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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	good_a	grace_n	work_n	6,634	5	5.8053	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41099	The maxims of the saints explained, concerning the interiour life by the Lord Arch-bishop of Cambray &c. ; to which are added, Thirty-four articles by the Lord Arch-Bishop of Paris, the Bishops of Meaux and Chartres, (that occasioned this book), also their declaration upon it ; together with the French-King's and the Arch-Bishop of Cambray's letters to the Pope upon the same subject.; Explication des maximes des saints sur la vie interieure. English	Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-, 1651-1715.; Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-, 1651-1715. Correspondence.; Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715. Correspondence.; Noailles, Louis-Antoine de, 1651-1729.; Godet des Marais, Paul, 1647-1709.; Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 1627-1704. Instruction sur les estats d'oraison, où sont exposées les erreurs des faux mystiques de nos jours.	1698 (1698)	Wing F675; ESTC R6318	100,920	267

another place he saith Speaking of S. Paul and of S. Martin Ibid. They see Paradise open for them they see a thousand miseries and labours upon the Earth the one and the other is indifferent to their choice and nothing but the will of God can give the counterpoise to their hearts He saith afterwards Ibid. Should he know that his Damnation were a little more pleasing to God than his Salvation he would leave his Salvation and run to his Damnation He Speaks also thus in another place 3 Discourse It is not only requisite that we should relie upon Divine Providence concerning temporal things but much more for what belongs to our Spiritual life and perfection He saith elsewhere Whither it be in interiour or exteriour things you ought to will nothing but what God shall will for you Lastly He saith in another place I have almost no desires but if I was to be Born again I would have none at all If God should come to me I should go to him also if he would not come to me I should hold still and not go to him The other Saints of the last Ages who are authoriz'd by the whole Church are full of such and the like expressions which are all reduced to this saying that one hath no longer any self and interested desire neither about merit perfection nor eternal happiness Thus to Speak is to leave no equivocation in so nice a matter where none ought to be suffered 't is to prevent all the abuse which can be made of the most precious and most holy thing which is upon the Earth I mean pure love 't is to Speak as all the Fathers all the chiefest Doctors of the Schools and all mystical Saints do V. False HOly indifference is an absolute suspension of the will an entire non-willing an exclusion even of all disinterested desire It goes beyond the perfect disinterest of love It does not desire for us those eternal goods which by the written Law we are taught God will give us and which he wills we should wish to receive in us and for us by the motive of his glory All even the most disinterested desire is imperfect Perfection does consist in not willing any thing more whatsoever in not desiring any more not only God's gifts but also God himself and in leaving him to do in us what he pleases by not intermixing on our side any real or positive will To Speak at this rate is to confound all ideas of humane reason It is to put a chimerical perfection in an absolute extinction of Christianity and even of humanity One cannot find terms odious enough to qualifie so monstruous an extravagance VI. ARTICLE True HOly indifference which is nothing else but the disinterest of love is so far from excluding disinterested desires that it is the real and positive principle of all those disinterested desires which the written Law commands us and also of all those grace does inspire us with After this manner did the Psalmist express himself to God All my desires are set before thine eyes The indifferent Soul not only desires fully her Salvation as it is the good pleasure of God but more than that perseverance the amendment of her faults the increase of love by the means of grace and generally without exception all spiritual and even temporal good that is within the order of providence a preparation of means both for ours and our neighbours Salvation Holy indifference admits not only distinct desires and express demands for the accomplishment of all the will of God known to us but also general desires for all the will of God which we do not know To Speak thus is to Speak conformable to the true principles of holy indifference and to the sentiment of Saints all which expressions if well examin'd both by what precede and what followeth are reduced without difficulty to this explication that is pure and sound according to the faith VI. False HOly indifference admits of no distinct desire nor of any formal request for any good either spiritual or temporal what relation soever it hath either to ours