For these three moneths I have not it may be spent three or four hours at my prayers upon my knees together out of the Church and should I perform them at all no otherwise than on this fashion I should but very ill discharge my â—uâ—y It is certain that I have discharged it ill enough yet I understand that God is pleased in the midst of these imployments to which he hath appointed me to make me sensible of his presence and power in uniting my soul to himself by certain intimate ways and that the outward work may be performed by the hand whilst the soul solaceth herself in that real alliance of Sons with their Father by the Spirit of the Son who admitteth us into his communion together with that of the blessed Virgin the Angels and Saints yea and of the whole Heaven if you will Such a wonderful expansion of soul can our Lord give when and how he pleaseth I enjoyed at the same time such a sensible impression of God yet excelling all sense as being acted in the more noble part of the Soul viz. the Spirit that if I had been thrown like a boul I could never have lost the sight of my God All things are here transitory for our Lord turns this boul in a strange manner when it pleaseth him And these dâ—verse turnings are done for the souls advantage whereby she is fashioned for every occasion that she may do nothing for or by herself but all for God and according to him Moreover I evidently see that a person whom God employeth in these low affairs if he follow them with the same fidelity as if they were greater keeping his station by obedâ—ence and self-denial is as acceptable to him as he that is occupied in the noblest functions The work it self making not the difference but the faithful execution of it by submitting to his good pleasure Will nothing please you but to convert a thousand worlds and bring all souls to God you shall be content to carry stones and sometime to sit still and do nothing The Sâ—crifice of Patience is both well pleasing to God and comfortable to our selves And I believe it is without comparison more rare to finde a soul faithful in patience and content to do no more than God would have him than faithful in actions which appear abroad I know well that God doth all in all but this Sacrifice of Patience and of Câ—ssation is more commendable in a heart who hath the love and zeal of his honour and in pursuit hereof is hurried on to action and hath need of greater force to withhold it from doing than to incite it This kinde of Cessation seems to be nothing at all available for the nourishment of such zeal and this hunger and thirst after righteousness which would devour the four quarters of the world is reverberated like the fire pent in which circles and works about until it finde a vent by this consideration that God is all-sufficient in himself and hath no need of us for advancing of his glory that we receive more honour from our imployments than he service being so impure that we blemish every thing we meddle with and rob it of some lustre and prove often not onely unprofitable but endamaging servants I have one word more to tell you that you may direct me in it which is that I am really ashamed and confounded in my self that I do no more for God considering his dignity hâ—s love his gifts and communications by the alliance of Jesus Christ and his Spirit Which indeed together with the sense of my great imbecility for any thing that is good of my sins and miseries would work my extream torment did I not bethink my self of his all-sufficiency in himself and that he doth with us as he pleaseth in keeping us in obedience and profound annihilation Thus far his Letter wherein are many good things to be learnt CHAP. 4. The excellent use he made of all things and his application to the Infancy of our Lord for that purpose IT must needs be that Monsieur Renty made excellen use of all accidents that occurr'd to him and generally of all creatures to attain to such a height of perfection whereof this usage of them as muâ—h as is in man is undonbredly the prinâ—ipal means to which all others are subordinate otherwise and without it unpâ—ofitable and meer hinderâ—nâ—es True it is that God hath placed in the bosom of each thing as in riches poverty honours disgrace health sickness good and evil a secret vertue and moral capâ—city to advantage us in our salvation and to be instruments of perfection even as so many cords to draw and unite us to himself but all this according to our usâ—ge of them For bâ—ing well used they produce good effects but contrarily abused instead of uniting us to God they estrange us further from him rendring us more imperfect and vicious and instead of advantages prove the instruments of our ruine Wherefore he being well instructed in this grand secret of Spiritual life imployed all his care to practise it perfectly Which that we may better understand it will not be amiss to follow it to the Spring-head The holy man had continually in his heart making it the principal conduct of his devotions as we have mentioned and may be easily deduced from the series of this History to unite himself to our Lord Jesus Christ and that upon good grounds Since out of him as saith S. Peter there is no salvation God having chosen him the sole Mediator of Redemption and the repairer of our miseties loving no creature in the world but him with a love of perfect amity Whereupon by S. Paul he is stiled the Son of his love and good pleasure and we alone are accepted in and thâ—ough him who are found beautiful and shining with glory when we are united to him and out of him we appear deformed hideous and most abominable being indeed without him filled with sin and his enemies Wherefore every man is so far dear and amiable to him as he stands united to his Son which is manifested in the Blessed Viâ—gin and his Apostles all our actions pleasing him so far as they are united to him even as each member of our body participates of life according as it is animated by our soul Having therefore perfectly learn'd this fundamental truth of Christianity his study was to unite himself to our Lord Jesus Christ and to copy him forth as his Rule and Law for the regulating of his Exterior and Interior adoring him daily under this notion applying himself with great reslection to his words actions designs and the several mysteries receiving from each of them great enlightnings Thus he writ to me one day upon the mysterie of his Incarnation I have had the grace divers times very intimately to understand that ineffable mysterie hidden with God from all ages and manifested now to the Saints according to S. Paul which is the
that we may be all one in him and experimentally feel what the love of God is toward us In all that I read in the Scripture I neither understand nor find any thing else but this Love and perceive clearly that the very design and end of Christianity is nothing but it Finis autem praecepti est charitas de corde puro The end of the Law is love out of a sincere heart And this is acquired by Faith in Christ Jesus as the Apostle saith in the following words Fide non ficta by faith unfeigned Which uniteth and bindeth us to him whereby we sacrifice unto the Divinity our souls and our bodies through his Spirit which conducteth us to the compleat end of the Law to deliver us up to God and bring down him to us in charity and a gracious inexplicable union to whom be praise for ever Amen My heart was this morâ—ing enlightned with a great Charity upon these words That we are set in this world to know and love and serve God Which gave me to understand that the true effect of the knowledge of God is to annihilate our selves before him for this knowledge coming to discover unto us that infinite Majestie the soul abaseth and emptieth it self through the deep sense of fear and reverence according to the measure of this discovery And this is the first step of the soul in this estate Next he love of God manifested to us in the giving us his Son begins to affect us with love And as the former view of his greatness contracted us in fear so this his love in Christ Jesus enlargeth and elevateth us to love God in him and to conceive some good desires according as his spirit breathes in us And this is the second step The third is to serve him that is by putting this love into practice by good works For these desires are but blossoms and these good works the fruit I could say much on this subject if I could express my own feeling of it For here we finde all in all that is God revealed by Jesus Christ loved and served by his Spirit This Divine Lord sets up a blessed Society and a Kingdom in our souls wherein he rules and reigns there by love unspeakable and eternal Writing to another person he expresseth himself thus I give thanks to our Lord for that he hath disposed you to a perfect Abnegation of your self This is done to lead you into the pure estate of love which without that cannot be pure in that our love to God consisteth not in receiving gifts and graces from him but in renouncing all things for him in an Oblivion of our selvee in suffering constantly and couragiously for him Thus did he express the nature of Love not to consist in taking but giving and the more and greater matters we give the more we manifest our Love This Love carries up the Lover according to the measure of its flame continually to think upon his Beloved to will what may please him to study his interest to procure his glory to do every thing that may work his contentment and to be extreamly apprehensive of any thing that may offend him Accordingly he being all on fire with the love of God was perfectly sinsible of these effects All his thoughts words and works were the productions of this love for notwithstanding he practised other vertues yet they drew their original from this Furnace of Charity which in him was the beginning and motive and end of all which he testified to his Confidents frequently and in words so enkindled with it as were sufficient to warm the most frozen hearts I have observed saith one of his Confidents this Divine fire so ardent in his blessed soul that the flames thereof have burst forth into his Exteriour and he hath told me that when ever he proncunced the name of God he tasted such a sweetness upon his lips as could not be expressed and that he was even pierced thorow with a hâ—avenly suavity To another he write about 9. or 10. years agoe that he could nor conceal from him how he felt a fire in his heart which burnt and consumed without ceasing Another of them assures that he hath often seen him enflamed with this Love of God that he appeared even like one besides himself and how he told him when these transportings were upon him that he was ready to cast himself into thefire to testifie his Love to God and in one of his Letters to a friend he concludes thus I must now hold my peace yet when I cease to speak the fire within that consumes me will not let me rest Let us burn then and burn wholly and in every part for God since we have no being but by him why then do we not live to him I speak it aloud and it would be my crown of glory to seal it with my blood and this I utter to you with great freedom In a Letter to another thus I know not what your intent was to put into your Letter these words Deus meus omnia my God and my all Onely you invite thereby to return the same to you and to all creatures My God and my all my God and my all my God and my all If perhaps you take this for your motto and use it to express how full your heart is of it think you it possible I should be silent upon such an invitation and not express my sense thereof Likewise be it known to you therefore that he is my God and my all And if you doubt of it I shall speak it a hundred times over I shall adde no more for any thing else is superfluous to him that is truly penetrated with my God and my all I leave you therefore in this happy state of Jubilation and conjure you to beg for me of God the solid sense of these words Being transported with this Love of God it wrought in him an incredible zeal of his honour which he procured and advanced a thousand ways Which may be understood partly by what we have already writ and several other which are unknown because either they were wholly spiritual or concealed by him even from his most intimate friends The 12 of March in the year 1645. he writ thus to his Director upon this subject One day being transported with an earnest desire to be all to God and all consumed for him I offered up to him all I could yea and all that I could not I would willingly have made a Deed of Gift to him of Heaven and Earth if they had been mine And in another way I would willingly have been the underling of all mankinde and in the basest estate possible yea and if supported by his grace I could have been content to have suffered eternal pains with the damned if any glory might have accrew'd to him thereby In this disposition of a calm zeal there is no sort of Martyrdome no degree of greatness or littleness of
the spirit which is never so compleat as when it is alone Giving notice to a friend of the death of the Countess of Castres for whose spiritual good and perfection he had taken very much pains He writeth thus I was not in Paris but at Citry when she departed I was sent for post the day of her death which was Saturday but came two hours too late Entring the Town I understood the news from them that spake openly of it in the streets Presently I fixed my self to the will of God whereupon I found no more alteration in my soul than if she had been alive I see his order in this that I assisted her not at her death and make no doubt but that he permitted it for her advantage To a friend that had lost his Spiritual Director he writ thus Touching the remove of your Ghostly Father it would without question prove a great loss to you and all the Countrey from whence he went if the providence of God herein did not rather sanctifie and establish than destroy and if oftentimes by removing these petty visible and sensible supports he did not make way to settle us more firmly in our progress to which he designs us which is to dwell and to hold our selves in God together with Christ Jesus where we finde all truth and all power and who is so neer to us that he is even in the midst of â— and proportionably as our dependence upon creatures faileth through his providence he makes it appear aâ—d we experimentally finde that we are not left destitute thereby but that supply is made either by his Spirit that resideth continually in us for our relief or by the conduct of his Ministers which the fewer they are the more is that grace dilated and multiplied which we receive by them So great is the providence of our Heavenly Father as to take care of the meanest necessities of all his children who to him behave themselves as children Neither indeed ought we to be further engaged to those persons who assist us in our Spiritual conduct than as to Gods instruments whose help it is his will we should make use of but no longer than he pleaseth and when his will is either by death or otherwise to take them from us we ought not to be afflicted nor lose our courage but with submission and gratitude resign all to him which will be a good means to move him to provide others who perhaps with more advantage to us may understand the pulse of our souls In fine he was dead to all love of himself which he had so perfectly subdued that being naturally quick and hasty as we have formerly hinted he became so staid and equal in all his demeanor as caused admiration in those that knew him being naturally of a high spirit he had acquired a most profound humility of heart whereof he produced most evident actions exteriourly at all times and in all places And though his genius inclined him to wit and scoffing yet he so corrected it that none was more respectful and courteous to all even the meanest As for his passions those were so perfectly subdued and regulated that they never broke loose upon any occasion so that you might say he had none at all He had arrived to a perfect death in the superiour faculties of his soul his memory so emptied of all worldly things that it never presented any Idea's sufficient to distract his Devotions He made not any imperfection upon what was past as we have observed and our Saviour had endowed him with this singular grace not to be busied in his thoughts about those actions in which he was conversant which after they were done were obliterated wholly as to any care for them and quite blotted out of his