nor are they equivalent to that Grace onely which he loses and which he might have had by receiving that Communion And now le ts make up this Account If Restitution ought to be as all the Doctors say conformable to the Good which was taken from one's Neighbour what can he restore which deprives a faithful Man of God himself Would it not be great want of Charity to take from a Man a Mount of Gold onely to gather up a little Grain Onely for one Grain of Mortification if yet there is any in it the Ministers do deprive a Christian of a whole Mount of Blessings which are heaped up together in the Communion If there were no other way to mortifie and try the Soul but this it ought not to be used because by this Mortification they deprive him of a greater good but there are infinite ways of proving and mortifying the Soul besides without doing it so great a Spiritual Prejudice The Blessings of this Sacrament don't end here because besides the increase of Grace it sustains and gives new strength to the Soul to resist Temptations it satisfies the desires takes away the hunger of temporal things unites with Christ and his Members who are the Just and Righteous breaks the power of Satan gives strength to suffer Martyrdom pardons the Venial Sins to which he that Communicates doth not stand affected and keeps from Mortal Sins by vertue of the aid which it doth contribute The Body of Christ says St. Bernard In Serm. Dom is Medicine to the Sick Provision for the Pilgrim fresh Strength to the Weary it delights the Strong it heals the wounded it preserves the Health of Soul and Body And whoever is a worthy Communicant is made more strong to receive Contempt more patient to suffer Reproof more fit to indure Troubles more ready for Obedience and to return the Lord Thanks St. Leo Pope de praec ser 14. de pass Domini says that when a man is Communicated Christ comes to honour him with his Presence to anoint him with his Grace to cure him with his Mercy to heal him with his Blood to raise him by his Death to illuminate him with his Light to inflame him with his Love to comfort him with his infinite Sweetness to be united and espoused with his Soul to make him partaker of his Divine Spirit and of all the Blessings which he purchas'd us by his Cross Dost thou seek says St. Bonaventure de praec where God is thou must expect to find him in this Divine Sacrament which being worthily received do's pardon Sins mitigate Passions gives light to the Understanding satiates the Soul revives Faith encourages Hope inkindles Charity increases Devotion fills with Grace and is the rick Pledge of Glory This Sacrament says St. Thomas Opusc 58. de Sacr. cap. 21. 22 23. drives away evil Spirits defends us from Concupiscence washes off the Stains of the Heart appeases Gods Anger illuminates the Understanding to know him inflames the Will to love him delights the memory with Sweetness confirms the whole man in Goodness frees him from Punishment Everlasting multiplies the merits of good Life and brings him to his Eternal Country The Body of the Lord as he pursues it cap. 24. produces Three principal Effects First it destroys Sin. Secondly it increases Spiritual Blessings Thirdly it comforts men's Souls and in Chap. 25. he says it satiates the Spirit to follow what is good it comforts and strengthens the Soul to shun what is evil it preserves the Life always to praise the Lord. As it is a Sacrifice it remits the Sins of those who are alive and lightens the punishment of those who are in Purgatory and augments the accidental Glory of those who are in Heaven Lastly the Body of Christ is called the Sacrament of Charity because it makes us partakers of the Spirit Divine of the sweet Abode of Christ himself and the rich Transformation of God. 'T would be an endless thing to relate the Blessings which according to the saying of Saints they do receive from this Sacrament who come to partake of it without Mortal Sin and of all these doth the Minister deprive a Christian when he onely forbids him one Communion But more than this deprieving 'em of the Communion he deprieves all the Saints of Heaven all the Angels the most holy Virgin and Christ himself of that accidental glory which accrues to them by every Communion received in grace If the Saints in Heaven have a special accidental glory by every good work though never so small that is done here below as many pious Authors are of opinion with how much more reason will they have it by a work so sublime as the Communion is wherein there is included an immensity of all the wonderful works of God Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum Psal 110. And if from one onely Communion there are so many blessings as are specified before to be obtained what will there be of the sacrifice of the Mass the gravest the highest work that is in Heaven or Earth And shall there then be Ministers who under pretence of Penance Mortification or the old way must hinder Priests so great so holy and so fruitful a sacrifice Saint Jerom said in Missis defunct Pavi c. 14 that at the least the Soul suffers not in Purgatory whilst Mass is said for it 't was well the Author did not point to us where this blind passage is in Saint Jeromes Works Saint Austin assures us Ballester in the Book of the Crucifix of S. Saviour f. 207. that the Divine Sacrifice is never Celebrated but one of these two things follow upon it either the Conversion of a sinner or the leting loose of some Soul out of Purgatory this is as much Saint Austins saying as t'other is Saint Jeromes William Altisiodorensis was not contented with one Soul but affirmed that by every Mass there were the Lord knows how many Souls that got away from thence Severus in Saint Martins Life gives an account that he set as many Souls at liberty with his Masses as persons assisted at the hearing of ' em Venerable Bede says that the Priest who being not lawfully hindred doth neglect to say Mass deprieves the most holy Trinity of glory and praise the Angels of joy Sinners of pardon the Righteous of grace and help the Souls in Purgatory of cooling and refreshment the Church of the heavenly benefit of Jesus Christ our Lord and the Priest himself of Medicine and help If every Mass therefore has all this of its own what Minister under the colour of zeal shall be so bold as to hinder and defraud the Trinity the Angels the Virgin the Church the Righteous Sinners the Souls in Purgatory and the Priests themselves that desire to celebrate so much glory and so much good without doubt though this be done with zeal yet 't is want of consideration and it will be well to premeditate and consider it better before any goes about to hinder it THE END THE CONTENTS CHAP. 1. No Minister ought to keep a faithful Person from the Communion that does desire and ask it whilst he doth not know his Conscience defiled with mortal Sin. Page 1 Chap. 2. Answering the Reasons which those Ministers give which hinder the Faithful from Communicating and the Priest from Celebrating having their Consciences free from Mortal Sin. Page 17 Chap. 3. Wherein are shewn some of the great benefits of which a faithful man is deprived by being prohibited the Communion when he is sufficiently disposed for it Page 31
affection is not perfect and ordinarily it is given to weak and nice Souls 103. Thou wilt say that thou feelest thy self indisposed without devotion without fervour without the desire of this Divine Food so as to ask how thou must frequent it believe for certain that none of these things doth hinder or hurt thee whilst you preserve this purpose firm not to sin and your Will determined to avoid every offence and if thou hast confessed all those that thou couldst remember doubt not but that thou art well prepared to come to this Heavenly and Divine Table CHAP. XIV Pursues the same Matter 104. THou must know that in this unspeakaable Sacrament Christ is united with the Soul is made one thing with it whose fineness and purity is the most profound and admirable and the most worthy of consideration and thanks Great was the pureness of him in being made Man greater that of dying ignominiously on the Cross for our sake but the giving of himself whole and entire to man in this admirable Sacrament admits no comparison This is singular favour and infinite pureness because there is no more to give no more to receive O that we could but comprehend him O that we could but know him 105. That God being what he is should be Communicated to my Soul that God should be willing to make a reciprocal ty of union with it which of it self is meer misery O Souls if we could but feed ourselves at this Heavenly Table O that we could scorch ourselves at this burning fire O that we could become one and the same spirit with this Soveraign Lord who withholds us who deceives us who takes us off from burning like Salamanders in the Divine fire of this holy Table 106. 'T is true O Lord that thou entrest into me a miserable creature but true also it is that thou at the same time remainest in thy glory and brightness and in thy self Receive me therefore O my Jesus in thy self in thy beauty and Majesty I am infinitely glad that the vileness of my Soul cannot prejudice thy beautyâ— thou enterest therefore into me without going out of thy self thou livest in the midst of thy brightness and magnificence though thou art in my darkness and misery 107. O my Soul how great is thy vileness Job 7 Chap. how great thy poverty What is man Lord that thou art so mindful of him that thou visitest him and makest him great What is man that thou puttest such an esteem upon him being willing to have thy delights with him and dwell personally with thy greatnesses in him how O Lord can a miserable creature receive an infinite Majesty humble thy self O my soul to the very depth of nothing confess thy unworthyness look upon thy misery and acknowledge the wonders of the Divine Love which suffers it self to be mean in this incomprehensible Mystery that it may be communicated and united with thee 108. O the greatness of love which the amiable Jesus is in a small host who is there subject in some manner to man giving himself whole and sacrificing himself for him to the Eternal Father O Sovereign Lord keep back my heart strongly that it may never more return to its imperfect liberty but all annihilated may die to the world and remain united with thee 109. If thou would'st get all Vertues in the highest degree come blessed Soul come with frequency to this most holy Table for there they do all dwell Eat O my Soul of this Heavenly Food eat and continue come with humility come with Faith to feed of this White and Divine Bread for this is the Mark of Souls and from hence Love draws its Arrows saying Come O Soul and eat this savoury Food if thou would'st get Purity Charity Chastity Light Strength Perfection and Peace CHAP. XV. Declaring when Spiritual and Corporal Penances ought to be used and how hurtful they are when they are done indiscreetly according to ones own judgment and opinion 110. IT is to be known that there are some Souls who to make too great advances in Holiness become much behind-hand in it by doing indiscreet Penances like those who would sing more than their strength allows 'em who strain themselves till they are tired and instead of doing better do worse 111. Many have fallen into this Precipice for want of subjecting their judgment to their spiritual Fathers whil'st they have imagined that unless they give themselves up to rigid Penances they never can be Saints as if sanctity did only consist in them They say that he that sows little reaps little but they sow no other seed with their indiscreet Penances than Self-love instead of rooting of it up 112. But the worst of these indiscreet Penances is that by the use of these dry and barren Severities is begotten and naturalized a certain bitterness of heart towards themselves and their neighbours which is a great stranger to the true Spirit towards themselves because they do not feel the sweetness of Christ's Yoke the sweetness of Charity but only the asperity of Penances whereby their nature becomes imbitter'd and hence it follows that such men become exasperated with their neighbours to the marking and reproving much their faults and holding of 'em for very defective for the same reason that they see 'em go a less rigorous way than themselves hence they grow proud with their exercises of Penance seeing few that do after 'em and thinking themselves better than other folks whereupon they much fall in the account of their Vertues Hence comes the envy of others to see them less penitent and greater favourites of God a clear proof that they fixed their confidence in their own proper diligences 113. Prayer is the nourishment of the Soul and the Soul of Prayer is internal mortification for however bodily Penance and all other exercises chastening the flesh be good and holy and praiseworthy so as they be moderated by discretion according to the state and quality of every one and by the help of the spiritual Director's judgment yet thou wilt never gain any vertue by these means but only vanity and the wind of vain-glory if they do not grow from within Wherefore now thou shalt know when thou art to use most chiefly External Penances 114. When the Soul begins to retire from the World and Vice it ought to tame the Body with rigour that it may be subject to the Spirit and follow the Law of God with ease then it concerns you to manage the Weapons of Hair-cloth Fasting and Discipline to take from the flesh the roots of sin but when the Soul enters into the way of the Spirit imbracing internal mortification corporal chastisements ought to be relaxed because there is trouble enough in the Spirit the heart is weakned the breast suffers the brain is weary the whole Body grieved and disabled for the functions of the Soul. 115. The wise and skilful Director therefore must consider not to give way to these Souls to