or our Neighbour's Salvation We ought never to admit of any of those pious and edifying desires which may inwardly work upon us To Speak at this rate is to oppose God's will under thepretence of purer conformity to it it is to violate the written Law which commandeth us to desire though it does not command us to form our desires in an interested unquiet manner or such as is always distinct 'T is to extinguish true love by a nonsensical resinement 't is to condemn with Blasphemy both the words of Scripture and the Prayers of the Church that are full of requests and of desires 'T is an excommunicating ones self and putting himself out of a condition of being ever able to pray both with heart and mouth in the congregation of the faithful VII ARTICLE True THere is never a state of indifference or of any other perfection known in the Church that gives to Souls a miraculous or extraordinary inspiration The perfection of interiour ways does consist only in one way of pure love whereby God is beloved without any interest and of pure faith where one walks only in darkness and without other light but that of faith it self which is common to all Christians This obscurity of pure faith admits of extraordinary light 'T is not but God who is the master of his gifts may give Raptures Visions Revelations and internal communications But they do not belong to that way of pure Faith and we are taught by the Saints that then we ought not to stop willfully in those extraordinary lights but to pass them over as saith the Blessed John of the Cross and dwell in the most naked and dark Faith Much more ought we to take heed not to suppose in the ways we have spoken of any miraculous or extraordinary inspiration which indifferent Souls do guide themselves by They have for their rule nothing but the precepts and counsels of the written Law and the actual grace which is ever conformable to the Law As to the precepts they ought always to presuppose without wavering or reasoning that God never forsakes any unless forsaken first and consequently that grace always preventing does inspire them continually to the accomplishment of the precept when it ought to be accomplish'd So it is their work to cooperate with all the power and strength of their will that they may not come short of grace by a transgression of the precept As for those cases in which counsels are not turned into precepts they ought without doing violence to themselves to produce acts either of love in general or of certain distinct virtues in particular according as the internal attraction of grace inclines them to some rather than to others as occasion requires What is very certain is that grace prevents them in respect to every deliberate action that this grace which is the internal breathing of the

to the will of God of saving all Men and the belief we ought to have that he is willing to save every one of us in particular This Soul does not doubt of the good will of God but believeth her own bad because she sees nothing in her self by reflection but the apparent evil which is external and sensible and that the good which is always real and intimate is by God's jealousie continually taken from before her eyes Nothing in this involuntary and invincible trouble can recover her nor reveal to her in the bottom of her self what God is pleased to conceal to her She sees God's Anger swoll'n and hanging over her head as the billows of the Sea ready to drown her then it is that the Soul is divided from her self she expires with Christ upon the Cross saying My God My God why hast thou forsaken me In that unvoluntary impression of despair she makes an absolute Sacrifice of her concern for Eternity because the impossible case in the trouble and darkness she is in seems to her possible and actually real Once more it would profit nothing to argue with her for she is wholly incapable of reasoning all the business lies in a conviction which is not intimate but seeming and invincible A Soul in this condition looseth all hope of things for her own interest but she never looseth in the superiour part of her self that 's to say in her direct and intimate acts that perfect hope which is the disinterested desire of the promises She loves God more purely than ever and is so far from consenting positively to hate him that she does not so much as indirectly consent to cease for one instant from loving him nor to diminish in the least her Love nor to put ever to the increase of that Love any voluntary bounds nor to commit any fault though never so venial A Director may therefore leave this Soul to make a simple condescention to the loss of her own interest and to the just Condemnation she thinks to be under from God which serveth ordinarily but to quiet her and to becalm the Temptation designed only for that effect I mean for the purification of Love But he ought never either to advise or to permit her positively to believe by a free and willful perswasion that she is reprobated and ought no longer to desire the promises by a disinterested motive He ought yet much less to consent she