memory that they might be no hindrance to what was in hand This Letter was writ to a familiar friend relating hereunto It is some while ago that finding my self in the midst of a world of people my spirit was enlightned and affected neither to desire to know any body nor to be known to any This hath wrought in me a wonderful separation from every thing and methinks herein consisteâ—h one of the chiefest points of a Spiritual Life which requires great purity of spirit wonderful estrangement and distance from the creature and which placeth the soul in this world as if it were no part of it in a state of perfect oblivion and ignorance of things which do not concern her that is no longer able to endure but onely what is necessary He was dead to his spirit reason and judgement living onely the life of Faith which is a Christians proper death It may be gathered from what hath been mentioned already that he acted nothing by this faculty of its self no more than if he had had no such power but wrought all by the moving of Christ Jesus who lived in him and operated by him Lastly he was annihilated and dead to his own will which we have placed after all as being the most important faculty in relation to Moral actions This therefore he had entirely resigned in conformity to Gods will not desiting absolutely any thing but in order thereto I adore saith he in one of his Letters so affectionately the will of God in whatsoever he pleaseth to make out for me that Hell it self should be my Paradise if he decreed me thither And in another thus Far be it from me to act in this business by my own spirit I would have it wholly annihilated that it might know no other language but Nothing and continually Nothing to follow in all the footsteps of the Divine will according to its measure and manner And to a third thus My Saviour hath graciously brought me into such a state of indifferency for every thing that I could be very well cortent all my life to be fixed to my bed a Paralytique not able to stir without making any reflection upon any service I might render to my neighbour or that I could render him no more all things according to the will of God being equal to me And in a fourth thus Of late I have been busied in such occasions both Exteriourly and Interiourly as were sufficient to have gravel'd such a weak mean spirit as mine had it not been absolutely resigned to the will of God It is upon him alone by this way of Abnegation that I bottom my self adoring with you and by your instruction the decrees of his Sacred and Divine Will who holdeth all things in his own hands to keep us subyect unto him by his justice and to sanctifie us also by love If the effects thereof upon us do evidence us to have the hearts of children that is 〈◊〉 Spirit of Christ Jesus to sigh after our heavenly Father and cry Abbâ— Peter SECT 2. Continuation of the same subject MOnsieur Renty was so absolutely resigned to God having quite lost and annihilated his own will into thâ—â— of God
man pollutes and undoes himself He that will conduct souls to Christ and God must of necessity carry them through such ways as lead thither CHAP. 2. His Charity to his Neighbour taken in general HAving a purpose to speak of his Charity which his man of God had towards his Neighbour I shall speak first of it in general and say thus much that it was so great and enlarged that it seemed to have no bounds in that he loved not onely all Christians and faithful people but even all men not excepting any because he beheld motives in all of them of a true charity and sincere love looking upon them as creatures of God and his chief Workmanship for whom our Saviour became man and laid down his life whom he loved and desired to save these all he likewise loved and laboured their good Thy Commandment saith David is exceeding broad the same dimensions he prescribed to his charity loving the present and absent domesticks and strangers good and bad esteeming all according to their degree honoring all speaking well of and doing good to all and ill to none There was not any considerable publique good work done either at Paris and a great way off it wherein he had not a great share There was no undertaking there that rended to the honour of God or good of man of which he was not either the Author or Promoter or Finisher and very often all these together He was one at all the meetings for Piety and in many as the soul and primum mobile he kept correspondence through the whole Kingdom concerning works of charity received from all parts letters desiring his advice in all difficulties that occur'd in the erecting or advancing of Hospitals Seminaries of Religion Places of Devotion Fraternities of Vertuous Persons agreeing to associate together for the better applying themselves to their own and others salvation and for the managing of all sorts of good works One of good report writ thus concerning him from Caen Monsieur Renty was our support and onely refuge in the execution of all our designs which related to the service of God the saving of souls and relief of the poor and distressed To him we wrote continually as well for the settling of our Hospitals and houses for receiving of loose women converted as also for the suppressing the insolence of some Hereticks who shewed contempt of the blessed Sacrament too openly Finally we received counsel and succour from him in all like occasions in which he expressed a great zeal for the glory of God and extirpation of vice Since his death we have not met with any to whom we could have the like recourse about the things of God Another from Dijon wrote thus We cannot but acknowledge the great benefit this Province hath received from Monsieur Renty wherever he came wherein he hath wonderfully advanced all works of Piety We may truly say that his days were filled with the plenitude of God and we believe that he scarce lost one minute of time in which he either spake not or acted not something tending to his service He applied himself to the necessities of the English Irish and captives in Barbary and of the Missions into the Levant he took very great pains for the good of the Hospital at Marcelles for the relief of Galley-slaves and contributed much to the advancing of the affairs of new France in America he had a design likewise to purge all Trades and Manufactures from corruptions that had grown upon them to rectifie and sanctifie them that men might live upon them like Christians which thing he together with others had happily begun and perfected the same in two of them as shall be shewed hereafter Moreover as one of the great effects of Charity is Concord and Union so had he a wonderful care to conserve encrease and perfect it in himself and others wherefore he lived in perfect amity with all the world with Seculars Ecclesiasticks and Religious esteeming respecting and speaking honorably of them all and when any difference fell out among them he was greatly afflicted for it endeavoring by all means to pacifie and unite their spirits and to accord their divisions knowing that the God whom we worship is a God of peace who would have us live in peace and that never any discord comes from him but from the Devil the sower of Tares that nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity that spirit of Union and Love than Division and Schismes in Charity making us not live like brothers but strangers and enemies that instead of profiting in vertue we multiply and encrease our sins and vices The spirit of the new Law is a spirit of such perfect Charity and intimate Union that as St. Paul saith it makes no distinction as to the heart of Jew nor Gentile of Barbarian nor Scythian of bond nor free but Jesus Christ is all to all to unite and close and oblige them all in himself According to which this true Christian writeth thus in one of his letters The words which we ought chiefly to imprint upon our hearts are those of mutual love which our Saviour bequeathed us in the close of his Testament this love should inspirit all Christians to perfect them in one and cause them to live and converse together as brethren and children yea as one sole childe of God And because this Union with Christ our Saviour to whom we all belong is the best and most necessary disposition in such as are employed about the good of their neighbor to the end that they may receive from him both light and strength to enable them according to his purposes together with his saving Spirit to assist and ground them in all vertues and especially such as qualifie a man for that purpose therefore his utmost endeavour was to unite himself intimately to him and in all things to act by his Spirit and to acquire these vertues and render himself perfect in them These vertues are set down by St. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians upon which he made frequent reflections and long meditations and although he carried always the New Testament in his pocket yet that he might read and consider them often he wrote them down with his own hand carrying it apart about with him The Contents whereof were Charitas patiens est benigna est Charitas non aemulatur non agit perperam Non in flatur non est ambitiosa Non quaerit quae sunt sua non irritatur c. Charity is patient full of sweetness envieth not is not malicious nor hurtful is neither vain nor ambitious seeketh not her own interests is not froward nor cholerick thinks no ill but interprets all to a good sense rejoyceth not at the faults of others but on the contrary takes great content in others well-doing suffereth much believeth all things not out of feebleness of spirit but out of goodness and holy simplicity if its neighbor mend not presently
all pollution from them like as the Sun shineth upon a dunghil without taint or imperfection Simplicity quitted him from all multiplicity engagements reflections upon his own Interest Complacencies Vanity passion of Joy or Sadness from any of his own Performances or Speeches from Praise or Dispraise or from the Vices of the Times Places or Persons he conversed with to receive any pollution from them no otherwise than a new-born childe beholdeth a Pageantry which passeth before it which is forgotten as soon as removed Lastly Purity directed his eye in a straight line to God pretending to nothing but his glory in any thing that man had a hand in And this proceeding of his all ought to imitate if they desire to make progress in Vertue and arrive to perfection and particularly those that treat much with their neighbour in the negotiation of his salvation that they may do it with more advantage to him and with no damage to themselves PART IV. His Vertues whereby he was elevated and united to God CHAP. 1. His Interiour and his Application to the Sacred Trinity ALthough what we have hitherto said of the Heroick Vertues and famous Actions of Monsieur Renty which had respect either to his own perfection or the good of his neighbour is very remarkable Yet the principal and more admirable is that which remains viz. The state of his Interiour and his communication with God So David saith that the Kings-daughter is all glorious within and the Holy Ghost setteth forth in lofty expressions the Spouse in the Canticles for the beauty of her face and of her whole body But it addes that nothing could sufficiently be uttered concerning the hidden graces of her Soul and Interiour which were far more charming and attractive even as the chief excellencies of our B. Saviour consisted not in his Exteriour or in those things he did either for himself or for men but in the intimate union he had with God and those actions he produced in the profundity of his Spirit towards him In like manner our perfection consists not in our good works which appear outwardly nor in the exercises of Charity Humility Poverty and the like Vertues open to the eye but in the application of our spirit to God and our union with him by the acts of vertue and chiefly of the three Theological ones It consisteth I say in honouring and adoring him in the Temple of our souls in performing to him there the Sacrifices of a lively Faith upon the Altar of our Understanding in offering up the Holocausts of perfect Hope and ardent Charity upon the Altar of our Will and in a total subjection of our spirits to his and an union of all our faculties with him whereby we become purified sanctified and deified proportionably as the blessed Saints are in heaven where this perfection is compleated This was Monsieur Renties practice whereby he had a true feeling of S. Pauls words Your life is hid with God through Jesus Christ concerning which he expressed his thoughts thus to a friend There is nothing in this world so separate from the world as God and the greater the Saints are the greater is their retirement into him This our Saviour taught us whilst he lived on earth being in all his visible employments united to God and retired into the bosom of his Father His principal care was incessantly to cultivate and adorn his soul to unite it intimately to God by the operations of his understanding and will to give up himself with all his strength to this hidden and divine life of Faith Hope and Charity of Religion of a mystical Death and entire Abnegation of himself Some years before his death his particular attractive was the contemplation of the B. Trinity being the last end in which all must terminate Whereof he gave this account to his Spiritual Guide in the year 1645. I carry about with me ordinarily an experimental verity and a plenitude of the presence of the Holy Trinity And in another Letter thus All things vanish out of my fancy as soon as they appear nothing is permanent in me but God through a naked faith which causing me to resign my self up to my Saviour affordeth me strength and confidence in God the Trinity in that the operation of the three Divine persons is manifested to me in a distinct manner viz. The love of the Father which reconcileth us by his Son the Father and the Son who give us life through the Holy Spirit the H. Spirit which causeth us to live in in Communion with Jesus Christ which worketh in us a marvellous alliance with the Sacred Trinity and produceth often in our hearts by faith such inward feelings as cannot be expressed He writ also to a confident friend and one that was much devoted to this Sacred Mysterie How that the proper and special effect of Christian grace is to make us know God in the Trinity uniting us to the Son who causeth us to work by his Spirit And to say the truth we are consecrated by our Baptism to the worship of the B. Trinity Therein we are consecrated to his Glory receive its Seal and put on its Badge and Livery to manifest to us and to all the world that we are perfectly and absolutely its own He writ to the same party in the year 1648. on the same subject The Feast of the blessed Trinity giveth me this occasion to write that we may renew our selves in the honour and dependance we have upon this incomparable Mysterie I desire to joyn hearts with you to adore that which we are not able to express Let us melt into an acknowledgement thereof and foâ—tifie our selves by the grace of Faith through Christ to be perfected in this adorable Mysterie Infinite things might be spoken which my heart resenteth of the latitude of this grace but I cannot utter them I beseech you let us adore God let us adore Jesus Christ let us adore the holy Spirit which Spirit discovereth unto us the operations of love and mercy of these Divine Persons in us and let us make good use thereof The same year he clearly expressed his condition and the manner of wholly applying himself â—oâ—th Sacred Trinity how that his soul was most entirele united to the three Divine Persons from whence he received illuminations that surpassed all humane understanding how he lived perpetually retired and locked up as it were with the Son of God in the bosom of his Father Where this Son became his Light his Life and Love and the holy Spirit his Guide his Sanctification and Perfection how he did bear within himself the Kingdom of God which he explained by a resemblance of what the Blessed enjoy in heaven by vertue of that view and transcendent knowledge of the sacred Trinity which was communicated to him and that pure Love by which he felt his heart inflamed and as it were transformed into God in whom he possessed a joy and repose beyond all expression That
