me forthwith to set upon the practice of this life hidden crucified despised which you have taught us by your example that I may truly say with St. Paul Absit mihi gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Your Cross dear Jesus is my Glory and I will glory in nothing else Honours Pleasures Riches I declare my mortal enemies seeing your property is to incline me perpetually to deviate from those ways to which Jesus calls me I abhor you as enemies of my Perfection Ah dear Saviour make me partaker of your life humble poor despised or let me live no longer in this life of mortality When Heaven shall be my Habitation I shall be content to be in Glory because there you are also in Tryumph but seeing that on Earth you would not be but in an abject condition I desire there to be with you also Alas I march but slowly to arrive at Perfection however in reality I would fain be wholly humbled both interiourly and exteriourly as your Divine wisdom sees best for me If it was your will I would search after external humiliations for I find no better food for a Christian Soul Perhaps they will prove hard of digestion to me yet for all that they may become by use profitable and delicious O dear Saviour seeing it is said of you by the Evangelical Prophet Saturabitur opprobriis Give me my fill of opprobies and abjections Ravish with your sweetness and consolations those who know well how to use such favours As for me let my repast be with Gall and Vinegar because by their relish I shall be rendred more like unto you O Jesus why was you circumcised O Mary why was you purified Your hearts were not sullied and yet you submit your selves to the abjections of sinners because to be despised was the object of your most tender affections There were never two hearts more full of the love of God and never more inflamed desires after humiliations Seeing then that one is the measure of the other if we will testifie that we love God we must also love to suffer for him How unjust are our complaints against those who undervalue us and how unreasonably are we disquieted when we are scorn'd by others We ought rather to be troubled because we are not despised enough and thus it would be with us if we had a heart entirely Christian 'T is true Grace can only infuse such inclinations into our Souls Nature eggs us on to the contrary And 't is my unhappiness that I who write this shall I fear fall short hereof in time of trial For I am altogether frail and good for nothing and for ought I know what I have said or done which appears so beautiful may be rotten within witness my often relapses which sufficiently tell me what a poor abject Creature I am and how much I deserve to be despised CHAP. II. The foundation of true Christian Humility WHen I consider that God is all in all that he possesses in himself incomprehensible perfections that he has created and provided for us infinite good things I cannot but acknowledge that all Honour all Glory all Praise all Adoration is due unto him O how just a debt is all this from us to the Divine Majesty When I consider O God that I am a pure Nothing that I have in my self an inexhaustible Mine of imperfections and miseries that I have committed great offences and am yet liable to more unless prevented by Grace I acknowledge that I deserve to be the scorn of men all sorts of opprobries and disgraces all maladies of Soul and Body Darkness punishments Temporal and Eternal to be afflicted mocked persecuted by all creatures as Executioners of Divine Justice And I look upon my self as the Mark whereat should be aimed these Arrows of deserved indignation God can never be sufficiently honoured loved exalted glorified and I can never be enough debased hated despised and persecuted I ought to have not only this humility of Spirit but likewise a will and affection to suffer for God always esteeming my self worthy of all scorn and contempt though never so publick if it may conduce to God's glory and the good of others For if I be honour'd as my condition requires if I do not debase my self below the meanest Vassals 't is because the Order of government forbids it and would not be expedient for those who might abuse this condescension However as for me I ought to have this will and inclination and believe 't is the place is due unto me Alas dear Saviour I cannot be acceptable in your sight unless I have an humble heart and this I cannot have but by your grace For if all natural good proceeds from your bounty much more must all supernatural grace flow from the pure Fountain of your Mercy and if you are the Giver of all grace doubtless principally of true humility which is so repugnant to nature that there 's nothing she more abhors than Humiliation Seeing dear Saviour all good proceeds from you the glory thereof ought solely to be rendred to you I ought to take no complacence but in you rejoycing in that you glorifie your self enriching my poverty with your abundance When I see persons afflicted poor distressed lame deformed I confess dear Saviour these humiliations are my due and if you should inflict any of them on me I would adore and love your Justice and for what you have bestowed upon me I adore and love your mercy I will never complain because no Creature can do me an injury I ought not to look on the designs of men whose intentions oftentimes are only to hurt to revenge and solace themselves with others miseries but to have an eye to the purposes of God which are to chastise me to better me and to humble me The Jews put Jesus Christ to death out of revenge and envy and God the Father had a design thereby to save Mankind I will not hereafter hunt after Applause and Honour for I am resolved not to follow the inclination of depraved Nature but following the example of Jesus Christ who suffered for me I will desire poverty contempts pains and uniting them to his sufferings I will earnestly beseech him according to the multitude of his mercies to have pity on me If we would once seriously endeavour to know our selves the beams of Divine Grace would make wonderful discoveries in our Souls without which 't is impossible for us to see the depth of our miseries In this Dungeon lies a prolifical Seed of Treason ready on all occasions to conceive and bring forth all sorts of iniquity O that 't is not sufficient to be without the black tincture of actual sin We have the source thereof within us and certain vitious inclinations deeply rooted even as we find some Weeds in Gardens so fixed that their roots seem to reach the very centre which will never hardly be entirely pluck'd up but daily they appear a-new and keep us in
by this fault I may see my Nothing my weakness my inclinations to evil more clearly than formerly I was miserable and I did not know it I was frailty it self and I did not perceive it but 〈…〉 acknowledge my vileness tho' I cannot 〈◊〉 â—athom the depth thereof 〈…〉 I am well-pleas'd that this fault happen'd 〈◊〉 presence of my Friends who will thereâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—ow what I am It much displeases me to 〈◊〉 offended God by being so faithless to his â—â—â—ces but I joy in this that I am well-pleas'd â—â—th my humiliation 'T is a good hap to be deâ—â—â—sed in the esteem of others and does relish â—weet to such who desire to repair the injury â—hey have done to God by sinning against him To be powerfully convinced of our pure Nothing and great Frailty is the profit we ought to make of our imperfections How profitable is the discovery of my misery to me seeing it makes clear unto me all these verities This is the truth of it I am nothing but infirmity and corruption and more than I can comprehend And for the love I ought to have for Truth by a voluntary acquiescence I love and adore Divine Providence which has brought me to the sight of my own Nothing I acknowledge my self to be miserable and am pleas'd the world should know it and use me according to this verity 'T is true also that we ought not to complain of whatsoever injury is done us by word or deed for 't is always less than we deserve 'T is the Law of Christianity and a great truth that we ought to love abjection Jesus having loved it by his Father's order and he is the grand exemplar we must imitate 'T is true also that after our failings we ought to comfort our selves with the love of abjection and make use of our infirmity to please 〈◊〉 Just as when a Ship is broken by a Temâ—â—â— we get some shatter'd Plank to save us 〈◊〉 perishing 'T is true also that since this lapse I perceâ—â—â— better than ever the Bounty the Power anâ— Mercy of God towards me and all the Divine Perfections appear unto me beaming forth more splendors of Glory Just as the Moon never makes more evident the dependance she has upon the Sun than in Eclipses 'T is true also that a Soul sensible of her infirmities is content with her Talent without disquieting her self to attain the perfections of great Saints whereoâ— she acknowledges her self unworthy And if God be pleased to communicate unto her great Graces she will not grow proud as well knowing her own weakness but rejoyce in this that God thereby may be more honour'd 'T is true also that being convinced of her own unworthiness she has no confidence in her self but in God alone to whom entirely she gives up her self to deal with her as he pleases in Mercy or Justice She wonders not to see her self left and abandon'd to sin because she knows she deserves no better and then blesses the Divine Mercy for not dealing with her according to her Merits 'T is true also that a Soul grieving to have displeas'd God would be content to be really reduc'd to her first Nothing iâ— such was the Divine pleasure For though she knows being so brought to Nothing she cannot be capable to please God or enjoy him notwithstanding such is the love she has for the Divine Will that she would have that done though she perish To acknowledge and be content with our own baseness is one of the greatest mercies God can do for a Soul For hereby she draws Salvation from Perdition as God knows how to advance his Glory by our sins A Soul thus enlightned is content to be set on the Dunghil of her miseries surrounded with humiliations for her faults as Job was with afflictions and beholding her self as it were the Queen of Infirmities and Abjections she 's pleas'd therewith seeing she may thereby honour and magnifie the Divine Goodness If a Soul be miserable by falling into sin she is rich in possessing the Treasure of humiliation after her failings But this is a truth hidden to most men who do not discover this advanrage They are poor and yet have a Treasure in their Field which they may have for digging Jesus poor and abject for love of me leave me not to my self lift up my Soul after her fall and gâ—ve her some of that Cordial Water which is call'd the love of Abjection that chases away the vain vapours of self-love by which the Soul is darken'd and loses courage Glorifie your power in my infirmities be pleas'd to condescend so far as to receive me returning into the arms of your Mercy and grant I may die unto my self that I may live in your Embraces Methinks dear Jesus I already feel your tenderness unto me your divine love vouchsafes me a relish of the sweets of Paradice my eyes are bath'd in tears of contentment my heart is dilated and love does firmly unite me to you Wherefore do you vouchsafe the kiss of Peace so soon to such a Wretch as I am Why do you not leave me in bitterness of Soul and trouble of Spirit as a just chastisement for my sins Your Mercy will not so deal with me but by wonderful preventions of love in the midst of my infirmities you redouble your favours and consolations O that I was all love to serve you wholly by way of gratitude I would have all the world to see my Infidelities to the end your mercy may shine more glorious I know that the sight of my sin had so frozen my heart as in a manner to make me liveless but O my Jesus you have provided an excellent remedy seeing the flames of divine love have set me all on fire to do your will 'T is a great favour to be in this temper of Soul but dear Jesus stay not here visit my heart again with the feelings of your humiliations that your inscrutable abjections may be its centre and render it in some sort conformable to yours and do this miracle of your Grace that this faithless heart may become a divine heart by the infinite merit of your most precious Blood CHAP. XVII Considerations upon the vileness of this corruptible body HOw is a Soul pleased to know that her body must return to dust This humiliation is the object of her complacency When the illustrations of a Divine Light clear up the understanding then she knows that perfection consists in a tendence to humiliation wherein she meets with the exaltation of God by the admirable contrivance of the Divine Wisdom O dust and ashes you may be terrible to worldly Souls but I am sure you bring joy to those who walking by the light of Faith and conduct of Grace love dearly the interests of God and life eternal The loss of worldly Interests Honour Contentment is painful to Nature too much attached to her self but a Soul elevated by Grace rejoyces at the loss of her own
of God and his Divine perfections Let such a Soul be in light or darkness in peace or war elevated or dejected she is still the same because God's will is hers and she desires nothing but what pleases him Her chief care is to give her self up wholly to Gods will in so great variety of Interiour states And why should a Soul be concern'd at this variety For if I purely desire to please God 't will be all one to me whether I do it by suffering or enjoying CHAP. X. That we ought to give our selves up with confidence to Divine Providence DEar Lord draw the passions and affections of my heart wholly after you O that I could go out of my self to abide only in you Oh that I had no love but for you no fear no desire no joy but in you and that my affections were only for you O that your Grace would mortifie in me the fears hopes sadness and desires of nature that you might be the sole Object of my love This is the purity we must aim at or else we possess our Soul in vain Our blessed Saviour saith in the Gospel That one Sparrow shall not be forgotten of God Why then have we such fears to want who are chiefly call'd upon to rely on Providence If God permits us to be in want 't is to bring us to perfection by sufferings God is pleas'd to give us daily his precious Body and will he deny us Bread I cannot believe it All thoughts to to the contrary are from the Enemy or nature sollicitous for the things of this Life My confidence ought to be in God alone Though it happen that we fall into troubles temptations or sickness which seem to deprive us of the good temper of Soul to attend to our devotions we ought to abandon our selves to the good pleasure of God and say God only and his holy Will If the Idaea of some state of perfection presents it self to the understanding if we make some resolutions upon the feelings of an actual favour we ought the more entirely abandon our selves to God and say I desire God only and his holy Will This abandon makes a Soul peaceable and content and dead to the World to which though she may feel some motions of affection yet they are troublesom and gain no consent In this state she is wholly absorpt in God finding her repose in him alone and out of him is no contentment It seems to her that whatever accidents may happen they shall not disturb her quiet she is grounded in God her Soveraign peace And though she may feel some emotions in the inferiour part they do not reach the Superiour Faculties We must be perfect as God will have us not as we will have it the ways of God are far different from the judgments of men The World believ'd that King Lewis must be Sainted by conquering the Holy Land God made him him a Saint indeed but not by his Victories but his Captivity not by his Triumphs but his Sufferings We intend to Sanctity our selves by actions and God will do it by afflictions We must give our selves up to his conduct absolutely abandon our selves to his Will and only love his designs When shall I be so mortified to my own endeavours as to abandon my self wholly to Divine Providence I must follow purely the designs of God love only his good pleasure put my confidence in him and he will have a care of me in such a way as shall be best to advance his Glory Doubtless 't is an effect of Grace in us not to rely on our own Providence but to depend chiefly on Gods assistance We must therefore elevate our selves above nature which relies on Creatures and fears wants and abhors sufferings that we may put our sole confidence in God Whoever trusted in him and was confounded There be as well Martyrs of Providence as Martyrs for Faith They are more hidden and sometimes suffer little less than the other being content with all occurrences of Providence which deprive them of their Goods or Honours or call their Lives in question for Conscience sake And sometimes to enjoy God in a more perfect way they despise and forsake the accommodations of this life that they may Sacrifice themselves to God with the flames of Divine Love in Pious Exercises Or if Providence has so order'd that they should be born subject to Deseases and Miseries they bear them with perfect resignation There be also Spiritual Martyrs whom Providence has order'd to suffer much by Interiour pains O how advantagious is it for such Souls to have an eye to Gods designs upon them and be faithful therein As for me the love of Gods will shall hereafter be the rule of my actions and undertakings I will abandon my self and all Creatures and put my confidence in God alone If our imperfections disturb our inward Peace and union with God we must repair it without too much disquieting our selves for our pass'd faults Union with God is never without love and love will blot out our Offences and bring the Soul to repose in her wonted center CHAP. XI To be indifferent to all things but Gods good Pleasure ONe excellent effect of the Presence of God in the Soul is to make us as it were insensible of all things but Gods will A Soul that is enrich'd with this indifferency can desire nothing else yea not Virtues themselves except in order to Gods pleasure We must strictly examine our selves concerning this general disengagement from Creatures and not easily believe we have it except on several occasions we find so by experience Our blessed Saviour vouchsafes me extraordinary attracts to be wholly his He puts me into a state of wonderful Interiour peace and quiet so that it cost me little to do Virtuously I aspire after dear Solitude and holy Poverty My Health is but feeble and in probability my Life here cannot be long and therefore I endeavour to live so disengag'd as if in effect I was already dead My dear Jesus infuses into my Soul a Spirit of denudation and I do cherish it that I may live no more in my self but my continuance in this Pilgrimage may be beneath me and I without any gust or affection to it So that at present I suffer not a little to see my self so far from God amidst the distractions and necessities of the body and other affairs incumbent on me For when God manifests himself to a Soul experimentally tasting his infinite goodness to live here below is a pain unto her However she continues in great Peace because in her Interiour she is purely resign'd to Gods good pleasure I am so habituated to have an eye to God alone and not to please my self but in him and to have no joy but for him that I cannot rejoyce to see my self perfect nor be sad at my Imperfections God is my all his will his pleasure and nothing else All reflections on my self seem to fully
of no value Speak to such a Soul of worldly affairs and you seem to cast dust in her eyes which hinders her from beholding the beauties of her Beloved and as soon as she can she clears her eyes to recover her Happiness This inconvenience makes her flee from the World to preserve her purity from being fullied with the dust of Creatures When we leave our Solitude by the order of God to converse with men we find our selves better dispos'd to the practice of Heroick Virtues to a perfect contempt of riches and honours to patience in cross affairs to the love of enemies to an affability condescendance and fidelity to our Friends Thus expressing in our actions the Image of Jesus Christ by faithfully complying with the occasions of Virtue Pure Mortification pure Virtue these are the delights of a Soul that hath convers'd with God in a holy retirement where she hath learn'd to love him purely and suffer for him CHAP. III. The difficulties of Solitude I find by experience that nothing more hinders our Salvation and Holiness than to overwhelm our selves with multiplicity of Affairs though lawful so as to loose thereby the times alotted for Prayer and Mortification the proper nourishment of a Spiritual Life A gracious Soul must therefore so comport her self in converse and action as not to engage at all her affections therein for God alone is the life of her Spirit without whom she finds her self both poor and miserable 'T is God only makes our Solitude amiable being a kind of participation of the Life of God which consists in knowing and loving This Solitary life is much endang'red and sometimes lost in a croud of Creatures nor can the Soul approach to them without some spiritual detriment She must therefore have a care not to leave her retirements to follow Worldly business unless it be by some inspiration from God or obedience to Superiours In which cases if she labours to do good to others it will be no prejudice to her self You may give them a hearing who tell you that 't is not well done thus to retire from the World for they may speak this out of Charity but yet without a true knowledge and understanding of your way To discern this aright we must have a care not to confound spiritual maxims some whereof are proper for a Contemplative others for an Active Life These are to be put in practice without partiality for otherwise we shall much disorder the ways of God and disquiet others Seeing the Active and Contemplative Life are different the practice must be different likewise The Active requires to spend much time to do others good both Spiritually and Corporally which cannot be done without abilities and possessions to relieve the poor These possessions cannot be kept without some care and trouble and this care of Temporals is suitable enough to the Active Life But damagable to the Contemplative which layes aside all Temporal Affairs least they should divert them from their principal employment which is the actual love of God and attention to his Divine presence The Active Life requires possessions to have wherewithall to give to the poor 'T is enough for the Contemplative to have himself in possession that he may give himself up wholly to God whereby he possesses him with great advantage Those that undertake this Solitary Life of Contemplation must expect sufferings on every side yea some spiritual men will account them Sycophants There 's little discourse of them because they live a hidden life and pass in a manner for unprofitable Persons They live unknown and die in abjection and living a despis'd life they are esteemed by too many but as the dust of the earth And which is the greatest cross of all if their Directors have not light and judgment in these matters they force them to an Active Life and so bring them off from their way and center with a continual rack and violence to their Conscience and Inclinations The Devil Persecutes them in their Solitudes endeavouring to divert them by disgusts or by Idaeas of great matters they shall do by helping others and that they ought to prefer the salvation of one only Soul before all their Prayers and Contemplations Notwithstanding all this they ought to continue constant to the Solitude to which they have a call from Heaven unless God give them different Inspirations to apply themselves to an Active Life Holy Abraham did quit his Hermitage upon these terms to search out his debauched Neece to save her Soul The truest Rule for Contemplatives either to continue or quit their Solitude is to observe the instincts and motions of God in their Interiour examin'd by skilfull Directors in those matters We must have a special care that in the eager pursuit of the things of God we do not withdraw our selves from the Divine Order concerning us in a course of spirituality Our great efforts must be not to do much but to please God And seeing God is pleas'd with a little from us though all we can do for his glory is always very little and almost nothing we must be content to do little since such is the order of his Providence Let every one go on in his own way with indifferency love and fidelity leaving others Peaceable in theirs with a great esteem of the Grace of God in them and continuing on our course 't is no prudence to discover the actings of God in us unless to such who are Practitioners in Contemplation Who has a call to Solitude and Contemplation must free himself from Creatures as much as possible shun discourses of News and reflections on Worldly Affairs unless constrained by necessity or Charity For a little matter will darken the Soul and hinder her from being elevated to God by Contemplation To conclude believe me a true Contemplation must be endowed with profound Purity of Virtue which cannot be attained by a constant Mortification of sensual nature which is no small and a lasting Martyrdom CHAP. IV. The Occupations of Solitude MEthinks for some days past I have had many inward motions inviting me to Solitude and Contemplation which notwithstanding did not relish with me because in such retirements we do little or nothing for the good of others But we ought to carry our selves above such considerations resolutely following the conduct of God with a firm adherence to his Orders In this faithful complyance with Divine Inspirations consists the Purity and Happiness of our Souls it being the principal work and most advantagious means to attain to Perfection and union with God O my God I am in a manner good for nothing you have not endow'd me with great Talents for the good of others But I must needs acknowledge your singular mercies to me in enriching my Soul with Divine love and continual aspiring after union with you Let others do what you have set them about 't is sufficient for me if the ardours of Divine Love inflame my heart To
