find thy self as equally content in privations as enjoyments When wilt thou be satisfied with all events dis-engaged wholly from what is not God and value nothing but his good pleasure Seeing that the Mother of God is content to be deprived of the visible presence of Jesus because he will have it so oughtest not thou to desire solely the will of God with an indifferency to all things else If thou might'st choose thou ought'st rather to embrace Desolations than Consolations Neglects and Contempts than Honours and Endearments seeing Jesus and Mary have most loved a suffering life But this perfect abandon this holy indifferency to any state this union with the good pleasure of God is yet a Mine of greater Treasures 'T is the sublimest purest perfectest disposition that can be in the Soul 't is of more worth than other dispositions and they without it are of no value yea in some sort are but imperfections Contemplation a desire to be charitable a will to help our Neighbours in spiritual things are good and holy disposition however God does not always require these of us When God is pleased to leave a Soul in aridities poor and desolate she would be unfaithful if then she should attempt such matters but union to the good pleasure of God can never lead us to imperfection but always elevates us in grace and therefore ought to be permanent in us When a Soul has lost all she may believe she has lost nothing so that she lose not this disposition of union with the will of God which indeed cannot be lost if our hearts be elevated above all earthly things Such a Soul can say truly with some great Saints Deus meus omnia O my God! you are my all in possessing you I have all things else How ignorant are we in complaining of the loss of whatever this world affords seeing the loss of them if we be not our own Enemies may make us find a more pure union with God's good pleasure For we never advance more in Virtue than in a state of denudation And if we desire nothing but the will of God and are content with that whatever it be we can want no disposition to perfection Every state every gracious disposition hath its proper worth they are good and pleasing and ought to be valued though some have more excellency in themselves than others But we must be content with those God is pleased to vouchsafe us in peace submission humility and indifferency to every state reposing our selves in the will of God as in our center A Soul in this state somewhat approaches to the Peace and Felicity of the Blessed in Heaven CHAP. XV. How the Beauty that is in the Order of God contents a Soul I Never yet have well understood this verity so often repeated Not one hair of your head shall fall to the ground without the will of your Heavenly Father The clear and full understanding of which will make a Soul happy on earth and the crosses which before did afflict her Spirit will be a joy unto her and cordial comfort For then she tasts the wonderful sweetness contain'd in the order of God to bring her to Happiness so that Paradice without this order would be as a hell unto her and to be in a suffering condition with this order will become a Paradice The order
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
understand the Spirit of the Book by the Spirit of the Author I have describ'd as much of the Qualifications of that Excellent Person as I could collect from the French Preface the perusal whereof I assure thee good Reader is worth thy pains and consideration THE Author's Life Extracted out of the French PREFACE THE worthy Author of this Excellent Treatise was a Person whose Life was answerable to his Writings a true Interiour Christian elevated by God's Holy Spirit to Sublime Contemplation making it his Business to have his Conversation in Heaven while he was upon Earth 'T is said of Moses that after he had Conversed familiarly with God and descended from the Mount that his Face did shine with an extraordinary Glory So this excellent Christian came from his Prayers as it were from Heaven all enflamed with Divine Love raising a holy Fire in their Breasts who enjoy'd the Happiness of his Conversation But his Goodness was more Diffusive for many of his absent Friends received wonderful Benefit and Advancement in a Spiritual Life by his Heavenly Instructions and Divine Letters Which were so many as that from those Writings was extracted this Interiour Christian not long after he had left men to live with Angels by a Person of Worth and Quality who was so touched to the heart by reading some of his Letters that he thought himself oblig'd in Charity to make them Publick for the Common Good Especially in this Corrupt Age wherein alas we find more Formal than Interiour Christians And doubtless it was the Will of Heaven this Treatise should not lie hid but be expos'd to the View of the World having in a short time enriched the Hearts of many with inestimable Good who entertain it with great Joy and Satisfaction He was in the right who said Loquere ut te videam If once I hear you speak I shall know what you are For 't is impossible to read this Book without some Knowledge of the eminent Perfection of the Authour for what Soul unless irradiated with extraordinary Beams of Heavenly Light could make such Discoveries or give such Directions in Spirituality It was from hence that the Humiliations and Dolorous Bloody Sufferings of Jesus Christ so terrible to Nature did appear to him with a Ravishing Beauty being taken with nothing more in his Devotions than Jesus Suffering For he had a singular Devotion to the Humiliations of Jesus and thought himself a Person cull'd out by Providence to honour his Sufferings He did much affect to lead his Life in Abjections and yet notwithstanding his profound Humility he was much esteemed and admired by all who had the Happiness to