in this estate he had a conformity with the Son of God by a participation and fellowship both in his Beatitude and Sufferings which he endured here below and that by his holy Spirit were accomplished in him the mysteries of the whole Pilgrimage of our Saviour in this world rendring him as a daily sacrifice to the B. Trinity breathing after the Resurrection and his perfect Consummation in Glory Suâ—h was the disposition of this holy man towards the B. Trinity in which he passed his latter years and in which he dyed finishing his sacrifice and was often wont to say That when a man is call'd up hither he must abide there without any changing Being guided this way and treading these pathes he made an admirable progress to the highest pitch of perfection attainable in this life each Person in the sacred Trinity working in his soul wonderful impressions of grace sealing him with their particular characters and sanctifying him in an extraordinary manner The Father kept him alway retired and recollected in his own bosom where he bestowed upon him a large share of his own infinite inclination to communicate himself to others and of this blessed Celestial Fecundity in begetting children not of flesh and blood but of the Spirit enflaming his heart with a paternal and maternal love towards mankinde from whence did flow that unparalell'd charity whereof we have spoken The Son transformed him into a lively image of God through the resemblance of his own perfections bestowing on him a filial spirit to acquit himself towards him in all his endeavors with that singular reverence saith confidence love obedience as is required from a Son to a Father bringing him into such a condition as that God spake to him Interiourly producing in him his word accompanied with such power and strength as was able to touch mens souls and work in them the blessed fruits of salvation The Holy Ghost that infinite pure and reciprocal love of the Father to the Son and of the Son to the Father cleansed him from all the impurities of self-love and self-seeking enflamed him with a perfect love towards God taught him the way of spiritualizing all material things of sanctifying all indifferent things of extracting good out of all evil and finally of leading a life truly spiritual after the grand pattern of our Saviour This he expressed in brief in a Letter to his Director writ in the year 1647. The Divine goodness worketh in me that which I am not able to express I possess even the B. Trinity and finde distinctly in my self the operations of the three Divine Persons CHAP. 2. His Faith THe better to take this Spiritual Life in pieces we will begin with his Faith the prime Theological Vertue which Gulielmus Parisiensis calls the Primum Vivens of the soul and S. Paul the first step we make in our advance towards God This blessed man studied with particular care a solid foundation in this vertue knowing the incredible consequence thereof for a spiritual life and how all other vertues depend on it as on their Root their Rule and Measure O how good a thing saith he in one of his Letters is it to live of Faith I seem to understand this Vertue every day better and better Those that are established in this the life by which the just live according to S. Paul are at length compleated to Perfection and enjoy here the first fruits of glory He possessed this grace in so high a degree that he was more ascertained of the presence of God of the verity of the mysteries of our Faith than of the shining of the Sun He truly lived by Faith this was the path in which he walked working all by the spirit thereof Hereby he looked upon things not onely with his corporal eyes but with those that pierced deeper considering them not according to their present or past condition or the order of nature but their future and eternal according to their relation to grace and glory regarding nothing but as it was or might be a means of â—â—s own or others salvation All his works were performed by the hand of Faith which proves strong and effectual which more willingly handles Ulcers and the loathsome soars of poor people than gallants do Sattins or Velvets The pure and vigorous Faith of the primitive Christians said he caused them to act without those conveniences and necessaries which we stand upon which indeed argue the decay and weakness of Faith such heroick actions as we onely now admire these assuredly lived by Faith without any form and composition of their own proper spirit in great Simplicity Efficacy and Verity Being fortified by this Faith he was wont to say that he felt no difficulty at all when our Saviour sensibly deserted him for a time and sent him great aridities attributing all those inquietudes impatience and anxities which we labour under in this estate of privation to the want of this grace I have taken out of one of his Letters what he writ to this purpose We seldom meet with persons addicted to prayer that can behave themselves prudently under Interior derelictions or that can have patience to wait for some time at the door of sensible consolations and enlightnings without making a forcible entry that do not chafe themselves and cast this way and that way and seek by their own means to procure them seeking for another support than that of Faith which alone should suffice any spiritual man These sensible gusts are but sent as supplements of the littleness and cordials for the faintings of faith But the just should live by faith and upon that foundation rest himself in expectation of our Saviour with patience Our inconveniences arise from hence that we are a people of little faith to discern things by its light although we often pretend to know more than really we do To another he writ concerning this point upon the subject of the Centurions faith thus Where shall we meet with a Faith comparable to that of the Centurion Alas what a shame is this to our Spiritual persons who talk much of Faith but indeed have little more than the sound scarce any thing of the truth and effect thereof how few are there that can bear the afflictions of spirit or body with a naked Faith and such a simplicity as sooketh remedy onely from God and maketh use of patience when comfort doth not appear so soon as expected We all covet to enjoy Jesus Christ sensibly and that he would come to our houses to cure our anxieties And for want of these sensible comforts the Spirit runs and wanders on all hands seeking repose but findes it not because indeed it is not to be found in her action but onely in her sacrifice made in Faith which brings down the Spirit of Christ which is our strength and life in the midst of troubles and of death The Centurien was ashamed and confounded that Christ would come to his house
told him that of a long time he had left off the use of a sword and that after he had commended the business to God by prayer he should follow his inspiration assuring himself that his protection over us is much according to our relying upon him These words were found in one of his Letters to his Director My soul being armed with Confidence Faith and Love fears neither the Devil nor Hell nor all the stratagems of man neither think I at all on Heaven or Earth but onely how to fulfil the will of God in every thing He hath been noted to do very notable things through the strength of this Vertue even at such times when he hath been afflicted with great aridities in his Interiour In our aridities and privation of the sense and feeling of grace saith he in a Letter to a friend is manifested an heroick abnegation of our selves to the will of God when under Hope believing against Hope we shew our selves to be true sons of Abraham Isaac shall not dye though the knife be at his throat and in case the true Isaac should in fine be crucified it is but to make us conformable to the Cross and cut of our ashes to raise us to a true and better life Thus likewise he writ to his Director I have a very clear insight into the great want I have of my Saviour him I behold in his riches and my self in my deep poverty him I look upon invironed iâ— power and my self in weakness whereby my spirit being filled with content by the impression of these words Quid est homo quod memor es ejus What is man that thou art mindeful of him doth rest upon a total abandoning of its self into his bounty These words Longanimiter ferens bearing patiently have dwelt longe upon my spirit though I did not at first remember whence they were taken or what they meant onely this that I must wait with patience for the commands and approach of my Saviour without putting my self forward by my own inquest or endeavours but rest with faith and reverence begging his grace and hope in him But a few days ago taking up the New Testament in opening the Book I did light upon the sixth Chapter to the Hebrews where the Apostle speaks of Faith and Patience whereby we obtain the promises qui fide patientia haereditabit promissiones who by faith and patience shall inheret the promises and to prove this brings in the example of Abraham sic longanimiter ferens adeptus est repromissionem and so waiting patiently obtained the promise This passage touched me to the very heart and relieved my languishing together with another passage of S. James which presented it self to my eye at the same time Patientes igitur estore fratres usque ad adventum Domini ecce agricola expectat preciosum fructum terrae patienter ferens Be patient therefore my brethren till the coming of our Lord behold the husbandman waiteth patiently till he receive the fruit of the earth Hereby I was settled in peace upon the solid foundation of Hope and Abnegation As this incomparable Vertue enricheth the soul that is perfectly stated in it with a profound repose a solid joy a wonderful courage and sets it aloft above all Terrestrial things with a generous contempt of whatsoever the world esteems and desires giving it a taste of the pleasures that are Eternal as it is not difficult for him that hath assured hopes of a glorious Kingdom to set at nought a Pad of straw so did it communicate to this holy man all these excellent treasures and imprinted in his soul all these noble reflections Whereby he was incited with all his strength to encourage others in the pursuit of this Vertue knowing by his own experience the inestimable benefits thereof understanding it to be our Lenitive in all disasters our staff and stay in all weaknesses and our secure haven in all tempests instructing them continually how that God to the end that he might drive us into this Port and cause us to rest in it doth frequently permit us to be assaulted with temptations and tryals the deeplier to engage us to have recourse to him begging his aid and succour and relying upon him with confidence The like instruction he gave to a certain person upon occasion of the Apostles amazement when they beheld our Saviour walking upon the waters and took him for a Chost Think you this was without a special providence that our Saviour suffered his Disciples to go alone into that ship and permitted a contrary winde to arise Who knows not that in the same manner he fashions the souls of the faithful by his absences and by their tryals that he may afterwards manifest his power upon the seas and tempests quickning thereby our Faith and shewing himself to be the Messias and true Deliverer of the world But observe we how many Christians in their sufferings are affrighted with the Apostles seeing our Saviour marching on the waters Every thing makes them afraid the winds the waves yea even Christ himself that is the anxiteies of their spirit their own disputings and also those good coursels that others give them for their establishment upon Christ Jesus before God All this appears but as a Ghost to amaze them unless Christ himself graciously appear yet more unto them to comfort and strengthen them Shall we always want confidence thus to think Christ a Phantasm Shall we not address our selves to him in all our necessities as to our Lord and Deliverer The Jews brought all their sick folks to him and he cured them What is he become a greater Physician of the body than of the soul No no our little Faith our little Love our little Confidence is the cause of our languishings and unfruitful anxieties of spirit Let us go strait to him and all will be cured CHAP. 4. His Love of God SEeing the Love of God is without contradiction the most excellent and perfect of all vertues and that which principally and above all the rest makes a man a Saint we cannot doubt that this holy man was possessed thereof in a very eminent degree and that he loved God with all his heart This Love he founded upon his infinite perfections and favours which may be perceived by what he writ to his Director in the year 1648. concerning this Queen of all Vertues Our Glorious Lord hath from time to time with his resplendent beams shone upon my soul quickning her therewith which have appeared in such several manners and have wrought such great things in a short time as would take up far more to write them which really I am afraid to undertake or begin They all concenter in this one point the love of God through Jesus Christ his communication of himself to us by the Incarnation of his Eternal Word and ours to him through the same Word becoming our brother conversing with us and erecting as it were a mutual society
finde experimentally a real union both in light and faith with the party I mentioned which is more than palpable giving me assurance that we are all one Upon this occasion I shall acquaint you in what manner my minde hath been busied these few last days and is yet full of it and to the end my relation may be more intelligible I shall take the matter somewhat higher The operation I have found in my self for these two or three years hath constantly held me fixed in the pursuit of our Saviour Christ to finde in him Eternal-Life before God the Father through the influence of his Spirit of which I have from time to time given you account And now I confess to you that though for that time I also honoured from the bottom of my heart our B. Lady the Saints and Angels and have been desirous to express it upon all occasions yet so it was that their presence and their commerce was obscured in and as it were very remote from my soul I assure you that those thoughts hath frequently run in my minde saying thus within my self I so much honour our Lady and some other Saints and Angels and I know not where they are I lifted up my heart easily towards them but there was no presence of them at all at least such as I now perceive it Some moneths ago I possessed an opening and a light in my soul accompanied with powerful effects concerning love and dear union with God making me to conceive inexplicable things of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost who is perfect Charity not by the reasonings and discourses of the understanding but by a single view most by one touch penetrating the heart with love And I beheld how the Son of God our Saviour came to advance us by his Incarnation into this love uniting himself to us whereby to reduce us all into this intimate and sweet union until he shall have compleated us all in himself to be made all of us one day all in God after he hath delivered up his Kingdom to his Father Ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus That God may be all in all And we enter into this blessed union with the Father Son and Holy Ghost Some ten or twelve days since being in my morning prayers on my knees to pray unto God I perceived in my self that I could findâ— no entrance unto him onely I kept my self there much humbled but the sight of the Father the access to him of the Son with whom I ordinarily converse with as much confidence as if he were yet upon earth and the assistance of the holy Ghost seemed at a strange distance withheld from me and I perceived an unworthiness in my self so great so real and so penetrating that I could no more lift up the eyes of my soul to heaven than these of my body Than was iâ— given me to understand that I had really that unworthiness which I felt But that I must seek my entry to God and to our Saviour in the Communion of Saints Whereupon I was on an instant possessed with a wonderful presence of the respect and love and union of the B. Virgin the Angels and Saints which I am not able to express nor to utter the greatness and solidity of this grace For this union is Life Eternal and the Ecclesiastical Paradise and this union is both for the Saints in Heaven and those on earth which I have almost always in full view and presence From thenceforward I understood that we were not made by God to be alone and separate from