have inflamed affections for you is my greatest work but to bring my heart to such a temper it must become like dry wood being emptyed of humidity by a seperation from all Creatures This desire of inflamed affections puts me upon purifying my heart and the expectation of enjoyment makes me eager in the practice of Mortification by embracing Evangelical Councels and maxims of Christianity Seeing poverty contempt and crosses increase the flames of Divine Love they are welcom to me for I ardently desire to see them arise to their highest elevation I know a good Religious man who in his Solitudes is in continual Prayer not only by the elevation of his Spirit but by union with God in a wonderful manner My Soul finds great contentment in his discourse and conversation In sickness his enjoyment of God is not so vigorous nor his Peace of Soul so savorous though always great Worldly conversations seem but as dreams to him and when past they did only leave confus'd Idaeas in his memory A blessed man doubtless while here on earth And conversing with me in simplicity of heart by obedience he declar'd to me what wonderful enjoyments God was pleas'd to vouchsafe unto him He told me that to attain Purity of Heart we must divest our selves of all affections to Creatures and not satisfie our natural desires which is a great Mortification when 't is continual In sickness we must stand very much upon our guard for we easily relax and yield too much to nature Not to correspond to a known inspiration is gross infidelity and much retards our advancement in a Spiritual Life A principal point of Devotion is by a punctual fidelity to omit no occasion to practice virtue whether of humility patience abjection or any other This Contemplative told me that the choicest effect wrought in us by Revelations or Visions is this punctual fidelity to Gods calls 'T is an affair will take up the whole Soul to free her self from any engagement with Creatures and conquer her own natural Inclinations that she may enter into the states of Jesus crucified and into his ways with his Spirit that is with his intentions and dispositions Let us O my Soul in the profound silence of our Solitude often say to Jesus O Divine Jesus despised for me contemptible poor for me a poor Creature annihilated for me a meer nothing Terms which in some sort express the perfect union that the Soul ought to have with Jesus Crucified And this union is the grand occupation of Solitaries In the Court of Kings the Cooks and Bakers and other meaner Officers labour more than a Gentleman of the Chamber who has little to do but to attend his Majesty as a Companion rathen then a Servant A Favourite has yet less employ being admitted into his Prince's Closet to converse freely with him and entertain each other with mutual caresses In the House of God they who are appointed most for action are not the greatest Favourites those to whom God vouchsases extraordinary visits in Contemplation labour less and yet are more accepted by him T is not for us to apply our selves too much to Exteriour actions of Charity but to correspond to Gods Holy Inspirations if he call us to Solitude to attend on himself alone out of the noise of Creatures Is it not great pity that Temporal affairs should take up the best days of our years and the choicest hours of our days leaving us little time in comparison to apply our selves to the one thing necessary the work of our Eternal Salvation 'T would be better for us if we would allot more time to our Holy retirements to converse with God by Prayer and Contemplation and begin on earth what we must continue without end in ever Blessed Eternity CHAP. V. How we may put our Soul and Senses into a Solitude LEt us not deceive our selves in being content to receive the seed of Divine Inspirations without bringing forth any fruit according to the designs of God If we have a discerning Spirit in the ways of Grace we shall soon discover that this our only affair and all the rest is but amusement and folly To nourish this Divine Seed in us we must shun the conversation of Worldly wisemen who are guided only by Carnal Prudence and so being strangers to the Procedings of Grace leave in us more or less by their Discourse some Impression of their ill opinions which will retard our advancement in the ways of God To put the Soul into Solitude we must retire from all Creatures and put our selves absolutely in the hands of God to do with us what he pleases and apply our selves to him alone with all possible endeavours To be faithful herein we must resolve to suffer much for we cannot abide Peaceably in this Divine Hermitage without leaving Parents Friends Worldly Entertainments Affairs and to suffer almost a continual Persecution on every side For one tells you that it is an Hypocritical and unprofitable Life Another that so much Solitude cannot be good in that we ought to have some Charity for our Neighbour But let them talk on every one is to follow his own work and the will of God according to their vocation The best and most noble imployment in the World is to converse with God and do that on Earth which the Saints and Angels do in Heaven How the Devil persecutes a Soul in this state under fair pretences But she must stop her ears and quit all to adhere to her Soveraign good when he vouchsafes to call her to attend on him alone When God says he will lead a Soul into a Solitude Ducam eam in Solitudinem 'T is a singular Mercy For we shall find but few in the World prepar'd for the Cross and resolv'd to go through all the difficulties of a Life so supernatural A Soul that is in such a happy disposition will live Solitary not troubling her self with the cryes of others When God once speaks Powerfully to the heart 't will make more impression on us than all the noise of the World It comes into my mind that to be Faithful to the Call of God which I have to Solitude requires of me to spend six hours a day in Prayer and to comply therewith to retire my self about five in the Afternoon and eat little at night Methinks also I ought to observe a general Solitude not only in relation to my Soul but to my Interiour and Exteriour Senses yea when I shall converse with my Friends and behold her I conceive this may be done Sacred Solitude consists in being alone with God in a vacancy from Creatures and whatevet is not God It seems to me then when we discourse of God and his affairs we make our tongue Solitary and so speak like a Hermit When we will not give ear to any but Divine Discourses our ears turn Hermits When we will not allow our eyes any Objects but such as are pleasing to God we put them into
another as I have loved you which was the subject of my second Prayer I then found that when a Soul has made a good entrance into the heart of Jesus Christ and by the light of Prayer sees the infinite love of God towards men Grace then discovers how this divine charity is free generous and magnificent Free having a love for us when objects of his just displeasure Generous surmounting all difficulties and conquering all resistances Magnificent in giving his own life for our Redemption This is a Zeal truly Divine for the Salvation of Souls Now his pleasure is that the charity we have for our Neighbour be regulated by this divine Model that we love them to do the will of God and obey his Commands That we love them generously without any regard to natural aversions or injuries they have done us or any temporal advantages we may receive from them but after the example of Jesus to love and do good even to our greatest enemies O how many great Saints considering the ardent love of Christ to us have burn'd with the flames of a holy Zeal and spent themselves in labours to do good to those Souls for whom Christ died But alas we have little zeal for God for our Neighbour or our selves My third Prayer passed in considerations of the prodigious goodness of Jesus to men who seem'd to forget himself and depose the grandeurs of his Majesty to debase himself in the search of our Souls to indulge and love them with as much affection as if they did contribute to his felicity He prevents them with wonderful mercies and though they be unworthy of his love he gives them sensible feelings thereof by speaking to the heart in this or such-like manner My Sister my Spouse my love takes a delight in thee knowest thou well who I am 'T is I that am thy God thy Creator thy Saviour 'T is I who came from the bosom of my Father into this world to find thee being lost and tell thee how I love thee and I demand nothing but love again My Soul thus prevented with the blessings of this sweetness and powerfully touched with a sense thereof wanted words to express my thankfulness However I said O my God! You are my love I love you and will love you eternally with all my heart for what else have I to return but love for love 'T is a wonderful love for you to debase the grandeurs of your Divinity to search after poor sinful Souls Nor is it less wonderful for you to draw these Souls out of themselves to free them from their miseries and advance them to your embraces and place them in your heart as some rich Treasure This is the wonderful excess of the love of Jesus Zelator of Souls This love that so humbled Jesus does elevate a Soul to these amorous exercises and makes her see her own unworthiness and the incomparable beauty of her well-beloved In my fourth Prayer I had a deep impression of Jesus humbled and doing Penance for us I beheld him as it were annihilated in the presence of his eternal Father to honour his eternal Beeing by sacrificing his humanity which he continued his whole life and consummated on the Cross I beheld also how being charged with our sins he did continual Penance for us to satisfie the divine Justice and give content to that infinite love he has for our Souls Let us love then O my Soul our Jesus as he has loved us and imitate his sufferings by a spirit of penance and annihilation I am a great sinner and therefore ought to entertain a spirit of penance and thereby make advantage of all evils and infirmities which happen to me My principal affair in this world ought to be to annihilate my self and to suffer to annihilate my self to pay homage to the infinite grandeurs of God and to suffer as a just punishment of my sins After Confession having but one Gloria Patri for my penance it came into my thoughts that no penance is little when 't is united to the sufferings of Jesus Christ who by them has done penance for our sins It seemed to me that one only Ave Maria united to the sufferings of the Son of God which are of infinite merit and did infinitely satisfie his eternal Father becomes a penance which wonderfully satisfies for our sins My Soul was comforted with this truth and I had no more to do than to unite my little Crosses to the Cross of Jesus Sixth Day Jesus contemplating and enjoying OUr blessed Saviour did fill my Soul with such super-abundant consolation in my morning Prayer that I seem'd to have some part of that state of enjoyment which is reserv'd for the Saints in Glory O amorous enjoyment how wonderfully dost thou purifie our Souls Thou takest our hearts off from the World thou dost Crucifie us with a delightful Martyrdom thou dost enlighten thou dost purifie thou dost inflame thou dost mortifie thou dost fortifie thou makest us live and die together A small tast of this Ocean of delights will inebriate the Souls of men and the Angels in Glory This is that Blessed Life which is granted to some Servants of God honouring him by continual enjoyments which he pours into their Souls 'T is a great secret of the Interiour Life to be passive to the operations of God in us whether he visits us with dolorous and crucifying or joyful and beatifying impressions Our fidelity consists in a pure correspondence to his designs without reluctance If he please to make our Soul a Garden of Delights embrace his Favours All the ways of God are good in themselves but that which he puts us in is best for us O how the state of Jesus suffering is adorable O how his state of enjoying is admirable We must apply our selves to one or other according to the designs of the Divine Wisdom I found an Image of Jesus in Contemplation his Look and Posture ravish'd me and this took up my second Prayer I was not satisfied with beholding his Divine Aspect I admir'd and ador'd him Considering the profound attention he had to the Grandeurs of his Eternal Father and how he was absorp'd in the Divinity I made it my work to contemplate also by him and in him uniting my self to the utmost of my Power to his Divine entertainments O Jesus contemplating Jesus taken up with your Father with whom you pass in Prayer whole nights made as bright as the days of Eternity Jesus living a retir'd life in the Divine Essence You are the object of my Love I see nothing so beautiful as you are in this state My Soul hath no greater delight upon Earth than to have an eye to Jesus to think of him to speak of him to sigh after him O how happy is that Soul which Jesus makes his Mansion I know not how Jesus comes into a Soul but he 's there sometimes sooner then perceiv'd filling her with Blessings and making her to find that
he ought nor lov'd with thankfulness He loves us so as to die for us and we make no reciprocal returns O the prodigious insensibility of men Is then Jesus Christ a stranger to us and not our God and Saviour Does the History of his holy Passion pass with us as a profane or indifferent thing Ought not the bloody Tragedy of Calvary fill all Christian hearts with love and sorrow For my part I could hide my head with shame that I have so little compassion and love for Jesus dying on the Cross for our Salvation O my Jesus I confess my fault in that I have so little known my infinite obligations to you But seeing your Grace discovers now to me more clear than heretofore what you are I will never more lose sight of you I will love nothing more than You and esteem nothing more than to do you honour You are my true Father my true Brother true Friend true King true Redeemer O how great a truth is it that you are all in all unto me O that I have been so long without knowing you aright O Jesus how Happy am I that I have found you O let me never so much loose my self as to forsake you For my fourth Prayer I stood at the Sepulcher of Jesus and seeing his precious Body dead and covered with Wounds I made this Epitaph Here lyes Love Yes yes here lyes Love indeed for his excessive Love to us brought him to this state and condition A state full of horror and wounds Blood and Infamy But a state well pleasing to God as satisfying his Justice for mans Redemption I embraced his precious Body and kiss'd his Sacred Wounds I adored Jesus in this state and said O my Soul we must either cease to Love Jesus or die with him seeing Love equalizes Lovers and makes them alike My Soul then chose to die with Jesus and after many sighs and desires to please her Beloved she died with Jesus never willing more to live a Natural and Humane Life but a Life Divine and Supernatural as that of Jesus And I made for her this Epitaph Here lyes a Soul dead of Love Behold in what consists the death of my Soul 't is to live no longer according to the natural Inclinations but according to the motions of Grace which are the Love of Poverty Contempt and Sufferings While these dispositions live in a Soul she is dead to Sensual desires and lives a Life of Grace a Life Supernatural Therefore for the future I will never hunt after Honours or Pleasures or Riches willingly and by Election but I will either heartily forsake them or if I use them it shall be upon Divine Motives for the good of my Neighbour or for pure necessity seeing That is the Will of God the surest rule of all our Actions Tenth Day Jesus risen from Death and Glorious IN my Morning Prayer I consider'd the Glory of Jesus Christ in the state of his triumphant Resurrection O Jesus how Glorious are you How well does this become you Verily 't was a strange state whither your Love had brought you A state of Misery Shame and Sorrow This was well for us Criminals but in no sort agreeing to you who are Innocence it self For what belongs to you is Majesty and Glory What joy did swell my heart to see Jesus Glorious My Tongue cannot express what my Heart feels This great Feast of the Resurrection is to be celebrated by all Creatures seeing 't is the day wherein Jesus appears as God O Feast of the Glory of Jesus O Feast of the Glory of Mary 'T was a Miracle she did not die of Sorrow at the Death of her Son and 't is another Miracle she did not die of Joy at his Glorious Resurrection O my heart be thou enlarged with Joy for 't is a general rule without exception that the Interest of the Creator is to be preferr'd before all Creatures And therefore O triumphant Jesus I more rejoyce that you are Glorious then that I hope to be Glorified with you Yea though I should never be raised your Glory does ravish me It glads me when I consider that damnation only concerns the Creature for the Interest of Jesus suffers not thereby seeing God is Glorified by the Reprobates as well as by the Saints in Glory 'T is also a certain rule that the Elect O Divine Jesus are Images of you and so necessarily must resemble you in your Sufferings if with you they will be Glorified 'T is a folly to think not to suffer here some way or other more or less seeing the way to Glory is by Sufferings O my Soul be thou united to Jesus Crucified and then thou shalt have part with Jesus Glorified To this end thou must love the Cross and desire of Jesus to die or suffer O World thy way is meer folly and nothing else In my second Prayer I was taken up with these words of Divine Jesus Ought not Christ first to suffer and so to enter into Glory I discover'd how all the Divine Perfections did wonderfully shine forth therein But above all the Wisdom of God doth ravish those hearts which contemplate the works of Grace and Mercy O Divine Wisdom how well is the Oeconomy of your Mysteries order'd to work our Salvation and bring us to Glory Every Mystery which I consider'd did raise a new Fire in my breast to inflame my affections with the Love of Jesus Sometimes they altogether did as with so many arrows pierce my heart and made me languish with Divine Love For seeing my self so Belov'd of good Jesus how could I but Love him again O Infinite Love of Jesus for whom shall I have a heart if not for thee O Love 't is for thee my heart is reserved Thy attracts are powerful enough do not redouble them so sweet and charming 't is enough my heart is for thee O Love except thou wilt have me die do not wound me any more Yet I will die willingly if thou wilt have it so on the Cross of Interiour and Exteriour Suffering that I may be conform to my Loving Saviour My third Prayer was a continuation of the Sentiments of the Love of Jesus I made use of the words of great St. Austin in his Confessions O my Jesus you have wounded my heart with the arrows of your Charity and I have devoted it to your Love Since that you have scatter'd my Darkness and made your self known unto me I have not forgot you Since I had the Happiness to know you I have imprinted you in my memory there I find you and I tast perfect Delights and receive extreme Joy and Contentment when I remember you My Soul feeling Divine Fires within her which did fill her with Pleasures I did sing extempore Canticles to my Beloved and though not methodical yet they better express'd her amorous languishings Though alone in my Chamber I spake of Jesus aloud as if I had had many Auditors to be partakers of my