Sacrament that thou dost not mortifie thy self as thou promisest to God daily that Prayer and Communion without Mortification is meer vanity herewith would he make thee distrust of the Divine Grace telling thee of thy misery and making a gyant of it and putting into thy head that every day thy Soul grows worse instead of better whilest it so often repeats those failings 128. O blessed Soul open thine Eyes suffer not thy self to be carried away by the deceitful and gilded tricks of Satan who seeks thy ruine and cowardise with these lying and seeming reasons Cut off these discourses and considerations and shut the gate against these vain Thoughts and diabolical Suggestions lay aside these vain fears and remove this faint-heartedness knowing thy misery and trusting in the Mercy Divine and if to morrow thou dost fall again as thou did'st to day trust again the more in that supream and more than infinite Goodness so ready to forget our faults and receive us into his Arms as dear Children CHAP. XVIII Treateth of the same Point 129. AT all times therefore thou oughtest when thou seest thy self in fault without loosing time or making Discourses upon the failing to drive away vain Fear and Cowardise without disturbing or chiding thy self but knowing thy fault with Humility looking on thy misery rowling thy self with a loving Confidence on the Lord going into his Presence asking him Pardon heartily and without noise of words keep thy self reposed in doing this without discoursing whether he hath or hath not forgiven thee returning to thy Exercises and Retirements as if thou had'st not Sinned 130. Would not he be a meer Fool which running at Turneament with others and falling in the best of the Carrier should lie weeping on the Ground and afflicting himself with discourses upon his Fall Man they would tell him loose no time get up and take the Course again for he that rises again quickly and continues his Race is as if he had never fallen 131. If thou hast a desire to get to a high degree of Perfection and inward Peace thou must use the Weapon of Confidence in the Divine Goodness night and day and always when thou fallest This humble and loving Conversation and total Confidence in the Mercy Divine thou must exercise in all faults imperfections and failings that thou shalt commit either by advertence or inadvertency 132. And although thou often fallest and seest thy Pusillanimity and endeavour to get courage and afflict not thy self because what God doth not do in forty Years he sometimes doth in an instant with a particular Mystery that we may live low and humble and know that 't is the Work of His powerful Hand to free us from Sins 133. God also is willing of ineffable Wisdom that not onely by Vertues but also by Vices and the Passions wherewith the Devil seeks and pretends to strike us down to the bottomless Pit we make a Ladder to scale Heaven with Ascendamus etiam per vitia passiones nostras says St. Austine Serm. 3. de Ascens That we may not make Poison of Physick and Vices of Vertues by becoming vain by 'em God would have us make Vertues of Vices healing us by that very thing which would hurt us So says S. Gregory Quia ergo nos de medicamento vulnus facimus facit ille de vulnere medicamentum ut qui virtue percutimur vitio curemur Lib. 37. c. 9. 134. By means of small failings the Lord makes us know that his Majesty is that which frees us from great ones and herewith he keeps us humbled and vigilant of which our proud Nature hath most need And therefore though thou oughtest to walk with great care not to fall into any fault or imperfection if thou seest thy self fallen once and a thousand times thou oughtest to make use of the Remedy which I have given thee that is a loving Confidence in the Divine Mercy These are the Weapons with which thou must fight and conquer Cowardise and vain Thoughts this is the means thou oughtest to use not to lose time not to disturb thy self and reap good this is the Treasure wherewith thou must enrich thy Soul and lastly hereby must thou get up the high Mountain of Perfection Tranquility and internal Peace THE Spiritual Guide Which brings the Soul to the getting of Inward Peace The Third Book Of Spiritual Martyrdoms whereby God Purges Souls of Contemplation infused and passive of Perfect Resignation Inward Humility Divine Wisdom True Annihilation and Internal Peace CHAP. I. The Difference between the Outward and Inward Man. 1. THERE are two sorts of Spiritual Persons Internal and External these seek God by without by Discourse by Imagination and Consideration they endeavour mainly to get Vertues many Abstinences Maceration of Body and Mortification of the Senses they give themselves to rigorous Penance they put on Sack-cloth chastise the Flesh by Discipline endeavour Silence bear the Presence of God forming him present to themselves in their Idea of him or their Imagination sometimes as a Pastour sometimes as a Physitian and sometimes as a Father and Lord they delight to be continually speaking of God very often making fervent Acts of Love and all this is Art and Meditation by this way they desire to be great and by the power of voluntary and exteriour Mortifications they go in quest of sensible Affections and warm Sentiments thinking that God resides onely in them when they have ' em This is the External Way and the Way of Beginners and though it be good yet there is no arriving at Perfection by it nay there is not so much as one step towards it as Experience shews in many that after fifty Years of this external Exercise are void of God and full of themselves having nothing of Spiritual Men but just the name of such 2. There are others truely Spiritual which have passed by the beginnings of the Interiour Way which leads to Perfection and Union with God and to which the Lord called 'em by his infinite Mercy from that outward Way in which before they Exercised themselves These men retired in the inward part of their Souls with true Resignation into the Hands of God with a total putting off and forgetting even of themselves do always go with a rais'd Spirit to the Presence of the Lord by the means of pure Faith without Image Form or Figure but with great Assurance founded in tranquility and rest Internal in whose infused meeting and entertainment the Spirit draws with so much force that it makes the Soul contract Inwardly the Heart the Body and all the Powers of it 3. These Souls as they are already passed by the interiour Mortification and have been cleansed by God with the Fire of Tribulation with infinite and horrible Torments all of 'em ordained by his hand and after his way are Masters of themselves because they are intirely subdued and denied which makes 'em live with great Repose and internal Peace and although in
difference which is between doing suffering and dying doing is delightful and belongs to beginners suffering with desire belongs to those who are proficients dying always in themselves belongs to those who are accomplished and perfect of which number there are very few in the world 76. How happy wilt thou be if thou hast no other thought but to die in thy self thou wilt then become not only victorious over thine enemies but also over thy self in which victory thou wilt certainly find pure love perfect peace and divine wisdom 77. It is impossible for a man to be able to think and live mystically in a simple understanding of the divine and infused wisdom if he does not first die in himself by the total denying of sense and the reasonable appetite 78. The true lesson of the spiritual man and that which thou oughtest to learn is to leave all things in their place and not meddle with any but what thy office may bind thee to because the Soul which leaves every thing to find God doth then begin to have all in the eternity iâ— seeks 79. Some Souls there are who seek repose others without seeking have the pleasure of it others have a pleasure in pain and others seek it The first do as good as nothing the second are in the way towards it the third run and the last fly 80. The disesteem of delights and the counting of 'em torment is the property of a truly mortified man. 81. Enjoyment and Internal Peace are the Fruits of the Spirit Divine and no man gets 'em into his possession if in the closet of his soul he is not a resigned man. 82. Thou seest that the displeasures of the good pass presently away but for all that endeavour never to have 'em nor to stop in 'em for they damnifie thy health disturb thy reason and disquiet thy spirit 83. Amongst other holy Counsels which thou must observe remember well this that follows Look not upon other mens faults but thine own keep silence with a continued internal conversation mortifie thy self in all things and at all hours and by this means thou wilt get free from many imperfections and make thy self Commander of great Vertues 84. Mortifie thy self in not judging ill of any body at any time because the suspicion of thy neighbour disturbs the purity of heart discomposes it brings the Soul out and takes away its repose 85. Never wilt thou have perfect resignation if thou mind'st humane respects and reflectest upon the little idol of what people say The Soul that goes by the inward way will soon lose it self if once it come to look at reason amongst the creatures and in commerce and conversation with ' em There is no other reason than not to look at reason but to imagine that God permits grievances to fall on us to humble and annihilate us and make us live wholly resigned 86. Behold how God makes greater account of a Soul that lives internally resigned than of another that doth miracles even to the raising of the dead 87. Many Souls there are which though they exercise Prayer yet because they are not mortified are always imperfect and full of self-love 88. Hold it for a true mixim that no body can do a grievance or injury to a Soul despised by it self and one that is nothing in its own account 89. Finally be of hope suffer be silent and patient let nothing affright thee all of it will have a time to end God only is he that is unchangeable patience brings a man in every thing He that hath God hath all things and he that hath him not hath nothing CHAP. IX For the obtaining of Internal Peace 't is necessary for the Soul to know its misery 90. IF the Soul should not fall into some faults it would never come to understand its own misery though it hears men speak and reads spiritual Books nor can it ever obtain precious peace if it do not first know its own miserable weakness because there the remedy is difficult where there is no clear knowledge of the defect God will suffer in thee sometimes one fault sometimes another that by this knowledge of thy self seeing thee so often fallen thou may'st believe that thou art a meer nothing in which knowledge and belief true peace and perfect humility is founded and that thou may'st the better search into thy mystry and see what thou art I will try to undeceive thee in some of thy manifold imperfections 91. Thou art so quick and nice that it may be if thou dost but trip as thou walkest or findest thy way molested thou feelest even Hell it self if thou art denied thy due or thy pleasure opposed thou