others but to be united unto them and to compose with them one divine total Even as a beautiful stone fitted for the head of a column is altogether unprofitable till it be settled in its place and cemented to the body of the building without which it hath neither its preservation its beauty nor its end This meditation left me in the love and in the true and experimental connexion of the communion and communication of Saints yet with a due order of those to whom I am more united which is my Life in God and in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the contents of that Letter CHAP. 7. His devotion to the Holy Sacrament ONe of the greatest Devotions of this holy man was that to the H. Eucharist considered both as a Sacrifice and as a Sacrament of which he had ever an incredible esteem honouring it with all possible reverence and affecting it with tender love blessing and praising God for its institution and exciting both by his word and pen the whole world to do the same He was accustomed to say that it was instituted to stay and place our Saviour God and Man in the midst of us to obtain for us all the benefits of grace whereof we are capable here and to dispose us for those of glory That the great design of God in the Incarnation the Life Death and Resurrection of his Son was to convey unto us his Spirit to be unto us Life Eternal which Spirit he hath taught us by his Word merited for us by his Death doth more confer upon us from his estate of Glory And the better to convey this unto us to cause us to live thereby and dye in our selves he giveth himself to us in this most Holy Sacrament dead raised up and glorified to produce in us by the operation of his Spirit these two effects of death and life He was not onely present every day at Mass but took it for a great honour to serve the Priest himself He received every day if not hindred by very important business or some pressing occasion of Charity And as the honour we render to this B. Sacrament consists not in often receiving but in communicating well and perfectly he took all care thereof that could be expected from one of so holy life and eminent Piety He spent many hours in prayers upon his knees before the Blessed Sacrament And being once asked by a friend How he could remain there so long He answered That there he recreated his spirit receiving from thence refreshment and new forces and yet sometimes he encountred with some trouble in that Devotion which may be gathered from this Letter to his Director dated the 27 of June in the year 1647. I have been very poor all this moneth I know not whether I was ever so lumpish both in spirit and body as I was upon the Festival day of the Blessed Sacrament I was present at Service at Procession at Mass at Communion heard the Sermon at Vespers and Compline but like a very beast not knowing how to demean my self either kneeling or standing I was in a kinde of restless condition of body and very wandring and distracted in spirit onely I knew well that in the bottom of my soul I had a desire to honour God through his Son Christ Jesus After Compline I found my self so dull and heavy that seeing my self unable to remain
do nourish our Humility suppress our Pride and inviteour Imitation But their faults divulged advance our Self-Conceit and breed Security Though for this Honourable Person you may presume no great faults or blemishes could dwell with so great Mortifications so many good Works such excessive Devotions and his Exteriour Holy Practises do sufficiently testifie a great purity of minde Amongst which Practises though perhaps some things may occur that to some Readers may give offence according to mens several Principles and Perswasion in Religion yet I thought it better doing the business onely of a Translator to let them alone than by cutting them out both to give occasion to those who allow such things to blame the omission and to those who disallow such things to suspect them to be more or of worse consequence than they are Especially when these may serve to provoke you whoever think your selves more illuminated to a Pious jealousie Whilst you consider that if he arrived to so high Christian Graces and Perfection supposed by you to be darkned with some Errours how much you ought sooner to attain the same as enjoying more truth and so proceed to employ your self not in scanning and disputing the things here disliked but in imitating those approved Lest perhaps Errour be said to bring forth more Piety than Truth and whilst you say you see your Sinne remain to you more unexcuseable THE AUTHOURS ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER MY dear Reader I am in a word or two to give you notice of three things concerning the Contents of this Book The first is that whereas truth is the principal part of History you may be confident that it is here exactly observed because whatsoever you shall finde here is almost all of it extracted out of the Originals and the rest out of Authentick Copies there where things were attested by such as were eye-witnesses and persons beyond exception The second is that though we often make use of Monsieur de Renty his own Letters as witnesses of what he was yet ought ye not at all therefore to suspect the truth of what they relate Because first his eminent vertue hath rendred him most creditable in every thing he said though it were of himself besides these his Letters are for the most part directed to his spiritual Guide to whom he did with much confidence unbosom the things belonging to his conscience and gave account as he was obliged of each thing that past in the interiour of his soul And God who best knows to chuse the fittest means to bring his ends about having designed the publishing of this life whereby to leave to all faithful men a patern of perfect a Christian did so dispose of things that this his Director dwelling for several years out of Paris he was obliged to acquaint him by Letters with his interiour dispositions they becoming by this means much more perfectly discovered unto us than any otherway they could And lastly we are indeed uncapable of knowing any thing of a mans interiour but by his own declaration and that which we understandin Saints of this nature which yet makes up the principal of their sanctity comes by no other way than their discovering and opening it to some one and he afterwards to the publike And therefore either Monsieur de Renty himself must have manifested the secrets of his heart and revealed what was hidden in his soul or he must have remained for ever lock'd up and unknown to us although assuredly neither thus hath all of him been by himself manifested or related The third thing is that being willing to obey the decree of our holy Father Urban the 8. dated the 1â— of March 1625. and that other in explanation of the former dated June 5. 1631. where it is ordered that those that publish the lives of any person of great vertue do declare and make protestations upon several heads I therefore protest that my intent and design in setting forth this work is that the matter thereof should be no otherwise understood than as grounded upon the testimony and faith of men and not upon the Authority of H. Church and that by the name of Saint which I several times attribute to Monsieur Renty I mean onely that he was endued with vertue far exceeding the common sort and do use this word onely in that sense that S. Paul gives it to all the faithful and not to put him in the number of Saints canonized which to do belongs onely to the Holy Sea A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS AND SECTIONS PART I. CHAP. 1. HIs Birth Infancy and youth page 1. Chap. 2. His marriage and course of life to the age of 27 years page 10 Chap. 3. His entire change and call to high perfection page 17 Chap. 4. His vertues in general page 24 Chap. 5. The source from whence those vertues flowed page 30 PART II. Chap. 1. HIs Penances and Austerities 37 Chap. 2. His Poverty of spirit 47 Sect. 1. His outward Poverty 48 Chap. 3. His Humility 54 Sect. 1. His Humility of heart 58 Sect. 2. The pursuit of his Humility of heart 67 Sect. 3. His Humility in his words 77 Sect. 4. His Humility in his actions 75 Sect. 5. His love of a private and retired Life 84 Chap. 4. The disesteem he made of the world 88 Chap. 5. His partience 94 Sect. 1. A pursuit of the same subject 100 Sect. 2. His Domestick crosses 107 Chap. 6. His Mortification 112 PART III. Chap. 1. HIs application to our Saviour Jesus Christ in regard of his neighbour 121 Chap. 2. His Charitie to his Neighbours in generall 126 Sect. 1. His charity to the poor 133 Sect. 2. His charity to poor sick men 140 Sect. 3. More concerning the same charity and the success thereof 145 Sect. 4. His zeal for the salvation of his neighbour 150 Sect. 5. More of the same subject 154 Sect. 6. A continuation of the same subject 167 Sect. 7. Certain other qualities of his zeal 173 Sect. 8. Two other qualities of his zeal 179 Sect. 9. The success which God gave to his zeal 186 Sect. 10. His grace in assisting particularly certain choice souls 193 Sect. 11. His great skill in Interiour matters of the soul 199 Chap. 2. His outward behaviour and conversation 209 Chap. 3. The conduct of his business 215 Chap. 4. The excellent use he made of all things and the application he made to the Infancy of our Saviour for that purpose 228 Sect. 1. A pursuit of the same subject 235 PART IV. Chap. 1. HIs Interiour and his application to the Sacred Trinity 244 Chap. 2. His Faith 250 Chap. 3. His Hope 255 Chap. 4. His Love to God 259 Chap. 5. His great reverence and fear of God which wrought in him a wonderful purity of Conscience 271 Chap. 6. His great reverence to Holy things 276 Chap. 7. His Devotion to the Holy Sacrament 267 Chap. 8. His Prayer and Contemplation 292 Chap. 9. The state of his Mystical Death
of a Christian life and the fulfilling of Gods will was to him after the example of our Lord as most exquisite and delitious meat and viands and when any gave him opportunity or left him to his liberty to practise this Mortification it pleased him exceedingly Often at Paris when some deed of charity had drawn him far from home that he could not return to dinner he would step in all alone or unknown to a small Victualling-house or some Bakers shop and make his dinner with a piece of bread and a draught of water and so very gay and chearfull go on with his business And what he pracrised for the mortifying of his gust was in like manner done for his other senses the sight the hearing the smell and the touch Being come to Pontois on a very cold day in winter and lodging at the Carmelite Nuns he desired earnestly the Nun that was the Door-keeper to have no fire made nor bed prepared for him and after he had discoursed with some of them he old the last that he must go make some little visits and that was to visit the Prisoners the poor that were ashamed to beg and to employ himself in some other deeds of charity which he never forgot at any time how little soever was his leisure He returned about nine a clock at night when the Nuns went to say Matins and without taking any thing to eat went into the Church to his prayers which he continued till eleven a clock and then retired into his chamber not suffering a fire to be made for him although by his own confession the cold did incommode him very much He constantly kept a vigilant eye over himself in every time place occasion and even in the meanest things for the mortifying of his body daily putting it to some hardship or at least hindring it from sense of pleasure And to that end had found out some very notable and ingenious inventions so bearing continually about him the mortification of the Lord Jesus in his body that the life of Jesus might live and shine forth in it well knowing as the same Apostle elsewhere saith That those that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust thereof And to say the truth the more a man is full of one thing the less room there is for its contrary the more one sinks into darkness the further off from light and as we said above there is nothing more opposite to the Spirit than the flesh so must we of necessity conclude the more a man pampers his flesh the more doth he indispose and estrange himself from the life of the Spirit Thus this illuminated person dealt with his body as with his enemy out of the design he had to lead a life truly spiritual Whatsoever might content and flatter his senses was insupportable to him whence it happened that one day there slipt from him this word to a confident that God had given him a great hatred of himself and this was advanc'd so far by his fervent and unsatiable desire of mortifying himself that beside the moderation that his Director was obliged to lay upon him a famous person of our days the Carmelite Nun of the Covent of Beaulne Sister Margaret of the Holy Sacrament who lived and dyed in a fragrant odour of Sanctity with whom he was most intimate in the bonds of grace did out of divine light she had in that matter much reprehend him for it and gave him her advice in the business whereunto for the confidence he had in her and that not without good cause being willing to yield he remitted something of his rigour although not without complaint which he testified to a person thus in writing I know not said he why one stould strive to keep in so lazy a beast that stands more in need of the spur than bridle For all he was thus held in he left not off the war which he made with his body in each thing he could but without transgressing the Orders he had received till he thereby came to such a point of perfect Mortification that his body became as it were dead and insenâ—ble in all things which now in a manner made no impression upon his senses eating without gust himself saying that all meats were to him alike seeing as it were without sight so that after he had been along time in some Churches most richly adorned with stately ornaments and those before his eyes when one asked if they were not very fine he answered plainly that he had seen nothing By reason of his Mortification he had no pain nor trouble at all from those things which make other men so fret and take on who are alive to themselves and enslav'd to their bodies neither was he onely without pain but which as Arâ—stotle saith is the highest perfection of a vertue he took great pleasure therein which came not to him so much from abundance of sensible consolations which may sweeten Austerities to an unmortified man but from the ground and bottom of vertue intirely acquir'd and possessed CHAP. 2. Of his Poverty SECT 1. Of his Poverty of spirit ONe of the most great and admirable Vertues that shone in Monsieur de Renty was this that in the possession of riches he was utterly disingaged from the love of them and possessed in a most high degree as we shall now declare the first of the Beatitudes which pronounceth Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven of grace in this world and of glory in the other A truth which served him for a powerful attractive to endeavour the gaining of this rich treasure Whereof writing to a person of Pietie he thus said I was the other day touch'd in reading the eight Beatudes and upon this word Beatitude I took notice that in effect there were no other Beatitudes but these for if there had our Lord would have taught them and therefore those ought to be our whole study But what shall I say we ground not our selves upon them nor desire the grace to do it but run after the Beatitudes of the world and our own Concupiscience quitting that which is clear and given us by our head Christ Jesus to be in a state of hurley-burley and confusion and consequently of trouble danger and unhappiness It was not to these kinde of Beatitudes that he ran but to those of the Gospel and in particular to the first concerning which le ts hear what one saith of him a person very credible and of his intimate acquaintance I never sew mâ—n said he in so perfect a poverty of spirit nor in so ardent a desire to feel the effects of it as was he And in the fervour of his desire he said to me Procure by your prayers that we may change this form of life when will you labour with God that this may be this habit and this wealth is to me most painful I have talked since his death