Divinity O how great is the dignity of pure Souls when they Communicate O how low and abject are all the Grandeurs of the World They are a meer Nothing compared with this For what Glory is comparable to that of a Soul intimately united with the Supream Being My God how delightful and transporting is the sight of the Wonders and profound Secrets wrapt up in your Mysteries how they penetrate the Soul you disclose them to This Union with Jesus in Communion is inessable For as the Father and the Son are one in Unity of Essence the Word and Humane Nature one in Unity of Person so the Soul that is one in Jesus partakes of both the Unions Divine and Humane Jesus is in her according to both his Natures and she is All in Jesus and while she does all things in him he works all in her he Prayes Adores Loves Suffers Labours insomuch that this perfect Union produces a certain Unity between God Jesus and the Soul and between all their operations It settles a kind of Partnership and Community of Goods and Possessions between them In a word it imports more than can be expressed Now this condition must needs be most Holy and Divine where God works in the Soul and the Soul in God In me manet ego in eo And the Alliance between them grows continually streighter and closer proportionably to her increasings in Virtue in this Life and receives its ultimate Perfection only in Heaven O amiable Jesus with what a profusion of Goodness and Love you entertain our Souls in this Sacrament You conceal your Presence under the External Species to give us occasion and advantage to exercise our Faith which beholds you so much more clearly as you are more secretly and obscurely present Again on the other side you manifest and shew your self by innumerable effects of your Grace and Divine Sentiments which you breath in the Soul to excite and exercise our Love What can a Soul do when she sees her self so prevented so convinced so pressed by evident instances and experimental proofs of your endless and unwearied Bounty What can she do but Love Love without stint render Love for Love how many excellent things might be said upon this Subject But how can those Sentiments be expressed that can hardly be conceived CHAP. XI The fourth Effect of Communion is to Confer the highest Love OFtentimes before and after Communion I was taken up with Contemplating the Perfections of God Which being one and the same in themselves yet they are different in our manner of conception and the verity of their effects Now when any one of them discovers it self it appears in full Beauty and Majesty and all the other seem to sink in to it and lend all their Ornaments and Excellence to increase its Lustre An instance hereof we have in the Blessed Sacrament where the Divine Love displayes all its Magnificence and the other Attributes contribute to that design the brightest of their Charms and Perfections Eternity Immensity Wisdom Omnipotence Justice Mercy and whatsoever is most eminent and adorable in the Divine Nature are present there and attend upon the triumph of Love Each of these Perfections espouse the Interests and put on the Inclinations of Love which are Liberality and Magnificence and accordingly operate in a Soul when Love makes his triumphant entry at the time of Communion For Love as its proper effect produceth in the Soul a reciprocal Love Eternity imprints continuance and perseverance Immensity spreads the Affection and gives it an unbounded extent wisdom sheds round about a Super-natural Light to guide its good purposes and illustrate the ways of Virtue Omnipotence inspires an invincible strength to surmount all difficulties and obstacles Thus in Communion a Soul does not only receive the impressions of Love but of Love attended with the Lustre and Excellencies of all the Divine Perfections It is observable that Jesus Christ together with his Eternal Father sent the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles to replenish them with Love in the same place where he had given them Himself in the Sacrament So that this Divine Sanctuary was chosen two several times to be the Theater where the two greatest Actions of Love were represented that ever the goodness of God exhibited out of himself The first in giving us his Son to reside in our Hearts who from all Eternity rests in his own Bosom and thereby enabling us to live Divinely by him as he lives by his Father The second in sending on us the adorable Spirit of the Father and the Son to be the knot of the Eternal Espousals of the Soul with her God to Beautify her with his In created Light to warm her with his Sacred Flames to animate her with his Heavenly Force and Virtue and in a word to render her entirely Spiritual And both these Actions are perpetuated in the Holy Church when at the same time we are Feasted with the precious Body of the Son of God and inebriated with the Spirit of his Love O who can conceive the admirable Commerce and Caresses that are interchanged between Jesus Christ and pure Souls in this Divine Sacrament The World which discerns nothing but by meditation of the Senses is too gross and stupid to comprehend them It thinks that Souls which are escaped from its snares and dis-engaged from its business lead an idle and unprofitable Life it fancies they do nothing because their Actions are not seen that their Fire is extinguished because it does not blaze in the eyes of Men. But on the contrary they resemble those Mountains full of Sulpher which carry vast Globes of Fire in their Bosomes though they break out but at certain times and then they are not only seen but whole Provinces feel the Conflagrations Towns and Villages are Burned and Fields covered with Ashes In like manner those retired Souls which burn inwardly with Divine Love and for the most part shine only to God and themselves yet when the command and service of the Lord excite them to External Duties they produce such extraordinary Effects that numbers of Souls are set on fire with their Virtues Example and Instructions In this kind we have had many great Servants of God who having conceived a thousand good desires in their retirement and inflamed with Heavenly fire by the frequent use of the most Holy Communion issue from their retreat and this Sacred Table like Lyons breathing nothing but flames and setting all on fire about them Such have made the great Conversions of Sinners changed the face of whole Provinces and Kingdoms and all this performed only by one or a small number of such Servants of God who appeared so powerful in Works and Words that all their Actions seemed to be so many Miracles Here we must observe that this Interiour Fire in a person not sufficiently retired within himself or that from time to time is not careful to lay on more Fewel to nourish it I mean to
In-actions and fulfilling your merciful intentions upon me which are very great and above the comprehension of him that receives them For who can comprehend how the Infinite Majesty of God should lodge and be received in so vile so streight so unworthy a place as the Heart of Man The coming of the Kingdom of God into a Soul Sounds very delightfully and seems sweet I but the poor heart must first prepare to suffer the violent pains of a continual Agony The heart where God Almighty reigns must bid adieu to all Humane Life She dies to all Pleasures to all Consolations even Divine She has no more support no more relyance upon Creatures even the most Holy The bent of Nature and all Humane Inclinations are extinguished in her she has no more a mind for one thing than for another unless it be for a Supream Indifference nothing but Abjections Annihilations Poverty De-reliction are her Portion She is not capable of any other knowledge than that of Jesus Crucified and her Wisdom is Folly to this World This is the manner I ought to depend on your Grace O Blessed Jesus and have continual recourse unto you For you are my Father who nourish me with your own Substance you are my strength and support my weakness You are my Center where all my Agitations and Inquietudes rest and are at an end You are my End and utmost term of all my Desires At present I have no clear sight of the Purity of your Love but only feel in my self forceable Instincts that incline me to desire the Purity of Love and make me frequently break out into such Expressions as these O pure Love O durable Love Happy is he that seeks thee more Happy he that has found and possesseth thee But ah incomparably most Happy Happy beyond measure he that Perseveres with thee and Dies in thy embraces The End of the Fifth BOOK BOOK VI. Of Interiour and Exteriour Crosses CHAP. I. That we must have a high esteem for Crosses I Esteem it a great Happiness when we suffer any thing for Gods sake there being nothing on Earth whereby we can better testifie the Honour and Love we have for him 'T is in this state we are in a capacity to offer up to the Divine Majesty excellent Sacrifices and render to him most signal Services We cannot do more for a Friend than to procure his Glory by our own Destruction and make our selves nothing to make him All. Hence it is that Saints have set up a higher value upon their Sufferings in Prisons and Chains for the Name of Jesus than to be wrapt up with St. Paul into the third Heaven by Contemplation Be comforted then O my Soul in the different states wherein thou findest thy self so it be that thou dost suffer something for God it is enough If thou hast not the gift of Prayer but art in in aridity of Spirit suffer and be content there is more merit in this than in the most ravishing Contemplation Art thou afflicted with Sickness and so deprived of hearing Mass and receiving the Blessed Sacrament Suffer and be content for 't is better to be in the rigours of the Cross than in the sweets of Spiritual Exercises If thou canst do nothing for the good of thy Neighbour suffer and be content for 't is less meritorious to act for God than suffer for him If thy Exercises of Devotion and good Designs do not succeed as thou expectest suffer and be content for 't is better to suffer then to have all things according to thy desires If thou hast any deformity of Body or no great Parts of Mind provided thou suffer this Patience no Person can do better for this pleaseth God Believe me the best Science in the World the best Prayer the greatest Happiness is to know how to suffer for Gods sake We have a very great esteem for the Wood of the Cross of Christ we search after it with no small diligence no person can present us with a more precious Relique We Enchese it in Gold we keep it near our Heart we have a Veneration for it and preserve it Religiously and not without reason because 't is a small Relique of the true Cross of Christ In like manner true Christians the Children of Light do highly esteem those little Mortifications whether active or passive they undergo finding nothing more precious upon Earth and a greater guift cannot be presented to them then the occasions to suffer and mortifie themselves which they embrace with Joy and Love and with great respect cherish them not near but in their Heart considering that the state of Suffering is most agreeable to the dispositions of Jesus Christ and some small participation of his Sufferings 'T is as a little Parcel of the true Cross and the most precious Relique they can carry about them Let 's never be without having with us some of the true Cross let us make much of what afflicts us and we have Reliques thereof before we think on 't When we examine our Conscience let us ask our selves this question Hast thou O my Soul any parcel of the true Cross Any Reliques of the Sufferings of Jesus Christ Happy are those who have some part of them for they enjoy the occasions of the great tryals and proofs of their Love to Christ as can possibly happen The flames of Divine Love burn brightest in the furnace of Affliction St. Paul had a good piece of the true Cross when he said He carried in his Body the Marks of the Lord Jesus Christ for his Sufferings were indeed for Jesus's sake The most noble and glorious thing that Christ did upon Earth was his Dying for us on the Cross a Death most Painful and Ignominious that his Heavenly Father might thereby be Infinitely Glorified and he being thus exalted might draw the hearts of Believers after him and more powerfully engage their Affections to love and adore him A Soul that beholds Jesus on this Throne of his Ignominies which indeed is the Throne of his Grandeurs desires here on Earth to be united to Jesus Crucified as the Saints in Heaven enjoy him Glorified And thus she breaths forth her Desires True it is I cannot have a full Fruition of my Well-beloved in this Life however this is my comfort I can suffer for him Enjoyment is more sweet to the Creature but suffering is more lovely to the Creator and so I find enjoyment of the Miseries of my Banishment When a Soul has no mind to suffer in this World she has no mind to belong to God For seeing in this exile we cannot be his by enjoyment or but very little and being not willing to appertain to him by Suffering we cannot possess God And being without God we adhere to Creatures and loose our selves in disorder and vanity God finds not out of himself a more pleasing Mansion than in a Soul and Body Mortified with Sufferings there it is he takes his complacency and delight The
this Interiour Poverty and Dereliction finds that she has a call to Interiour Sufferings she ought not to seek after sensible things to raise her to God but couragiously bear this Interiour Cross as long as it pleases her Divine Bridegroom to continue her Tryal This state is bitter indeed but withall purifying and makes a Soul capable of more intimate union with God CHAP. X. Of the Sacred Darkness of Prayer ON St. Mary Magdalen's day it seem'd to me that my Prayer chang'd and became more simple more strong and elevated My Spirit went on knowing God not by Lights or Gusts of Devotion but by a certain Darkness wherewith God is surrounded as with a Cloud This Darkness made me see that God cannot be known but is Infinitely above our understanding which cannot better know him then by acknowledging we cannot know him as he is At other times Gusts and Lights were instrumental to unite me to God but now this Darkness only was my Guide and my Soul finding her self lost in a profound Ignorance of God yet seem'd to me to know him better than ever and I had no difficulty to Contemplate God in this manner which leaving in me deep impressions of the Divinity did also augment my Interiour dispositions of the Love of God hatred of sin and such like matters It seem'd to me that at this time my Prayer became more continual And I was much encourag'd with that saying of St. Denis That this ignorance is the best and highest knowledge we have here of God I therefore readily made my Addresses to God in the aforesaid manner understanding well that the knowledge we have of God by this way is greater than that we learn by discourse or Lights or Gusts in Prayer To know we cannot know God is to know him as much as he can be known in this Life his Grandeurs being Infinitely above our Understanding And that our Understanding may live wholly to God it must die to whatsoever is not God whom we see by naked Faith in a Luminous obscurity By this way God is more known and lov'd than by many Lights and Affections all which are lost in the obscurity of this Sacred Darkness which makes a Soul see that the Perfections of God are incomprehensible Many good effects arise from hence As a profound Joy and Peace of Conscience a firmness in our good Resolutions and practice of Virtues a great love of Self-denyal in imitation of the unspeakable Humiliations of Jesus Christ One of the surest marks to know whether this Prayer of Darkness comes from God is to see whether it leave in the Soul the knowledge of our Miseries and Infidelities For the more we possess God the better we see the least Imperfections As for example whether our intention be pure or Nature has some Interest with Grace Whether we too easily leave the presence of God for other things Whether we comply with Gods Inspirations or commit Infidelities These and such like being clearly seen by this means do much humble us and make us careful to amend them The Soul in this disposition knows nothing of God but that he is Incomprehensible and looses her self in this Darkness that surrounds his Grandeurs This view with a view sees nothing distinctly of God in particalar but is a knowing Ignorance of what God is in himself For though the excessive Glory of this Divine Sun makes his Light inaccessable to our weak eyes yet this Darkness pierces our Interiour and we know God in a transcendent manner by strong impressions of the Divinity and are rais'd to a most intimate union with him God requires of a Soul great Purity in this state This then is an excellent manner to take up our Thoughts with God in our Addresses to him by annihilating all our Lights and Knowledge to get into this Sacred Darkness that surrounds his Glory that being thus dead to our own Abilities we may confess that God is as much above our Understanding as he is amiable above our Affections Thus to know God and confess he is above our Understanding and to love God and acknowledge we cannot Love him according to his Perfections is to live dead to our Selves and our Abilities and such God Loves best and knows with Approbation CHAP. XI Of the Lights of Prayer GOd sometimes in Prayer discovers himself to a Soul as the Sun filling her with Light by which and in which he is known and all other things she stands in need of or which the Omniscient is pleas'd to manifest to her We see well enough this Light by which we know God but God himself is inaccessable As we behold the Light of the Natural Sun and not the Body thereof which blinds our Eyes and by the benefit of its Beams the things of this World are made visible to us One born Blind imagins that if he could see the Light he might see the Sun But he would find by experience that this Light would only serve to make him clearly see that he cannot behold the Sun by reason of its excessive Brightness In the same manner when we are in Interiour Darkness we think we can know God better in the Light and when this Light comes it only serves to let us see that God cannot be known by us in Mortal Bodies When in Prayer I have a view of God or some of his Perfections of Jesus or some of his Dispositions or Maxims it seems to me that all these Objects have a particular Light in them which serves much to discover their excellency to the Soul But it seems to me that these Verities namely We must slee from Evil and do Good hate Sin and embrace Virtue and such like as considered barely in themselves have no particular Light in them to manifest their Goodness But their Beauty and Excellency are discover'd to us by help of the Light of Faith As those Bodies which are out of the Sun see not themselves but by the Light thereof For this reason I believe 't is best for a Soul to take up her Thoughts with God and those Verities that regard him or with Jesus and Christian Truths as resident in this Sacred Breast By this means the Heart and Affections will be much inflam'd with the Love of God to adore and serve him and imitate the Perfections of Jesus Christ This sort of Prayer is simple and does not put the Soul to the labour of much Discourse For any Divine Perfection and the Exteriour effects thereof are seen by her at once by a singular act of the understanding As she may consider the Omnipotency by its self or together with the Creation of the World she may behold and adore the Divine Providence by it self together with its admirable effects in the Government of the Universe The Soul herein needs not multiply Discourses but may behold all this at one prospect When we meditate on any Christian Verity as for example the Excellency of Poverty without the Relation it
that you withdraw from me your Divine Illuminations in Prayer and Recollection so as to be in a manner void of understanding sicut equus malus quibus non est intellectus Provided dear Jesus that I be but content with these humiliations it is sufficient I shall be happy Let others ask of you what they please as for me my desire is to be entirely annihilated and that my portion may be to honour your Divine humiliations We are not couragious enough to fight as we ought to destroy in us our sensual inclinations for we are too feeble against our selves and too indulgent to our defects in this spiritual combat But O my God put too your helping hand and work in us your will that we may be humbled and contentedly submit to your operation CHAP. VIII That the Soul is Rich when she possesses the love of self-contempt GOD has infus'd this thought into my Soul that the love of self-contempt and the desire of humiliation may be that hidden Treasure mention'd in the Gospel Thesauro abscondita in agro Matt. 13. 'T is really a great Treasure to love abjection yea a Treasure that contains abundance of inestimable Riches but they appear not outwardly being hid on purpose to preserve with more security And he only has this Treasure who keeps well hidden what he possesses 'T is a Treasure hidden and unknown to the world For who would imagine that there should be any thing so rich and precious in Sufferings and Humiliations Should our senses or carnal prudence or human reason make enquiry would they search here to enrich themselves and satisfie their desires We could never have thought that a hidden Treasure was here enshrin'd if Jesus Christ who put it there himself had not reveal'd this great secret to our Souls by his peculiar favour and merciful illuminations If we will have this Treasure we must buy it and give for it whatever we possess that is to say we must lay down our whole Patrimony the fatal Inheritance left us by our first Parents namely affection for Honours for Pleasures for Riches too much seeking our selves and our own interests the love of our own excellence and all the other wretched movables which we possess by being conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity If we will not be content to part with all yea the utmost farthing we cannot be enriched with this Treasure O how rich and happy is he who does possess it For it is a Treasure which as the world cannog give so it cannot take it from us and as long as we are in quiet possession thereof we find God in our Souls and such a profound peace as passeth all human understanding When one has purchas'd a good Estate in Land we are ready to say He is in a good condition what need he fear now having a sure foundation of subsistence If a War happen the Enemies can't carry that away with them they may indeed deprive him of his Money and Goods but for his Land that is fix'd and immovable 'T is the same case with this precious Treasure when once the Soul hath it in possession and will not part with it she need not fear she has sure hold of subsistence for her spiritual life Neither the World nor the Devil nor all the Enemies of our Salvation let them make never such furious on-sets can rob her of it it surpasses their power and belongs not to them 'T is true they may deprive her of some moveables as sensible consolations the love of austerities the desire to undertake brave actions for the Glory of God as to go to Canada or England for the conversion of Souls to the Catholick Faith in a word all the fair Idaea's of Spirituality The Devil the World Nature has a mind to these movables and a Soul that possesses only these has nothing but what may be taken from her but whosoever possesses this Treasure of the love of abjection and self-denial is rich for ever And when God is pleased to discover to a Soul the value thereof Prae gaudio illius vadit vendit universa quae habet emit agrum illum she joyfully parts with all she has to get it in possession We have a double right to pretend to the possession of this Divine Treasure The first is our natural inability to good the second is our criminal sinfulness These two lay upon us a continual obligation to endeavour after self-denial and annihilation and this endeavour is very pleasing to God who delights to see a Creature acknowledge what is due to it self and render to him his deserved Glory The Son of God began as a Gyant to run in this way of self-contempt by his Incarnation for 't is a wonderful humiliation for God to become Man and he finished this course by his Death on the Cross which was as low as humility could descend For God-Man to die an infamous death between two Thieves as a Malefactor and his whole life besides was but as one continued humiliation and yet alas we pass away our days in vanity calling our selves Christians tho' all for exaltation of our selves destitute of self-denial and true humility O wonderful blindness O Jesus poor and abject when will you draw me after you by the powerful attracts of your mercy Your ways are pure and pleasant and odoriferous to those whose Souls are enlightened with the Rays of Grace You O Jesus establish your Empire in humble hearts and reign there in peace as the Devil sets up his Kingdom in proud Souls and there domineers with intolerable Tyranny CHAP. V. What profit we draw from humiliations PAins and Miseries humble the body Poverty Riches Contempt Reputation and Honour Death Life aridities in Prayer spiritual Consolations all these conduce to purifie Virtue and sacrifice man wholly to God Some glorifie him by action some by suffering others by privations and humiliations and these last are the greatest Saints though here despis'd and known to God alone We ought to resign our selves to the conduct of God's spirit but if it was left to our own choice the way of abjections is best and safest Job did more glorifie God on the Dunghil than in his Palace Happy is he who in glorifying God follows the call of his holy inspirations in a way which the world neither does nor can well understand 'T is a great misery not to be willing to acknowledge that human wisdom is but folly before God which continually eggs us on to get out of the happy state of abjection upon the fairest pretences imaginable as the salvation of souls to help our Neighbours and the like Notwithstanding 't is safest to yield our selves up to the sole conduct of God's holy Spirit the order of whose providence we cannot shun God glorifies himself in Heaven by the exaltation of his Creatures on Earth by their Humiliation Let no person complain then that he cannot be instrumental to the glory of God for