should hate God or cease from loving him or transgress his Law even by the most venial faults To speak thus is to speak according to the Experience of Saints with all the Precaution necessary for the Conservation of the Doctrine of Faith and never to lay open Souls to any Illusion X. False A Soul in Tryals may believe with an intimate free and voluntary Perswasion against the Doctrine of Faith that God hath forsaken her tho' she had not forsaken him or that there is no more Mercy for her tho' she does sincerely desire it or that she may consent to hate God because God will have her to hate him or that she may consent never more to love God because he will no more be beloved by her or that she can voluntarily confine her Love because God will have her to limit it or that she may violate God's Law because God will have her to transgress it In this State a Soul hath no longer any Faith or Hope or disinterested Desire of the Promises nor any real and intimate Love of God nor any even implicite Hatred of Evil which is Sin nor any real Co-operation with Grace But she is without any Action without any Will without any more Interest for God than for herself without either reflex or direct Acts of Vertues To speak at this rate is to blaspheme against what one is ignorant of and to corrupt one's self in what one knows 't is to make Souls to be overcome by Temptation under pretence of purifying them 't is to reduce all Christendom to an impious and dull Despair 't is even grosly to contradict all good Mystical Persons who do assert that Souls in that State shew a very lively Love for God by their Sorrow for having lost him and an infinite Abhorrency of Evil by their Impatience oftentimes towards those who offer both to comfort and reassure them of their good State XI ARTICLE True GOD never forsakes the Just unless he be forsaken by him He is the infinite Good who seeks for nothing but to communicate himself The more one receiveth him the more he gives of himself Our Resistance only is that which restrains or retards his Gifts The essential Difference between the new Law and the old is that the latter did not lead Man to any thing that was perfect that it shewed what was good but gave not a Power wherewithal to do it and Evil without affording Means to avoid it whereas the new is the Law of Grace which gives both the Will and the Deed and which commands only because it gives the true Power to fulfil As the Observers of the old Law were assured that they should never see the diminution of their Temporal Goods Inquirentes autem Dominum non minuentur omni bono Souls that are true to their Grace shall likewise never suffer any dimunition in their Grace which is always preventing and the real Good of the Christian Law Thus each Soul that she may be fully true to God can do nothing solid and meritorious but to follow Grace without need of preventing it To be willing to prevent it is to be willing to give to one's self what it does not give yet 't is to expect something of himself and his own Endeavour or Industry 't is a subtile and unperceptible Remainder of a Semi-Pelagian Zeal at the very time when we long yet for more Grace One ought 't is true to prepare himself for to receive and invite Grace to himself but this ought not to be done without the Co-operation of Grace it self A faithful Co-operation with Grace in the present Moment is a most effectual Preparation for receiving and attracting of Grace the next Moment If the thing be narrowly pried into 't is then evident that all is reduc'd to a faithful Co operation of a full Will and of all the Forces of the Soul with the Grace of every Moment's presenting If all that could be added to this Co-operation were rightly taken in its full extent it would be nothing but a rash and over-hasty Zeal an eager and unquiet Endeavour of a Self-interested Soul an unseasonable Motion that would discompose weaken and retard the Operation of Grace instead of making it both more easie and perfect 'T is even as if one who is led by another whose Impulses he ought to follow should incessantly prevent his Motions and at every Minute turn himself back to measure that Space he had already run This unquiet and ill concerted Motion with the Man that principally moves would

would love Impurity as much as Beauty if it were as acceptable to her Spouse she knows nevertheless that Purity and Beauty are the Delight of her Spouse therefore she only loves for his good Pleasure Purity and Beauty and rejects with Horror the Ugliness he rejects When a Soul is truly and actually in pure Love there is no fear but in the actual Confession of her Sin she is in the actual Condemnation of what she hath committed against the Well-beloved and consequently in the most formal most pure and most efficacious Contrition tho' she produces not always sensible Acts of it in an express'd and reflected Form If venial Faults are blotted out in an instant by the simple reciting of the Lord's Prayer as S. Austine assureth us in general of just Men tho' imperfect So much the more are they blotted out likewise