common exercises for the meanness of which is recompenced with the mortification of our nature which nature very often seeks its self in the extraordinaries and the singularities being much pleased to have something above others and so be thought of and spoken of with the more esteem He kept the same guard upon his speech that he might not in discoursing of spiritual things and the highest mysteries make any use of terms magnifick and pompous or of words new and uncouth and if it fell out that he uttered any such he shewed it was with pain and because he could not express himself otherways insomuch that neither in his actions nor in his words would he have any thing that made appearance of Grandeur or of singularity It was moreover an act of humility and wisdom in him to make esteem and to speak with advantage of other mens carriages for their Interior although they were far below his own saying that we ought most carefully take heed of speaking like the Pharisee I am not as other men And writing to me one day of this subject God forbid said he that I should believe there is any thing singular and extraordinary in me although I ow him extream acknowledgements for his infinite mercies But among all the effects and testimonies of his humility the manner of his carriage towards his Director ought without doubt to have place in the first rank He did nothing were it of never so little consequence that concerned himself without his conduct to him he propounded the thing either by word of mouth if he were present or if absent by writing clearly and punctually desiring his advice his pleasure and benediction upon his resolution These were his terms and that with so much humility respect dependence and submission of his own sense as was admirable and after without return or disputing he followed simply and exactly his order even as much as could be done in a well reformed Religious order by the most resigned and obsequious novice His director having written to him something concerning his perfection he answered him in these terms I beseech you believe that although I am most imperfect and a great sinner if yet you do me the honour and favour to send me a word of what you know to be necessary for me I hope with Gods help I shall profit thereby I pant not after any thing but to finde God and Jesus Christ with as much simplicity as verity I pretend to nothing in this world but this and out of this I desire nothing See what a submission here was although he had which makes the marvel an excellent and most clear spirit and was endued with so high prudence and great insight in each thing that he was consulted by word of mouth and by letters from diverse places by a very great number of persons of every age sex and condition both of Secular and Religious For the practising so highly this submission he fixed his eyes upon our Lord who in each thing was his model and his light in that submission which he rendred to S. Joseph wherewith he was extraordinarily affected Being one day at the Carmelite Nuns of Pontoise praying in their Church and opening himself in this matter to a person to whom with prudence and charity he might do it he thus told him It is true that I have received this morning a grand favour in the weditation on the subjection and dependency which the son of God was pleased to render to S. Joseph to whom he was subject and obedient in all things as a childe to his Father Oh what an honour and grace was it to this Saint but Oh what a vertue and self-annihilation in Jesus Christ that the Son of God being equal to his Father should be subject to a creature and submit to a poor Carpenter as if he had not known how to demean himself I am given to understand how by this example of the Son of God we are highly instructed and after a manner worthy such a Master concerning the dependance which the Creatures ought to have upon God and concerning the strict obligation which engageth us to submit to the Soveraign power which he hath over us and to the direction of men in such sort that our heart may not have repose but in this subjection united to that which Christ Jesus renders to a Creature O how profound is this mysterie and how it teacheth me This said he continued a while after without speaking as if he had been wholly taken up with the greatness of this grace and the person to whom he spake having told him that he felt some communication of this grace he fell down on his knees and so did that person also and both of them praying adored Jesus Christ in this estate of dependence and submission to a creature devoting themselves to him for imitation SECT 5. His love of a private and retired life VVE place also as an effect of his humility the love he had to a private and unknown life for he loved it not onely for its affording him more time to attend upon God and communicate more with our Lord who was the dear object of his heart but the more for having thereby the means to fly from the esteem the honour and the praises of men and to be blotted out of their mindes and remain in oblivion to all the world Being pressed with this love he said that if God had not tied him to this state wherein he was he should have gone into some strange and remote Countrey to live there in obscurity the rest of his days that he wished not to be known by any one in the world that it was not expedient that one should know so much as that he was there and that it would have been a singular pleasure to him to be banished from the hearts of all men and unknown by all the creatures whereunto he contributed on his part all that he could not doing any thing that might bring on acquaintance and gain affections and it was noted that the more he advanced in light and graces the more strong grew the Bent he had plant to this hidden life and desire to be unknown as he witnessed five or six moneths before his death He beheld herein our Lord and he example that he gave us of this life not having appeared for the space of thirty years but once onely in the Temple although there was no danger on his part to be frequented by men and one would think also he might thereby have done them much good in cultivating polishing and sanctifying them by his conversation and by his words being indeed come into the world on purpose to teach them He cast also his eyes upon God whom the Prophet calls a Secret God and who effectually hath kept himself hid a whole Eternity within himself and who through all the discoveries that he hath made of himself which is shewed abroad is nothing near
his labour and vertue which had made this blessed work in him and had changed his nature for they that knew his youth report that naturally he was of a swelling hasty haughty and jeering disposition which he had so corrected or to say better annihilated that in truth it was admirable insomuch that he was become moderate staid patient humble and respectful in a degree of consummate perfection So that if we consider him well a man may say that he was of a disposition quite contrary and diametrically opposite to that which he brought from his mothers womb teaching us by an example so assured and illustrious that a man may prevail much over himself if he endeavour it sincerely and that whatever vice he hath he may at last rid himself of it if he force himself according to those words of our Lord The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force And therefore he recommended in a special manner this holy courage and the necessity of self-enforcement as being that by which we may measure what profit we have made in true vertue and a means also absolutely necessary for the gaining of perfection He wrote to a person that practised devotion thus O how much to be feared is it that we cheat our selves with the name and the appearances of devotion relying much on our exercises of piety which it may be are barely performed and in speculation onely never coming to the practise nor to the conquest over our selves In the morning we worship Jesus Christ as our Master and Director and yet our life all the day following is not directed by him we look upon him as our pattern and imitate him not we take him for our rule and guide of our affections and yet we do not sacrifice to him our appetites we make him the model of our conversation which yet is never the more holy we promise him to labour and get above our selves but it s no more than in imagination The truth is that if we know not our devotion rather by the violence and enforcement we make upon our selves and the amendment of our manners than by the multiplication and simple usage of spiritual exercises it is to be feared they will be rather practises of Condemnation than of Sanctification For after all to what purpose all this if the work follow not if we change not our selves and destroy not that which is vitious in our nature It is no otherwise but as if a builder should pile together many materials towards making of a brave Edifice and yet never begin it And yet we see the work of Jesus Christ is almost reduced to this pass amongst the spiritual persons of these times He said to another that the love which a Christian soul was obliged to bear to he vertues which Jesus Christ hath taught us ought not to end in the simple sentiments of esteem and respect toward them whereby souls of the common sort are easily perswaded that they have done their duty but therein they deceive themselves for that our Lords will is undoubtedly that they make a further entry into the solidity of his Divine practises specially in Mortification Patience Poverty and Renouncement of our selves and that is the cause why there are so few souls truly Christian and solidly spiritual yea even sometimes amongst the Religious was this that men contented themselves to make a stand at this first step I will end this Chapter and this Second Part with a Letter which he writ to his Director who had thought it fit for him to visit a person that had great need of succour and instruction for some spiritual dispositions which he performed with much success and benediction This Letter dated the 14 of May in the year 1647. will make us well see the great disengagement that he had from himself and his perfect Mortification attended with gifts inestimable and his great light whereby he clears and explicates matters of great subtilty The tenour is as followeth For the person whom you know and the visit I made him it is God and your direction that hath done all I am so much afraid to mingle therein any thing of mine that going to the place where he is yet I perceive I shall not visit him without a new order from you or that he much desire it I have not since that time so much as sent any commendations to him considering with my self that we must keep the man reserved and in great sobriety And I thought it fit to cast all this upon you as my guide in the business Ha Father the great imperfection of souls is the not waiting enough on God the natural disposition strugling and not brought into subjection comes in with fine pretexts and thinks to do wonders and in the mean while it is that which sullies the purity of the Soul that which troubles its silence and turns aside its sight from Faith from Affiance and from Love whence it hapneth that the Father of Lights expresseth not in us his Eternall Word nor produceth in us his Spirit of Love The Incarnation hath merited all not onely for the abolition of our faults but also for all the dispositions of grace whereunto Jesus Christ is minded to â—ssociate us of which this is the principal and was in him so far as he was man to do nothing our selves but to speak and act according as we receive knowing that we alone are not to do the work but that the holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Jesus and which governed him in all his ways is within us which would stamp upon us his impressions and give us the life the life real and experimental of our faith if ballasted and held back by patience we would but wait his operation This is it in which I feel my infirmity and yet whither I finde a great attractive I see that which I cannot utter for I possess that which I cannot express And the cause Father why I am so brief comes both from the imperfection of my natural disposition and from ignorance as also from a great largeness of the Divine goodness which works in me that which I cannot utter The effect of this is a fulness and a satiating of the truth and clearness of the magnificence of God of the greatness of Jesus Christ and of the riches which we have in him of the most Holy Virgin and of the Saints one sees here all praise and adoration and comtemplates them within I tell you here of many things me seems and yet all this is done with one draught so simple and so strong in the superiour part of the Spirit that I am nothing diverted from it by any exteriour employments I see all I understand all and I do though it be ill all that I have to do This is that I present you with to receive therein from you instruction and correction Thus we see the admirable benefits that come from perfect Mortification and
hopes always that he will and in the interim beareth all things from him These are the vertues in which he must be particularly exercised that will deal profitably with his Neighbor without which he labors in vain for experience will shew him that after much time and pains he shall profit little for the more any one is filled from God and animated by the Spirit of Jesus Christ the more shall he advance holiness in himself and good in others yea though his words be few and ordinary for that our employments receive not their force from the hands that acts them nor our words from the mouth that utters them as from the disposition of the heart and the Spirit that animates it Now as bare Vertue alone is not sufficient to compleat a man for this design but one must also have a capacity thereunto So this charitable man besides that capacity wherewith God had abundantly furnished him as well of a great wit piercing solid well disposed resolute laborious and constant as of a body well made of a good grace and presence and besides the Sciences and fine knowledge which he had learnt in his youth he had also by his own industry and travel being good at every thing learnt several things not onely for his own use but to teach them to others whereby to help themselves or make some other use of them as to let blood to make medicines for cuting of wounds to compound remedies for several diseases of which he had books writ with his own hand which he communicated abasing himself to learn the meanest skills which might any way be useful to others One day in Paris he carried a friend with him to a poor man who got his living with making hots and wicker baskets in a cave into which he entred and in the presence of his friend finished a hot which he had begun some days before with design having learned the thing to teach it to some poor people in Countrey to help to get their living he left the hot and a peice of money to boot for teaching him with the poor man which indeed deserved to have been reposited in some Cabinet of Rarities or rather in some place of Devotion as a glorious Monument of an Heroick Charity Understanding when he was at Dijon that the Religious Veselines whom he affected very much provided out of Charity Drugs and Medicines for poor people he was much pleased with it and to improve their good work taught the Sisters belonging to the Infirmary to make some excellent Compositions which had very great vertue against several maladies preparing them dispensing and boyling them himself stooping to the meanest and most troublesome labors as much as could be done by any servant holding his head for a long time over the smoak of those medicines which sent forth no pleasant fumes before a great fire not desisting till all in a sweat without any word or sign at all of complaining of what he suffered The Religious desired him to suffer the lay Sisters to help and assist him but his minde was so set upon it that they must let him alone and give place to that fire of Charity which inflamed him all within and which sweetned unto him or rather consumed all the the pains the outward material fire could inflict yea and moreover he urged them out of great prudence to acquaint him with the hours of their devotions and set times of their meetings that he might not divert them from these being a punctual observer of the time they appointed him that he failed not one minute though with much difficulty considering his several other employments to which he stood engaged The like he observed in all other things insomuch that he took upon him all shapes transformed himself into any figure condescended to all accommodations