presently briskest up with a warm resentment of it If thou spiest a fault in thy neighbour instead of pitying him and thinking that thou thy self art liable to the same failing thou indiscreetly reprovest him if thou seest a thing convenient for thee and canst not compass it thou growest sad and full of sorrow if thou receivest a slight injury from thy neighbour thou chidest at him and complainest for it insomuch that for any trifle thou art inwardly and outwardly discomposed and losest thy self 92. Thou would'st be penitent but with another's patience and if the impatience still continues thou layest the fault with much pains upon thy companion without considering that thou art intolerable to thy self and when the rancour is over thou cunningly dost return to make thy self vertuous giving documents and relating spiritual sayings with artifice of wit without mending thy past-faults Although thou willingly dost condemn thy self reproving thy faults before others yet this thou dost more to justifie thy self with him that sees thy faults that thou may'st return again afresh to the former esteem of thy self than through any effect of perfect humility 93. Other times thou dost subtilly alledge that it is not through fault but zeal of justice that thou complainest of thy neighbour Thou believest for the most part that thou art vertuous constant and couragious even to the giving up thy life into the tyrant's hand solely for the sake of divine love yet thou canst scarce hear the least word of anger but presently thou dost afflict and trouble and disquiet thy self These are all industrious engines of self-love and the secret pride of thy soul Know therefore that self-love reigns in thee and that from purchasing this precious peace that is thy greatest hindrance CHAP. X. In which is shewed and discovered what is the false humility and what the true with the effects of ' em 94. THou must know that there are two sorts of humility one false and counterfeit the other true The false one is theirs who like water which must mount upward receive an external fall and artificial submission to rise up again immediately These avoid esteem and honour that so they may be took to be humble they say of themselves that they are very evil that they may be thought good
â—nder the most sublime Protection what will become of this little Book then which hath no Patronage the Subject whereof being mystical and not well-seasoned carries along with it the common censure and will seem insipid Kind Reader if you understand it not be not therefore apt to censure the same The Natural Man may hear and read these Spiritual Matters but he can never comprehend them 1 Cor. ch 2. as St. Paul saith The Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. If you condemn it you condemn your self to the number of the wise men of this World of whom St. Denis says that God imparts not this Wisdom to them as he does to the simple and humble though in the opinion of men they be ignorant Mystical knowledge proceeds not from Wit but from Experience it is not invented but proved not read but received and is therefore most secure and efficacious of great help and plentiful in fruit Matth. 11. it enters not into the Soul by the Ears nor by the continual Reading of Books but by the free Infusion of the Holy Ghost whose Grace with most delightful intimacy is communicated to the simple and lowly There are some Learned Men who have never read these Matters and some Spiritual Men that hitherto have hardly relished them and therefore both condemn them the one out of Ignorance and the other for want of Experience Besides it is certain that he who hath not the experience of this sweetness cannot pass a Judgment upon these Mysterious Secrets nay rather he 'll be scandalized as many are when he hears of the Wonders which the Divine Love is wont to work in Souls because he finds no such rarities in his own Who shall limit the goodness of God whose Arm is not shortened but that he can do now what he hath wrought at other times God calls neither the strongest nor the richest for their merit but calls rather the weakest and most wretched that his infinite mercy may shine forth the more This Science is not Theoretical but Practical wherein Experience surpasses the most refined and ingenious Speculation Hence it was that St. Teresia admonished her ghostly Father that he should not confer about Spiritual Matters but with Spiritual Men Because said she if they know but one way or if they have stopt mid-way there is no success to be expected It will soon appear that he hath no expeperience of this practical and mystical Science who shall condemn the Doctrine of this Book and who hath not read St. Dennis St. Austin St. Gregory St. Bernard St. Thomas St. Bonaventure and many other Saints and Doctors approved by the Church who like expert men approve commend and teach the Practice of this Doctrine It is to be taken notice of that the Doctrine of this Book instructs not all sorts of Persons but those only who have the Senses and Passions well mortified who have already advanced and made progress in Prayer and are called by God to the inward way who encourages and guides them freeing them from the obstacles which hinder the course to perfect Contemplation I have taken care to have the Style of this Book devote chast and useful without the ornament of polite Sentences ostentation of Eloquence or Theological niceties my only scope was to teach the Naked Truth with humility sincerity and perspicuity It is not to be wondered at that new Spiritual Books are every day published in the World because God hath always new Lights to communicate and Souls stand always in need of these Instructions All things have not been said nor every thing written hence it is that there will be Writing to the end of the World. Wonderful were the Lights that God Almighty communicated to his Church by means of the Angelical Doctor St. Thomas and at the hour of his death he himself said that the Divine Majesty had at that instant communicated to him so much light that all he had before written came short of it God has then and always will have new Lights to communicate without any diminution to his own Infinite Wisdom The many and grievous pains and difficulties of the inward way ought not to make a Soul despond because it is but reasonable that a thing of great value should cost dear Be of good comfort and believe that not only those which are here represented but many others also will be overcome with the Grace of God and Internal Fortitude It was never my design to treat of Contemplation nor in defence of it as many have done who have learnedly and speculatively published whole Books full of efficacious Reasons Doctrines and Authorities of Saints and of the Holy Scripture for confuting the Opinion of those who without any ground have condemned and do condemn it The Experience of many Years by reason of the many Souls who have trusted to my insufficiency for their conduct in the inward way to which they have been called hath convinced me of the great necessity they are in of having the obstacles taken out of their way the inclinations affections and allurements removed which wholly hinder the course and obstruct the way to perfect Contemplation This whole practical Book tends chiefly to this end because it is not enough to ascertain the inward way of Contemplation if the obstacles be not taken out of the way of those Souls that are called and assured which hinder their progress and spiritual flight For which end I have made use rather of what God out of his infinite mercy hath inspired into me and taught me than of any thing that the speculative reading of Books has suggested unto me or furnished me with Sometimes though very seldom I quote the Authority of some practical and experienc'd Author to shew that the Doctrine which is here taught is not singular and rare It hath been my first scope then not to ascertain the inward way but to disentangle and unpester it My next hath been to instruct the Spiritual Divertors that they may not stop those Souls in their course which are called by these secret Paths to internal Peace and supreme Felicity God of his infinite mercy grant that an end so much desired may be obtained I hope in God that some of those Souls whom his Divine Majesty calls to this knowledge will find profit from what I have writ for whose sake I shall reckon my pains very well employed This has been the only but of my desire and if God as certainly he will accept and approve those pure desires I shall be content and have my reward Farewel THE PREFACE First Advertisement By two ways one may go to God the first by Meditation and Discourse or Reasoning the second by pure Faith and Contemplation 1. THere are two ways of going to God the one by Consideration and Mental Discourse and the other by the Purity of Faith an indistinct general and confused knowledge The first is called Meditation the second Internal
tedious to it because they speak not of the Internal Sweetness that is in its Heart though it know it not The fourth that though it find it self destitute of ratiocination yet it hath a firm purpose of persevering in Prayer The fifth is that it will experience a sense with great confusion of it self abhorring guilt and entertaining a higher esteem of God. 28. The other Contemplation is perfect and infused Wherein as St. Teresa says God speaks to a man sequestrating his intellect questioning his thought and seizing as they say the word in his mouth so that if he would he cannot speak but with great pain He understands that without the noise of words the Divine Master is instructing him suspending all his powers and facultâ—eâ— because if at that time they should operate they would do more hurt than good These rejoyce but know not how they rejoyce the Soul is inflamed 〈◊〉 love and conceives not how it loves it knows that it enjoys what it loves and knows not the manner of that enjoyment well it knows that that is not enjoyment which the intellect longs for The Will embraces it without understanding how but being unable to understand any thing perceives it is not that good which can be merited by all the labours put together which are suffered upon earth for gaining of it It is a gift of the Lord of the Soul and of Heaven who in the end gives as he is and to whom he pleases as he pleases such is his Majesty in this that it does every thing and his operation is above our nature All this we have from the Holy Mother in her Way to Perfection chap. 25. From whence it follows that this Contemplation is infused and freely given by the Lord to whom he pleases Fourth Advertisement The Burden of this Book consisting in rooting out the Rebellion of our own Will that we may attain to Internal Peace 29. THe way of Inward Peace is in all things to be conform to the pleasure and disposition of the Divine Will. Hugo Cardinalis in Psal 13. In omnibus debemus subjicere voluntatem nostram voluntati divinae haec est enim pax voluntatis nostrae ut sit per omnia conformis voluntati divinae Such as would have all things succeed and come to pass according to their own fancy are not come to know this way Psalm 13. Viam pacis non cognoverunt and therefore lead a harsh and bitter life always restless and out of humour without treading in the way of Peace which consists in a total conformity to the will of God. 30. This conformity is the sweet yoak that introduces us into the regions of internal peace and serenity Hence we may know that the rebellion of our Will is the chief occasion of our disquiet and that because we will not submit to the sweet yoak of the Divine Will we suffer so many streights and perturbations O Soul if we submitted our own to the Divine Will and to all his Disposition what tranquillity should we feel what sweet peace what inward serenity what supreme felicity and earnest of bliss This then is to be the burden of this Book May it please God to give me his Divine Light for discovering the Secret Paths of this Inward Way and Chief Felicity of Perfect Peace THE Spiritual Guide Which leads the Soul to the fruition of Inward Peace The First Book Of the Darkness Dryness and Temptations wherewith God purges Souls and of Internal Recollection CHAP. I. To the end God may rest in the Soul the Heart is always to be kept peaceable in whatsoever Disquiet Temptation and Tribulation 1. THou art to know that thy Soul is the Center Habitation and Kingdom of God. That therefore to the end the Sovereign King may rest on that Throne of thy Soul thou oughtest