in the transformed Souls by the Exercise of the most pure Love 'T is true that one is not oblig'd to make equally always frequent Confessions when the enlightned Director hath Reason to fear least they should cast one into Despair or be turned into a meer Habit or should become an unlading of the Heart and an ease for Self-love more afflicted for not seeing himself entirely perfect than faithful in being willing to do Violence to himself for his Amendment or because these frequent Confessions disturb too much some Souls and employ them too much about their State in some transient Pains or because they don't see in themselves any voluntary Fault committed since their last Confession which may appear to the Confessor a sufficient Matter of Sacramental Absolution after they have cast themselves at his Feet for to lay their Submission in the Power and Judgment of the Church To speak so is to speak a Language conform to the Experiences of Saints and to the Needs of several Souls without offending the Principles of Tradition XXXVIII False COnfession is a Remedy belonging only to imperfect Souls and which advanced Souls ought not to make use of but for outward appearance and for fear of offending the Publick either they never commit any Faults which deserve Absolution or they ought not to be watchful with the peaceable and uninterested Vigilancy of pure and jealous Love to perceive whatever in them may grieve the Holy Spirit neither are they any more oblig'd to Contrition which is nothing else but jealous Love hating with a perfect Hatred whatsoever is contrary to the good Pleasure of the Well-beloved nor should they think themselves guilty of an Infidelity against the Disinterest of Love and perfect Abnegation should they ask both with Heart and Mouth the Remission of their Sins which God however will have them to desire To speak at this rate is to take off from these Souls the true Exercise of that pure Love of the Supreme Good which ought to be on this occasion the actual Condemnation of Evil itself it is to remove Souls both from the Sacraments and Church-Discipline by a rash and scandalous Presumption 'T is to inspire them with Pharisaical Pride 't is at least to teach them to make their Confessions without Vigilancy Attention and Sincerity of Heart when they ask with the Words of their Mouths the Remission of their Faults 'T is to introduce into the Church an Hypocrisie which makes any Illusion uncurable XXXIX ARTICLE True SOuls in the first sensible Attraction which makes them pass to Contemplation have sometimes a Prayet which seems to bear no Proportion with some gross Faults that remain yet in them and this disproportion makes some Directors to judge that they have not got Experience enough that their Prayer is false and full of Illusion as S. Theresa saith it hapned to her The Souls exercised by extraordinary Trials shew sometimes there upon transient Occasions an irregular Spirit weakned by the Excess of Pain and a Patience almost exhausted as Job did appear imperfect and impatient in the Eyes of his Friends God leaves often to even transformed Souls notwithstanding the Purity of their Love certain Imperfections which proceed more from a natural Infirmity than from the Will and which are according to the thought of Pope S. Gregory the contrapoise of their Contemplation as the pricks of the flesh were in the Apostle the messenger of Satan to hinder him from growing Proud of the greatness of his revelations Lastly these imperfections which are not any violation of the Law are left in a Soul to the end that one may see in her the tokens of the great work which Grace hath of necessity made in her These infirmities serve to depress her in her own eyes and to keep the gifts of God under a Veil of infirmity which exerciseth the Faith of that Soul and of the Just persons that know her Sometimes also they serve to draw on her Contempt and Crosses or to make her more Docile to her superiors or to take from her the comfort of being approved and assured in her way as it happened to the Blessed Theresa with incredible pains Finally to keep the secret of the Bride and of the Bridegroom hidden from the wise and prudent of this World To speak so is to speak conformable to the experiences of Saints without any offence to the Evangelical Rule because the Directors who have experience and the Spirit of Grace are not without ability to judge of the Tree by the Fruits which are Sincerity Teachableness and freedom of the Soul upon the chiefest occasions Moreover there will be still other tokens which the Unction of God's Spirit shall give sufficiently to be felt if the state of each Soul be patiently lookt into XXXIX False ONE may reckon a Soul as Contemplative and even as transformed though she is found for some considerable time negligent of her instruction concerning the principles of Religion careless of her duty wandring and unmortified always quick in excusing her own faults unteachable haughty or cunning To speak after this rate is to authorize in the most perfect state the most dangerous imperfections 