for the good of his neighbor and all these by vertue of this celestial fire which melted and cast him wholy into the mould of Charity his thoughts words actions and each thing in him was charity which made him say one day thus in a letter to one of his great Confidents Methinks my soul is all Charity and I am not able to express with what ardency and strange expansion I finde my heart to be renewed in the Divine life of my new born Saviour burning all in love towards mankinde SECT 1. His Charity to the poor FIrst of all concerning his Charity and affection to the poor I shall say this that Jesus Christ was not onely the fountain from whence this grace did flow but also the motive and object in that he beheld him in them and him chiefly he imagined to assist and serve in their persons so that his thoughts stayed not upon their torn and ragged habit nor upon their vile and despicable outside which naturally displeaseth the eye offendeth the smell and other senses But passing further he beheld within and under these with the eye of faith our Lord Jesus Christ present and dwelling in them whom he esteemed as his native images loved and valued by him And as he burned with an ardent affection toward our Lord so he loved tenderly the poor succoured them with all his might and left nothing unattempted for their sakes With these eyes and not those of nature must each one behold the poor that will love them indeed and have bowels of compassion and a true resolved and constant Charity to towards them In the second place resolving to give you this Charity by retail we will begin with that which he exercised in his house where from the year 1641. he invited to dinner poor men two in number and at first twice every week on Tuesdays and Fridays but five or six years after finding himself much engaged in other services for the honor of God and good of his neighbor he reduced them to one day which ordinarily was Thursday and then invited three which he ordered in this manner willing to joyn his Spiritual Alms with his Corporal an important secret to be learned and practised by all charitable persons each one according to their capacities he sought out such poor as seemed to him to have greatest need of instruction wherefore during his abode at Paris after his morning devotions he went to S. Anthonies gate and there took up such as were newly arrived whom courteously saluting he brought home and if it were winter brought them to the fire always making them sit down and afterwards with a cordial affection which appeared in his countenance and whole deportment and with a marvellous grace he instructed them in what was needful for them to know in the mysteries of the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of our Lord and Holy Sacrament He likewise instructed them how to make Confession and to communicate worthily and in brief how to live vertuously this done he gave them water to wash set them down at table where himself served bareheaded with exceeding great respect and set the dishes before
Since God gave us a heart thereto we have brought others to have a hand in it and my Wife with two others bear their part in it imitating herein St. Mary Magdalen Joanna and Susanna of whom St. Luke saith that they followed our Saviour and his Disciples ministring with their substance for the preaching of the Kingdom of God We shall endeavour to perform this without noise or shew taking a private lodging apart for the purpose Be pleased my dear Father to be our Father and Guide and assist us in Autumne if you can to break the bread of life to those who with great humility desire it of you I beg of your Reverence with tears to give ear to our request who are touched with the necessities of our poor brethren and the love of Christ who desires to unite us together in one heart even his own that therein we may live in the presence of God My dear Father I commit this charge to your care it being onely in the power of his holy Spirit to render yours and the endeavours of other Fathers successful I trust he will hear us and that we shall see abundance of his mercies I attend your sense both for the thing and the time and in the mean time you may if you please keep the thing secret between us SECT 5. Of the same Subject WE have already declared how he kept correspondence all over France and elsewhere concerning great undertakings and important affairs for the glory of God and good of his neighbour He further obliged in all places as much as he could several persons to joyn together and assist one another in the work of their own and others salvation And procured Assemblies of Piety for divers uses of which he wrote thus in one of his Letters 1648. I am now returned from Burgundy where my journey hath been full of imployment in helping the setting up of several companies of men and women also who have a great zeal for Gods service In a Memorial from Caen we have these words Monsieur Renty hath settled here many Assemblies of devout persons whom he advertised to meet once a week and consult about relief of the poor and the preventing of offences against God which hath succeeded marvellously Moreover he advised divers Gentlemen of the Countrey to meet together from time to time to encourage one another in the way of Christianity and make a Profession against Duels He writ to a Superiour of one of the Missions in these words I was united in Spirit to you on Sunday last which I conceived to be the time of opening your Mission If you think I may be any way useful in forming some little body of Gentlemen and Societies in that City as we have already performed in little Villages and Towns I most humbly intreat you to believe that I shall imploy my utmost in it though haply I may do more hurt than good When he came to Amiens where I was the precious odour of his vertue and sanctity perfumed the whole City for in less than a fortnights space he performed so many and so great things in visiting Hospitals Prisons and poor people that were ashamed to beg with several other acts of Piety as were wonderful In two onely journeys which he made to that place parly as well by his example as by his Conversation and Advice he ingaged several considerable Citizens in these Exercises of Charity which they embraced with good courage and alacrity and have continued in the same inviolably It was his earnest desire and design to plant the Spirit of Christianity in all Families and to engage people of all conditions to serve God in good earnest having special care of their Conscience He desired to be able to instruct Fathers Mothers Children Masters Mistresses and Servants in their respective duries aiming herein at their mutual benefit seeing we can put little confidence in such who truly fear not God For he that once comes to falsifie his faith to his Soveraign Lord and Saviour will not stick as we may well believe where the interest of Honour Pleasure or Profit doth byass him to do as much to one who is but that Lords Servant Wherefore he endeavoured the planting of vertue in all as the best Promoter of the Service of God the Salvation of our souls and the common utility of all relations To which purpose he drew certain rules for Gentle men and persons of quality and likewise for Ladie and Gentlewomen Since those that are above others in place and dignity are seen at a further distance and their example makes a deeper impression of good or evil than that of the vulgar These I met with written by his own hand which deserve to be inserted here as a testimony of his zeal to do good to the Publique Certain Articles to minde all persons of quality of their Obligations to their Families their Tenants and in their †Lordships †For the better understanding of these Rules the Reader must know that the Lords in France have in several Mannors the power of Justice as well Criminal as Civil and for that purpose have their Judges and Subordinate Officers in their Courts THe first and most important obligation for the conduct of a family is good example without which the blessing of God cannot be expected It is therefore meet that all the Domesticks from the highest to the lowest give good example of modesty as well in the Church as in their particular Places and Offices that by the excellent harmony of their outward behaviour it may appear that God is the primum mobile within them For Officers 1. The Lord of the Mannor ought to inform himself Whether his Judges and other Subordinate Officers belonging to his Courts behave themselves well in their places and he ought to procure for this information and redress of what is amiss persons of known ability and integrity 2. He ought to examine with prudence and privacy what complaints shall be made by the people of injustice or bribery 3. Whether they observe the Rules and Laws of his Court. 4. Whether they frequent Taverns on Sundays and Holidays or in time of Divine Service 5. Whether they observe the Precepts of the Church in forbearing to travel and work on those days without real necessity 6. Whether they punish publique crimes as Blasphemy Usury c. and whether the Laws be put in execution against Drunkards Fornicators and Oppressors of the poor Whether they banish lewd women who procure manies ruine and cause so much mischief 7. Whether there be any such Libertines who scoff at Religion and Priests or eat flesh on days prohibited 8. If some notoriously wicked person be found in the Lordship it will be convenient to begin with him if it may be that the rest may understand that no quarter is to be given to vice and that it may appear to all the world with what firm resolution you proceed in what opposition to Libertines
estate of beginners and Penitents is to finde out all that inclineth to sin that obstructeth our salvation or withdraweth us from God to avoid it Their Cross or Sufferance is to bewail their offences to mortifie their passions and subdue their bodyâ—n any thing that makes it rebel against Reason and the Spirit and also to punish the irregular motions of Concupiscence Their prayer is to beg grace and strength for their performance of these things The work of the second namely of Believers is to study Jesus Christ his Life and Doctrine Their Cross is to bear the troubles that befal them in imitation of our Saviour to suffer contempt and persecutions which attend all such as follow him Their prayer is to beg his Life his Spirit and his frame of Soul to act interiorly and exteriorly after his model The work of the third and Perfect one is to do each thing by the Spirit of Christ through their union with God Their Cross is in bearing with as they ought ought the corruptions darkness and stupidity of this world as also persecution for righteousness which thing shall never be wanting Their prayer is to ask continually a more abundant participation of the Spirit of Christ a more intimate union with God a greater dying to themselves a more faithful improving of his grace and talents received with perseverance to the end Moreover in the first estate we must labour hard in resisting of sin in vanquishing our passions and renouncing vanities which young beginners cannot do without many repeated acts much violence to themselves But those to whom God hath given an entrance into the two other estates do it easily with a simple and facile guidance of their spirit not diminishing their acts of humiliation but hindering the oppression and trouble thereof In the second estate is requisite on our parts a vigorous correspondence in following Iesus Christ not acting any more from our selves but in him in singleness of heart and enduring with patience and longanimity the purging and purifying of our spirits by Iesus Christ In which work we must be content to suffer many secret tempests and inward tumults arising from the reluctancies of our old habits and our spirit stirred up by the motions of nature full of many images and impressions And finally be content to lose our very souls with much patience that we may receive them again cloathed with Christ Iesus In the third estate is contained a work of Passion that is of Prayer where the bounty of God doth all as it were the soul tasting a certain experimental satiety of the presence and truth of God and of his love in Iesus Christ in which she reposeth She findes herself often absorpt in the joy of the greatness the power the goodness and the infinite perfections of God of the alliance with his Son his love his manner of conversation and the admirable effects which the participation of his Spirit produceth joying in the possession of these good things with a tranquility content and vigour surpassing all sense and expression A good progress thorow the two former estates makes way for the third where we must be careful considering the uncertainty and mutableness of our natures to use great industry to be sure of going forward and of repeating also what we have done the better to ground our selves and repair our losses Thus we have his insight into spiritual things evidencing the great advancement of his illuminated Spirit which God had enlightned in more than an ordinary manner declaring unto him the designs he had upon souls Giving him to penetrate into the obscurest recesses of their Consciences and to discover what was most secret and hidden to speak with words not studied and premeditated but which were inspired and put into his mouth at that hour which proved most powerful and effectual In the year 1644. A maid whom God had indued with pious affections was desirous to become a Carmeline She communicated her intentions to Monsieur Renty begging his advice Who at first finding some difficulties in the business judged it fitting for her to think no more of it Notwithstanding afterwards God inspired him at his prayers with a very great certitude that it was his will she should proceed in the business maugre all difficulties pointing out to him the very place where the thing should be done He informed her thereof which she hearkned unto with due respect as if Christ himself had spoken unto her and commanded her to enter into that Monastery where she remains at this very day In the year 1647. having visited a person afflicted with great pains who had need of such a man as he he writ thus to his Director I have been with the party you know of and have told her what I thought convenient to her condition Our Saviour enlightned me to discover to her his good pleasure concerning her how that this sad and dark condition was not sent to bring her to a stand and trouble at it but to facilitate her way to perfection and carry her without amusement to our Saviour Christ Lesus who is our Sanctification I acquainted her how we ought to lay this sure foundation that our selves are nothing but infirmity and misery it self So that when any one tells us thereof he tells us no news And that God from this insufficiency of our selves to all good means to extract that excellent vertue of Humility and Diffidence of our selves obliging us thereby to go to his Son our Saviour to finde strength in him and remedy for all our miseries I was much enlarged upon each thing which she told me and God gave her so great a plenitude of light and grace that she spake marvellous things touching the operation of the Holy Trinity in her with other excellent notions manifesting a very particular assistance of his Divine Grace In this estate I left her Concerning himself he addes thus As concerning my self I have not much to say onely I finde within my self through the mercy of God a great tranquility in his presence through the Spirit of Christ Jesus and such an inward experience of Eternal Life as I am not able to express And this is that whither I am most bent and drawn Yet I finde my self so strangely naked and barren that I wonder at the condition I am in and by which I discourse For in my addresses to this party I begun my speech not knowing how to pursue it and after the second sentence I had not the least foresight of what should be the third and so of the rest Not but that I seem to have a perfect knowledge of the things I speak in such a manner as I am capable of it But I onely utter what is given me and in the same way as it is communicated I communicate it to others Which done there seems to remain nothing in me but the foundation from whence it springs He grew to so high a reputation in this knowledge of