know his Virtues Though he lookt upon himself as an unprofitable Servant yet God was pleas'd to treat him as a faithful Friend Though he desir'd the Bitterness and Rigour of the Cross yet God did oftentimes so visit his Soul with extraordinary Consolations that sometimes he would cry out When then good Jesus shall I suffer for you Though he desired to follow Jesus on Mount Calvary yet God was pleased to lead him to Mount Tabor and vouchsafe him the Glimmerings of Glory on this side Heaven Though too many make it their Business to find out wayes to please their Sensuality he made his Body a Continual Victime of Mortification hardly abstaining from Austerities when his Weakness required a Relaxation He earnestly desired that after the Example of Jesus he might finish his Life on the Cross and on the day the Church celebrates the Invention of the Cross God was pleased to rob the World secretly of so great a Treasure lest if his Sickness had been known publickly the holy Importunity of many Prayers might have prevailed with Heaven to defer his Happiness He wanted no long Preparation for his Death by a Languishing Disease but being Fruit-ripe for the Harvest of Glory by the constant Dews of Heaven and Fervour of Charity upon short warning with wonderful Content commending his Soul into the hands of his Saviour he joyfully embraced Death to live Eternaly This shew'd the extraordinary Triumph he had made over the World and Himself by the Power of Grace For though some even Great Saints who had left the World for Christ's sake to avoid it's Contagion seem'd timorous at their Deaths yet He with an invincible Generosity contemning the World without forsaking it did conquer Satan in the midst of Temptations and smile on Death as a Friend to his Happiness Though he chang'd not his Secular Habit yet he had fully banisht the World from his heart and without engaging in any other Profession than that of a perfect Christian he spent his dayes in the Exercise of the most Austere Religious And this was more admirable in him than in those Fountains which conserve their Sweetness in the midst of Salt Waters because he did not only keep the Purity of the Spirit of Christianity among the Infections of a Corrupt Age but without any great noise he made notable Conquests over the Powers of Darkness seeing by his Pious Endeavours he chang'd many Carnal Men into Spiritual Christians We may say without Vanity that the World never had a more Dangerous Enemy He stay'd in it the better to discover its Designs and convert Worldlings exposing himself to combate its Allurements that their Weakness might be known and to testify to the World that one may be a Perfect Christian in despite of this great Enemy of God and Godliness His Example hath made it manifest to all Persons of Quality that one may live like a Hermit in the midst of a City and may love Evangelical Poverty though not practise it in the Possession of Riches and that true Self-contempt is not impossible to such whose Birth or Imployments have advanced them to Honour and that without being an Apostle or Preacher one may be an Evangelist And lastly that throughly to establish the Maxims of Christianity solid Practice is more efficacious than thundring Eloquence And though the Graces which beautifyed his Soul did most incline him to deep Retirements and Contemplation yet he was so wonderfully dexterous in the affairs of God's Service abroad that his Eyes fix'd on Heaven did not hinder him from affording a Helping hand to the good of his Neighbour neither was his Zeal herein confin'd to one onely Kingdom His Piety was so ingenious that he found out wayes to be at the same time one of the greatest Solitaries and yet much ingaged in the Labours of them who endeavour'd the enlargement of Christs Kingdom His way of expressing himself is conform to his Thoughts and both of them to the Gospel where such who chiefly hunt after Eloquence and vain Curiosities will find nothing that will please their Palate But a Soul which relishes Evangelical Truths cannot but find a Gust in the Expressions of this Book which breaths forth nothing but the Spirit of Christianity And God grant that they who take it into their hands may find it working
to their substance is to keep our selves in the bounds of human reason to which they are conformable but to observe them in an elevated manner so as our obedience may be meritorious to follow Divine Inspirations in loving Contempts Poverty Mortifications and embrace Evangelical Counsels To do this we must be elevated above our selves and live a Supernatural Life See then what I understand by a Supernatural and Christian Life To live Christianly is to live according to the Spirit of Jesus according to the Grace of Jesus the New Man A Grace far different from the Grace given to old Adam in the state of Innocency A Life more holy and more eminent and which carries along with it different effects and contrary proceedings The Grace of Adam did enable him to use the Creatures virtuously and by the holy use of Pleasures Honours and Riches to arrive to his final happiness This was the way of the state of Innocency from whence being fallen the infinite Wisdom hath found out another way quite different which is the way of privations of the Cross of sufferings of humiliations in which Jesus Christ marched from the first moment of his Incarnation to his last breath on the Cross This is the true foundation of the Christian Life this is the true Principle this is the only way out of which there is no Salvation or Perfection Worldly men and too many Christians are ignorant of it and not knowing supereminentem Scientiam Jesu Christi this supereminent Science of Jesus Christ they know nothing as they ought because they know not Jesus crucified This Doctrine is harsh to flesh and blood