't is to cover under the cloak of an extraordinary state defects that are most incompatible with true Piety 't is to approve the grossest illusions 't is to invert the rules whereby Spirits ought to be tried to know whither they come from God or no 't is to call evil good and draw upon ones self the woes of Scripture XL. ARTICLE True A Transformed Soul is united to God without the interposition of any medium three sorts of ways 1. When she loves God for himself without any medium of interested motive 2. When she contemplates him without any sensible image or discursive operation 3. When she fulfills his Precepts and Counsels without any set order of forms whereby to give to her self an interested witness To speak thus is to express what holy mystical Men would say by excluding from this state the practices of Virtue and this explication is nothing offensive to Universal Tradition XL. False A Transformed Soul

would rather never eat meat than Offend the least of his Brethren for whom Christ died How can we then be tied to any expression that gives Offence to a weak Soul Mystical Men therefore should take away all equivocal terms when they know the same are abused in order to corrupt the soundest Doctrine Let those who have spoken after an improper and exaggerated manner and without precaution explain their meaning and suffer nothing to be wanting for the edification of the Church let those who have been erroneous as to main Doctrinals not content themselves with condemning the Errors but let them confess they have believed them and give the Glory to God let them not be ashamed that they have erred as being what is natural to the race of Mankind but let them humbly confess their Errors since they remain to be no longer theirs after they have made an humble Confession of them It s in order to distinguish Truth from Falshood in so nice and important a matter that two great Prelates have Published Thirty-Four Articles that in substance contain all the Doctrine of the internal life and I have no other design in this undertaking than to give a larger Explanation of the same All these Internal ways have a tendency to pure or disinterested Love This pure Love is the highest degree of Christian perfection It is the end or boundary of all the ways known unto the Saints Whoever allows of nothing beyond that contains himself within the bounds of Tradition Whoever exceeds this bound is already out of the way If any one should doubt of the Truth and perfection of this Love I make an offer of shewing an universal and clear Tradition for it from the times of the Apostles to that of St. Francis de Sales without any interruption and I will thereupon publish when I am desired to do it a Collection of all passages out of the Fathers School-Men and holy mysticks who unanimously speak of it It will appear from this Collection that the Ancient Fathers spoke as vigorously to the matter as St. Francis de Sales and that they for the disinterest of Love have made the same Suppositions concerning Salvation that our disdainful Criticks so much laugh at when they meet with them in the Writings of the Saints of the last Age Even S. Augustine himself whom some have taken to be an Opposer of this Doctrine hath taught it as much as any other It 's true indeed the main Thing is to explain this pure Love aright and to mark out the exact Bounds beyond which its Disinterest could never go The Disinterest thereof can never exclude the Will from loving God without Bounds neither in regard to the Degree nor the Duration of that Love This can never exclude a Conformity in us to the good Pleasure of God who not only wills our Salvation but would have us will it with him for his Glory This Disinterested Love is always tied to the written Law performs entirely the same Acts and exercises the same distinct Vertues as Interested Love does with this only Difference that it doth exercise the same in a simple and peaceable Manner and such as is disengaged from every Motive of Self-Interest This holy Indifference that is so much praised by St. Francis de Sales is nothing else but the disinterest of this Love which is always indifferent and without any interested Will for itself but the same is always determined to and positively wills all that God would have us do according to his written Law and that by the Attraction of his Grace In order to the attaining to this State our Love must be purified and all our internal Trials are but the purification of it even Contemplation itself that is of a most passive Nature is nothing else but the peaceable and uniform Exercise of this pure Love We cannot insensibly pass from Meditation wherein we perform methodical and discursive Acts into Contemplation whose Acts are simple and direct but in proportion to our passing from interested to disinterested Love This passive State and Transformation together with the Spiritual Marriages and essential or immediate Vnion are no other than the entire Purity of this Love the Habit whereof without being ever either invariable or exempted from venial Sins very few