in speaking or to do it with a higher tone than ordinary whatsoever was his haste if he made any report or gave account of business he did it so briefly and in words onely necessary and pertinent that a very hard matter it would be as one said of him to finde one that spake better and yet less than he Things that were vain or unprofitable or the news of the times were never the subject of his discourse but always something good and the Kingdom of God in imitation of our Saviour and where this discourse was diverted to worldly business or trifles he either took leave of the company or stole away without saying any thing And when he talk'd even of good things it was with moderation saying that there was much need of sparingness and sobriety when we speak of God and good things and that it was one of the greatest amusements that troubled him when he was amongst spiritual persons to hear them often spend precious time in talking of vertue at large and without sâ—uit departing from such Conferences with dry empty and dissipated spirits Whereas the secret of Christian vertue consists not in speaking but in doing and that substantial word of God is onely one and this sufficiently efficacious to produce the holy Spirit and in its unity to work marvellous things His conversation moreover was in a true and high manner humble respective affable officious obliging and cordial Patient he was in suffering the ignorances rudenesses imperfections cross humors and other faults of his neighbours prudent in applying himself to their dispositions and passing by many small matters without seeming to take notice of them at all And so profitable and edifying was his demeanour that wherever he came his very looks and modesty his words his silence and all his Exterior comportment cast forth a fragrancy and sweet persume of Vertue Devotion and Piety and made a good impression upon the spirits of others His very presence charmed many into recollection the very sight of him was enough to bridle any and his acquaintance have confest that their knowing that he was in the Church hath wrought more attention in them at their prayers and some of them eight days after their having enjoyed his company have felt in themselves the effects of grace in an extraordinary attraction and devotion towards God Wheresoever he came he was flock'd unto from all parts out of that reverend esteem they had of him and the desire of those consolations they were sensible of in his presence Notwithstanding when he perceived any value set upon himself or any applause of what he did or said he was deeply humbled in spirit testifying by his carriage the discontent of his soul hanging down his head casting down his eyes with deep silence during such commendations with a grave and set demeanor expressing his inward affliction which begot respect and edification in the beholders For conclusion I shall adde one thing very remarkable and which shews how perfect and accomplished he was in his conversation namely this that his extraordinary way and fashion of converse of dealing and treating with others and of his devotion was not check'd blamed or condemned by any but approv'd priz'd and commended so that generally all had him in esteem reverence and love and said of him in proportion as was said of his Master Christ He hath done all things well Such a general approbation as this and in one that dealt in so many and difficult businesses must needs be very rare and argue a most prudent and advised spirit And as these things got approbation so his humility his honesty his respect to each one even the lowest his affability charity patience and other vertues gained him the hearts of all yet as it is a perilous thing to be so much esteemed praised and approved by all so God by a wise and divine counterpois to secure his vertue and keep him from tripping in so slippery a way did permit that from whence he should have received the most esteem approbation and satisfaction to wit from the Lady his Mother he found the quite contrary and that in a way most strange and afflictive to him as we have seen before CHAP. 3. His conduct of his business IT is without contradiction that few men in Paris or in all France were so much imployed as he in the affairs that concerned the service of God For which he was furnished with great strength of body and minde to manage so great and several businesses without difficulty with great tranquility order and content husbanding his time to the best advantage disparching one speedily after another and sometimes many together He hath been seen to do three things together without trouble or mistake And at other times when pressed with many dispatches at once to read Letters give Audience and write Answers to different persons all at the same time of which he hath quitted himself handsomely and well In one of his Letters he wrote thus It is very true that business findes me out from all parts insomuch that I am often inforced to read write and do business all at a time A little assistance would do well though I have many sharers however let not that trouble you for I dispatch as much at present as I can the rest in due time without encombring my self therewith Our Saviour doth gratiously bestow on me a peace of minde in all this so that I am not at all distracted with it His order was seriously to consider of things before any resolution and if after his own sense given to which he was not at all espoused he found anothers reason to be better he quitted his own A thing very necessary to men of business yet rare to be found since if we take not heed we all idolize our own judgement and falling in love with our private light are dsirous to be leading men affecting to see our own opinions crowned Having composed rules for a Society of Pious persons and digested them thorowly he presented them to be examined by some vertuous persons from whom he admitted with great humility some corrections cancelling them with his own hand requesting that they might be put in other terms more proper than his own After he had resolved on any thing he shewed himself prompt firm and constant for the execution not quitting it till he had brought it to the end it should be Not like those who hot at first grow presently cold and begin many things well but finish nothing Sometime when he had brought a thing into a fair way to perfection he committed it to a friend to finish not out of any inconstancy of spirit but to gain time for the undertaking and doing of more And withal that herein he might avoid the honour of it Out of his great humility passing that to another which would exercise his humility in letting another have the praise which redounds more to him that happily ends a good thing
Blessed be that littleness which is held for weakness and yet overthroweth all the Power and Prudence of flesh Treating with some Religious Persons he seemed as it were rapt on a sudden with the consideration of their happy condition speaking to them thus O how happy are you my Sisters After which falling upon a discourse of their Vocation he spake so effectually as wrought in them an ample acknowledgement of their obligation to God and a courage to proceed in well doing This following Letter he writ to a Gentlewoman newly entred into Religion who next under God did owe her calling to him I thank my Saviour with all Reverence for those good dispositions to your Profession signified in your Letter I understand and am sensible of abundant grace wrought in you whereby I assure my self of a noble pregress I am to expect from the bounty of God who is to that soul that gives herself to him Merces magna nimis Her exceeding great reward You have made a leap which puts you in a new world Blessed and adored be God who in the fulness of time out of his wisdom and love to a soul sends his Son unto it to redeem â—t from the Law of Servitude and translates it into the Adoption of his Sons This hath he now wrought in you in a more special manner and the excellentest way that could be You was never united to Jesus Christ as you are now by your holy Profession You had heretofore something to give that was never before engaged and he something to receive that was not formerly in his possession But now all is given and all is received and the mutual donation is accomplished No more Self no more Life no more Inheritance but in Jesus Christ He is all in all things until the time that according to the Apostle he delevering us up all and wholly to his Father his Faâ—her also shall be iâ— Jesus and in all his members all in all for ever Amen Fourthly he had a very great Devotion to all the Saints in Heaven but more partifulatly to S. Joseph and S. Teresa whom in the year 1640. he chose for his Patroness and above all the rest to the Saint of Saints the B. Virgin in testimony whereof he dedicated himself to her Service at Ardilliers then when he designed himself for a Carthusian And in the year 1640. he desired to be admitted into the Society erected to her honour in the house of the professed of the Jesuits of S. Lewis and for many years he wore a seal upon his arm with her Image graven wherewith he sealed all his Letters We have likewise mentioned how he gave to an Image of Nostre-Dame de Grace a heart of Chrystal set in Gold to testifie to that Admirable Mother as he used often to stile her his love and that with this heart he resigned up to her his own Finally this man of God most entirely honoured and loved the Spouse of Christ his Holy Church reverencing every thing that came from her making great account of all her ceremonies saying That he found a certam grace and particular vertue in the prayers and customs of the Church conforming himself most readily to her practises Being present commonly at High-Mass in Paris he would go to the Offering amongst the people and ordinarily with some poor man He assisted at ceremonies where it was rare to finde not onely men of his quality but far meaner persons as the consecrating of the Fonts in the Holy Week at long Processions in all extremities of weather Upon which occasion he writ one day to a friend Our Procession goeth this day into the Suburbs and since our Saviour hath favoured us with this great mercy to be of this little flock we ought to follow his standard and I take it for a signal honour to follow the Cross which way our holy Mother the Church leads us there being nothing in her but what is glorious since she acts in every thing by the Spirit of Religion in the presence of God whereby she unfolds great mysteries to those that are humble and respective From which expressions actions we may infer that he being a man of such quality and taken up with such a multitude of business had a very reverend esteem of all the ceremonies of the Church otherwise he would never have rendred such Obedience and Honour to them And though it be most true that he highly honoured these ceremonies yet he desired likewise that by the Exteriour pomp that appeared to the eyes Christians might be led on to the Interiour and more Spiritual complaining that the outward Magnificence wherewith Churches are adorned do often stay and amuse them and instead of carrying them on to God their chief end diverts them from him To this purpose he writ thus to a friend We should take notice of that simplicity in which the Divine Mysteries were conveyed to us that we may not be held too long with the splendour in which at this day they are celebrated These thoughts came into my minde in hearing the Organs and Church Musick and beholding the rich Ornaments used in the Divine Office we must look thorow this state at that spirit of Simplicity Purity and Humility of their primitive Institution Not but that these are holy and useful but that we should pass thorow it to the Simplicity and Poverty of Bethlehem Nazareth Egypt the Wilderness and the Cross But above all he was singularly devoted to an union of spirit and affection and universal communion of all good things whith all the faithful in all places of the world and to be admitted into the communion of Saints being an Article of our Creed very dear unto him Wherefore he highly valued all of each Nation and Profession without espousing any particular spirit or interest to respect one above others to magnifie one and derogate from another He honoured all Ecclesiasticks Secular and communicated with them concerning all his Exercises of Charity for his Neighbour he gave great respect to all Parish Priests was very serviceable to him of his own Parish he frequented the Societies of the Religious loved and made use of them for direction of his conscience And notwithstanding the great variety and several orders of them in the Church yet was not his heart divided but affected with an equal esteem and approbation and a general affection to all according to their degree being guided herein by one Spirit viz. that of Christ Jesus which enliveneth all the faithful as members of his body in the same manner as out bodily members notwithstanding they be different in sight figure and offices are knit together and all perfectly agree because they are all quickned by the same soul All misintelligence and disagreeing is a sign of two spirits that rule there and division is the principle of death Concerning this communion of Saints he one day suffered some difficulty Whereupon he writ this excellent Letter to his Directoâ— I
so powerfully supported in it and it made so easie to her by that Divine assistance and fall upon another that is likely to prove difficult for want of the same assistance Whence we may conclude that we ought not to change our exercise of Piety so long as God supplies us with sufficient grace to attend it The second is that we should reiterate many actof the same vertue as of Faith Hope Love or which is better continue and hold on the same act thus to acquire a rooting and establishment of these vertues which is not gotten but by vigoâ—ous and effectual reiteration of their acts as a nail is not driven up to the head with one blow but must be strucken hard and often And so it is with vertues whose force and sound profit consists in their having a well-rooted and grounded possession of the soul whereas they are worth little or nothing till they are habituated therein even as the tree brings forth neither leaves nor fruits until it hath taken deep rooting The same thing is to be done for any moral conclusions which are drawn from these acts that is to double and redouble them till they be fixed and made effectual as for example after some repeated acts of Faith that God is your first Principle and that of your self you are nothing and that all your hope is in him and our Saviour say with your self once twice and twenty times over with affection and a quiet but vigorous application if I believe this great truth of God and my self why do I attribute any thing to my self why do I not humble and abase my self under him why do I not love him upon whom all my good depends why do I not look upon my self and all creatures in the world as nothing If I hope in God and my Saviour why then do I fear any thing else is not here ground enough to live with confidence and joy what is he that can molest or trouble me Live then O my soul in tranquillity and repose as this same hope doth oblige thee These acts thus redoubled and repeated with constancy and vigour will without doubt produce great effects in the soul which is the fruit that this Prayer of Affection should bring forth Herein did Monsieur Renty exercise himself for many years reaping thereby an inestimable treasure of spiritual riches This Prayer saith he in one of his Papers is not by discourse and reasoning but by a loyal love tending always to give more than to receive The obscurity of Faith is of greater evidence to the soul than all the illuminations she can procureâ— which faith she ought to use with Reverence and Thanksgiving not with Complacency or Affectation Here needs no stretch of the Spirit this Prayer never offends the brain this is a state of modest deportment in which the soul keeps herself in the presence of God expecting what his spirit shall please to infuse into us which we receive in simplicity and in considence as if himself spake to us The ordinary dispositions with which he entred into this Prayer were first A profound Reverence and an abasing of himself in Gods presence whose infinite Majeste held him in a deep sense of his own meanness saying that we ought to consider our selves before it as little and less than the smallest Atomes Secondly A strong and absolute Confidence in his Infinite Goodness and Mercy which bearing up his Humility and the sense he had of his own vileness made