Poverties Abandonments and Crosses so that whatsoever is agreeable to Nature seems wholly contrary to Grace Why do you not dear Saviour bring man to his Nothing in a moment by your Omnipotency to make him thereby a new Creature Why will you that he must annihilate himself and contribute to his own destruction O how the methods of your Wisdom are admirable Your design is hereby to bring man to love you But he can never do this more generously than by the strongest efforts of self-contempt and annihilation Human reason prompts us to self-love and self-esteem Divine reason inspires us with self-contempt and abnegation Abraham sacrificing his Son did foolishly in the judgment of human reason as being an enemy to Himself and his whole Family but this was an action of wonderful prudence in the judgment of Divine reason shewing thereby that he loved God more than himself and his dearest Relations Come then O my Soul let us strive to be dead to all things but God and to annihilate our selves for his sake I see an unspeakable beauty in the horror of mortifications and sufferings seeing they are the source from whence purity flows into the Soul CHAP. XIII That self denyal and annihilation is better learnt by practice than speculation I Know now better than ever that abjection is the way wherein we must march to advance assuredly to the perfection we aim at all other ways are liable to deceit but self-denial is without delusion O how few do consider the proceedings of Jesus Christ and fewer dive into and comprehend his holy dispositions But fewest set upon a perfect imitation of what they know Let us fall to work we know enough of it We are not ignorant how Jesus humbled himself in the Womb of his Virgin-Mother and there remained nine months and at his Nativity did increase his humiliation by being born in a Stable continued them all his life-time and finished them by his Death upon the Cross the grand Theatre of his humiliations We know all this it only remains to imitate him Grace will conduct us if we faithfully correspond to God's Inspirations To this end God permits that our Friends fall off from us that some little disgraces happen that we are somewhat despised and suffer by others that our imperfections are discovered and made known and that we are censur'd for undertaking to aim at perfection All this tending to humble us is good what way soever it come and no better thing can arrive unto us To be faithful on these occasions doth far transcend all speculations If you still complain of cross accidents if you don't hide your self from the eyes of men if you love not poverty and contempt and the things of this world have still some hold upon you thou art not annihilated and God hath not wrought the marvels of his love in thy heart Hearing sung in the Church these words of the Psalmist In toto corde meo exquisivi Te I have sought Thee O Lord with my whole heart it seemed to me that our blessed Saviour answer'd me interiourly Thou hast made a fair search after me every where but thou wilt not find me any where on Earth but there where I have been in the stations of my mortal life in solitude and silence in poverty and sufferings in persecution and reproaches in crosses and annihilation The Saints find me in Heaven in the splendors of Glory and Joys ineffable but this is after they have found me on Earth in Disgraces and Pains I am throughly convinc'd of this Truth and humbly thank our blessed Saviour for making it so clear unto me and I beseech his infinite goodness so to imprint it in my heart that I may practice it without delay Alas how long shall I behold the excellency of humiliations by Divine Irradiations darted into my Soul and practice them so little Divine Jesus take from me this rebellious heart if it refuse to be conformable to you in your annihilations open my breast and take it from me for I had rather have none at all and die than have a heart that has other Maxims and Affections than what you have taught me O my beloved Jesus I do not in this desire cruelty to my self but a signal favour The eternal Father who beheld you hanging on the Cross with complacency will not be offended with this bloody spectacle O my Jesus what a love have I for your Cross and humiliations The view of their beauty so well-pleasing to your eternal Father does at present so ravish and transport me that I shall become as it were a Fool I shall lose my senses and speak I know not what unless dear Jesus you put a stop to your Divine motions and eclipse those Heavenly Rays which present to my view sufferings and humiliations so amiable I have a particular Devotion to make a Litany of Jesus in all his humiliations and when I feel a repugnancy to the practice of annihilation and self-denial I find great encouragement by reciting it Have mercy upon me Jesus poor and abject Jesus unknown and despised Jesus hated calumniated and persecuted Jesus abandon'd by men and tempted by the Devil Jesus betray'd and sold at a vile price Jesus blamed accused and condemned unjustly Jesus array'd with a shameful Garment Jesus buffetted and mocked Jesus reputed a Fool and to have a Devil Jesus scourged in a bloody manner being bound with Cords Jesus thought worse of than Barrabas Jesus exposed naked with Infamy Jesus crowned with thorns and saluted with scoffs Jesus sorrowful to death Jesus oppressed with injuries pains and humiliations Jesus affronted spit upon and despightfully used Jesus charged with your Cross and our Sins Jesus crucified between two Thieves Jesus dishonoured before men and thought as nothing O good Jesus who hast suffered for the love of me an infinity of disgraces and humiliations above my comprehension imprint powerfully in my Soul an esteem and love of them that I may practise them by your example CHAP. XIV That a Soul espousing Jesus Christ espouses also his Cross and Sufferings THe infinite Wisdom of God has condescended to espouse the lowness of our human Nature by his Incarnation This same human Nature hath espous'd the Cross Sufferings Abjections Death and when a Soul espouses Jesus Christ she contracts an eternal Union with all these during her Pilgrimage O happy Alliance She is married to Jesus and Contempts and Sufferings are the Dowry O precious Riches If she love her Beloved indeed she ought to have a tender affection to the gifts she presents to him at the Espousals because she gives them and he much values them O my Soul being thus espoused to Jesus Christ behold then how strictly thou art bound and engaged to him for hereafter thou must suffer pains of body griefs of mind affronts and injuries thou must be well content with humiliations love disgraces and make sport for others thou must be content to be thought but unconstant by Devotes
the Treasures of the Earth We ought daily according to our abilities to examine our selves to the end to purifie our hearts from all affections that tend not to this supernatural Life It resides in the superiour part of the Soul and therefore we must not wonder if the inferiour part has degusts and aversions from it We must expect that Nature Sense Friends the World and ordinary Christians will keep a noise and trouble our ears with many Arguments against it But to all this it is enough to answer in few words with St. Blandina Christiana sum Christiana sum I am a Christian Let us say to such who endeavour to divert us I have undertaken to lead this supernatural Life I will never abandon it maugre all the contradictions of worldly Maxims and the repugnances of sensual Nature I know to become a perfect Christian I must be turn'd up-side down destroy'd annihilated according to my natural inclinations hate in a manner all that the world naturally loves Riches Honours Pleasures yea though innocent and love what the world naturally hates Poverty Contempt and Sufferings This is a great attempt but we have powerful helps for we can do all things through Christ strengthening us CHAP. III. That we ought with St. Paul to convert our selves wholly to God I Am now resolv'd in good earnest to convert my self wholly to God to be taken solely with his Divine Beauty and Infinite Goodness forsaking all Creatures which heretofore have too much taken up my time and affections O my God! deal with me as you did with your Apostle strike me down to the ground humble me make me blind to all things but to You who are in the interiour of my heart beaming forth Lights which discover sufficiently your Divine presence This makes me ask you O my God what you will have me to do And methinks you answer That this manifestation of your presence in me should make such an extraordinary impression on me as to change my life and conform my self wholly to your Divine will and pleasure Behold it seems to me this is what you would have me to do First Not to persecute the sentiments and inclinations I have to a Christian Life by taking part with the struglings of old Adam in me St. Paul persecuted Jesus Christ in persecuting the Primitive Christians and I also persecute the same Jesus when I stifle the motions of Grace in me and will not suffer my Soul to live his life which he did lead here for me to follow Pardon me good Jesus I will no longer persecute you by stifling your holy Inspirations I desire to be a Christian and your Disciple I will profess Christianity in the face of the Sun and only be asham'd to live after the Law of old Adam To be a Christian this is my Glory this is my Life this is my Delight Poverty Contempts Pains Humiliations I will no more be affraid of you but make much of you seeing Jesus hath loved you even to death To live this Life we must become blind and have no other light than what the rays of Faith afford us For Nature cannot teach us the Grandeur Excellence and Eminency of Christianity St Paul after his Conversion suffered a thousand hardships He was whipt banish'd despis'd mock'd imprison'd tormented us'd as if he was the filth and off-scouring of the world which is as much as to say St. Paul after his Conversion was a Christian to death nothing could deter him from living the life of Jesus Christ Let us then O my Soul be true Christians that is let us be content to live in Sufferings Persecutions Mortifications and the Ignominies of the Cross of Jesus Christ Let us embrace the wisdom of the Word Incarnate and become as Fools in the eyes of the world who persecute true Christians that is those who die to themselves and all things else to live to Jesus Poor Christian Life little art thou known how ill art thou treated in the world Thou dwell'st in the lips of many but few afford thee a place in their heart I am fully persuaded that a Soul truly converted loves God entirely that this entire love of God is a perfect union with his goodness that such a union implies a universal detachment from the Creature that such a detachment cannot be got without the profession of Virtues and among the rest Poverty and Self-denial by which we are interiourly disengaged from earthly things and exteriourly when God pleases contentedly suffer miseries sickness loss of Goods and whatever the world naturally abhors as evil but by the work of Grace are for our greater good because they advance our union with God When we abound with Riches and Honours we live in a continual fear of having too great an affection for them but in sufferings a Soul possesses a stronger assurance of Divine Love Nothing but Grace can teach us these verities and a greater Grace can only make us relish and practice them the weight of our natural inclinations still hindring us from rising to so great Perfection When we give up our selves to God with resolutions daily to advance in Virtue we can more easily conceive what this perfection is than practice it However let us take courage nothing is impossible to God and we shall find doubtless this Jewel by a perfect abnegation that is possessing nothing not the very means of serving God but with a spirit of resignation To follow Jesus naked on the Cross we must divest our selves of all Creatures that we may be solely united to him Yea dear Jesus my desire is only to be for you my resolution is to serve you and in what manner you please be it by action or by suffering or contemplation I will be attached to nothing but You my desire is to be dis-engag'd from all Creatures to find You and possess You as my only happiness CHAP. XV. Of the Alliance we must make with the holy Folly of the Cross AFter many illustrations of Grace which have cleared up to me the beauty of the sacred Folly of the Cross after many proposals and reviews I have at last espous'd it saying with fervour the same words which Christ us'd to his Spouse in the Canticles Sponsabo te in aeternum My Friend my Spouse my Sister I have espoused thee for ever Methinks I say these words for ever but yet faintly my infinite frailties making me fearful I may become an inconstant Lover Notwithstanding I say for ever with a real heart in hope that by virtue of that immense Love whereby the Divinity hath for ever espoused our human Nature and this same Humanity hath espoused the Cross sufferings and abjections our blessed Saviour will vouchsafe me some part of the Grace of this Divine Alliance to enable me to walk his way and live his life in annihilation humiliations and self-denial Let us then O my Soul live this life of the Son of God any other life is but a real death Jesus
hath espoused the folly of the Cross and 't is his will I shall do so likewise and shall not I do his will O my God! I am content to be depriv'd of what the world loves and desires leave but me the folly of the Cross I shall be rich enough O amiable folly he who knows thee cannot but love thee What a fool have I been to embrace thee no sooner Behold my Soul thou art engaged and this engagement makes thee fearful Quare tristis es anima mea quare conturbas me But why O my Soul art thou disquieted 'T is true for the future thou must suffer injuries affronts pains of body troubles of mind be content with annihilations and abjections be pleas'd with disgraces be the play-game of Worldlings and esteemed as a Fool yea to be ill spoken of by some Devotes Thou must not be cast down with ill successes whether thou be in fault or no Thou must drink deep of the Cup of humiliations see others exalted and love to be humbled yea though by spiritual Desolations Take courage O my Soul we can do all things through Christ strengthening us I confess the greatness of my engagement would have quite cast me down being sensible of my own wonderful weakness if I had not been supported by the infinite mercy and goodness of God Wherefore I must love the Cross which I have espoused for ever I shall find my self well enough in this alliance if I do but continue faithful for the more I converse with it I shall the more discover its Beauty my fears will vanish my passions will be appeas'd and being in peace my Soul will be enlarged and melt in love towards this Spouse which tho' black is wonderful comely If I love the Cross it must needs be an effect of pure Grace my own frailties bearing witness but at present I find my self in great disposition of love O how weak is my Soul when left to her self O how strong is she when supported by Grace O my Jesus 't is your love and your example that makes me love the sacred folly of the Cross which you have so dearly loved as to die in its embraces When I consider a God crucified methinks I discover certain rays of Beauty which make the horror of Mount Calvary seem wonderful amiable and I can hardly be satisfied with looking on this lovely object and say O my Jesus how delightful is it to see the beauty of a God dying for men This beauty indeed is not in his sacred visage for that was all disfigured with blood and buffettings but in that God was pleased to die on the Cross for men and the eternal Father took complacence in this beauty I cannot explicate what is this beauty unless by the effect it produces in me for verily my Soul sees nothing besides this to captivate my sight Jesus only in his humiliations and sufferings on the Cross commands my eyes and my heart When I consider the other states of the life of Jesus his Incarnation Nativity Solitude Conversation and the like I find in them a beauty invites me to behold them with delight because I discover certain irradiations to beam from the obscurities and humiliations of these states which are very ravishing I often say with my self How lovely is the abjection of this state How is the poverty of that admirable And in all I perceive the beauties of a sacred Folly which the infinite Wisdom would make use of to confound the false Maxims of worldly Prudence O what a favour have you in mercy done for me O my God to discover to me the beauty of this Divine Folly which to worldly men seems nothing but deformity But what abundance of Grace do you vouchsafe me by enabling me to make so strict an alliance with it I have espous'd it I will live with it I will die with it and nothing shall ever divorce me from it CHAP. V. How we ought to conform our Interiour to that of Jesus Christ. OUr Interiour ought to be conformable to that of Jesus Christ that as his Members we may be governed and animated by his Spirit that having part of his Grace as Christians part of his light from his Doctrine part of his inclinations to put us upon practice we may be so transformed into Jesus as to have a perfect union with him And this is that wherein lies the excellency of a Christian this is that which makes Christians indeed and to do and suffer as becomes Christians 'T is a strange thing to see what little knowledge we have of the Christian life Some who have left Nature to follow Grace suppose it consists in doing much for God and for the good of our Neighbour by preaching instructing giving Alms and such-like charitable exercises This is good indeed but we must form the Interiour Christian and then we shall do best for others what God calls us to undertake The Interiour consists in Illustrations inward Teachings Sentiments and affections of the Soul If those be high and elevated the Interiour is so likewise But the Soul of Jesus had the most elevated illustrations possible of the excellency of Self-denial Poverty Pains Abjections and the Cross and from thence a singular love and esteem for them These irradiations and affections were infus'd into his most beautiful Soul the first moment of his Incarnation and continued to his last breath on the Cross The eternal Father who by this New Adam would repair his Glory which was obscur'd by Old Adam's fall amongst the infinity of means which lay treasur'd up in the bosom of his Omniscience and Omnipotency chose this of the Cross which his Son made Flesh embraced cherished loved and put in execution all his life-time esteeming Contempts Crosses Sufferings as things great and excellent preferring the interest of the Glory of his Father before the satisfactions of his sacred Humanity which had a natural repugnance to them By how much the more then that a Soul is partaker of the Divine Spirit and Interiour of the Son of God by so much the more she esteems and loves the Cross and consequently does more glorifie God the Father For to suffer is to make a continual Sacrifice of our Pleasures and Interests uniting our selves to the design the Son of God had by suffering to repair the Glory of his Father Wherefore when a Soul ceases to value and love the Cross and Humiliations she is no more conform to the Soul of Jesus and so does not glorifie God the Father in a high manner but when she feels in her self a high esteem and love of the Cross she highly glorifies the eternal Father who takes great delight in her in that she resembles his well-beloved Son When a Soul is enlightned with these irradiations she sees her Glory is to be despised because her Glory is to procure the Glory of God which she does most by humiliations She finds her delight to be in suffering because her
Behold whither a Soul is conducted whom many think good for nothing O how the judgments of men are different from the thoughts of God! Let then every one honour God by the way and life that is proper for them otherwise they will fall into perturbations of spirit and being disquieted will become troublesom to themselves and others But this is not the work of a day we shall find it a hard task to become dead to the world and our selves Every state is good yea the most abject All Grace is excellent yea the least and meanest There are many sorts of Graces which we perhaps do not much value and yet are really to be more esteemed than Visions Rapts or Revelations To labour and suffer for God is of greater worth than Extasies 'T is a truth well enough known by many though practis'd but by few that a little matter hinders the operation of God's grace in us One only small natural inclination unmortified suffices to retard our progress to perfection For this reason we must exactly die to all Creatures annihilate in us every motion that tends not to God some way or other As for example To give no refreshment to the body by meat drink or sleep c but for necessity We must also mortifie in us the desire of Honour and temporal Commodities yea love abjection pains and poverty willing nothing but what may conduce to advance God's glory I more value the union of a Soul with God in humiliations and sufferings than in consolations CHAP. XIII Some Maxims concerning a Supernatural Life O God! what a poor Christian am I in occasions of tryal I have imprinted in me some Idaea's and Sentiments of a supernatural Life but when it comes to put them in practice my timerous Nature shrinks and makes excuses to shun sufferings and then the occasion being over I have great regreat for not being couragious and come to know thereby my little Virtue and small Perfection I then see that the rule of Perfection is the conformity which we have with Jesus crucified poor and abject When that is great our Perfection is great also But that I find I have little or no affective conformity with Jesus crucified Behold here those lights and directions I have learnt by conference with a holy person and are good for my practice and solid establishment in a supernatural life 1. We must accustom our body to austerities exercising it with loving chastisements for our own transgressions and the sins of others 2. We can never attain to contemplation and a perfect love of the Divinity but by passing first by Jesus crucified poor and abject We see him poor and despised attended with few followers because we refuse to walk in those rough paths he hath set before us 3. We must have an ardent love for solitude and recollection to the end we may be wholly for God and correspond faithfully to the inspirations of his holy Spirit And although we ought to have a general indifferency to all states and calls of God yet 't is better to incline rather to retirement and solitude not meerly to enjoy the sweetness thereof but that we may not be wanting to co-operate with the Grace of God vouchsaf'd unto us Holy solitude is the region of Divine Communications Ducam eam in solitudinem loquar ad cor ejus saith God by the Prophet I will lead a Soul into solitude and speak interiourly to her heart 4. The reason why we see so few even devout Christians make progress in perfection is because they limit the Grace they have received hindring its enlargement by natural arguments and human prudence They say 'T is enough for me to do this or that I ought not to aspire to so high perfection those who live in the world cannot be so elevated in the ways of God These and such-like excuses they make which hinder the Grace of God from working fully what he intended If we did but consider the ardent desire that Jesus hath to advance Souls in the ways of Divine love and how ready he is to bestow on us new Graces upon our faithful corresponding with the former we would be both ravished and ashamed also to be so backward in giving our selves up to the conduct of God who desires nothing so much as that we may love him perfectly and enjoy him eternally But as while Jesus was on Earth 't is said of him That the world knew him not and his own received him not for seeing him born in a Stable circumcis'd as a sinner live poorly as a Carpenter persecuted accused condemned to die an infamous death on the Cross they wou'd not take him for the promised Messias so as yet he is not well known and many Christians themselves do not receive him nor let his Spirit and Maxims reign in their hearts Yea some who profess the way of perfection do not as they ought esteem and embrace his humiliations and abjections For we too much desire Honour and Preferment and too much fear abjection and suffering O my Soul what hast thou done hitherto not to have as yet begun this life crucified and annihilated I confess my folly and blindness O my God! make me presently to set upon it and let not any day pass over without the happiness of suffering something for your love CHAP. XIV What content a Soul receives in a Supernatural Life WE have oftentimes no need of any other care than to be faithful to an ordinary way of Devotion without pretending to what is extraordinary and we have reason to fear that motions now and then to undertake a life of greater perfection may proceed rather from a seeking of our own excellency than a true desire of pleasing God Among these dangers blindness and obscurities we stand in great need of the light of Grace and conduct of some holy Person who is able to discern what is best for us However putting our confidence in God and living in an entire dependence on him we shall find peace and quiet of mind If we have desires for any thing let it be for such things as Jesus crucified desired for they are contrary to our natural inclinations And though there may possibly occur some self-seeking yet this is the way of Grace inasmuch as the Found of our Soul is agreeable to the Interiour of Jesus and not to that of Adam Let us have a desire to be mortified daily with good St. Paul Mortificamur tota die We must endeavour to draw profit from incommodities and ill successes by using them for the advancement of Grace in us By this means we shall purifie our selves and the Interiour of our Souls will empty it self and make room for the spirit of Jesus Christ bringing with him joy and peace unspeakable When we shall have found out the corruption of our heart our inability to any good yea to the least good thought as of our selves 't is not for us to aspire after the most