Souls are endued with I do not speak of all these different Degrees that are so little known to the Generality of the Faithful but because they are Consecrated to us by being made use of by a great many Saints whom the Church hath approved off and have in these Terms explained their Experiences neither do I relate them for any other end than to explain them with the strictest Precaution Finally all these internal Ways tend to pure Love as to their End an habitual State whereof is the highest Degree attainable in the Pilgrimage of this Life it 's the Foundation and the top Stone of the whole Building Nothing can be rasher than to oppose the Purity of this Love that is so worthy of the Perfection of our God to whom all is due and of his Jealousie which is a consuming Fire But again there is nothing can be so rash as to go about to take away from this Love the reality of its Acts in the Practice of distinct Vertues by a Chymerical refining of it Lastly It will be no less dangerous to place the Perfection of the Internal Life in some mysterious State beyond the Bound fixed to it of an habitual State of pure Love It 's in order to prevent all these Inconveniences that I have taken upon me to treat of the whole Matter in the following Articles that are digested according to the various Degrees that have been remarked unto us by Mystical Men in the Spirittal Life Every Article will consist of two parts the first will be the true one which I shall approve of and which shall contain all that is Authorized by the Experiences of the Saints and pursuant to the sound Doctrine of pure Love The second shall be the false part where I shall exactly explain the very Place where the Danger of Illusion lies and as I shall give an Account also of what is exorbitant in every Article I shall qualisie the same and censure it according to the strict Rules of Theology And thus the first part of my Articles will be a Collection of exact Definitions of the Saints Expressions in order to reduce them all to an uncontestable meaning that can neither be liable to any Equivocation nor alarm the most timorous Souls It will be a kind of Dictionary for Definitions in order to know the exact meaning of every Term These Definitions together will make up a plain and compleat System of all the Internal Ways including a perfect Vnity seeing the whole thereof will be clearly reduced to the Exercise of pure Love that has been as vigorously taught by all the Fathers as by the more modern Saints But on the other hand the second part

the King and at the same time to importune him to commit the said Work to Examination The Arch-Bishops of Rheims and Paris with the Bishop of Meaux an implacable Enemy to Cambray were the persons appointed for it the effect whereof was the putting out of their Declaration upon the same Subject wherein they fully set forth their sentiments in relation to it And as these Prelates distinguished their Zeal in this manner against this Semi-Quietism the Bishop of Noyon about the same time in his Pastoral Letter written in the Form of a Preservative to keep the Clergy and Faithful of his Diocess in the holy Exercise of a solid and real Piety against the pernicions Maxims of Quietism sets himself against Quietism in all the Branches of it But tho' he would have the Quietism he darts his Thunder at to be not that of Molinos but this new sort of Semi-Quietism yet when he comes to a kind of an Explanation of it he confounds the new Quietism with the old seeing that in respect to the Opinions which he looks upon to be most monstrous he imputes what Molinos taught to those against whom he writes of which take this one tast What an Abomination is it says the Bishop to set up Vices in the place of Vertues and to pretend that shameful Falls are the Steps by which to ascend to the Glory of a perfect Union with God Now this is Molinos himself that has occasioned this Exclamation who says in direct Terms That we ought not to afflict or disturb our selves when we fall into any Defect but to rise up and go on and set our selves to Exercises of Piety as if we had never fallen Would you not take him to be a Fool says he who contending for the Prize of a Race and hapning to stumble in the midst of his Carier should lie upon the Ground to no other end than to bewail his Fall You would rather say to him Rise Friend and without loss of time set thy self a running again for he that gets up quickly and pursues his Race is like one that never fell So that it 's manifest from hence in short that the French Prelates do not well understand what they write against but that there is something in it tending to invalidate Penances and put Auricular Confessions out of Fashion which has brought so much Grist to the Romish Mill is what they seem to be very apprehensive of But the Clergy notwithstanding all their ' fore-mention'd Endeavours for the Suppression of this new Doctrine finding it to spread itself more and more among all Ranks and Orders of Men as well Ecclesiasticks as Laicks they thought it high time to transfer the Accusation to the