him still hope all things He exhorted all of his acquaintance that were capable of it to use this kinde of Prayer as the most excellent profitable and easie of all others since it puts not a man to the labor to consider nor penetrate into or discourse of any subject but is easie for all sorts but chiefly for the unlearned who herein have need of no more but a simple belief applying themselves thereto with Affection He counselled men to give themselves more to the operations of the will than the speculations of the understanding and that place of S Paul to Titus where he exhorts us to live in sobriety he expounded of the sobriety of the senses and chiefly of that of the Spirit to cut off in our prayers multiplicity of notions and discourse and to proceed therein by Faith In effect the mysterie of faith is incomparably transcendent above all the Science and Discourse of the most quaint and sublime wits for as every thing is but visible by his own light a Torch by his and the Sun by the Sun things of glory by the light of glory so those of grace by the light of grace whereof the most perfect without doubt is that of Faith Reason is bestowed upon us for the discovery of natuâ—al things and Faith for Supernatural and Divine With men we discourse by Reason and with God by Faith and since God is at an infinite distance above man and Grace above Nature we may well conclude that Humane discourse of the finest thâ—ed is too heavy for that high pitch which can soar no further than natural Reason can conduct it Moreover whatsoever notions we have in this world of God and things spiritual they are in some degree deceitful and false not representing things as they are really since our spirit conceives nothing here below but what hath passed thorow the senses where spiritual things are refracted and receive much earth and come to us distorted and disguised But it is Faith alone that represents them in their real entities There are but two indubitable lights on which we may relie and which surpass all others in excellency which sanctifie and deifie our understanding elevating it to its first principle and oâ—iginal of all verity which is the Divine Intellect that is to say the light of Faith here and the light of glory hereafter These two being participations of that knowledge which God himself hath which demonstrates the dignity and perfection of Affective Prayer which quitting Discourse proceeds by Faith Neither did he make long stay upon the former way of Prayer but passed on further ascending to that of Union and Contemplation which was bestowed upon him in a very high degree Holy men speaking of this Contemplation the sublimest degree of Prayer here upon earth make thereof two sorts Acquisite and Infused The latter is that which God alone produceth in the soul to which she contributes nothing but a simple consent to receive his operation which is also called Contemplation Passive The former is that which man assisted by Gods grace may acquire by his own labour and exercise by his own industry and is therefore called Active The Infused hath so absolute a dependence upon God that it s given when and to whom he pleaseth who also takes it away which we cannot hinder no more than all the men in the world with all their strength put together can stay the Sun from rising and setting But all are in some measure capable of
that he neither desired noâ— feared any thing in this world And in fine enjoyed such a sweet tranquillity of spirit and repose which nothing could disturb or alter that from thence arose a wonderful and invariable equality shining forth in his Exterior at all times in all places upon all occasions One of his intimate friends desirous to try one day whether he had an affection to any thing questioned with him about every thing he could think of to put him to the rest and among other things asked him whether he desired not that these works which he had undertaken for the glory of God might succeed and take effect To whom â—he replied that he had no other aim in all his actions and enterprizes than the accomplishing of the will of God and that although he used his utmost endeavour that such things might succeed yet notwithstanding he was perfectly resigned in all things to his Majesties good pleasure adding many other expressions testifying his Mortification to all desires and a perfect transformation of his will into that of Gods This discourse was not quite finished but there hapned an occasion to put it to the tryal for one came running in crying that all the Heaven was on fire which news usually very frightful made no alteration in him at all who most calmly and composedly looking up to the heavens said the fire is here in Paris without any further distance though he understood presently that it was so violent that the street he lived in was in danger to be burnt down and his neighbours said it was necessary to quite forsake their quatters by reason that the fire was not far off and was likely in a very short space to reach them In this publique fright he keeping his ordinary equality and referring all to the will of God went into his Chappel where he continued long time in prayer offering up himself in sacrifice to God and resigning up his own will unto him some persons looking upon him with great admiration in this posture whilst so many hundreds were at their wits end and preparing for a speedy flight He professed to another secret and familiar friend that he felt himself through the mercy of God in such an absolute state of death to every thing that neither Angels nor men the loss of all he had the subversion of his family nor any other accident could remove him from his settled tranquillity And this he said not hyperbolically or by way of ostentation but out of a solid experimental establishment in that fortitude common with him to all great Saints Such was the mystical death and annihilation of this man of God by which his soul was enriched with a vast treasure of spiritual wealth causing him to lead a most perfect life and uniting him most intimately to God to which this death is absolutely necessary because no being can arrive to that which it was not formerly without ceasing first to be what it was as wood cannot pass into the nature of fire as long as it keeps its former nature this must be quitted and the matter be divested of all the form of wood both in substance and accidents and reduced into a state of privation to be made capable of the fires unitement to it And this is a general rule in nature admitting no exception that each subject must be predisposed to receive a new form and so much more as this form is more noble and this disposition consists in the privation of the subject and loss of other forms to gain a new one So also to make a spiritual man he must no more live according to nature but that he may be capable to be united to God must necessarily dye and be annihilated to himself And if fire require this total privation in the matter to communicate it self thereto with greater reason doth God who is altogether a spirit infinitely pure the first and soveraign entity require of a man this universal nakedness and privation this death and annihilation to himself and all created beings before he give and unite himself with him for in giving himself he giveth also the fruition of himself of his beauty goodness wisdom and his other perfections and by this union renders the receiver happy Hence also may be gathered what admirable purity is requisite in a soul for this union with God in Heaven in the state of glory that for this we must either conserve our Baptismal Innocence or if that hath been lost or fullied we must be purged here or in Purgatory by severe penances notwithstanding our other good works and the high degrees of sanctity to which we have attained And the same in proportion may be averred of the soul here in this estate of grace where it must be very pure to prepare it well for its union with God here in this life And seeing her pollution ariseth from her love to the creature and to herself and from the life of the first Adam according to the lusts and appetites of our own spirit it must dye to all these creatures and likewise to its self just as the body to be made perfect and to partake the true life of immortality and bliss must necessarily dye first so likewise must our souls if we will have them arrive to perfection consisting in this union with God to lead a holy and Divine life which alone can truly be called life To this purpose he writ thus to his Director I see clearly that the onely way to a Divine Union is to be perfectly divested of every thing that is not God and dead to our selves and every creature O that I well understood the importance of this nakedness and death and what is it that hinders the bonds of this Celestial love and union with his Divine Majestie and that Soveraign Beauty but a certain shew of and light adherence to some creature and shall we suffer that a thing so small and so unworthy should possess in the room of God and that Holy Spirit which is an all-consuming fire of love invirancing us on all sides should not have the power to work upon us the same effect which this elementary fire worketh upon wood Why should not I vicious and discontented creature in the midst of these my wretched plenitudes acquire happiness in the possession of God which I may do by his grace in separating my self gently from the creature by a single and affectionate application to the Creator To another person he writ thus When S. Paul saith You are dead and your life is hid with God in Christ Jesus He layeth death as the necessary foundation of a Christian whereby to remove from him all affection and inclination to the creature As we see that a dead man hath no more any motion or sense of any thing for though we are frequently sensible of the rebellious motions of corrupted nature yet they onely spring to be choaked and stifled in their birth To this purpose the
the way to him Amongst these the Saints are undoubtedly the most considerable since there is not one amongst them whose life is not a bright shining light unto us to discover the pathes we are to walk in and like that famous Watch-Tower Pharos in Alexandria which by its fires and light served to guide the Marriners in the night how safely to steer their course The Saints saith S. Gregory Nyssen set forth their lives to men who direct their course towards God like a bright Lamp to conduct them securely And speaking of S. Ephrem he calls him a great Luminary In vita S. Ephrem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prefat in Job who had more enlightned the world by his life than the Sun had by his beams and a little after saith That God had fixed him as a stately living Pillar like the Mercurâ—es of the Ancients placed in Cross-ways to direct Passengers to declare to men the High-way to Sanctity and Perfection S. Gregory the great adviseth us moreover to consider how that as God the Creator by an admirable Providence a most beautiful Oeconomie and profound Wisdom hath so ordered the course and seasons of stars that every one keeps his time of rising and setting one after another to enlighten the darkness of the night and cast their influences upon us So in like manner he hath sent and disposed his Saints like so many stars to give us light in the darkness of this life Accordingly saith he he hath appointed Abel to rise to teach us Innocence Enoch purity of Intention in our Actions Noah to forrifie us with courage in expecting our long delayed hopes Abraham to set before us a model of an heroick obedience and so of the rest Ecce quam fulgentes stellas as that holy Pope goes on in coelo cernimus ut inoffâ—nso pedâ— operis iter nostrae noctis ambulemus Behold what bright Stars bespangle the firmament of the Church to guide our feet safely in the night of our journey And admirable are the examples they have left us and the influences of Vertue that these mysterious stars have conveyed to us Fuit in iis saith S. Augustine Continentâ—a usque ad tenuissimum victum panis aquae non quotidiana solum sed etiam per plures dâ—es perpetuata jeâ—unia Castitas usque ad conjugii prolisque contemptum patientia usque ad cruces flammasque neglectas liberalitas usque ad patrimonia distributa pauperibus denique tot us mundi aspernatio usque ad desiderum mortis Their temperance was extended even to the most slender diet of bread and water and to fasts not of a single day onely until the evening but continued for divers days together Chastity even to the contempt of Marriage and Progeny Patience to the slighting of Gibbets and Flames Liberality to the distributing of their whole Patrimonies to the poor In fine conâ—empt of the whole world even to to the desiring of death And all this to instruct us what we ought to do Sanctorum Vita as saith S. Ambrose cap. 1. de S. Ioseph caeteris norma Vivendi est The life of Saints is our rule to order our lives after them Since then God hath given these for a rule to guide our lives after and for Beacons to direct us in our sailing towards heaven let us mark them attentively and follow their steps in our journey thither To which undoubtedly we are obliged because God demands and expects it from us and also we shall finde it most prâ—fitable in that this attentive observing what they did is most likely to make the deepest impression upon our spirits Whereupon S. Anthony as Athanasius reports of him in e us v tâ— recommended earnestly to his Religious the lives of Saints to fashion themselves after their model And S. Basil writes in his first Epistle that as young Painters to make themselves skilful look often upon the pieces of curious and excellent Masters spâ—nding whole hours and days in the â—opying of suâ—h Works so they that would draw the Picture of Vertue in their souls to the life must diligently heed these most excellent Originals by which they shall in time become in some measure like unto them He addes moreover That as heat and light stream naturally from the fire and sweet sents exhâ—le from perfumes in like manner sacred Knowledge ariseth from the actions of Saints and the sweet odour of their vertues perfume such as are much conversant in them And as it is not possible that he that continues long in the Sun should not receive some heat and light from it and he that makes some stay in the Perfumers shop amongst Musk and Ambergrise should not smell at all thereof neither can such as have much commerce with Saints and study their vertues remain without some amendment and savour of holiness Those two renowned Courtiers of the Emperour which S. Austin mentions in his Confessions lib. 2 cap. 6. were so wrought upon by reading the life of S. Anthony that they presently took up a resolution to quit the world and all other thoughts save of their own salvation Legere coepâ—t unus eorum these are his own words mirari accendi inter legendum medâ—tari arrâ—pere talem vitam relict â militiâ saeculari servire tibi legebat mutabatur intus exuebatur mundi mens ejus One of them bâ—gan to read the life and as he read to admire and his heart burning within him conceived a resolution to imitate it to throw off his sword and the Emperours Service to become a servant of God Thus whilst he read he found his heart changed and his soul to disentagle herself from the affections of the world to put off the old man to be cloathed with the new And of himself he affirms that the examples of these holy servants of God were like hot coals cast into the bosom of his soul heating and warming and setting him all in a flame S. Columban oweth his conversion to the reading and the considering of the life of Mary of Egypt our Founder S. Ignatâ—us his to the lives of several Saints with innumerable others S. Eugendus Abbot of Claude read continually the lives of S. Anthony and S. Martin and having them constantly before his eyes and more within his heart fashioned his own after them Bonaventure saith of S. Francis that Ex recordatione Sanctorum omnium tanquam lapidum ignitorum in deificum recalescebat incendâ—um when he found his heart wax cold in the love of God he warmed and enkindled it by the frequent ruminating upon the Vertues of Saints as so many red hot stones To this purpose the examples of Saints are serviceble unto us and such benefit are we to extract from the reading of their Histories and as they are our patterns for our imitation so will they be witnesses against us at that great day if we fail herein and will sit then as Judges to condemn us