and wholly contrary to the Spirit of the World But the Saints have practis'd it and I must walk the same way except I will be very faithless and renonnce the Spirit of Jesus Christ O my God! I will become a New Man in my Understanding Will Life Proceedings and to this end I will change my Doctrine my Principles and Maxims I will deny my self and take up my Cross to follow Jesus I will be content with Poverty Contempt and Mortifications my inclinations shall tend this way for the future and sufferings for your sake shall be delights unto me And if I do otherwise it shall not be through wilfulness but human weakness O good Jesus give me to live with you a crucified Life on Earth that you may make me partaker of your glorified Life in Heaven There is a time for all things This is a life of Sufferings the other of Enjoyments O blindness of Christians not to see the excellency of the Christian Life Some are busie to make themselves fit for worldly Employments some are all for Science others for War c. but few make it their chief work to become good Christians as being of little value with them O the ignorance of Christians not to see that all things besides are pure vanity CHAP. II. Of the high esteem we ought to have of the Christian Life JESUS on the day of his Ascension was elevated to the highest Heavens where he sits at the right hand of God upon which my Soul rejoyc'd with her Saviour in admiration of his Tryumphs and breathing out after him a thousand Praises and Benedictions with all Saints and Angels found motions in my self to follow him not to Heaven but to Mount Calvary not in his Tryumphs but Humiliations O my Jesus said she that I was elevated above my self that I could so keep Nature under as to live a supernatural Life and tryumphing over human Reason and natural Maxims I may repose quietly in the Bosom of your Cross and there live happily in that content the world knows not with that peace which passeth all understanding I know that all the Patriarchs which you led in tryumph were justly ravished with joys unspeakable But if you please to raise me by Grace to a supernatural Life I will not envy their happiness They are elevated to Enjoyment but as for me I am for Privation for Contempt and Miseries which seem to me being suffered for your sake dear Jesus more delicious than Paradice If I persevere with Fidelity in a crucified Life I will not trouble my self about the life of Glory But alas my frequent falls and failings by reason of my weakness and inconstancy make me desire that Life where is no fault or imperfection The ascension of a Soul to Heaven O how delightful is it the ascension of a Soul to a supernatural Life O 't is admirable How happy are they who are acquainted with it O my God! clear up the eye of Faith in me that I may behold the wonders you work in Souls in this valley of tears What if I say That a Soul is as happy and tryumphant in going out of her self for the love of the Cross to embrace abjection as in going out of the World to possess Heaven So many sallies as she makes out of her self for the love of the Cross are so many glorious ascensions which delight even God himself the Saints and Angels beholding it with admiration The same Faith which opens my eyes to see Jesus poor and abject does assure me that the triumph of a Soul in humiliations is no less admirable than in Glory What can be done more to make us have the highest esteem of this supernatural Life when we see God the Father among so many possible ways hath from all eternity chosen this for his Son while he liv'd upon Earth How did his well-beloved Son who is infinitely wise leave the bosom of his Father with joy to embrace this life with love and affection How did the holy Spirit who reposed in his breast as the centre of his more noble sentiments carry him on by most powerful inspirations to the Cross Contempts Poverty Humiliations during the whole course of this mortal life What other way can those who belong unto Christ take to make themselves conformable to him but by treading in his steps But when our blessed Saviour liv'd in the world this wonderful life Mundus eum non cognovit the world knew him not because he lay hid in poverty pains and sufferings In like manner those who live a life most conformable to him the world knows them not for we must have eyes cleared by Divine Irradiations to discover the excellency of this state And yet so much Glory and Grandeur is enveloped in the shadows of this Life that they who live it do most glorifie God and exalt his Honour Take courage then and let us tend to the perfection of Divine Love which we shall find in the solid practice of this supernatural Life Let others do what they please we will follow the conduct of God's holy Spirit and march stoutly after Jesus Christ abject and crucified O what happy advantages enjoys that Soul to whom God is pleas'd to give a view of this supernatural Life a Life hidden and unknown to worldly men 'T is of more worth than all
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