Court of Rome with all the aggravation of the Arch-Bishop's of Cambray's Crime and Heresie imaginable and because they would not fail to make sure work of it they engag'd the French King so far on their side also as to get him to write to the Pope to induce him in Confirmation of the Censures of the Clergy of France to condemn the Arch-Bishop's Book who on his own part also being not ignorant of these Proceedings against him and not to be wanting to his own Defence thought it no less proper to write to his Holiness upon the same Subject But tho' the Bishop has used as much Caution as Submission in that he wrote to the Pope yet you will find in another of his Letters to a Friend that he is the same Man still But how violent soever the Arch-Bishops accusers appear'd against him both in France and Rome the Pope kept a soft pace till such time as having received the Arch-Bishops said Letter he was pleased to appoint seven Commissioners to Examine his Book viz. the Master of the Sacred Pallace His Holiness his Confessor and a Jaccbin Father Marsouiller a French-Man of the same Order the Proctor-General of St. Augustine-Friars Father Gabriel of the Mendicant Order Father Miri a Benedictine Father Grenelli a Franciscan and Father Alfaro Jesuit These were to make their Report to the Congregation of the holy Office in order to their farther proceedings thereupon But whither it were that these Gentlemen could not understand the Bishops Gallimaufry of notional speculations or what shall I call it or what ever else was in the wind they did nothing in it and the matter at last came before old Infallibility himself and his Sacred College of Cardinals But after all this and the continual Sollicitations of the Jesuits and some great Prelates there are some months now elapsed and nothing done in it and by any thing that hitherto has appear'd to the contrary they are so far from coming to a final decision either in favour or against the said Book as when they first began To enter upon an inquiry into the Doctrine and notions contained in this Treatise will not be proper for me in this place that being entirely left to the judgment of every one that has an inclination to peruse it It remains for me therefore to say that as it as stirred up the Curiosity of all sorts of persons abroad to make an inspection into these tenets so it has done mine to engage me in a more particular inquiry into the rise and progress as well as the dislike of and opposition made against them AN EXPLANATION Of the Diverse Loves Which may be had for GOD. 1. WE may love God not for the sake of himself but for some other good things depending on his Almighty power which we hope to obtain from him Such Love as this had the Carnal Jews who observed the Law in hopes only of being recompenc'd with the dew of Heaven and the fertility of the Earth This love is neither Chast nor Filial but meerly Servile or rather to speak properly who loveth so does not love God but his own dear Self and seeks entirely for himself not God but what comes from him 2. We may have Faith and not one degree of Charity with it We know God to be our only happiness that is to say the only Object the sight whereof can render us happy Now should we in this slate love God as the only instrument to be made use of for to work our happiness and because we are not able to find our happiness in any other object should we look upon God as a means of felicity and refer it purely to our selves as to its ultimate end this would be rather a self-love than a love of God at least it would be contrary to order as respecting God as an object or instrument of our felicity both to our selves and our own happiness And though by this love we should seek for no other reward but God alone yet would it prove wholly mercenary and of meer concupiscency That Soul as saith S. Francis of Sales in his Book of the love of God Lib. 2. c. 17. which should love God only out of love to her self by establishing the end of that love

to be Examined by my Bishops a great number of Doctors and learned Religionaries of several Orders They have all as well Bishops as Doctors unanimously reported that it was a very ill and dangerous Book and that the Explanation published by the said Archbishop was unwarrantable He declared in his Preface that his intention only was to Explicate the Doctrine of his Brethren who after they had attempted by all gentle ways to reclaim him they found themselves obliged in Conscience to put out their Declaration concerning his Book and to consign the same into the Hands of the Archbishop of Damas your Holiness's Nuncio at my Court to the end that your Holiness might put an end to an Affair that may have pernicious Consequences if it be not nipt in the very Bud. I humbly intreat you to pass sentence upon the same Book and Doctrine contained therein as soon as possible and assure your Holiness at the same time that I shall make use of all my Authority to put the Decision you shall make in Execution and that I am Most Holy Father Your very affectionate Servant LOUIS Meudon Aug. 26. 