discerned it requires great courage to be faithful to the motions of Grace To yield to Nature weakens and darkens the Soul to follow Grace gives life and vigour It concerns us therefore to take part with God against our selves This practice is clear and efficacious to conquer our passions and carry us on to the purity of Virtue when this light is infus'd into us after the manifestation of God's goodness to us Reason may be serviceable to conquer our passions but this light must give place when the beams of Grace display their splendors For we ought as much as we can to stifle the Maxims of reason that we may become more capable of Divine Illuminations which elevate us above human reason In a word as no man can come unto the Son unless the Father draw him by preventing Grace so no man can come unto the Father but by the Son following his Maxims and Example and obeying the motions of his Spirit This is the order and way of Grace and 't is in vain for us to look for any other in a spiritual life CHAP. XVI The Conclusion That we ought to apply our selves to the practice of a Supernatural Life WE must have a special care that we place not Perfection amiss for this will much retard us in the way of Virtue Hence it will do well not to have too great an esteem of the Vnitive and Mystick way Not but 't is good yea excellent for a Soul to be so elevated by God's gracious conduct However we must acknowledge that the unitive way brought to practice is more excellent and necessary seeing this is the Christian life in action and the other is a mystick life consisting in extraordinary elevations of the Soul and wonderful unions with God in Prayer and Contemplation I observe that our blessed Saviour says Whosoever will be my Disciple must take up his Cross and follow me He does not say that he must be elevated in Prayer but that he must take up his Cross that is he must practice the Maxims of the Gospel Happy then are they who are crucified to the world though they be not elevated in Spirit and those elevated Souls are but happy in that they are conformable to Jesus crucified and by their unions more disposed to the Cross and Sufferings The crucified Life is as it were the end of the mystick life whose illuminations and sweet influences do much conduce to fortifie the Soul to bear the Cross S. Teresa observes That one of the best signs of a Divine Extasie is when it works in the Soul an extraordinary desire of suffering and that a Soul cannot return to her self from such holy communications with God but well instructed which must needs be that the perfection of love consists in suffering for Jesus and not in enjoying him Enjoyment in this life is not of so much worth as suffering This more than That advances our Glory Let us not then complain that we have not our part in the mystick life so that we be but crucified Christians and let us be content to feel our Spirit in Prayer among Thorns of aridities coldness and desolation as well as among the sweet perfumes of a sensible Devotion We must take up our Cross to follow Christ as well when we suffer in Soul as Body For 't is the property of a true Christian to glory in the Cross of Jesus Christ But this did extend as well to his Soul as to his body The Divine Soul of Jesus was left without sensible influences and succours from the superiour part and from his Father for some time We must love to be conformable to him herein and rest there with resignation and contentment Let our affections be more inflamed with the love of her sufferings here than of enjoyments And if we complain of any thing let it be when we do not suffer something for Jesus Christ The End of the Second BOOK BOOK III. Of the presence of God and giving our selves up to Divine Providence CHAP. I. Our first thought in the morning ought to be That God is present AS soon as I awake I ought to consider that I am in the bosom of God for in Him we live move and have our being We live and are indeed in his presence and yet hardly think of him I am surrounded with his Grandeurs his Mercies his Riches his Divine Perfections and yet am taken up with petty matters O what blindness what darkness is this I fall from one sleep into another my Soul being no more awake by day than by night my interiour senses being then bound up as before the exteriour I am like a blind man asleep doubly blind for sleep takes away his sight a second time When he awakes he sees not the light of the Sun nor the beauty of the Universe nor the variety of Creatures that are before him He walks in the world but beholds not the different parts thereof when he is asleep his blindness increases In like manner when we sleep we are in a profound forgetfulness of God But what is lamentable we continue this Oblivion when we are awake by reason we seldom think on God and his Perfections our Souls are so wholly taken up with worldly business Alas how dangerous is this sleep and forgetfulness We have no excuse seeing Nature does teach us better manners Tempus est de somno surgere When the Sun rises 't is time to walk as Children of light When natural sleep leaves me let me not dear Saviour lose my self in the crowd of Creatures but take up my thoughts with your Perfection with your Love with your Mercies that I may not sleep all day long by being unmindful of your presence Dear Jesus 't is not in my power to hinder this spiritual drowzyness and my misery will not permit me to think on you continually but be pleased to watch for me that I may be conversant with God by your divine and holy Occupations that I may know him by your knowledge that I may have an eye to him by your regards that I may love him by your loves and by this means I shall be strengthened in my weakness If we do not awake with Jesus Christ we sleep with the men of this world who sleep their sleep being wholly taken up with worldly matters To be awake with Jesus Christ is to be exercised in the operations of this life to do as he did and be content to take up our Cross and suffer with him Pains sufferings reproaches ought to be dear to us seeing they make us to be awake with Jesus Christ and live his life a life of sufferings On the contrary we must look on HOnours Pleasures and Worldly advantages with a suspicious eye because they are apt to make us forgetful of God When we see with the eye of Faith that God is every-where and is the first Mover we take delight therein and look upon God as the Soul of the world and
and miserable I had so little strength that my sufferings did stifle the enjoyment of Gods presence in me and the sensibility of them did eclipse the other And because I thought that this enjoyment of God could not be found but in a Soul exempt from all sorts of Sufferings when Sadness or Pains or Troubles did seize upon me I got free as soon as possible to regain my former state of enjoyment But I see my error for now these sufferings shall become the means to unite me more strictly to God I am content with them and will offer them a sacrifice to that hidden Majesty who is really present in my Soul For I conceive that the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Hypostatically united to the Word had God most intimately present remaining in this union in a state of enjoyment and suffering also As Man he offer'd up to the Divinity a continual Sacrifice of his Humiliations Poverty and Sufferings and the Divinity imparted to him a wonderful enjoyment of sweetness by his presence And in this manner God is yet glorified in a Soul He bestows upon her a profound Peace in the Superiour faculties by being sensible of the Divine Presence And in the mean time being mortified in the inferiour part she makes a perpetual homage of Sacrifice to God by offering up her Suffering to him A Soul in this state is an excellent Image of Jesus as both Traveller and Comprehensour God does not always manifest his presence to a Soul by abundance of Divine Irradiations but sometimes by a sensible Peacefulness which gently touches the heart and unites it to God In this the Intellectual Faculties do nothing but barely eye God and now and then the heart breaths forth some amorous Aspirations As O what a Happiness is it to have God present without a possibility of Separation What can I desire more then to have the possession of God O my God be my Portion and my Heritage for ever Sometimes also the Soul receives a certain prospect of the Grandeurs of God present which works in her Adorations and Humiliations Sometimes the Soul is mov'd with such sensible touches that she experimentally finds God present in her whereby she melts into affections respect and love and praises to the Divine Majesty and thereupon enjoys a Peace that passes our understanding Crosses and Sufferings may bring a Soul in time to a more union with God though not to the pleasures of enjoyment A union so much the more excellent by how much the more 't is imperceptible to the Soul who seeking her own satisfaction has some mixture of self-love in the sweets of enjoyment but cannot happen in the Crucified union which joyns the Soul to God in such a manner as is hardly perceptible That state is most perfect which brings us to the greatest Interiour Purity but this cannot take up a mansion in our heart without an entire death to all Creatures Now in the Crucified union the Soul being only attached to the will of God and not reflecting on her own operations and so taking no self-satisfaction from them she thinks all is lost and that she has no part in the love of God which is the only thing she passionately desires What great pity is it to love and not to know it Nevertheless this Soul that seems to her self in so sad a condition is a delightful Object in the eyes of God who sees in her the love only of his interests in that she is content with a total denudation and confessing she is not worthy of Gods Graces wherewith she beholds others adorned and admiring their beauty perceives not all this while what she is her self And this ignorance of her own state possessing her Spirit by a true sense of her own indignity she easily concludes that she is a miserable Creature And 't is no wonder if discouragment and sadness set upon a Soul in this disposition at least to affect the Inferiour part I clearly see that this union Crucified does advance us in the participation of the states of Christ Suffering which is the greatest advantage a Soul can pretend to in this Life of Mortality seeing this puts us in a condition of most expressing our love to God This great Truth well consider'd will wonderfully comfort a Soul that desires to be conform to the Image of Jesus Crucified The Crucified union carries Mortification to the marrow of the Soul making it die to whatsoever is not God seeing that she lives by the privation of all Creatures But the sensible union does nourish it self by reflections upon such a state which will indeed purifie a Soul from worldly affections however she will go on but slowly to the purity of Perfection if God be not very merciful unto her O my God how ought we to give up our selves wholly though in the dark to the conduct of your Divine Providence 'T is your wisdom to lead us through Obscurities to the end we may deny our own judgment which is no lover of Mortification O how this insensibility does purifie the operations of the Will which cannot relish in this state of denudation any thing but only your good pleasure The Soul in this Crucified union has the advantage to know how tenderly Jesus Christ loved her in his abandonments and humiliations He makes us to suffer this that we may know the greatness of that and this experimental knowledge discovers to us how much Jesus suffer'd in the state of his Humiliations and puts the Soul in a disposition to follow him in his Humiliations And seeing the greatness of the love of Jesus to us was most manifested by his Sufferings for us so our love to him is greatest by our Sufferings for him 'T is to be observ'd that the highest degree of this Crucified union is to have no sight of the excellency of this state which once being perceived begins to lessen our Holy Sufferings CHAP. VII That the Divine Presence makes us to love Prayer or Action as best pleases God I find the Life of Man to be poor and miserable we see not God unless surrounded with Clouds Our true Life consists in a Holy Converse with God present whereby a Soul enjoys a delightful repose and is fill'd with Peace unspeakable And being ravish'd with such lovely sweets does melt into enjoyments which transcend infinitely all earthly pleasures In this disposition a Soul does not relish the affairs of this World Ordinary Discourses though never so harmless are troublesome to her Yea the occasions to help our Neighbour though Good and Holy are not then convenient nor pleasing to her She is all for to be at the feet of Jesus with Mary Magdalen in a perfect repose and let Martha go about her business Notwithstanding God makes us to understand that sometimes we must go out from this in time presence and undertake Exteriour Actions in the Affairs of his Glory Ingredi egredi And this is the Life of a Holy Soul She goes out by
of God is all in all unto her and without it all things are as nothing seeing she 's only content with the will of God The Soul that truly understands this Truth lives always well pleas'd in the changes of this Life observing therein the order of Gods Providence wherewith she is well satisfied and resolv'd to be indifferent to every condition If we be not content with a low vocation as well as with great Graces it proceeds from interest and self-love Great Saints of God your ways are high and sublime and mine are low and ordinary in which however I live well pleas'd without aspiring after your elevations because I taste a sweetness in Gods order that contents my heart To abide in interiour peace and tranquility with submission to the Orders of God by a strong union with his good pleasure in all things is not the work of a day we must fight couragiously many years with all sorts of enemies before we can gain so great a victory In my judgment there 's nothing more dangerous than to leave the order of God and to aim at greater things than he will have us But a Soul content with Gods good pleasure is well pleas'd with any state wherein is no Sin nor beloved Imperfections But our Pride is the source of a thousand disturbances and we continually trouble our selves if we will aim at too high a perfection or run too fast to that which God discovers to us by light from Heaven A pure Soul must desire nothing but the pure satisfaction of God and not her own interest though she find in her self much imperfection Jesus Christ to whom she has absolutely given her self such as she is is all perfection this is enough for her she will find in him her repose her tranquility her beatitude without troubling her self too much with her defects and failings I know not how it comes to pass but I am content and imperfect both together and yet my imperfections do not please me neither by the Grace of God shall they disquiet me I do not seek for the object of my contentment in my self but in my God and Saviour the only love and center of my Soul CHAP. XVI The practice of the Presence of God for the seven days of the Week THe solid foundations of a Spiritual Life are Mortifications pure Virtue to shun excess of business though never so good to converse with Holy Persons but above all Prayer and the love of Solitude which affords more liberty to attend to the one thing necessary The Soul that loves cannot but suffer at the absence of her Beloved and therefore love sets her to Prayer to make him present And the better to converse with God and entertain him with amorous discourses she applyes her self sometimes to the Being of God sometimes to this or that Divine Perfection considering him as the Being of Beings who only is of himself and before whom the whole Creation is nothing Sometimes her Meditations present him to her all-powerful with his only word creating and conserving all things And then again she considers him as infinitely wise ordering all things by his wonderful Providence Sometimes as infinitely merciful and patient bearing with our manifold sins and provocations And then again as infinitely loving and amorous of our Souls in a manner unspeakable Sometimes as infinitely just hating iniquity with an implacable aversion not sparing his only Son being a Sacrifice for sin Lastly as infinitely good and merciful pardoning our innumerable sins and transgressions Each day of the Week may take up one of these considerations in mental Prayer if God do not suggest to the Soul some other matter of Meditation The first Day The Being of God IS it so that we live move and are continually in the bosome of God In ipso vivimus movemur sumus and yet think so little of him He vouchsafes to dwell in our hearts and our hearts run after Creatures to rest in them that is in nothing for the Being of all things is nothing else in respect of God but as shadows about us What takes up the greatest part of the World does consist but in imagination as Honour Dignity Praises Reputation c. so much beloved and admired There be other things have a Being to our Senses visible and palpable yet but corporeal and corruptible to day here and gone to morrow however poor Creatures as we are we set our hearts upon them as if they were eternal There are other things whose Being is more permanent and elevated above sense as universal Verities which consist in the understanding however not eternal nor immense nor without defect O my God I elevate my self as I am able to find you and I discover that your Being depends not upon imagination or sense or reason but you are above all this Incomprehensible O Eternal Being You never had beginning nor ever shall have end O infinite Being You are nothing of what we see or know here below You are an Infinity to whom nothing is wanting to whom nothing can be added from whom nothing can be taken away Your Perfection is Infinite O immense Being You fill all things without extension without quantity without parts or composition 't is You alone in whom is the eternal source of Life and Being When I search for you if I go out of your self what do I find but privation and nothing O my God what damage what annihilation is it when we fall into sin or imperfection For this is to go out of our Being to plunge our selves in the Abiss of nothingness Ad nihilum redactus sum O my Soul wilt thou always commit folly Wilt thou daily run after deceits and vanity that is the Grandeurs and pleasures of this World Wilt thou continually tire thy self to follow a shadow that flies from thee And wilt thou forget God the Being of Beings who is every where present and offers himself unto thee O my God so take me up with your presence that I may forget all other things to think on you my only Happiness The second Day The Omnipotency of God 'T Is no better than a Prison to confine our Souls within the small limits of created Beings 't is a slavery to be tyed to the intollerable yoak which the World and Vanity impose on their Servants 't is a Hell to be precipitated into the dungeon of exorbitant Passions and filthy Vices But 't is a Paradice and glorious liberty to be taken up with the Thoughts of God where we may walk at large finding all in him to be infinitely great his Goodness his Beauty his Sweetness and to apply our selves to admire sometimes This then That perfection This day O my Soul let us contemplate the Omnipotency of God wherein we may behold so many wonders O how the effects thereof are admirable in the Production conservation and operations of all Creatures 'T is by this Power the Immense Machine of the World is upheld upon