to take pains to keep it clean quiet void and peaceable clean from guilt and defects quiet from fears void of affections desires and thoughts and peaceable in temptations and tribulations 2. Thou oughtest always then to keep thine Heart in peace that thou mayest keep pure that Temple of God and with a right and pure intention thou art to work pray obey and suffer without being in the least moved whatever it pleases the Lord to send unto thee Because it is certain that for the good of thy Soul and for thy spiritual profit he will suffer the envious enemy to trouble that City of Rest and Throne of Peace with temptations suggestions and tribulations and by the means of creatures with painful troubles and grievous persecutions 3. Be constant and chear up thine heart in whatsoever disquiet these tribulations may cause to thee Enter within it that thou may'st overcome it for therein is the Divine Fortress which defends protects and fights for thee If a man hath a safe Fortress he is not disquieted though his enemies pursue him because by retreating within it these are disappointed and overcome The strong Castle that will make thee triumph over all thine enemies visible and invisible and over all their snares and tribulations is within thine own Soul because in it resides the Divine Aid and Sovereign Succour Retreat within it and all will be quiet secure peaceable and calm 4. It ought to be thy chief and continual exercise to pacifie that Throne of thy Heart that the Supreme King may rest therein The way to pacifie it will be to enter into thy self by means of internal recollection all thy protection is to be Prayer and a loving recollection in the Divine Presence When thou seest thy self more sharply assaulted retreat into that region of Peace where thou 'lt find the Fortress When thou art more faint-hearted betake thy self to this refuge of Prayer the only Armour for overcoming the enemy and mitigating tribulation thou oughtest not to be at a distance from it in a storm to the end thou mayest as another Noah experience tranquillity security and serenity and to the end thy will may be resigned devote peaceful and courageous 5. Finally be not afflicted nor discouraged to see thy self faint-hearted he returns to quiet thee that still he may stir thee because this Divine Lord will be alone with thee to rest in thy Soul and form therein a rich Throne of Peace that within thine own heart by means of internal recollection and with his heavenly grace thou may'st look for silence in tumult solitude in company light in darkness forgetfulness in pressures vigour in despondency courage in fear resistance in temptation peace in war and quiet in tribulation CHAP. II. Though the Soul perceive it self deprived of Discourse or Ratiocination yet it ought to persevere in Prayer and not be afflicted because that is its greater Felicity 6. THoul't find thy self as all other Souls that are called by the Lord to the inward way full of Confusion and Doubts because in Prayer thou hast failed in Discourse It will seem to thee that God does no more assist thee
as formerly that the exercise of Prayer is not in thy power that thou losest time whilst hardly and with great trouble thou can'st make one single Ejaculation as thou was wont to do 7. How much confusion and what perplexities will that want of enlarging thy self in mental Discourse raise in thee And if in such a juncture thou hast not a ghostly Father expert in the Mystical Way thou l't certainly conclude that thy Soul is out of order and that for the security of thy Conscience thou standest in need of a general Confession and all that will be got by that care will be the shame and confusion of both O how many Souls are called to the inward way and the Spiritual Fathers for want of Understanding their case instead of guiding and helping them forwards stop them in their Course and ruin them 8. Thou oughtest then to be perswaded that thou mayest not draw back when thou wantest expansion and discourse in Prayer that it is thy greatest happiness because it is a clear sign that the Lord will have thee to walk by Faith and Silence in his Divine Presence which is the most profitable and easiest Path in respect that with a simple view or amorous attention to God the Soul appears like a humble Supplicant before its Lord or as an innocent Child that casts it self into the sweet and safe Bosom of its dear Mother Thus did Gerson express it Though I have spent Fourty Years in Reading and Prayer yet I could never find any thing more efficacious nor compendious for attaining to Mystical Theology than that our Spirit should become like a young Child and Beggar in the presence of God. 9. That kind of Prayer is not only the easiest but the most secure because it is abstracted from the operations of the Imagination that is always exposed to the Tricks of the Devil and the extravagancies of Melancholy and Ratiocination wherein the Soul is easily Distracted and being wrapt up in Speculation reflects on it self 10. When God had a mind to instruct his own Captain Moses Exod. 24. and give him the two Tables of the Law written in Stone he called him up to the Mountain at what time God being there with him the Mount was Darkened and environed with thick Clouds Moses standing idle not knowing what to think or say Seven days after God commanded Moses to come up to the Top of the Mountain where he show'd him his Glory and filled him with great Consolation 11. So in the Beginning when God intends after an extraordinary manner to guide the Soul inter the School of the divine and loving Notices of the internal Law he makes it go with Darkness and Dryness that he may bring it near to himself because the Divine Majestie knows very well that it is not by the means of ones one Ratiocination or Industry that a Soul draws near to him and understands the Divine Documents but rather by silent and humble Resignation 12. The Patriarch Noah gave a great instance of this who after he had been by all men reckoned a Fool floating in the middle of a rageing Sea wherewith the whole World was overflowed without Sails and Oars and environed with wild Beasts that were shut up in the Ark walked by Faith alone not knowing nor understanding what God had a mind to do with him 13. What most concerns thee O redeemed Soul is Patience not to desist from the Prayer thou art about though thou can'st not enlarge is Discourse Walk with firm Faith and a holy Silence dying in thy self with all thy naturaâ— Industry trusting that God who is he who is and changes not neither can err intends nothing but thy good It is clear that he who is a dying must needs feel it but how well is time employed when the Soul is dead dumb and resigned in the presence of God there without any clutter or distraction to receive the Divine Influences 14. The Senses are not capable of divine Blessings hence if thou wouldst be Happy and Wise be Silent and Believe Suffer and have Patience be Confident and Walk on it concerns thee far more to hold thy Peace and to let thy self be guided by the hand of God than to enjoy all the Goods of this World. And though it seem to thee that thou dost nothing at all and art idle being so Dumb and Resigned yet it is of infinite fruit 15. Consider the blinded Beast that turns the Wheel of the Mill which though it see not neither know what it does yet does a great Work in grinding the Corn and although it taste not of it yet its Master receives the fruit and tastes of the same Who would not think during so long a time that the Seed lies in the Earth but that it were lost Yet afterwards it is seen to spring up grow and multiply God does the same with the Soul when he deprives it of Consideration and Ratiocination Whil'st it thinks it does nothing and is in a manner undone in time it comes to it self again improved disengaged and perfect having never hoped for so much favour 16. Take care then that thou afflict not thy self nor draw back though thou can'st not enlarge thy self and discourse in Prayer suffer hold thy peace and appear in the presence of God persevere constantly and trust to his infinite Bounty who can give unto thee constant Faith true light and divine Grace Walk as if thou wert blindfolded without thinking or reasoning put thy self into his kind and paternal hands resolving to do nothing but what his divine Will and Pleasure is CHAP. III. A Sequel of the same Matter 17. IT is the common opinion of all the holy Men who have treated of the Spirit and of all the Mistical Matters That the Soul cannot attain to perfection and an union with God by means of Meditation and Ratiocination Because that is only good for beginning the spiritual Way to the end one may acquire a habit of Knowledge of the beauty of Virtue and ugliness of Vice Which habit in the opinion of Saint Teresa may be attained to in six Months time and according to S. Bonaventure in two 18. In prolog de Mist Theol. page 655. O how are in a manner infinite numbers of Souls to be pitied who from the beginning of their Life to the end employ themselves in meer Meditation constraining themselves to Reason although God Almighty deprive them of Ratiocination that he may promote them to another State and carry them on to a more perfect kind of Prayer and so form any years they continue imperfect and in the beginning without any progress or having as yet made one step in the way of the Spirit beating their Brains about the frame of the Place the choice of the Minutes Imaginations and strained Reasonings seeking God without when in the mean time they have him within themselves 19. St. Austin complained of that in the time when God led him to the Mystical Way
will enviously perswade thee that thou do'st nothing and that thou losest time that so thou mayest neglect Prayer I 'll declare to thee some of the infinite fruits that thy Soul reaps from that great dryness 31. The first is to persevere in Prayer from which fruit spring many other advantages II. Thou 'lt find a loathing of the things of the World which by little and little tends to the stifling of the bad desires of thy past Life and the producing of other new ones of serving God. III. Thou 'lt reflect upon many failings on which formerly thou didst not reflect IV. Thou 'lt find when thou art about to commit any evil an advertency in thy Heart which restrains thee from the execution of it and at other times from Speaking Lamenting or Revenging thy self that 'll take thee off from some little earthly Pleasure or from this or t'other Occasion or Conversation into which formerly thou was running in great Peace and Security without the least Check or Remorse of Conscience V. After that through frailty thou hast fallen in to some light fault thou 'lt feel a Reproof for it in thy Soul which will exceedingly afflict thee VI. Thou l't feel within thy self desires of suffering and of doing the will of God. VII An inclination to Virtue and greater ease in overcoming thy self and conquering the difficulties of the Passions and Enemies that hinder thee in the way VIII Thou l't know thy self better and be confounded also in thy self feel in thee a high esteem of God above all created Beings a contempt of Creatures and a firm Resolution not to abandon Prayer though thou knowest that it will prove to thee a most cruel Martyrdom IX Thou 'lt be sensible of greater Peace in thy Soul love to Humility confidence in God submission and abstraction from all Creatures and finally the Sins thou hast omitted since the time that thou exercised thy self in Prayer are so many signs that the Lord is working in thy Soul though thou knowest it not by means of dry Prayer and although thou feelest it not whilst thou art in Prayer thou 'lt feel it in his due time when he shall think it fit 32. All these and many other fruits are like new Buds that spring from the Prayer which thou would'st give over because it seems to thee to be dry that thou seest no Fruit of it nor reapest no advantage therefrom Be constant and persevere with Patience for though thou knowest it not thy Soul is profited thereby CHAP. V. Treating of the same thing declaring how many ways of Devotion there are and how the sensible Devotion is to be disposed and that the Soul is not idle though it reason not 33. THere are to be found two sorts of Devotion the one essential and true the other accidental and sensible The essential is a promptitude of mind to do well (1) S. Thom. 2. 2. q 82. art 1. fulfil the commands of God and to perform all things belonging to his service though through humane frailty all be not actually done as is desired (2) Suar. t. 2. de Pel. l. 2. c. 6. n. 16. 