1697. THE TABLE SEveral sorts of Love wherewith we may love God The First Love 1 The Second 1 The Third 2 The Fourth 3 The Fifth 5 The Names of these Five sorts of Love 1. Of the Carnal Love of the Jews 7 2. The love of Concupiscence ibid. 3. The love of Hope 8 4. Interested Love ibid. 5. Pure Love ibid. ARTICLES 1. Of the love of Concupiscence 9 2. Three different Degrees of Just Persons upon Earth 12   How Fear and Hope purify themselves 13   The effects of pure Love 15 3. Of interested love It makes a great many Saints 18 4. How Hope perfects her self and keeps her distinction from Charity 21   How an interested Soul can Will or seek God as he is her Good 24 5. The two states of the Just of Resignation and Indifference 26   What holy Indifference is 27   Passages out of St. Francis de Sales concerning it 29 6. Holy indifference is the real Principle of the interested desires of the Law and of Grace 33 7. There is no state that gives Souls a miraculous Inspiration wherein consists the perfection of the internal Life 35 8. What abandoning ones self is 39   The extream Tryals of abandoning 40   The Souls resistance makes these Tryals long and painful 40   The diffeeence between common Temptations and the Tryals of an entire purification 41 9. The state of the Soul that abandons her self to God in these extream Tryals 43   The Edge of the Spirit or Top of the Soul 44 10. The Souls absolute Sacrifice of its own Interest to God 46 11. The difference between the New and the Old Law 51   The Soul ought to follow Grace without being willing to prevent it 52   A cooperation with Grace ibid.   Of Activity 53 12. Of disinterested Souls 57   An abnegation and hatred of ones self ib.   One ought always to watch over himself 58   The difference between the Vigilancy of pure and interested love 60 13. Simple and direct Acts and reflex Acts an inward certainty 62 14. The separation of the upper part of the Soul from the lower in extream Tryals 65   How this separation is made ibid. 15. Vniversal Sobriety Mortification 68   A temperature of Austerities 69   The effects of Austerities ibid. 16. Two sorts of Proprieties 71   Resignation 72   What mystical Men call Propriety 73   Disappropriation ibid. 17. Common and extraordinary temptations and the difference between them 77 18. Divers sorts of Wills in God 81   The permissive Will of God 82 19. Vocal and mental Prayer 84 20. Of Reading 87   A persuasion of the most powerful love of all 88 21. The difference between Meditation and Contemplation 89 22. When Meditation may be quitted in order to enter upon Contemplation 93 23. For what Souls contemplation is not convenient 95 24. Habitual Contemplation 96 25. Perpetual Prayer 98 26. Interruptions of direct Contemplation 101 27. Direct Contemplation is negative 102 28. How centemplative Souls are deprived of the distinct views of Christ 106 29. Of passive Contemplation 109   Why they call it the Prayer of Silence or quietude 111 30. Of the passive state 114 31. The simplicity of the passive state 117 32. The liberty that is in the passive state 120 33. The Reunion of all the Virtues in Love 122 34. Of Spiritual Death 125 35. Of the state of Transformation 126 36. Of the Internal Exercises of transformed Souls 128 37. Transformed Souls may sin 130 38. And consequently they ought to come to Confession 132 39. The imperfections of the Soul 135 40. How a Transformed Soul is united to God 138 41. Of spiritual Marriages 139 42. Of substantial Vnion 140 43. The submission of the Spiritual Man 141 44. The Oeconomy and Secret of the sublimest Exercise of pure love 143 45. All the Internal ways are but the means to arrive at pure Love 145   The Conclusion of all the Articles 149 ADDITIONS THE Lord Archbishop of Cambray's Letter to the Pope 151 A Letter of the same Person dated August 3. 1697. 160 A Declaration of Three Prelates viz. of the Archbishop of Paris the Bishop of Meaux and Chartres upon the Book Entituled An Explanation of the Maxims of the Saints concerning the Internal Life 166 The Thirty Four Articles of the 16 and 26th of April 1695. 216 The French King's Letter to the Pope 227 FINIS Some BOOKS Printed for Henry Rhodes in Fleet-street MOnasticon Anglicanum or the History of the Abbies Monasteries Hospitals Cathedrals and Collegiate Churchies in England and Wales made English from Sir Will. Dugdale with Sculptures Folio price 10 s. 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Memoirs for the Ingenious Containing several Curious Observations in Philosophy Mathematicks Physick Philology and other Arts and Sciences By M. de la Crose Miscellaneous Letters giving an Account of the Works of the Learned both at home and abroad in which there is a Catalogue and Idea of all valuable Books The New Politicks of the Court of France under the Reign of Lewis XIV wherein are to be seen all his Intrigues in respect to the Potentates of Europe Letters writ by a Turkish Spy who lived Forty Five Years undiscover'd at Paris giving an Account to the Divan of Constantinople of the Remarkable Transactions in the Christian Courts