sufficiently and fewer that practice it in Purity and really aspire to form the true image of Jesus in them In my second Prayer I did apply my self to consider how the Son of God being eternally in the midst between the Father and the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven to be a Mediator between his Eternal Father and us Sinners He tells us that no man can come to Father but by him and that he is the way which leads to Happiness And is it not a sad case that men should so much go astray This is a low and humble way and they puff'd up with Pride will march over mountains in ways above them This is a poor penitential suffering way and they are for a way easie delicious rich and commodious Is it possible to come to the bosom of the Eternal Father except we will march by the way of his Son There 's no other way to come to him and if we take our own way at every step we go farther from him O my God how long shall my Soul lag behind meerly in a way of nature When shall we O my Soul enter into Dispositions truly Christian and conform to the Dictates of a supernatural Life O Jesus my Saviour Redeemer my Exemplar my Way my Light 't is only by following you and your Divine Maxims that we can enter into the light of Life Of necessity then we must pass by Jesus Crucified to come to the Divinity of the Father and enjoy Jesus Glorified We must take up our Cross and follow him if we will enter into Glory My third Prayer was a continuation of like Thoughts I then understood that there 's no entring into Society with the three Divine Persons or arriving to such a height of Prayer as thereby we may live in them a Divine Life but by entring into communication with Jesus Christ and conforming our Life to his example This is a general Rule without exception The Life of Jesus was a severe self-denying Life and ours ought to be of such an austerity as may not ruine our health or dull the Spirit but humble the Body to elevate the Soul In a word we must daily endeavour to humble and annihilate our selves having only in our eye the Will of God The Eternal Father cannot take delight in any Soul that does not endeavour to resemble his Son It concerns us therefore to examine our hearts to see how they stand affected to Sufferings on all occasions If we cannot relish them but flie and complain 't is to be fear'd nature does possess us and not the Spirit of Jesus Christ Water in a glass remains quiet but if it finds the least passage it tends to its own element from whence it can only be kept by force In like manner a Soul that has overtures of Sufferings afforded her will find an inclination to embrace them if Jesus Crucified be her center It matters not by what means these occasions to suffer happen whether by the imprudence of Friends or the malice of Enemies Or her own neglect or any other accident she layes hold on the occasion to unite her self to the abjections of Jesus as to her center Happy is that Soul which is in this temper Grace and the Spirit of Jesus has wrought it in her In my fourth Prayer I went on to entertain my self with the wonders of the Son of God I admir'd that being in the Glory of his Father he descended to our Miseries that he might glorifie his Father in a new manner by purchasing for him such holy Souls who being animated with his Spirit after his example would be in love with Sufferings for Gods sake I saw clearly how the Son of God by his Eternal Birth is most glorious with Infinite Perfections and how he became Man to be capable of Sufferings for our sake And that we must follow Jesus in his Humiliations if we will be partakers of his Glory O what dark Souls have they who see not these Glorious Truths We live here a sensualor worldly life or at most do follow the light of reason rarely do we live a Christian and very rarely a Divine Life A thousand times happy are they who dear Jesus are enlightned by you the true Light of the World Jesus Christ cloath'd himself with a Mortal Body that he might suffer and be Sacrific'd upon the Cross and we ought to bear part with him The Saints who have known and tasted of his Spirit have Martyr'd their Bodies by a thousand Austerities Others have wasted away by degrees in the flames of Divine Love All have been desirous to suffer more or less But we are afraid to hurt our selves and are too apprehensive to endamage our Health For whom do we keep our embraces or for what is it that we are so desirous to live long upon Earth 'T is a vain fear to think we shall shorten our days by our endeavouring to live a Divine Life in our Mortal Bodies Seventh Day I Began my first Prayer by a peculiar instinct of the Holy Spirit bringing often to my mind those precious words of St. Paul God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into our Hearts crying Abba Father And then I found that a Soul assisted with the extraordinary infusions of the Holy Spirit is elevated above her self which is the effect of the gift of Wisdom freely communicated whereby she sees and tasts the ineffable Mysteries of our Religion O what a gracious gift is this What a great favour is it when God is pleas'd thus to communicate himself unto us It then seem'd to me that the faculties of my Soul ceas'd their ordinary operations and the obscurity of Faith as it were vanish'd this Divine Wisdom elevating them in such a manner which they cannot conceive who know not by experience to a very sublime way of working much above their ordinary proceedings The Soul stands wondring at it and can hardly believe she could arrive to such a point of Perfection Then a Divine Light gave me to see at once my unworthiness to receive the Graces of God his Goodness and Mercy to bestow them on me and the merits of Christ whereby they were purchas'd I was much amaz'd that God should vouchsafe so great favours to so wretched a sinner And I did melt in acknowledgements being humbled in my self with an entire confidence in the merits of Jesus I continued my second Prayer and this Divine Light increas'd in my Soul and discovered the favours God vouchsafes to Souls of which there are many degrees according to the proportion of their Purity of heart 1. They see the Deformity of Sin clear enough to conceive a horrour and detestation of it and know confusedly the Christian Virtues the Mysteries of the Sacred Humanity and Divinity 2. They see more clearly some Christian Principles as an Eternity of a Happy or Miserable condition after this Life that our Salvation is our Principal concern and the one thing necessary aend that all
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