18. This is true Devotion though it be not accompanied with pleasure sweetness delight nor tears but rather it is usually attended with temptation dryness and darkness 34. Accidental and sensible Devotion is (3) St. Bern. Ser. I. de Nat. Dom. Suarez ib. Molin de Oration c. 6. when good desires are attended with a pleasant softness of heart tenderness of tears or other sensible affections This is not to be sought after nay it is rather more secure to wean the will from it and to set light by it because besides that it is usually dangerous it is a great obstacle to progress and the advancement in the internal way And therefore we ought only to embrace the true and essential Devotion which is always in our power to come by seeing every one doing his duty may with the assistance of the Divine Grace acquire it And this may be had with God with Christ with the Mysteries with the Virgin and with the Saints 35. Some think that when Devotion and sensible Pleasure are given them they are Favours of God that thence forward they have him and that the whole life is to be spent in breathing after that delight but it is a cheat because it is no more but a consolation of nature and a pure reflexion wherewith the Soul beholds what it does and hinders the doing or possibility of doing any thing the acquisition of the true light and the making of one step in the way of perfection The Soul is a pure Spirit and is not felt and so the internal acts and of the will as being the acts of the Soul and spiritual are not sensible Hence the Soul knows not if it liveth nor for most part is sensible if it acteth 36. From this thou mayest infer that that Devotion and sensible Pleasure is not God nor Spirit but the product of Nature that therefore thou oughtest to set light by and despise it but firmly to persevere in Prayer leaving thy self to the conduct of God who will be to thee light in aridity and darkness 37. Think not that when thou art dry and darksom in the presence of God with faith and silence that thou do'st nothing that thou losest time and that thou art idle because not to wait on God according to the saying of St. Barnard Tom. 5. in Tract de vit solit c. 8. p. 90. is the greatest idleness Otiosum non est vacare Deo inimo negotiorum omnium hoc est And elsewhere he sayeth that that idleness of the Soul is the business of the businesses of God. Hoc negotium magnum est negotium 38. It is not to be said that the Soul is idle because though it operate not Actively yet the Holy Ghost operates in it Besides that it is not without all activity because it operates though spiritually simply and intimately For to be attentive to God draw near to him to follow his internal inspirations receive his divine influences adore him in his own intimate center reverence him with the pious affections of the will to cast away so many and so fantastical imaginations and with softness and contempt to overcome so many temptations all these I say are true acts though simple wholly spiritual and in a manner imperceptible through the great tranquillity wherewith the Soul exerts them CHAP. VI. The Soul is not to be disquieted that it sees it self encompassed with darkness because that is an instrument of its greater felicity 39. THere are two sorts of darkness some unhappy and others happy the first are such as arise from sin and are unhappy because they lead the Christian to an eternal precipice The second are those which the Lord suffers to be in the Soul to ground and settle it in vertue and these are happy because they enlighten it fortifie it and cause greater light
not attain to the amiable rest and supreme internal peace CHAP. IX The Soul ought not to be disquieted nor draw back in the spiritual way because it finds it self assaulted by temptations 51. OUr own nature is so base proud and ambitious and so full of its own appetites it s own judgment and opinions that if temptations restrained it not it would be undone without remedy The Lord then seeing our misery and perverse inclination and thereby moved to compassion suffers us to be assaulted by divers thoughts against the faith horrible temptations and by violent and painful suggestions of impatience pride gluttony luxury rage blasphemy cursing despair and an infinite number of others to the end we may know our selves and be humble With these horrible temptations that infinite goodness humbles our pride giving us in them the most wholesom medicine 52. All our righteousness as Isaiah saith are as filthy rags Chap. 64.6 through the stains of vanity conceitedness and self-love It is necessary they be purified with the fire of tribulation and temptation that so they may be clean pure perfect and agreeable to the eyes of God. 53. Therefore the Lord purifies the Soul which he calls and will have for himself with the rough file of temptation with which he polishes it from the rust of pride avarice vanity ambition presumption and self-conceitedness With the same he humbles pacifies and exercises it making it to know its own misery By means thereof he purifies and strips the heart to the end all its operations may be pure and of inestimable value 54. Many Souls when they suffer these painful torments are troubled afflicted and disquieted it seeming to them that they begin already in this life to suffer eternal punishments and if by misfortune they go to an unexperienced Confessor instead of comforting them he leaves them in greater confusion and perplexities 55. That thou mayest not lose internal peace it is necessary thou believe that it is the goodness of divine mercy when thus it humbles afflicts and trys thee since by that means thy Soul comes to have a deep knowledge of it self reckoning it self the worst most impious and abominable of all Souls living and hence with humility and lowliness it abhors it self O how happy would Souls be if they would be quiet and believe that all these temptations are caused by the Devil and received from the hand of God for their gain and spiritual profit 56. But thou'll say that it is not the work of the Devil when he molests thee by means of creatures but the effect of thy neighbours fault and malice in having wronged and injured thee Know that that is another cunning and hidden temptation because though God wills not the sin of another yet he wills his own effect in thee and the trouble which accrues to thee from another's fault that he may see thee emproved by the benefit of patience 57. Doest thou receive an injury from any man there are two things in it the sin of him that does it and the punishment that thou sufferest the sin is against the will of God and displeases him though he permit it the punishment is conform to his will and he wills it for thy good wherefore thou oughtest to receive it as from his hand The Passion and Death of our Lord Christ were the effects of the wickedness and sins of Pilate and yet it is certain that God willed the death of his own Son for our redemption 58. Consider how the Lord makes use of another's fault for the good of thy Soul. O the greatness of the Divine Wisdom who can pry into the depth of the secret and extraordinary means and the hidden paths whereby he guides the Soul which he would have purged transformed and deified CHAP. X. Wherein the same Point is handled 59. THat the Soul may be the habitation of the celestial King it is necessary that it should be pure and without any blemish wherefore the Lord purifies it as gold in the furnace of terrible and grievous temptations Certain it is that the Soul never loves nor believes more than when it is afflicted and baited with such temptations because those doubtings and fears that beset it whether it believe or not whether it consent or not are nothing else but the quaintnesses of love 60. The effects that remain in the Soul make this very clear and commonly these are a loathing of it self with a most profound acknowledgment of the greatness and omnipotence of God a great confidence in the Lord that he will deliver it from all risk and danger believing and confessing with far greater vigour of faith that it is God who gives it strength to bear the torments of these temptations because it would naturally be impossible considering the force and violence wherewith sometimes they attack to resist one quarter of an hour 61. Thou art to know then that temptation is thy great happiness so that the more it besets thee the more thou oughtest to rejoyce in Peace instead of being sad and thank God for the favour he does thee In all these temptations and odious thoughts the remedy that is to work is to despise them with a stayed neglect because nothing more afflicts the proud devil than to see that he is slighted and despised as are all things else that he suggests to us And therefore thou art to tarry with him as one that perceives him not and to possess thy self in thy peace without repining and without multiplying Reasons and Answers seeing nothing is more dangerous than to vie in reasons with him who is ready to deceive thee 62. The Saints in arriving at holiness passed through this doleful valley of temptations and the greater Saints they were the greater temptations they grapled with Nay after the Saints have attained to holiness and perfection the Lord suffers them to be tempted with brisk temptations that their Crown may be the greater and that the spirit of vain-glory may be checked or else hindred from entring in them keeping them in that manner secure humble and sollicitous of their condition 63. Finally thou art to know that the greatest Temptation is to be without Temptation wherefore thou oughtest to be glad when it assaults thee and with Resignation Peace and Constancy resist it Because if thou wilt serve God and arrive at the sublime Region of Internal Peace thou must pass through that rugged Path of Temptation put on that heavy Armor fight in that fierce and cruel War and in that burning Furnace polish purge renew and purifie thy self CHAP. XI Declaring the Nature of internal Recollection and instructing the Soul how it ought to behave it self therein and in the Spiritual Warfare whereby the Devil endeavours to disturb it at that time 64. INternal Recollection is Faith and Silence in the Presence of God. Hence thou oughtest to be accustomed to recollect thy self in his Presence with an affectionate attention as one that is given up to God
and united unto him with Reverence Humility and Submission beholding him in the most inward recess of thine own Soul without Form Likeness Manner or Figure in the view and general nature of a loving and obscure Faith without any distinction of Perfection or Attribute 65. There thou art to be with attention and a sincere regard with a sedate heedfulness and full of Love towards the same Lord resigning and delivering thy self up into his hands to the end he may dispose of thee according to his good Will and Pleasure without reflecting on thy self nay nor on Perfection it self Here thou art to shut up the Senses trusting God with all the care of thy Welfare and minding nothing of the affairs of this Life Finally thy Faith ought to be pure without Representations or Likeness Simple without Reasonings and Universal without Distinctions 66. The Prayer of Internal Recollection may be well typified by that Wrestling which the holy Scripture says the Patriarch Jacob had all Night with God until Day broke and he Blessed him Wherefore the Soul is to persevere and wrestle with the difficulties that it will find in internal Recollection without desisting until the Son of internal Light begin to appear and the Lord give it his Blessing 67. No sooner wilt thou have given thy self up to thy Lord in this inward Way but all Hell will conspire against thee seeing one single Soul inwardly retired to its own Presence makes greater War against the Enemy than a thousand others that walk externally because the Devil makes an infinite advantage of an internal Soul. 68. In the time of the recollection Peace and Resignation of thy Soul God will more esteem the various impertinent troublesome and ugly thoughts that thou hast than the good purposes and high sentiments Know that the effort which thou thy self mayest make to resist Thoughts is an impediment and will leave thy Soul in greater anxitie The best thing that is to be done is sweetly to despise them to know thine own wretchedness and peacefully make an Offering to God of the Trouble 69. Though thou canst not get rid off the anguish of Thoughts hast no Light Comfort nor spiritual