vast spaces of nothing 't is by It the Heaven and Stars observe their motions without deficiency the Elements and Plants and Animals are constant in their Productions Without the influence of this Omnipotency no Creature could subsist one moment or have any operation In a word so great is this Power that in an instant it could by one silent word produce a thousand new Worlds out of nothing O Divine Omnipotency how little art thou considered and yet how able to ravish all considering hearts O my Soul let us consider that we are always in the hands of an Omnipotent God Shall we then be discouraged with the difficulties we meet withall in this Life of Miseries Shall we be afraid of our own frailties and weaknesses and the Power of our Adversaries Is not Omnipotency able to uphold us Who can pluck us out of our Heavenly Fathers hands If God be for us who can be against us This is our hope this our comfort O my God I am very sensible what a weak Creature I am and how Potent are my enemies but this does not terrify me because You my strength and supporter are Omnipotent in whom only I put my trust Omnia possum in eo qui me comfortat I can do all things as St. Paul assures us through Christ strengthning me The third Day Of the Wisdom of God O My Soul let 's this day contemplate the Wisdom of God which is able to ravish us if we consider a right the beautiful order of the Vniverse O what admirable Oeconomy is there in the order of Nature of Grace of Glory O how all the dispositions of the Divine Wisdom do appear therein most wonderful We cannot seriously reflect or meditate on any of Gods works but we shall find his Wisdom to be incomprehensible and this does ravish a devout Soul and makes her often cry out O my God how well is this done how wisely is that ordained If my Soul fixes her thoughts in Heaven to contemplate there the admirable order of that Holy City in the various ranks of Angels the several Glories of the Holy Patriarchs Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins who are themselves transported in admiration of the Divine Wisdom herein can we but cry out O infinite Wisdom how profound art thou in thy dispositions If from Heaven we descend to Earth how is the Soul ravish'd to observe the unspeakable bounty of Divine Wisdom in the order of all things bringing about the great work of mans Salvation so infallibly and sweetly To see God himself in a manner annihilated to purchase for sinful Creatures Infinite Grandeurs by his Humiliations to behold the triumphs of the Cross of Jesus Crucified over the World sin and hell and the powers of darkness to see and consider these things must needs make us cry out in admiration of the Divine Wisdom incarnate O sapientia quae de Caelo ad terram descendisti O Wisdom which descended from Heaven to earth what wonders have you wrought for mans redemption What Praises what Thanksgivings O my Soul wilt thou render what returns wilt thou make to God for all his benefits and ordinations concerning thee We must conform our selves to the Divine Will and say O my God righteous are you in all your ways 't is well done because so order'd by your Infinite Wisdom Do we live or die are we afflicted or comforted Sit nomen Domini benedictum Seeing God will have it so his Name be blessed The consideration hereof O my Soul will teach us patience and resignation in all the events and changes of Mortality The fourth Day The Patience of God O My God how long is your Patience how profound and unsearchable Who but a God of Infinite Patience could suffer daily such provocations and contradictions from mortals and yet continue to do them a thousand favours to perswade them to amendment O patience of God how art thou unspeakable how art thou unconquerable O my God you know those who will hate and Blaspheme you eternally and yet you bear with them vouchasafing them your Sun and Light and daily Mercies still calling upon them with your holy inspirations to return unto you for their everlasting good Sustinuit in multa patientia vasa irae Your patience is wonderful to sinners we must blame our selves when we perish eternally On what side soever I cast my eyes from one Pole to th' other I see God every where offended contemned contradicted provoked blasphemed and in all the infinite triumphs of his patience sweetly working the Salvation of Sinners O what a long series of patience do I observe in the course of my Life To bear with me so many years wallowing in the mire of my sins when I deserved by Justice to have been cast into Hell To pass over all the resistances I have made to his holy inspirations To have waited and conducted me by his mercy to repentance O ye infinite Patience of God towards me 'T is to you I owe my Salvation or else I had been long since a lost creature for ever Are we not ashamed to see our passions and impatience with others when God notwithstanding our manifold provocations is so long-suffering towards us A single word and sometimes our sole imagination does put us in choler and we contend in heat without containing our selves 'till our anger be over O my God of Infinite patience if you should thus deal with us what would become of us poor creatures The fifth Day Of the Love of God COme my Soul let us walk this day in the pleasant and vast extensions of Gods love the holy love of our merciful God a love incomprehensible which is from eternity to eternity as large as his Essence and the self-same thing with it where ever I am I find my self surrounded with the effects of this infinite Love O my God I sometimes contemplate you as good to us and consider you as in your Creatures which you vouchsafe me for my use and delight But now I have an eye to you as you are in your self and I find my self so in you that I cannot go out of you for you environ me on every side you are in me and out of me and I cannot go from you but I must go to you How art thou beloved O my Soul how art thou beloved of God with an affection surpassing the love of a Mother to her Children The most she can do is to carry them in her bosome with a tender affection which is sometimes wanting But God does lodge thee in the midst of his heart and will never forsake thee O what benefits and mercies dost thou receive from this Infinite goodness Alas when shall I live in God alone and not in my self that he may only reign in my heart O my God I confess and acknowledge that you have the sole right to possess my heart entirely and 't is most mine when 't is wholly yours but be pleas'd dear God to defend your right
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
Comformity to all his States This Divine Light discovered to me a great many Verities very important for my direction and conduct 1. That we are never to be without Sufferings For the Spirit of Christianity is the Spirit of the Cross The Grace that feeds and supports it is the Fruit of the Cross and the adorable Bread so full of Delights inspires no other Sentiments then those of the Cross Venite mittamus lignum in Panem ejus 2. That as Jesus manifests the Purity of the Love he bears us by dying for us upon the Cross so ought we to prove the Sincerity of ours by nailing it to the Cross 3 That he worked our Salvation by the only means of Suffering Therefore it is a manifest deceit to hope that we can co-operate towards our Salvation by any other means than that of Suffering 4. That we must attend and harken very diligently to the Spirit of Jesus within us which of it self sometimes furnisheth us with Crosses of Providence or else inspires us to seek them of our selves We must embrace them all cheerfully or search them amorously 5. That no other Soul but what is in Love with Crosses can tast the ways of the Spirit and its Heavenly Sweetness For God who mixes the Pleasures of Worldlings with wormwood and Gall does often sweeten our Sufferings after an admirable manner Moreover I was taught in the Holy Communion that Jesus is a Sun which was Eclipsed during this transitory Life but now shines in Heaven full of Lustre and Glory And according to the measure Souls partake of his Eclipse and Darkness they shall proportionably share of his Splendours in Glory Why then flee we Poverty Contempt and the Cross For that which Eclipseth a Soul with Jesus Christ is the Seed of an Immense Glory in Heaven What is the reason that we see nothing but Crosses in Churches All the Altars are adorned with the Cross the Priest going to Celebrate weares the Cross in his Vestments while he is saying Mass while he is saying Mass he makes a great many Signs of the Cross when he is about to Communicate to us he first gives us his Benediction with the Sign of the Cross even the last Action he does holding the Blessed Sacrament in his Hand and ready to present it to us is forming the Sign of the Cross with the Sacred Host We are told also that in Antient times when Christians received it in their Hands they placed them in form of a Cross laying the Right Hand a Cross over the Left What can we learn from all this but that the Christian who Communicates ought to be Crucified and that as he receives his God among Crosses so he should take delight in passing his Life amongst Sufferings My Soul when shall I begin the practice of a Life wholly Crucified a throughly Christian and Supernatural Life When shall I love Poverty Contempt Affronts Injuries O my God that I might begin this very day to serve you and trample upon all the Sentiments of Nature which ought to be continually upon the Cross And therefore I ought not to be troubled at such things as impoverish and ruine me The more poor the more dead one is to the World I ought even exteriourly if People would believe me to live poorly and become vile and contemptible in the eyes of men following the example of Jesus Christ who lived thirty years in a Shop like a Servant Therefore it is my Duty to tend contrary to all that which the World with its Wisdom of the Flesh esteemeth And that suddenly for I am already grown Old and have not yet begun In becoming wretched according to the opinion of the World I shall answer the Grace of my Vocation who am called to Poverty and a Solitary Life I shall obtain Peace and become a man of Prayer Assist me with your Powerful Graces O Jesus and grant me Perseverance Let us follow Jesus O my Soul He from the very first instant of his Life walked like a Gyant in the ways of Humiliations and Sufferings the ways that his Father appointed him All his concern was to co-operate with his Fathers Eternal purposes which regarded himself Let us walk couragiously in the rough and Holy Paths which Jesus has traced out Let us not fear our Natural Weakness since he did not fear his Humanity but shew'd himself obedient even to Death and to the Death of the Cross Let us count every thing Folly that is contrary to this Wisdom and let us quit one for all every thing else to follow none but him CHAP. IX The second Effect of Communion is to Transform us THe following consideration after Communion entertained me long and continued a whole Morning That the principal Effect of Communion is to produce in us an intimate Union with Jesus This Union is a perfect Assimulation to his States and Mysteries And this Assimulation is the same thing which they call a Transformation into God and renders a person wholly Divine and devoted to the Interests of God insomuch that by Grace he becomes Divine as having no other Inclinations then those of God living by the Life of God and desiring nothing but the Love and Glory of God In this sight which appeared to me very clear I beheld the lowness and imperfections of such Sentiments and Actions as are meerly Natural I wondered at the blindness of men who set such a value upon an operation of Nature though it be of it self so infinitely vile and contemptible It seems they never understood the importance of advancing towards Perfection with all their sorce nor the miserable condition of an imperfect Soul This Light wonderfully separated me from Imperfection and I am now as full of Horror of it as I was formerly full of Sin It seemed to me that Jesus who so prodigiously debaseth himself in the Blessed Sacrament by a Miracle of Love of Mercy and of incomparable bounty did thus excite me to rise from Nature to Grace and and from a Humane to a Super-natural Life Towards which I felt in my self such strong Inclinations and such powerful Obligations by my frequent Communions that I had rather have died than have passed one moment of my Life in the state of Nature We ought to tend incessantly to the Purity of Jesus and if to enter into it more readily and more perfectly one must quit Honours Goods and Friends let us quit them my Soul and take in their places Poverty Contempts and Pains The Purity of Virtue charms me and animates me to pursue it I do not find any Creatures that I do not willingly abandon nor any difficulty that I do not easily conquer O my God separate me by your Holy Grace from every thing which hinders this Divine Transformation and grant that I may cease to be what I am according to Nature that I may become what you are by the power of Grace When shall I be wholly united and transformed into you When shall
true these are Crosses and Cruel Persecutions but if we bear them Faithfully with Love 't is a Martyrdom pleasing to God and profitable to us The Persecuting Tyrants tempted the Primitive Christians sometimes against their Faith sometimes against their Chastity which were Glorious Tryals of their Fidelity O how Blessed a thing is it to fight for that Faith and Fidelity we owe to God O what lovely Charms are there in this Martyrdom to those who behold them with the eye of Faith CHAP. V. Of Exteriour Crosses by the loss of Goods BEing in a Friends House who served God truly news was brought me that the Soldiers had ceas'd upon all my Goods at home and Blessed be God it little troubled me But rather I rejoyc'd and put my self into the Hands of God to do what he pleas'd with me preparing my Heart to undergo greater Losses contentedly I was much comforted by my Friend and I went home full of Joy and Cheerfulness accounting my self Happy that Divine Providence had brought me to Poverty and Abjection And I said with my self Courage my Soul our Blessed Saviour continues his Mercies Poverty and Abjection will afford us wings to flee to Perfection Behold now is the opportunity to make great Progress in Virtue if we be but Faithful It seem'd to me that at this time few Persons pityed me and yet they talk'd of my Affliction as no ordinary Tryal They blam'd me in some sort of Proceedings and after all I found my self an Abject and little considered I could never consent to the Councel of those who would have me either yield to anger or discontent For I always thought I ought not to part with that Meekness and Humility which becomes a Christian for the greatest Temporal loss that can happen to me I considered with my self that these little Crosses were hardly to be named with those that they suffer who are tormented with anguishes of Spirit or those who are Slaves under the Turk or such who are put to Death with grievous Tortures That which I suffer is nothing in comparison of those poor Creatures For I instead of being contristated by Suffering found a certain joy to possess my heart and a greater desire to suffer more Hereupon one told me That our Saviour sent me Crosses adorn'd with Flowers which though they took not away their heaviness yet their Odours did refresh and strengthen me to bear them This Persecution continuing I found my self always disposed to suffer it with great Interiour Peace and I kept my Soul from harbouring any thoughts of Bitterness against those who assisted my Plunderers I Saluted them with a Cordial Love although Nature had a repugnance to their Proceedings I beheld with contentment the Fall of our Family how our Friends did forsake us and some treat us very unworthily and yet I could not think it a misfortune but a signal favour from the hand of Providence And I did not complain but digest all this bitter Cup with Interiour joy O bona crux O good Cross The words of St. Andrew seem'd to me very true O how Crosses are good though full of Bitterness We ought to love what is good and make much of it In reality there 's an exquisite goodness in Sufferings and the Fruit of the Cross is wonderful Savorous For at last we shall find that the degrees of Glory shall be according to the measure of our Sufferings and degrees of Love I was then told some means how to get out of this Suffering condition Nature began to resent this with some joy but Grace repress'd it stifling this emotion of Nature that I might have no joy but in God alone and in the accomplishment of his good Pleasure CHAP. VI. Dispositions during Sickness where the Body suffer'd and the Soul rejoyced GOd has been pleas'd to make me enjoy during my Sickness an Interiour Peace so profound and great that I was altogether astonish'd at it considering my Miseries and former Transgressions I said within my self What is this that I find within me How comes it to pass that so miserable a Creature should be thus content and satisfied For my Soul was in a perfect calm from all her Passions feeling nothing but a pure and total union to the good pleasure of God and an absolute abandon of my self to the conduct of Divine Love It seemed to me that some dayes before this Sickness I was in a disposition of extraordinary Peace and Tranquility and one day after Dinner I was taken with a continual Feaver accompanied with much Head ach and Pains throughout all my Body But Divine Love methoughts continued his operations and set me all a flame with Holy Fires So that I often cryed out O Love O Love O Love And could say nothing else When I seem'd as a dying man my Friends weeping about me and every one saying I could hardly Recover my Soul beheld all this without being touched with any Sentiments of regret or tenderness for my Friends being wholly taken up with Divine Love which did so entirely unite me to the good Pleasure of God that methought I could never be seperated from it 'T was no part of my care to beg for my Life and one of my Friends proposing to send me some Reliques of Saints which had done Miraculous Cures I only thank'd him for though I have no small veneration for them yet I had no mind to make use of them for my Recovery but I would wholly put my self into the hands of Divine Love and leaving my self entirely to the conduct thereof whether for Life or Death for Time or Eternity In this extreme weakness of Body my Soul found her self Victorious and Triumphant to see that fall of Pain and her self full of Love and instead of being compassionate seem'd to me to smile at these Sufferings This was an extraordinary effect of Love that in this great weakness of Body my Soul kept up her strength and especially that the great Pains of my Head did not hinder her Interiour occupations This disposition of Love continued as long as my Sickness and I entertain'd my Friends with little consideration and I believe with too much talking fearing now to have discover'd then too much those Holy Fires that inflam'd my heart and that Self-love made me declare too freely my inward feelings My thoughts now make me suspect this defect but being inebriated with Love I said I know not what being like a drunken man that for a time forgets his Poverty and Miseries So in this disposition I forgot my Sins and extreme Frailties and cast my self into the Arms of Love that I might be united with my Well-beloved and enjoy his Reciprocal embraces I had a care to examine my conscience and confess my sins as a dying man and set in order my Temporal Affairs to pass to Eternity Finding my self not able to give much to the Poor it was a joy to me to die in Poverty and I was as well content to give
little or no Service but I rest contented herein seeing God hereby does magnify his Goodness and Mercy to me I doubt not but there are many Souls in Heaven who have in the eyes of the World done little Service for God as Solitares in the Deserts and many Persons without Talents and yet have high Places in the Mansions of Eternity They spent all their Time to purify their Interiour by being faithful to the Graces they have received from the infinite Bounty of God and the Service they rendred him to the Glory of his Name is only written in his Omniscience but will be laid open to the World at the great Day of Manifestation CHAP. V. Of the Impediments of Prayer I Clearly see and know by Experience that the temporal Affairs of our Oeconomy does not a little take us off from God We do ill in it yea it being our Obligation 't is pleasing to God to manage our Temporals with a good Intention though it would be better if we can to lay aside these Worldly Distractions to spend our time only in God's Service And those who have a Call from God to attend on him alone in a state of Prayer and Contemplation cannot without being unfaithful to his Grace continue in the solicitous Distractions of worldly Affairs I must needs say that Worldly Business darkens and hinders my Soul in her Spiritual Exercises and I would never spend time therein upon Humane Considerations but purely because God has so order'd it However it must be our care not to spend more time therein than necessity requires Too delicate Dyet though it may strengthen Nature yet it weakens Grace When the Body is brought down by Abstinence the Soul is more vigorous in her Elevations to God I find this true in me by Experience A Soul must be very well grounded in Grace that among temporal Imployments and worldly Cares can keep her self up in Fervour and Purity She meets with a thousand Occasions to move her to Anger Impatience Sadness and vain Joy and though she do not give way to them yet she is sensible of them and this must needs more or less disturb her Interiour Peace whereby she is united to God her Happiness A little thing will hinder a Soul from raising her self to Contemplation and a less matter will somewhat darken her when elevated because the least emotion of Spirit will indispose her to receive Divine Impressions Therefore a man of Prayer must be a man dead and mortified for that is not pure Prayer which does not work in us a victory over our Passions and Vicious Inclinations and bring us to the practice of all Christian Virtues I see now more clearly than ever that the Spirit of Prayer does not persevere and gather strength but in those who are dead to Sensuality austere to themselves Penitent and disengaged from whatsoever is not God 'T is true as for Corporal Austerities a tender Complexion must follow the Councel of a Director But commonly we are too indulgent to our selves and far from the practice of great Penitents who were very severe to themselves and also great Contemplatives We deceive our selves if we think to enter into a state of Prayer and take delight in Worldly things Though in rigour this may in some sort be permitted to Candidates of Devotion yet not to Proficients in whom the Spirit of Prayer and Conformity to Jesus Christ Crucified ought to be wholly predominant For 't is our Duty to live Conformably to that state where God has put us Gerson says very well If we refuse Exteriour Consolations we shall receive Interiour The reason hereof seems to me to be this because Interiour Consolations participate of the Purity of their source which is the union of God with the Soul and will not permit any mixture with Impurity and Imperfection For sensual Joyes and Consolations are Earthly Impure and Imperfect and consequently are contrary to the Spirit of Grace which makes the Soul pure and Penitent and Mortified to the things of this Life Moreover Interiour Consolations are slender participations of those Infinite Delights which God has in himself of himself and he is jealous of such favours not communicating them but to a Soul entirely beloved that takes no delight but in him alone But when earthly consolations enter into a Soul they draw her partly from God and so God withdraws his favours from her For this reason the Saints who would be wholly for God mortified themselves without reserve as much as humane weakness would permit that no sensual or Worldly Pleasures might have any part in their Affections but God alone Take courage O my Soul let us embrace the Cross and follow Jesus Christ who will conduct us through the garden of his Delights Let us not trouble our selves with Worldly Affairs unless we know 't is the Will of God for otherwise we shall find affliction of Spirit and decay in Spirituality Thrice happy is he who shuns multiplicity for this will dispose him to pure Love Many things seem to us necessary which serve but to entertain the corruption of Nature still working in us If God should severely examine all our Actions perhaps he would hardly find one in all respects well pleasing to him We too much follow Nature and our Humane Inclinations if Grace sets us a working we hardly go through with it but Nature creeps in some way or other to sully our Actions What is purely Natural cannot be Meritorious all merit proceeding from a Principle of Grace and therefore no Actions but what have an influence from Grace can dispose us to a union with God O how rare a thing is pure Virtue That which seems best is not for the most part without some blemish Those who have Illustrations from Heaven discover these Impurities others in the dark see nothing but grosser Faults and Imperfections From all this we may conclude that there are principally four great Obstacles which hinder for the most part the exercise of Prayer 1. To engage our selves in Worldly Affairs more than the order of God requires 2. To be too delicate and use very little Corporal Austerity 3. To practice little either Interiour or Exteriour Retreats and to have no Love for Recollection and for Solitude 4. Want of zeal and Courage in the ways of God and so living a Life meerly Humane by following our Naetural Inclinations But he shall never be a Man of Prayer who does not live a Super-natural Life and practice all Christian Virtues with a Faithful and Generou Resolution And Blessed is he who by his constancy in Spiritual Exercises has brought his Soul to such a temper that 't is in a manner as easie for him to Pray as breath Hic accipiet Benedictionem à Domino Misericordiam à Deo Salutari suo quia haec est generatio quaerentium Dominum He that thus seeks God while he may be found shall enjoy him there where he can never be lost CHAP.