Sentiment Yet be not afflicted neither leave off recollection because they are the Snares of the Enemy Resign thy self at that time with Vigour endure with Patience and persevere in his Presence for whil'st thou perseverest after that manner thy Soul will be internally emproved 70. Doest thou believe that when thou comest away from Prayer dry in the same manner as thou began it that that was because of want of Preparation and that hath done thee no good That is a Fallacy Because the fruit of true Prayer consists not in enjoying the Light nor in having Knowledge of spiritual things since these may be found in a speculative Intellect without true Virtue and Perfection it only consists in enduring with Patience and persevering in Faith and Silence believing that thou art in the Lord's Presence turning to him thy Heart with tranquillity and purity of Mind So whil'st thou perseverest in this manner thou 'lt have the only Preparation and Disposition which at that time is necessary and shalt reap infinite fruit 71. War is very usual in this internal Recollection which on the one hand will deprive thee of sensibility to try humble and purge thee On the other invisible Enemies will assault thee with continual Suggestions to trouble and disquiet thee Nature her self apparently will torment thee she being always an Enemy to the Spirit which in depriving her of sensible Pleasures remains Weak Melancholy and full of Irksomness so that it feels a Hell in all Spiritual Exercises particularly in that of Prayer hence it grows extreamly impatient to be at an end of it through the uneasiness of Thoughts the lassitude of Body importunate Sleep and the not being able to curb the Senses every one of which would for its own share follow its own Pleasure Happy art thou if thou canst persevere amidst this Martyrdom 74. That great Doctoress and Mystical Mistriss Santa Teresa confirms all this by her heavenly Doctrine in the Letter she wrote to the Bishop of Osmia to instruct him how he was to behave himself in Prayer and in the variety of troublesome Thoughts which attack us at that time where she says 8. of her Epistolary There is a necessity of suffering the trouble of a Troop of Thoughts importune Imaginations and the impetuosities of natural Notions not only of the Soul through the dryness and disunion it hath but of the Body also occasioned by the want of submission to the Spirit which it ought to have 73. These are called drynesses in Spirituals but are very profitable if they be embraced and suffered with Patience Who so shall accustom himself to suffer them without repining will from that Labour draw vast advantage It is certain that in recollection the Devil frequently charges the Soul more fiercely with a Battalion of Thoughts to discomfit the quiet of the Soul and alienate it from that most sweet and secure internal Conversation raising horrours to the end it may leave it off reducing it most commonly to such a state as if it were led forth to a most rigorous Torment 74. The Birds which are the Devils knowing this said the Saint in the above-cited Letter pricks and molest the Soul with Imaginations troublesome Thoughts and the Interruptions which the Devil at that time brings in transporting the Thought distracting it from one thing to another and after he hath done with them attacking the Heart and it is no small fruit of Prayer patiently to suffer these Troubles and Importunities That is an offering up of ones self in a whole burnt Sacrifice that 's to say to be wholly consumed in the Fire of Temptation and no part spared See how this heavenly Mistress encourages to suffer and endure Thoughts and Temptations because provided they be not consented to they double the profit 75. As many times as thou exercisest thy self calmly to reject these vain Thoughts so many Crowns will the Lord set upon thy Head and and though it may seem to thee that thou do'st nothing be undeceiv'd for a good desire with firmness and stedfastness in Prayer is very pleasing to the Lord. 76. Wherefore to be there concludes the Saint without sensible profit is not lost time but of great gain whil'st one toyls without Interest and meerly for the Glory of God and though it may seem to be toyling in vain yet it is not so but it is as with Children who toyl and labour under the power of their Father though in the evening they receive not the wages for their day's work yet at the year's end they enjoy all In fine you see how the Saint confirms our document with her precious Doctrine CHAP. XII A Sequel of the same Matter 77. GOD loves not him who does most who hears most nor who shows greatest affection but who suffers most if he
pray with faith and reverence believing that he is in the divine presence The truth is to take from the Soul the prayer of the senses and of nature is a rigorous martyrdom to it but the Lord rejoyces and is glad in its peace if it be thus quiet and resigned Use not at that time vocal prayer because however it be good and holy in it self yet to use it then is a manifest temptation whereby the enemy pretends that God speaks not to thy heart under pretext that thou hast not sentiments and that thou losest time 78. God hath no regard to the multitude of words but to the purity of the intent His greatest content and glory at that time is to see the Soul in silence desirous humble quiet and resigned Proceed persevere pray and hold thy peace for where thou findest not a sentiment thou 'lt find a door whereby thou mayest enâ—eâ— into thine own nothingness knowing thy seâ—â— to be nothing that thou can'st do nothing nayâ— and that thou hast not so much as a good thought 79. How many have begun this happy practice of Prayer and Internal Recollection and have left it off pretending that they feel noâ— pleasure that they lose time that their thought trouble them and that that Prayer is not for them whil'st they find not any sentiment of God nor any ability to reason or discourse whereas they might have believed been silent and had patience All this is no more but with ingratitude to hunt after sensible pleasures suffering themselves to be transported with self-love seeking themselves and not God because they cannot suffer a little pain and dryness without reflecting on the infinite loss they sustain whereas by the least act of reverence towards God amidst dryness and sterility they receive an eternal reward 80. The Lord told the venerable Mother Francesca Lopez of Valenza and a religious of the third Order of St. Francis three things of great light and consequence in order to internal recollection In the first place that a quarter of an hour of Prayer with recollection of the senses and faculties and with resignation and humility does more good to the Soul than five days of penitential exercises hair cloaths disciplines fastings and sleeping on bare boards because these are only mortifications of the body and with recollection the Soul is purified 81. Secondly that it is more pleasing to the Divine Majesty to have the Soul in quiet and devote Prayer for the space of an hour than to go in great Pilgrimages because that in Prayer it does good to it self and to those for whom it prays gives delight to God and merits a high degree of glory but in pilgrimage commonly the Soul is distracted and the Senses diverted with a debilitation of vertue besides many other dangers 82. Thirdly that constant Prayer was to keep the heart always right towards God and that a Soul to be internal ought rather to act with the affection of the will than the toyl of the intellect All this is to be read in her Life 83. The more the Soul rejoyces in sensible love the less delight God has in it on the contrary the less the Soul rejoyces in this sensible love the more God delights in it And know that to fix the will on God restraining thoughts and temptations with the greatest tranquillity possible is the highest pitch of praying 84. I 'll conclude this Chapter by undeceiving thee of the vulgar errour of those who say that in this internal recollection or prayer of rest the faculties operate not and that the Soul is idle and wholly unactive This is a manifest fallaey of those who have little experience because although it operate not by means of the memory nor by the second operation of the intellect which is the judgment nor by the third which is discourse or ratiocination yet it operates bâ— the first and chief operation of the intellect which is simple apprehension enlightened bâ— holy faith and aided by the divine gifts of thâ— holy spirit And the will is more apt to continue one act than to multiply many so that aâ— well the act of the intellect as that of the wiâ—â— are so simple imperceptible and spiritual thaâ— hardly the Soul knows them and far less reflect upon them CHAP. XIII What the Soul ought to do in Internal Recollection 85. THou oughtest to go to Prayer that thâ—â— mayest deliver thy self wholly up intâ— the hands of God with perfect resignation exerting an act of faith believing that thou aâ— in the divine presence afterwards setling iâ— that holy repose with quietness silence and tranquility and endeavouring for a whole dayâ— a whole year and thy whole life to continue that first act of contemplation by faith and love 86. It is not your businesses to multiply theâ—â— acts nor to repeat sensible affections because they hinder the purity of the spiritual and perfect act of the will whil'st besides that these sweet sentiments are imperfect considering the reflection wherewith they are made the self-content and external consolation wherewith they are sought after the Soul being drawn outwards to the external faculties there is no necessity of renewing them as the mystical Falcon hath excellently expressed it by the following similitude 87. If a Jewel given to a friend were once put into his hands it is not necessary to repeat such a donation already made by daily telling him Sir I give you that Jewel Sir I give you that Jewel but to let him keep it and not take it from him because provided he take it not or design not to take it from him he hath surely given it him 88. In the same manner having once dedicated and lovingly resigned thy self to the will of God there is nothing else for thee to do but to continue the same without repeating new and sensible acts provided thou takest not back the Jewel thou hast once given by committing some notable fault aganist his divine will though thou oughtest still to exercise thy self outwardly in the external works of thy calling and state for in so doing thou do'st the will of God and walkest in continual and virtual oration He always prays said Theophylact who does good works nor does he neglect Prayer but when he leaves off to be just 89. Thou oughtest then to slight all those sensibilities to the end thy Soul may be established and acquire a habit of internal recollection which is so effectual that the resolution only of going to Prayer awakens a lively presence of God which is the preparation to the Prayer that is about to be made or to say better is no other than a more efficacious continuation of continual Prayer wherein the contemplative person ought to be settled 90. O how well did the venerable Mother of Cantal the spiritual daughter of St. Francis of Sales practise this Lesson in whose Life are the following words written to her Master Most dear Father I cannot do any act it seems to