Light into the Understanding sometimes more Love into the Will so that one Faculty seems to be lost in the other The Soul must be content with either as God pleases and cease her own Operations to be passive to the Actings of God in her by his gracious Motions A great deal of Work is done for us by this means in a little time towards Christian Perfection The Soul that is in this state must carefully shun two things the Activity of her own Spirit and the Impurity of her Affection As for the first our Spirit is very unwilling to dy to it self but will be acting and discoursing we loving much our own Operations so that we have much ado to conquer our selves that we may enter into an entire Passivity as to be only susceptible of Divine Motions The long Habitudes of acting with Liberty hinders this Annihilation but we must fight for the Victory and Grace at last will make it easy As for the second the Impurity of Affection we must be perfectly dead to whatsoever is not God so as to seek nothing but him and his good Pleasure without any mixture of Self-interests The infinite Love of God to us obliges us to be faithful to him and the Love we ought to have for our own good obliges us to spare no pains to attain to Perfection CHAP. XIII Of Pure and Perfect Prayer IT much disposes a Soul to attain to pure and perfect Prayer to give her self up into the hands of God with an entire Submission to his holy Will touching this Exercise to bestow upon her what state he pleases A Soul that finds Attracts from God to depend on his Providence the Matter and Manner of her Prayer must receive thankfully what comes from God whether it be Contemplatio or Meditation be it with Delight or Difficulty with Sweetness or Aridities A Soul so purely united to the Divine Will and dead to all things else possesses God in a wonderful manner not only in Consolations but Interiour Crosses Purity of Prayer as the present Light I have tells me consists in a simple View of God by the Light of Faith without Discourse or Imagination Reason and Imagination have their part in Meditation but not in pure Prayer It seems to me that the Soul ought to be absorpt in God and remain there in repose being dead as it were to her own Operations This Repose in God is by Knowledge and Love whereof sometimes this sometimes that is more abundant and affects the Soul as God pleases When God elevates a Soul above ordinary Prayer to converse with him alone she must make it her business to comply with him The Virtues and Dispositions which another time would be the Life of the Soul are not now when she must live no Life but the Life of God that is of his sole Knowledge and Love without any Reflection on her self God then takes the Care himself of such a Soul furnishing her with all necessary Dispositions Think on me and I will think on thee said Jesus Christ to St. Catherine In Prayer God infuses into her practical Lights of no long Durance but efficacious and out of Prayer she receives the same to be applyed to the Practice of most excellent Virtues on all occasions Pure and Perfect Prayer does not consist in Gusts of Devotion but in the supreme part of the Spirit in a peculiar manner that is ineffable For this supreme Region of the Soul is the sacred Temple where God is pleas'd to dwell where she feels and tasts a Sweetness above all created Entities The Soul conducted by Faith and attracted by these Divine Perfumes finds God in this his Sanctuary and converses with him with such a Familiarity as astonishes the Angels to behold it 'T is here where she makes pure Prayer seeing there 's nothing but God and the Soul without any Creature to interrupt this sacred Interview God working all that passes by Himself without Representations or Discourses or Gusts of Devotion This supreme part of the Soul being not capable of sensible Objects God alone takes Possession thereof communicating his Illustrations and Sentiments which are necessary for a pure Union with him Perfect Prayer then is a certain experimental Manifestation which God gives of Himself of his Goodness Peace and Sweetness An admirable Gift that is not imparted but to the purest Souls and ordinarily is but of small Continuance But the Condition of Mortality will not permit of more where we must live in Humility Patience and Sufferings The Soul returning from these Divine Embraces carries away with her great Love and a high Esteem of God a profound Knowledge of her own Imperfections and finds her self altogether disposed to act and suffer and practise pure Virtues on all occasions Few persons arrive to this Purity of perfect Prayer because few make themselves susceptible of those Divine Motions by an entire Annihilation of their own Powers These great Favours would be more frequently bestow'd if we had Hearts prepared to recive them Favours which are of more worth than the whole World and cannot be known but by Experience For my part I know nothing I only have heard say that in this pure and perfect Prayer there are admirable Unions most intimate Embraces Ardours of Love so Pure as may almost compare with the Flames of Seraphims We come to a perfect Union with God by a perfect Denudation of all Creatures and this Denudation is acquir'd by continual Mortification and sometimes by Divine Infusion We must therefore pray much and dye daily to our selves and all Creatures Since that Original Sin hath depraved our Nature we cannot live a Life of Grace without dying a continual Death When God acts with us in the Practice of Mortification we shall soon dye to our selves for he breaks us all to pieces on a sudden with wonderful Contrition of Heart and kills our Corruptions unknown to us so that a Soul dies more in one day by the loving Stroaks of his powerful Hand than she would in some years by ordinary Mortifications Let us therefore adore this Divine and loving Hand which kills us to make us live and never complain but of the little Returns we make for his gracious Favours The Loss of Goods of Friends of Honours of Consolations do much conduce to bring a Soul to this living Death for commonly we quit such allurement when we lose the materials of those Fetters In this Divine Exercise the Soul is wholly taken up with God without diverting her Thoughts on any other Object And though then to reflect on the effects of Prayer would be a kind of Distraction yet without her thinking God leaves powerful Impressions in her and pregnant Dispositions to practise great Virtues and above all a love of the Cross and Humiliations seeing he cannot possibly please God more than by suffering for Him CHAP. XIV Of the Hungring of the Soul after GOD and of her being Satiated with Him I Sometimes find my self in
a Prayer of Desires which I may call a Hungring after God For my intellectual Will had a strong Appetite for God without any Production of other particular Acts of Love or Complacency c. as when we have a longing after Nourishment without a Desire of this or that but only we have a hungry Disposition In this state the Soul only Thirsts after God as known by Faith in a general manner This Prayer was very Intellectual my Natural Appetite had rarely any part in it I neither sent up Sighs nor Ejaculations and it seem'd to me to be compatible with some Affairs and did continue though the Soul had Distractions in the imagination and understanding Methought this Prayer was wholly Spiritual for I know not how it came into my Soul nor what it did there only I felt a Hungring and Thirsting after God and it seem'd to me that I might still hunger after him though I did possess him This Prayer may be of long durance without breaking the Brain but we must be dead to Nature whilst it continues I felt also in my self a Hungring after the states of Jesus Christ the possession whereof is absolutely necessary to the Purity of Love and Infallibly disposes us to it Whosoever desires pure Love must have a desire of them also the one not subsisting without the other Therefore at present instead of fearing Poverty I desire it Instead of Fearing to Suffer I have Inclinations to it And my delight is to take my Cross and follow Jesus This kind of Prayer did appease Interiour Combates and Struglings in me and I found in my self some assurance of a Suffering Humble state where God will have us live purely of Him and for Him What is more purely for God than that which has nothing of self in it Grace carries us to a Love of Poverty and what seems contrary to our particular good which we relinquish voluntarily that we may advance the sole Interests of God A Soul that lives this Life lives in Purity of Love and participates of the pure Virtues of Jesus Christ O what generous Resolutions must a Soul have to Love God purely She must deny her self to please God only There 's no living a Life of Grace without a continual violence to our natural Inclinations by taking up our Cross to follow Jesus We confess O good Jesus that except your Grace always prevent and follow us we shall never relish well this Sacred Hunger of Sufferings and Humiliations and Poverty which is some small participation of your Abjections It often comes to pass that God who opens his Liberal hand to fill all Creatures with his Blessings is pleas'd to satisfie this hunger he has rais'd in a Soul by communicating himself to her in such a manner that she finds her self wholly contented and full of God This fulness of God being once tasted the Soul is ravish'd with Joy and Sweetness This disposition sometimes so totally possesses all the Powers of the Soul Understanding Will Memory Imagination that there 's no room for other Thoughts to enter being wholly taken up with God Prayer then is a feeling of God filling the Heart with Joy and Contentment O when will it please your Infinite Goodness to infuse into Souls some little participation of this Fulness that they may purely rejoyce in you who only can give us this satisfaction This is a satisfying Fulness indeed that leaves no place for other desires This Prayer is rarely granted unless to Souls much mortified and well advanced in the ways of God For a Soul must be emptyed of all Creatures before God can fill it When a Soul finds her self thus satisfied with God she must yield her self passive to the workings of Grace and she will feel in her Interiour such a content and sweetness as will render disgustful to her whatever is not God I find this disposition different from that which ordinarily we receive by Union with God This satisfaction being a more profound and intimate possession of God making all Comforts from Creatures even most pleasing to us become distastful in comparison of those Joyes that ravish'd the Soul in this disposition This Satisfaction and Contentment does sometimes Exteriourly show it self the Senses being so affected therewith that if such persons imploy themselves about any sensible object they do it as if they were a sleep The Dispositions God is pleas'd to give me increase in me daily a new desire of Solitude and Contempt of the World where I find nothing but Impediments to my Union with God And seeing all my desires tend that way whatever diverts me from it is displeasing to me It seems to me I am now no more fit for Worldly Affairs and I look upon my self as an old piece of Houshold stuff that is good for little or nothing but the Fire for methinks God would have me do nothing hereafter but burn with the Sacred Fire of Divine Love Or like a poor Criple who cannot work for his Living I must die of Hunger That is my Soul having a continual Hunger and Thirst after God must die to all things but God himself her sole repose and satisfaction CHAP. XV. Of Infused Prayer OUr Blessed Saviour has been so Merciful as to give me to my thinking some understanding and experience of infus'd Prayer In my Morning Prayer I found my self in the presence of God in silence with Admiration Reverence and Peace This took me up a long time and though some Temptations arose in Inferiour Nature yet the Superiour part of my Soul remain'd united to God without any prejudice to her Interiour quiet This Peace and Tranquility was greater than ordinary more Solid and more Assured I conceive also that what God is thus pleas'd to infuse into us be it Light or Affection Peace or Love 't is hidden from Deceits of Nature the Temptations of Satan and the noise of Creatures For God immediately infuses it into the center of the Soul without the Ministry of our Senses and so is not lyable to their onfets and vicissitudes but always remains entire as long as it pleases God to continue his operations I also conceive very well that the Interiour of Soul is a Sacred Mansion where God resides and does his works Independant on all Humane Industry and endeavours There he sometimes manifests Himself and his Perfections sometimes Christian Mysteries after what manner he thinks best It seems to me that the least Ray from his presence is enough to make known to us what he pleases Illuminet vultum suum super nos This is a very great favour for God to converse with the Soul alone in her Interiour I am now no more astonish'd at what the Saints affirm that their heart is a Tabernacle where God dwells with him and they enjoy him in a wonderful manner Nor that Souls of much Prayer do this without labour and almost continually for receiving so much and labouring so little I do not wonder at the Facility
produce in her admirable effects To have tasted of them once or twice is sufficient to make her rich by infusing into her Understanding a certitude of the Mysteries of our holy Faith and inflaming the Will with ardent and solid affections to practise Virtue And thus she knows more of God in a Moment than before she did in many Months By these extraordinary Graces a Soul is more convinc'd and dispos'd to suffer Contempt and Poverty and leave all things to follow Christ than by a thousand discursive Meditations However God does not cease to communicate these effects by other wayes as by spiritual Lectures holy Conferences Meditations c. But when God is pleas'd to work all by himself in a Soul he does much for her in a little time One of the principal Virtues that this state imprints in the Soul is To draw her to God and keep her with him so that she 's more in Him than her self Divine Love being a weight that alwayes carries her to her Well-beloved Amor meus pondus meum If a great Prince should send some magnificent Present to one of his poor Subjects this would give him more Knowledge of his Prince's Royal Grandeurs and Bounty than to send him all the Oratours of his Realm to set forth his Greatness by their Eloquence So a Soul knows more of God by the aforesaid Favours than by the large Discourses of Famous Preachers These extraordinary Favours are not necessary to Salvation nor yet to Perfection but very advantagious to confirm us in Grace For these more special Communications work in the Soul this admirable Repose and sweet Calmness to dispose her for the Receipt of great Graces which bring her to a more intimate Union wherein she sucks from the Bosom of the Divinity a Sweetness ineffable Strengthening Purifying and Comforting When the Soul is not in this Quiet let her do what she can no endeavours of her can procure it If God sends it let us receive it if he send it not we must be patient and prepare our selves thereto by the exercise of Mortificacation and pure Virtue according to the Grace betstow'd upon us Having been in this Prayer of Quiet many days it seem'd to me to be taken from me for contesting a little with my Friend to perswade him to prevent another with a charitable courtesie O my God how nice and delicate a thing is Grace and the greater the Grace it is the more delicate I learn by this Substraction how poor a thing a Creature is how unable we are of our selves to retain Your Graces and to see that this also proceeds from Grace I will hereafter make it my work to love pure Virtue and practise perfect Mortification CHAP. XVII Of the intimate Vnion of the Love of the Soul with God in Prayer THe wonderful Secrets of this Disposition of the Soul in Prayer can hardly be expressed only we may call it The Prayer of Vnity of Love because herein the Will feels no other Love in her Affections than that which God has for Himself One only Love seems sufficient for God and the loving Soul it being enough for her to adhere to him with great Simplicity and Unity with this only Love which God has for his infinite Beauties and Perfections The particular Love of the Soul is absorpt like a Drop of Water in the infinite Ocean of his Love by a Union inexplicable and being so lost is found more perfect as a Spark of Fire in a little Coal cast into a Furnace gives a heat infinitely greater than what it had of it self alone It seems to the Soul that she does not love but God loves himself in her and in this manner her Will having such Impressions of the Divine Love has no other Sentiments nor Interiour Dispositions than those which God has for Himself When she loves God in this manner as he loves Himself she also hates Sin in the same manner as God hates it by this ineffable Union In this state of Prayer the Soul receives wonderful Discoveries of the admirable Wisdom of God in his Proceedings about the Redemption of Mankind by the Life and Death of his Son so full of Sufferings and Abjection God loving Himself cannot but love the Cross which satisfied his Justice and the Soul cannot but have a Will to suffer seeing she is in the Unity of Love with God which Unity must needs elevate the Soul above Nature And as the Soul of Jesus wholly absorpt in the Love of his Father did rejoyce in his Sufferings and Humiliations so if we be in the Unity of this Love Contempts and Mortifications Dolours and Death it self will be lovely and desireable though quite contrary to our Natural Inclinations This Vnity of Love does so powerfully constrain us to love Sufferings that I make little difference between Love and the Cross and I see so clearly that all the Counsels of Jesus Christ do so wonderfully advance the Purity of Love that no natural Aversion shall deterr me from them I find in my Heart a tacit Consent of Love to abandon my self to Divine Providence and not to disquiet my self about Perfection For I must pacify all the Emotions of my Heart as well good as bad to be in so profound a Peace as to attain this Union When God is pleased to communicate to a Soul this Purity of Love he disposes her to so great a Favour by some Sufferings Crosses and Humiliations He that knows the Riches of true Love knows these also for they are inseparable so that he who will not suffer cannot arrive to Purity of Love My Prayer then tends to unite me intimately and continually to the only Love wherewith God loves himself and my Soul has at present Attracts to nothing else In this Love it seems to her she finds the Practice of all Virtues in a more excellent manner than in themselves I know very well that Love is a weight that continually carries the Soul towards her beloved Object and my Will bending always towards God it moves thither by a longing Inclination full of Love and Sweetness It seems to me that my Understanding herein does not with its Lights assist my Will for I find my Affections all on fire and panting after God without any previous Illustrations I found me thought Divine Love immediately working on my heart by such most secret Touches as put me in a state of perfect Union I find nothing to explicate this better than a Needle touched by the Adamant which then turns continually by a secret Virtue to the Pole and is unquiet till there it fix Thus it stands with my Soul being touched I know not how by Divine Love having no repose but by fixing on God and parting with all Creatures she gently tends to her Divine Center without any Violence being sweetly attracted to a perfect Union My Understanding in this state sees well enough what passes in my Will and Affections but it seems to me to contribute
he pleases without her knowledge or discovery Before the Soul can fix in this state she must suffer much from her imagination which will be still proposing her Representations Lights and Sentiments according to her usual practice but the Soul must quit all these to yield her self passive to the operations of God Yea even Spiritual Lecture at this time proves hurtful because it keeps up the ordinary way of working in the Soul Neither is this to tempt God seeing he will have the Soul to treat with him in this manner and her present disposition thus requiring she ought to be Faithful in complying with it There be many degrees of this denudation whereof I speak The first takes from the Soul what Lights and Affections she got discursive Meditations to give her in lieu thereof a more noble knowledge and love of God The second evacuates this knowledge by infusing particular and distinct notions of God The third after our way of conception is a pure and general knowledge of God by Faith The Soul must pass through these several dispositions as it pleases God to conduct her therein and remain in a perfect denudation adhering only to God and his good Pleasure We must not be discourag'd at the difficulties we shall meet with in this sublime exercise but prepare our selves to bear the Cross they must endure who are call'd to this state and contentedly loose our selves to be found in God Doubts frequently arise for although the Soul in this Prayer hath often assurances of her well doing yet this sometimes does not appear and the humane Spirit which is wholly blind herein is much terrified But when the Soul thus dies to her self and the World not by her own but the operations of God in her she is not idle as she may fear but disposes her self to receive the Divine enactions altogether extraordinary and Super-natural which are hindred in her by her own operations For the Humane Spirit must die before a new Super-natural Life can arise in her The Soul begins this passive Prayer by having an eye to God in himself confus'd and general After which she receives Divine Infusions as God sees good or remains suffering in a total denudation desiring nothing else but to suffer seeing she finds at present that this is the will of God The Soul cannot well give an account of what passes in her in this state of Passivity God working in her and by her what she knows not Only she sees obscurely that all goes well with her in her Interiour and that God is hers and that suffices And indeed she need not fear seeing a Soul thus passive and given up totally into the hands of God is more under the Sacred wings of his Protection than ever and belonging in a singular manner to his Providence Nor is it expedient the Soul should always know this work of God in her who would but hinder it by her reflections and complacences and therefore God keeps often from her knowledge for her good This passive Contemplation cannot be understood but by experience For God takes posseossin of the Soul in a much other manner than in active Prayer 'T is God that works his wonders as he pleases and the Soul receives the Divine operations co-operating therewith in a sort very sublime and Spiritual For the Soul is not idle but acts with a real activity elevated above her ordinary manner of working This is possible for the Blessed in Heaven are perfectly passive and yet very active their Powers working in a most sublime manner By how much the more our Prayer is pure it appears more passive in respect of us who apprehend not things Spiritual but by the service of our Senses The Soul in this state has daily experience of Divine impressions not only in Prayer but in many other matters according to that of St. Paul Spiritualis homo judicat omnia The Spiritual man discerns all things And this is wrought in a different manner for sometimes God immediately infuses his Light and Love into the Soul without any previous disposition sometimes by the looking on an Image sometimes by bringing to mind some passage in Scripture we have read before sometimes by a Sermon sometimes by Conference c. But 't is God always who works powerfully in the Soul these Exteriour things being only subservient to his Grace The Soul then makes no Acts but is wholly taken up with God and his Perfections or with Jesus and his states or the subject given her in Prayer I understood not this before this Light was Infus'd into me and now my former Exercises in Prayer seem nothing in comparison What is it that the Soul pretends to by her Meditations and Affections but to unite her self to God But when she does already possess him she needs not but to repose her self in him and live in him and of him as she desires And all the Sacraments especially the Holy Eucharist serve only to establish and plunge her more deeply in God Oh how rarely does a Soul free her self from all her own operations And yet that hinders her perfect union with God She leaves him to come to him again when she had nothing to do but to keep close to him I observe that upon my waking my Soul has an eye to Jesus Christ and reposes her self as in his bosom by whom she finds her self attracted to the Contemplation of the Divinity by the Light of Faith This Divine Idaea of Jesus Christ eclipsed all the Images of Creatures and at last my Soul was insensibly lost in a general and amorous knowledge of God and afterwards she perceived no more of what God wrought in her being then environed with Darkness which clouded the Light of her understanding I also laid aside all Exteriour occupations except such as I saw clearly God required of me Spiritual Entertainments Actions of Charity Visiting the Poor c. To intermedle much with such like things does take up the time for Prayer and Contemplation which is my chief and principal affair And as I ought to serve God in a denudation of all Creatures so I ought to be dis-engaged from too many Exteteriour occupations to treasure up time enough with Mary Magdalen for the one thing necessary And because Solitude and Retirement from Worldly Conversation do much cherish this manner of Life I must embrace it as much as possible But however with a high esteem of the Exercises of the Active Life which are excellent in the order of Divine Providence Sometimes the string is to be slakned a little to divert my Thoughts by Recreation or Exteriour Actions I have known Solitaries that have done so for the preservation of their Health and advancement of their Spiritual Exercises I know very well that my Life has been too much taken up with amusements and therefore now I ought to be more Solitary and retir'd otherwise I shall not be Faithful to the Grace of my Vocation nor conform my self to