me always that this is the most firm and secure disposition my spirit in the upper part is in a most simple unity it is not united because when it would perform acts of union which it often sets about it finds difficulty and clearly perceives that it cannot unite but be united The Soul would make use of this union for the service of Mattins the holy Mass preparation for the Communion and Thanksgiving and in a word it would for all things be always in that most simple unity of spirit without reflecting on any thing else To all this the holy Father answered with approbation perswading her to persist and putting her in mind that the repose of God is in peace 91. Another time she wrote to the same Saint these words Endeavouring to do some more special acts of my simple intuition total resignation and annihilation in God his divine goodness rebuked me and gave me to understand that that proceeded only from the love of my self and that thereby I offended my Soul. 92. By this thou wilt be undeceived and know what is the perfect and spiritual way of Praying and be advised what is to be done in Internal recollection Thou 'lt know that to the end Love may be perfect and pure it is expedient to retrench the multiplication of sensible and fervent Acts the Soul continuing quiet and resting in that inward Silence Because tenderness delight and sweet sentiments which the Soul experiences in the Will are not pure Spirits but Acts blended with the sensibilitie of Nature Nor is it perfect Love but sensible Pleasure which distracts and hurts the Soul as the Lord told the venerable Mother of Cantal 93. How happy and how well applied will thy Soul be if retreating within it self it there shrink into its own nothing both in its Center and superiour Part without minding what it does whether it recollect or not whether it walk well or ill if it operate or not without heeding thinking or minding any sensible thing At that time the Intellect believes with a pure Act and the Will loves with perfect Love without any kind of impediment imitating that pure and continued Act of Intuition and Love which the Saints say the Blessed in Heaven have with no other difference than that they see one another there Face to Face and the Soul here through the Veil of an obscure Faith. 94. O how few are the Souls that attain to this perfect Way of Praying because they penetrate not enough into this internal recollection and Mystical Silence and because they strip not themselves of imperfect reflection and sensible pleasure O that thy Soul without thoughtful advertency even of it self might give it self in Prey to that holy and spiritual Tranquility In bis Confess lib. 9. cap. 10. and say with St. Austin Sileat anima mea transeat se non se cogitando Let it be silent and do nothing forget it self and plung into that obscure Faith How secure and safe would it be though it might seem to it that thus unactive and doing nothing it were undone 95. I 'll sum up this Doctrine with a Letter that the illuminated Mother of Cantal wrote to a Sister and great Servant of God Diviâ—â— Bounty said she granted me this way of Prayer that with a single View of God I felt my self wholy dedicated to him absorpt and reposed in him he still continued to me that Grace though I opposâ—â— it by my Infidelity giving way to fear and thinking my self unprofitable in that state for which cause being willing to do something on my part 〈◊〉 quite spoil all and to this present I find my seâ—â— sometimes assaulted by the same Fear though 〈◊〉 in Prayer but in other Exercises wherein I am always willing to employ my self a little though I know very well that in doing such acts I come oâ—â— of my Center and see particularly that that simpâ—â— View of God is my onely remedy and help still 〈◊〉 all troubles temptations and the events of thâ—â— Life 96. And certainly would I have followed my internal Impulse I should have made use of no other means in any thing whatsoever without exception because when I think to fortifie my Soul with Arts Reasonings and Resignations then do I expose my self to new temptations and straights Besides that I cannot do it without great violence which leaves me exhausted and dry so that it behoves me speedily to return to this simple Resignation knowing that God in this manner lets me see that it is his Will and Pleasure that a total stop should be put to the operations of my Soul because he would have all things done by his own divine Activity and happily he expects no more of me but this onely View in all spiritual Exercises and in all the pains temptations and afflictions that may befal me in this life And the truth is the quieter I keep my Spirit by this means the better all things succeed with me and my crosses and afflictions suddenly vanish Many times hath my blessed Father St Francis of Sales assured me of this 97. Our late Mother Superiour encouraged me firmly to persist in that way and not to fear any thing in this simple View of God She told me That that was enough and that the greater the nakedness and quietness in God are the greater sweetness and strength receiveth the Soul which ought to endeavour to become so pure and simple that it should have no other support but in God alone 98. To this purpose I remember that a few days since God communicated to me an Illumination which made such an impression upon me as if I had clearly seen him and this it is That I should never look upon my self but walk with eyes shut leaning on my Beloved without striving to see nor know the Way by which he guides me neither fix my thoughts on any thing nor yet beg Favours of him but as undone in my self rest wholly and sincerely on him Hitherto that Illuminated and Mistical Mistress whose Words do Credit and Authorize our Doctrine CHAP. XIV Declaring how the Soul putting it self in the Presence of God with perfect Resignation by the pure Act of Faith walks always in virtual and acquired Contemplation 99. THou wilt tell me as many Souls have told me that though by a perfect Resignation thou hast put thy self in the Presence of God by means of pure Faith as hath been already hinted yet thou doest not merit nor emprove because thy thoughts are so distracted that thou canst not be fixed upon God. 100. Be not disconsolate for thou do'st not lose time nor merit neither desist thou from Prayer because it is not necessary that during that whole time of recollection thou should'st actually think on God it is enough that thou hast been attentive in the beginning provided thou discontinue not thy purpose nor revoke the actual attention which thou hadst As he who hears Mass and says the Divine Office performs
though he does not without intending so you 'l clearly find besides that this Traveller with one single and explicit of the Will and Intention travels speaks hears sees reasons eats drinks and does several other things without any interruption to his first intention nor yet of his actual journying to Rome 112. It is just so in the contemplative Soul A man having once made the resolution of doing the Will of God and of being in his Presence he still perseveres in that act so long as he recals not the same although he be taken up in hearing speaking eating or in any other external good work or function of his Calling and Quality St Thomas Aquinas expresseth all this in few words Contra Gentiles l. 3. c. 138. Un 2. Non enim Oportet quod qui propter deum aliquod iter arripuit in qualibet parte itineris de Deo cogitet actu 113. Thou 'lt say that all Christians walk in this Exercise because all have Faith and may although they be not internal fulfil this Doctrine especially such as go in the external Way of Meditation and Ratiocination It is true all Christians have Faith and more particularly they who Meditate and Consider But the Faith of those who advance by the inward Way is much different because it is a lively Faith universal and indistinct and by consequent more practical active effectual and illuminated insomuch as the Holy Ghost enlightens the Soul that is best disposed most and that Soul is always best disposed which holds the Mind recollected for proportionably to the Recollection the Holy Ghost Illuminates And albeit it be true that God communicates some light in Meditation yet it is so scanty and different from that which he communicates to the Mind recollected in a pure and universal Faith that the one to the other is no more than like two or three Drops of Water in respect of an Ocean since in Meditatation two or three particular Truths are communicated to the Soul but in the internal Recollection and the Exercise of pure and universal Faith the Wisdom of God is an abundant Ocean which is communicated in that obscure simple general and universal Knowledge 114. In like manner Resignation is more perfect in these Souls because it springs from the internal and infused Fortitude which grows as the in ternal Exercise of pure Faith with Silence and Resignation is continued In the manner that the Gifts of God's Spirit grow in contemplative Souls for though these divine Gifts are to be found in all those that are in a State of Grace nevertheless they are as it were dead without strength and in a manner infinitely different from these which reign in contemplative Persons by reason of their illustration vivacity and efficacy 115. From all which be perswaded that the inward Soul accustomed to go daily at certain hours to Prayer with the Faith and Resignation I have mentioned to thee walks continually in the Presence of God. All holy expert and mystical Masters teach this true and important Doctrine because they have all had one and the same Master who is the Holy Ghost CHAP. XVI A Way by which one may enter into internal Recollection through the most Holy Humanity of our Lord Christ. 116. THere are two sorts of Spiritual Men Diametrically contrary to one another The one say That the Mysteries of the Passion of Christ are always to be Considered and Meditated upon The others running to the opposite extream teach That the Meditation of the Mysteries of the Life Passion and Death of our Saviour is not Prayer nor yet a Remembrance of them but the exalted Elevation to God whose Divinity Contemplates the Soul in quiet and silence ought onely to be called Prayer 117. It is certain that our Lord Christ is the Guide the Door and the Way as he himself hath said in his own Words John 14. I am the way the truth and the life And before the Soul can be fit to enter into the Presence of the Divinity and to be united with it it is to be Washed with the precious Bloud of a Redeemer and Adorned with the rich Robes of his Passion 118. Our Lord Christ with his Doctrine and Example is the Mirrour the Guide of the Soulâ— the Way and the onely Door by which we enter into those Pastures of Life Eternal and into the vast Ocean of the Divinity Hence it follows that the Remembrance of the Passion and Death of our Saviour ought not wholly to be blotted out nay it is also certain that whatsoever high elevation of Mind the Soul may be raised to it ought not in all things to separate from the most holy Humanity But then it follows not from hence neither that the Soul accustomed to internal recollection that can no longer ratiocinate should always be meditating on and considering as the other Spiritualists say the most holy Misteries of our Saviour It is holy and good to Meditate and would to God that all men of this World practised it And the Soul besides that meditates reasons and considers with facilitie ought to be let alone in that state and not pushed on to another higher so long as in that of Meditation it finds nourishment and profit 119. It belongs to God alone and not to the spiritual Guide to promote the Soul from Meditation to Contemplation because if God through his special Grace call it not to this state of Prayer the Guide can do nothing with all his Wisdom and Instructions 120. To strike a secure means then and to avoid those two so contrary extreams of not wholly blotting out the remembrance of the Humanity and of not having it continually before our eyes we ought to suppose that there are two ways of attending to the holy Humanity that one may enter at the Divine Port which is Christ our well-being The first is by considering the Mysteries and meditating the Actions of the Life Passion and Death of our Saviour The second by thinking on him by the application of the Intellect pure Faith or Memory 121. When the Soul proceeds in perfecting and interiorizing it self by means of internal recollection having for sometime meditated on the Mysteries whereof it hath been already informed then it retains Faith and Love to the Word Incarnate being ready for his sake to do whatever he inspires into it walking according to his Precepts although they be not always before its Eyes As if it should be said to a Son that he ought never to forsake his Father they intend not thereby to oblige him to have his Father always in sight but only to have him always in his Memory that in time and place he may be ready to do his Duty 122. The Soul then that is entered into internal recollection with the opinion and approbation of an expert Guide hath no need to enter by the first door of Meditation on the Mysteries being always taken up in meditating upon them because that is