the Will of God If I have not a great care the Devil will deceive me and make me delay to my own ruine CHAP. XX. Of the different Caresses God vouchsafes a Soul in Prayer THose who practise Prayer know by Experience that God unites Himself to the Soul in different manners all most intimate most pure and full of Sweetness Oftentimes by the pleasing Attractions of his Goodness and Mercy so delightful to the Soul that for the time she in a manner enjoys a Heaven upon Earth Sometimes God unites Himself to the Soul by the Rigours of his Justice trying her with interiour and exteriour Sufferings so that only the supreme part of the Soul remains united to God the inferiour part being in a Suffering condition Sometimes God unites himself to the Soul by his Sanctity his Bounty Power and other Perfections and to the end all these Unions may be pure it suffices that the Soul render her self passive to the Operations of God in her whether sweet or bitter comforting or afflicting with Respect and Affection 'T is observable that to live this Divine Life it is not necessary to find no Repugnance from sensual Nature it suffices if we continue firm in this state by the Superiour part whether Grace could only advance us and where we cannot subsist but by being dead to all Creatures He that will live this life must resolve to suffer All the Interiour Commerce between God and the Soul passes principally in the Will the Understanding is not so capable thereof but the Will receives the more intimate more pure and more perfect Communications being more proper for it The Understanding herein is more lyable to Illusions the Will is more assured in her way and the Devil cannot counterfeit what passes in her in the feelings of pure Love For the Soul that has experience of the effects of pure Love cannot easily be deceived From hence it comes that the Purity of the Will is the principal Disposition for the Prayer of Vnion be it ordinary or more sublime by the powerful influences of preventing Grace This Purity is altogether necessary God being not pleased to work these Wonders but in a purified Soul And this Purity consists in willing nothing but Gods good pleasure being dead to all other things contenting her self with the orders of Providence God finding the Soul thus purified especially in her Will takes up his mansion in her Interiour where he exercises his Divine Operations putting her into divers states acording to the different Designs he has upon her Sometimes he is pleased to inflame her Affections with Divine Love and to kindle this holy fire in her Breast manifests to her his Divine Perfections Other times he puts her upon the Cross and exercises his Justice for her greater good Sometimes he hides himself the more to purify her and make her dye to whatever is not God Otherwhile he gives her Councels to advance her in Perfection and then if she has not been faithful to his motions he gives her interiour Checks of Conscience Sometimes he enlightens her Understanding to enflame her Will and the Soul being retired within her self finds her Divine Bridegroom working something in her to which she is to be purely passive and adhere in all simplicity of heart to his gracious Operations Being thus retired into the Cabinet of her Heart she is elevated above her self and all Creatures and being united to God though he send her Sufferings she is not taken up with them but Divine Love she feels his Caresses is inricht with his Gifts and imploys all her Intellectual Powers to Love and Glorify her Well-beloved Here is her ordinary abode from whence she descends not to her inferiour part but for necessity and enjoying the Embraces of her Divine Bridegroom she adheres to him by pure Faith and Love without being diverted by her Imagination in intellectual Contemplation I cannot but think that a Mistress of a House that had a King and Queen in her Closet willing to converse with her would have a care not to divert her self by other matters and quit them to wash dishes in the Kitchen What strange Incivility would this be yea what Infidelity would it be in a Soul that is honoured with the Presence of God in the Cabinet of her Heart to have her near himself to converse with her and to ravish her with these Spiritual Delights which are ineffable Souls that are thus favour'd of God if they quit him for exteriour Imployments and temporal affairs neglecting the Presence of the King of Glory for some inconsiderable Business by this strange Neglect or Contempt of his special Favours must needs be guilty of deep Ingratitude O my Soul be thou faithful to the Divine Calls thou art too much favour'd of God considering thy too frequent not complying with his Graces He calls thee to himself his Attracts are powerful and sweet let us quit Temporal things and leave them to who will take them fear not we shall want nothing having God in possession If Divine Providence dispense to us with so liberal a hand the great Favours of God's Spiritual Graces let us not think he will deny us his lesser blessings which concern the Body and are as nothing in comparison Let us betake our selves to Prayer and never leave it for that is our great and sole Affair The End of the Seventh Book BOOK VIII Some Maxims of great Importance to conduct us in a Spiritual Life CHAP. I. To have above all things an extreme Horrour of Sin THere is nothing of greater Concern to us in this World than to manage well our Love and Hatred to which Passions our Will principally owes her Motions Our Love ought wholly to be fixt on God who is an infinite Good and our final Happiness Our hatred ought to have no other Object but Sin which is an infinite evil and utter ruine of our Souls Love makes all things easie and what is done with great Love is of great value in the sight of God Who knows to love cordially knows how to do whatever God requires of him seeing Love includes in it all Perfection Hatred also makes all things easy for from a torrent of Hatred commonly flows an inundation of evils He who really and from his heart hates an infinite Evil that is Sin will be reveng'd on himself by severe Penance and fly from it with such a Horrour and Detestation that he would sooner cast himself alive into Hell than commit a Sin that breaks Friendship with God A Soul that sees clearly the enormous Malignity of Sin and how it fights against the great God of Heaven and Earth to annihilate Him if it was possible will easily conceive an implacable Hatred against Sin and abhorr it to the utmost with an irreconcileable Enmity knowing well that Sin can only separate her from God her final Happiness This hatred ought to possess the Soul with permanency and such extensions as not only to preserve her from
the good pleasure of God does not at all hinder her Co-operation whether it be to act with God in Prayer or exteriour Imployments God by this means works in the Soul a disposition to enjoy or suffer of Action or Contemplation of Darkness or Light as he pleases For then she desires to do nothing of her self but to follow entirely the Attracts and Motions of God's Holy Spirit A Soul that sets her self a work without an eye to God and her Interiour is imprudent for what she so undertakes is of no value in that she does not the will of God but withdrawing her self from her necessary Dependance endeavours as it were to conduct God when she ought only to be conducted by him If we were sensible of our misery herein we would be afraid of our selves Self-confidence is a thing so formidable and we should discover a continual disorder in all proceedings except in those wherein we have an eye to God and are industrious to conform our selves to his Divine Pleasure When a Soul has fully given up her self to God she receives Interiour Irradiations from Heaven by which she discovers what she ought to do and what God requires of her and so is not disquieted with solicitous Thoughts but walks on securely in the ways of Perfection For this Abandonment preserves this Interiour Light which daily directs her in the Knowledge of God's Will to do her Actions with Interiour Purity As the Light of the Sun guides us in our wayes without which we should take one thing for another so the rayes of Grace discover to us what God would have us do and if the Soul should not be thus enlightned she would wander in the dark and our poor Life go on without the Conduct of God in Mysts of Misery and Infidelity The common Life of Christians is more guided by the Light of Reason than the Light of Grace but those that live by Faith are Interiour Christians CHAP. IV. We ought to make it our Business to be content to Suffer IF we will follow the ways of Virtue in this earthly Pilgrimage we must be content to suffer continual Mortifications lead what Life we will be it Active or Contemplative In the Active Life spending our selves for the good of others if we be not in a Disposition to sacrifice our own Wills with a Spirit of Resignation while we would profit others we shall endammage our selves for we must expect to meet with Crosses and Occasions of Patience for which if we be not prepared we shall without doubt fall into many Imperfections Yea in the Sweets of Contemplation we shall find some Thorns as well as Roses to put us in mind of our Suffering Condition In a word the Union with Jesus Christ crucisyed is the perfectest Union we can attain in this Life When Jesus Christ conducts his Saints to Mount Tabor they in a manner are out of themselves being ravished with the Glimmerings of Glory but upon Mount Calvary they receive the best Impressions of Perfection 'T is requisite a Soul should have a view of the Beauties of Jesus before she see and feel the Horrours of the Cross lest she should be scandalized at this last state and her Palate should not relish the bitterness thereof Spiritual Infants stand in as much need of Milk as Corporal Our heavenly Father does not take his Children from the Breast 'till he sees them strong enough and capable of more solid Food He lays the first Dispositions of a Spiritual Life in the Sweetness of Enjoyments but he compleats it in the Bitterness of Sufferings That which makes us profest Christians is Faith and Baptism but the Cross and Sufferings make us practical Christians and the greater they are being born with the Christian Patience and Resignation they advance us higher in Perfection We ought not then to fear Crosses and Sufferings but rather embrace them with Peace and Affection And we must hold this for a Maxim that we advance in the way to Perfection according to the Degree of Mortification and Self-denyal which we cannot attain but by a Suffering Life Let us therefore above all things abandon our selves to the Divine Providence desiring nothing but by the pure will of God without troubling our selves at what happens to us 'T is no just matter of Astonishment to see in this world the wayes of the Just beset with Thorns and Bryars of Affliction and the wicked to abound with worldly Comforts in Beds of Roses Those who will have no portion in the Joys of Heaven have refreshments in this world and find here their Paradice to recompense that little good they have done among those many evils they have committed But such who are preserved from Eternal Pains have their Souls purifyed in this Life in the Furnace of Affliction from those stains they have contracted which else would somewhat darken the Beauty of their virtuous Actions Thrice happy are they who by the Sufferings of this Momentany Life have just Cause to hope they shall never suffer everlasting Burnings CHAP. V. To renounce our selves wholly and strive against our proper Inclinations WHosoever designs to be wholly for God must likewise endeavour to curb the Motions of his Interiour and Exteriour Senses which have not their Rise from Grace but Nature yea all such like Thoughts and Desires and the Objects of our own Will which we in Prayer mingle with those Communications God is pleased to work in us by heavenly Visits But above all we must have a care to desire nothing without an entire Resignation and Submission to the Will of God which ought to be the sole Rule of all our Actions and Intentions Hence it proceeds that we have no Will to serve God but as he pleases according to the manner and designs of his Providence and when God will vouchsafe us nothing extraordinary in a Spiritual Life we sit down content with Peace and Humility For we are dead to our Selves to be living only to God's good Pleasure which is the Soul of our Souls our Riches our Grandeur our Perfection and Blessedness To renounce our own Will and all means which our own Industry presents as most excellent and give our selves up purely to the Divine Guidance conduces very much to Perfection To renounce our Judgement and follow the sentiment of others as better in works of Piety so as voluntarily to act but with Dependance is a means to mortify by degrees our own Will and Affections If we be content that our Defects should be made known we shall glorifie God with the Love of Abjection We get no good but rather hurt by our Defects concealed but we may draw much good by their Manifestation if so be they work our greater Humiliation We ought to remain in a Disposition of Self-denyal and Humility in the Presence of God and desire nothing but the pure Ordination of his Will who can make us poor or rich in Grace as he pleases A Soul that receives excellent
God to deal with her as seems best pleasing to him For ought she knows 't is best for her to be afflicted and therefore she willingly submits to Gods chastisements rejoycing thereat and Blessing him for them Yea if she may but bring Glory to God thereby she is content to be cast into Hell In this state her Love is wholly centred in God and she gives her self up to the rigours of Justice that she may be entirly Sacrific'd to Gods Glory which is an Intention pure from all Self-interest An indifferency to any state does possess that Soul which has a well purified Intention with a perfect resignation to the good pleasure of God to remain content with her present condition being satisfied with whatsoever portion of Grace she has received with profound Humility and Mortification Being thus disposed she has no mind to any thing but what pleases God and does that Faithfully and by this means obtains wonderful Peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost To Will nothing but what God Wills requires a great degree of Mortification and being dead to all Greatures for this is the highway to the Purity of Divine Love What did the Ancient Hermits search for in the Deserts but by a perfect denudation of all Creatures to arrive to the Perfection of Divine Love Let us fear and sigh to see our selves so engaged and beset with several Temptations in the World 'T is a hard matter but some or other may cease upon us and rob us of that perfect poverty of Spirit which puts us in full possession of God alone 'T is a special favour of God to have a vocation to the Poor and Abject states of Jesus Christ And 't is no small Grace when God conducts us to them by a Happy necessity with little noise or stir to call the eyes of others upon us 'T is well enough if the Soul consent purely to the Ordinations and events of Divine Providence CHAP. VIII A Conference clearing many difficulties touching Prayer Qu IN what consists precisely good mental Prayer I find many sorts thereof in Books The Saints have practic'd it with much difference and yet all so good that I am taken with them To which of them shall I betake my self Ans The ways of Souls in Mental Prayer are so wonderful various that 't is best for every one to hold to that which they find most proper for them Or else they will loose their time in a wilderness of Thoughts without Spiritual profit Hence it is that in Mystical Authors we seldom meet with what is proper for every Soul And though we find very sublime and solid Verities concerning Prayer in the Writings of St. Teresa Blessed John de la Croix and others yet they have but described their own experiences and not how the case stands with other Souls unless a light discovery in some things agreeable to their illuminations Such Instructions are good to read but not exactly to be followed so as to conform our selves entirely to their manner of Prayer We shall find in such Books matter very profitable and 't is time well spent in Spiritual Lectures and not without delight to Virtuous Souls Qu. From whence proceeds these different manners of Prayer seeing there 's but one Soveraign and single Verity in God to be known one Soveraign good to be Loved and Charity being of the self-same Nature in all Souls one would think there ought to be a great conformity among all those who know and love God Ans That which makes so many different manners of Prayer arises from the different manner of knowing God Some conversing with him by Meditation and humane Ratiocination Others receive from God Heavenly irradiations above the Powers of Reason by which he manifests himself immediately to the Soul as the Sun by his Beams Others contemplate God by the obscure Light of Faith in an ineffable manner which is a kind of feeing him without seeing him These different manners of treating with God make not only different manners of Prayer but cause also much diversity in every manner For example in the Prayer of Faith which seems more simple than the other there are many degrees which represent to the Soul different views of God and Divine matters When Faith is seated in an understanding well purified from Images and alien Representations she then discovers God more sublimely as he is in himself though but in a manner negative general and confus'd yet efficacious to work in the heart a great esteem of God and ardent Charity All Books and Sermons and Conferences will not satisfy a Soul advanced to this kind of knowing God For those manners of speaking and conceiving God seem to her too full of Imperfection Faith wholly purified contents her self with having an eye to the Light of Glory which discovers God in his Infinity although but obscurely and according to the measure that Faith is more or less pure and simple these discoveries are more or less perfect Qu. Are all sort of People capable of these sublime manners of Prayer and if any one desire to attain them by what means must he go about it Ans The gift of Prayer is not proper for all People yea some great Saints have never had it as some good Servants of God who have become Holy in the Exercises of an Active Life which would not afford them much time for Contemplation and accustom'd themselves to the ordinary method of Meditation which is good and advantagious for such Souls whom God calls not to a more sublime way Those whom God favours with the extraordinary gift of Prayer do possess an inestimable Treasure and with this only Grace which is the source of many more they are rich enough though never so poor in things of this Life But seeing 't is the meer gift of God I account it Folly and Rashness to think we can bring our selves to the sublime state of Contemplation unless God elevate us by his immediate work and special favour All that we can do therein is to dispose our selves by corresponding Faithfully to the motions of Grace by dying daily to our Natural Inclinations in the practice of Mortification and leave God to do the rest Except God build the House they labour in vain who think to raise the Edifice by their own Abilities Qu. A Soul establish'd in a sublime manner of Prayer and that hath a long time practic'd it can she easily fall from this state Ans If such a Soul gives her self over to her Sensual Inclinations and commit gross Imperfections becoming Faithless to Gods Holy Inspirations she may fall from it But 't is very credible she will return to it For she cannot long endure the loss of so great a Happiness without forcing her self by her Humiliations and Penitences to recover her former state And as much as she dies to all Creatures so much she advances to God But she can never attain it without Practice a Fidelity and therefore it highly concerns her to free her self from too many Worldly Affairs and love Retirement Notwithstanding those which God requires of us as belonging to our Duty will not hinder us from arising to such a degree of Prayer as God hath prepared for us from all Eternity Qu. The most elevated and perfect Prayer is not without Darkness and Privations and sometimes perplex'd with Interiour Crosses and Desolations But is there not a state of Light and enjoyment to be attained here wherein the Soul may possess God clearly and peaceably without any disturbance Ans No the permanent state of Enjoyment is reserv'd for Heaven In this Life indeed we are visited without Divine Irradiations and Glimmerings of Glory but they are only now and then and transient The term of this Life is working Time and not of Rest for acquisition not possession where the Soul may daily purchase new Graces and advance her self in Prayer according to her progress in Virtue and Purity by being Faithful to the Calls of God on all occasions Gods usual way is to make Souls pass through Darkness Temptations Derelictions Desolations Exteriour and Interiour Sufferings to come to a good Stock of Virtue and a higher degree of Purity which raises them to a more sublime state of Prayer And being exercised some way or other to raise them nearer to Heaven by Spiritual Ascensions they at length leave Time to meet with Eternity Neither must we wonder to see the wayes of the Just thus beset with Thorns and Bryars for this is expedient to advance them in Perfection and Divine Love Qu. How much time must we imploy daily in Prayer if we mean to Profit thereby so as to attain Perfection Ans We cannot much advance in Prayer without a long and constant usuage of this Divine Exercise 't is not enough to do good Works but we must spend some Hours in our daily Devotions 'T is by Prayer we advance in the ways of God and not otherwise We must be careful to imploy much time in the Exercise thereof if God calls us to it and not apply our selves to the Active way Let us not be too Sollicitous to discharge our other Obligations for a Soul in the state of continual Prayer performs readily what she ought on all occasions When the time comes for Confession she is presently all dolorous Love Contrition When she Communicates she is all Humility all Desire and flaming Affection When she is to correct she is all Sweetness and Charity When she is to help her Neighbour she is all Zeal and Love When she must act for God she has an intention purified from all Self-Interest And all this she performs in Virtue of Prayer as it were without distinct Acts but habitually and in an excellent sublime manner by the special operation of Gods Holy Spirit and not by Meditations or Considerations which are means only to find God A Soul that thus once hath laid hold on God does take her repose and rest in him making it her only business to Love and Worship him in Spirit and Truth FINIS
nothing to work this amourous Tendency towards God Not but that sometimes it presents some excellent Truths to quicken Love but yet that Truth was there without it I admire that after the Visits of Friends I alwayes find my will converted to God the only center of my Soul and I know not how this amourous Inclination is entertained and preserved in me I find by Experience that in this state my Soul is well dispos'd to practise all sorts of Virtues though she make thereof no formal Resolution After the Exercise of this Prayer the Soul is extreamly in love with Mortification and Self-denyal desiring nothing but God alone She understands also that she cannot persevere in this happy state without a constant Love of the Cross of which she daily becomes more amorous I begin this Exercise of Prayer without any other Preparation than Purity of heart as soon as I find my self in such a Disposition for God loving the Soul does sometimes prevent her before she perceives it I continue herein me thinks without any Industry or Trouble provided my Soul be but amorous of perfect Purity and faithful to the Practice of Mortification If I deeeive not my self God has been pleas'd to vouchsafe me this Mercy and it concerns me to be thankful and desire the Divine Goodness to assist me with his Grace that my Infidelities may not deprive me of this State and Favour CHAP. XVIII Of Interiour Silence where God speaks and is heard WE can never arrive to this Happy state of Interiour Silence where are the most secret Communications between God and the Soul except we pass through three tryals wherein we find much trouble and bitterness The first is the Death of the Exteriour Senses whereby all Sensible Objects become in a manner distastful to the Soul for as long as she does amuse her self with any Sensual Delights she can never arise to this Elevation This general Mortification is so difficult that the greatest part of Devotes suffer themselves to be conquer'd herein and pass no further The second is the Annihilation of the workings of their Interiour Senses wherein we have such difficulties to conquer that unless God who conducts Souls by his Divine Motions does strengthen them in this Combat and bring about this Interiour death by the secret workings of his Grace they will quickly loose courage in this attempt The third tryal is yet more laborious for we must mortifie the operations of our Spiritual Faculties the Memory Understanding and Will then which nothing is more difficult 'T is a long time before the Soul can understand how this must be done and longer before she can bring it about And except God be pleas'd to withdraw from the Soul those helps she receives from her own Lights and Affections she will never compass it In this Combat the Soul meets with a thousand Temptations As that we do but loose our time that 't is no better than pure idleness and much hinderance sometimes from Directors who having no experience of this way cannot understand it much less approve it Happy is the Soul that meets with a Director to strenghthen and encourage her in the difficulties of this passage otherwise she will never arrive to this Sacred Silence unless by some extraordinary Grace and Favour The Soul then thus dead and annihilated enters into this Sacred Silence the beginnings whereof are somewhat bitter though with a mixture of sweetness by a certain experience of the presence of God in the Soul Which being elevated above all natural Lights to behold God by the single Light of Faith is assisted by another Light that seems to participate of Faith and Glory For it has something of the Rayes of Glory Not that 't is really either this or that but a resemblance of them Wonderful are the effects which God produces in the Soul in this state of Interiour Silence For he deals with her as a Painter does with a Blank prepared for his Work where he draws divers lines as seems best to him God sometimes makes a silence in all the Powers of the Soul keeping them bound in the dark but in a disposition to do whatsoever he pleases with them The Spirit is a little busie to see what is doing but being check'd is quiet and the Soul having nothing to rely upon being annihilated in her self rests solely on God reposing her self in him with Patience and Humility Otherwhile God puts the Soul without any operation of her own in great repose and quiet neither willing nor applying her self to any thing in particular but in a readiness to do whatsoever God manifests to be his Will And this seems to me to be the most usual disposition of the Soul in the state of Interiour Silence At other times the Soul feels such a Fulness of God that she seems wholly to possess him insomuch that the Senses are partakers of the gusts and sweetness communicated to them the Soul in the Interim wholly Mortified by a constant readiness to be Sacrific'd to the Will of God At other times the Soul is wholly taken captive by Divine Love which giving her a relish of her Soveraign good all other things how excellent soever they may seem are but bitter to her The understanding here makes no use of the Light of Reason but God is pleas'd to infuse certain manifestations quick and suddain which work so secretly such changes in the Soul that she cannot perceive 'till they are done At other times when the Soul is in doubt or troubled with some disorder or discourag'd by her own weakness she finds God showing himself present with her to instruct to quicken to strengthen to succour her according to her present necessities The Soul in this state is disposed to whatsoever God pleases desires nothing required of her God works his will in her and she is Humble and Faithful and altogether submissive and plyable to his operations Thus the Soul must stand affected in respect of God but she can never come to this without great Combates continual Deaths and long Sufferings However all the Crosses can be endured in this World are but a cheap rate to purchase the enjoyment of God but for a moment In this state of Interiour silence the Soul cannot prescribe any Law to her self in her Spiritual Exercises but wait with all Humility to receive what God shall give her and be Faithful in corresponding thereto Sometimes she Suffers sometimes she Acts either in this or that manner according to the Nature of the Divine Impressions CHAP. XIII Of most Purified Contemplation ON St. Alexius's Day our Saviour gave me knowledge of a state of Prayer wherein at present I must constantly exercise my self as some Servants of God advise me but the reason they tell me I understand not My Prayer then is a denudation of all Creatures where the Soul as it seems to her does nothing but enter into possession of God in a peculiar manner who works in her what