replenish them with Himself Many do continually Read in these speculative Books because they will not submit to him who may tell them that such Reading is not convenient for them whereas there is no doubt but if they do submit and the Guide be a man of Experience he will not allow it them And then they would profit and not mind such Studies as the Souls do who are submitted have Light and make improvement Hence it follows that it contributes much to inward Quiet and Security to have an experienced Guide who may govern and instruct with actual Light that the Soul may not be deluded by the Devil nor by its own Judgment and Opinion However we do not condemn the Reading of spiritual Books in general seeing here we speak in particular of Souls purely Internal and Mystical for whom this Book is written 10. All holy and mystical Masters confess that the Security of a mystical Soul consists in a cordial Submission to its Ghostly Father communicating to him whatever passes within it And therefore he who lives after his own Opinion without applying himself to a spiritual Director though he take himself to be and is reputed Spiritual opposes himself to the Doctrine of the Saints and of enlightned Souls because the more a Soul is illuminated and united with God the more humble submiss subjected and obedient to the spiritual Guide it ought to be For proof of this truth I 'll relate what the Lord said to Donna Marina d'Escobar It is reported in her Life that being Sick she asked the Lord If she should be Silent and omit the acquainting her spiritual Father with the extraordinary things that happened in her Soul that she might not tire herself nor trouble the same Father To whom the Lord answered That not to give an Account of them to her Ghostly Father would not be well done for three Reasons First Because as Gold is tried in the Furnace and the value of Stones known by touching them with the Touch-stone so the Soul is purified and the worth of it known when the Minister of God tryes it by the Touch-stone Secondly Because to avoid Errour it was convenient that matters should be governed according to the Order instituted by God in his Church in the Scriptures and in the Doctrine of the Saints Thirdly That the Mercies which his Divine Majesty shews to his Servants and pure Souls may not be concealed but made manifest that so Believers may be encouraged to serve their God and he be glorified in them 11. In the same place she hath the following words conform to the aforesaid truth My Confessor being Sick and having enjoyned me that I should not make a full Discovery of all things that happened to me to him to whom in the mean time I Confessed my self but onely of some with prudence I bewailed my condition to the Lord that I had not one to whom I might communicate my Affairs and his Majesty made me answer Thou hast one already who supplies the want of thy Confessor tell him all that happens to thee I presently replied Not so Lord not so Lord. Why said the Lord. Because my Confessor commanded me that I should not give him Account of all and I ought to obey him His Majesty said to me Thou hast pleased me by that answer and that I might hear thee say so I said what thou hast heard Do so yet still thou mayest acquaint him with some things as he himself bad thee 12. What Santa Teresa said of herself comes in very pat in this place When ever says she the Lord commanded me any thing if my Confessor told me another I turned to the Lord and told him that I must obey my Confessor Afterward his Majesty returned to him to the end he might enjoyn it me of new This is sound and true Doctrine which secures Souls and dissipates the illusions of the Devil CHAP. III. The indiscreet Zeal of Souls and the disordinate Love of our Neighbour disturb internal Peace 13. THere is not a more acceptable Sacrifice to God In Ezechiel Hom. 12. says St. Gregory than the ardent Zeal of Souls For that Ministery the eternal God sent his own Jesus Christ into the World and ever since it hath been the most noble and sublime of Offices But if the zeal be indiscreet it brings a notable obstacle to the progress of the Spirit 14. No sooner does thou find in thy self any new and fervent light but thou would'st lay thy self wholly out for the good of Souls and in the mean time it's odds but that that is self-love which thou takest to be pure zeal This uses sometime to put on a garb of a disordinate desire of a vain complacency of an industrious affection and proper esteem all Enemies to the peace of the Soul. 15. It is never good to love thy Neighbour to the detriment of thine own spiritual good To please God in purity ought to be the only scope of thy Works this ought to be thy only desire and thought endeavouring to moderate thy disordinate fervour that tranquility and internal peace may reign in thy Soul. The true zeal of Souls which thou oughtest to strive for should be the true love of thy God. That is the fruitful efficacious and true zeal which doeth wonders in Souls though with dumb Voices 16. St. Paul recommended to us first the care of our own Souls before that of our Neighbour 1 Timoth. 4. Take heed unto thy self and unto thy Doctrine said he in his Canonical Epistle Struggle not to over-do for when it is time convenient and thou canst be any way useful to thy Neighbour God will call thee forth and put thee in the employment that will best suit with thee That thought belongs only to him and to thee to continue in thy rest disengaged and wholly resigned up to the Divine Will and Pleasure Do'nt think that in that condition thou art idle He is busied enough who is always ready waiting to perform the Will of God. Who takes heed to himself for God's sake does every thing because one pure Act of internal Resignation is more worth than a hundred thousand exercises for ones own Will. 17. Though the Cistern be capable to contain much Water yet it must still be without it till Heaven favour it with Rain Be at rest blessed Soul be quiet humble and resigned to every thing that God shall be pleased to do with thee leave the care to God for he as a loving Father knows best what is convenient for thee conform thy self totally to his Will perfection being founded in that inasmuch as he who doeth the Will of the Lord Mat. 12. is his Mother's Son and Brother of the Son of God himself 18. Think not that God esteemeth him most that doeth most He is most beloved who is most humble most faithful and resigned and most correspondent to his own internal Inspiration and to the divine Will and Pleasure CHAP. IV. A
Sequel of the same 19. LET all thy desires be conform to the Will of that God who can bring streams of Water out of the dry Rock who is much displeased with those Souls which in helping others before the time defraud themselves suffering themselves to be transported by indiscreet zeal and vain complacency 20. As it was with the Servant of Elisha 2 Kings c. 4. who being sent by the Prophet that with his Staff he might raise a dead Child because of the complacency he had it had not the effect and he was reproved by Elisha In like manner the Sacrifice of Cain was rejected being the first that was offered to God in the World through the vain-glory he had of being the first and more than his own Father Adam in offering Sacrifice to God. 21. In like manner the Disciples of our Lord Christ were infected with that evil feeling a vain joy when they cast out Devils and therefore were sharply reproved by their heavenly Master Before Paul preached to the Gentiles the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven being already a chosen Vessel a Citizen of Heaven and chosen of God for that Ministery it was necessary to try and humble him shutting him up in a close Prison and would'st thou become a Preacher without passing through the tryal of Men and Devils And could'st thou thrust thy self into so great a Ministery and produce Fruit without passing through the fiery tryal of temptation tribulation and passive purgation 22. It concerns thee more to be quiet and resigned in a holy ease than to do many and great things by thy own judgment and opinion think not that the heroick Actions which great Saints have done and do in the Church are Works of their own Industry for all things as well spiritual as temporal to the making of the leasâ— Leaf are by Divine Providence Decreed from all Eternity He that does the Will of God does all things this thy Soul ought to endeavour resting in a perfect Resignation to whatever the Lord is pleased to dispose of thee acknowledge thy self unworthy of so high a Ministery as the guiding of Souls to Heaven and then thou 'lt put no obstacle to the rest internal peace and heavenly flight of thy Soul. CHAP. V. Light Experience and a divine Call are necessary for guiding Souls in the inward Way 23. THou 'lt think and with great confidence too that thou art in a condition to guide Souls in the way of the Spirit and perhaps that may be secret Vanity spiritual Pride and plain Blindness seeing besides that this high employment requires supernatural light total abstraction and other qualities which I shall mention to thee in the following Chapters the Grace of a Call is also necessary without which all is but vanity confidence and self-conceit because though it be a holy and good thing to guide Souls and conduct them to Contemplation yet how know'st thou that God would have thee so employed And though thou knowest which yet is not easie that thou hast great light and experience yet what Evidence hast thou that the Lord would have thee to be of that Profession 24. This Ministery is of such importance that it is not our parts to take it upon us until iâ— please God by means of our Superiours and spiritual Guides to place us therein otherwise iâ— would be a heavy prejudice to us though iâ— might be profitable to our Neighbour What availeth it us to gain the whole World to God if our own Soul thereby suffer detriment 25. Howsoever evident it may be to thee that thy Soul is endowed with internal light and experience the best thing still that thou canst do is to keep quiet and resigned in thine own nothingness until God call thee for the good of Souls That belongs only to him who knows thy sufficiency and abstraction It is not thy part to make that judgement neither to press into that Ministery because if thou art governed by thine own opinion and judgment in an affair of so high concern self-love will blind undo and deceive thee 26. If then experience light and sufficiency are not sufficient without the grace of a Call to qualifie one for that employment how must it be without sufficiency how must it be without internal light without due experience which are gifts not communicated to all Souls but to abstracted and resigned Souls and to such as have advanced to perfect annihilation by the way of terrible tribulation and passive purgation Be perswaded O blessed Soul that all works which in this profession are not governed by a true zeal springing from pure love and a purged Soul cloath the Soul with vanity self-love and spiritual pride 27. O how many self-confident men by their own judgment and opinion undertake this Ministery and instead of pleasing God emptying and abstracting their own Souls though they may do some good to their Neighbour are filled with Earth Straw and Self-conceit Be Quiet and Resigned renounce thy own Judgement and Desire sink down into the Abyss of thy own Insufficiency and Nothingness for there onely thou 'lt find God the true Light thy Happiness and greatest Perfection CHAP. VI. Instructions and Counsels to Confessors and Spiritual Directors 28. THe highest and most profitable Ministry is that of a Confessor and spiritual Director and irreparable are the damages if it be not well performed 29. It would be prudently done to chuse a Patron for so great a Ministery and that should be the Saint to whom one has greatest Devotion 30. The chief and most secure Document is to endeavour the internal and continual Retirement and so he 'll walk well in all the exercises and employments of his own State and Calling particularly in that of the Confession-seat for when the Soul inwardly Recollected sallies out to be employed in those external and necessary Exercises it is God who Illuminates and Works in them 31. In the Conduct of Souls that are Internal Documents are not to be given to them but with mildness and prudence The Obstacles which hinder the Influences of God are only to be taken out of their way however it may be needful to arm them with that holy Counsel of Secretum meum mihi 32. Many Souls think that all Confessors are capable of internal Matters but besides that that is a mastake it is found by experience to be a great prejudice to communicate them to those who are not so Because though God hath placed them in the inward Way yet they 'll not know these matters nor advise them to Souls for want of experience so that they 'll hinder the Progress to Contemplation enjoyning them to Meditate by force though they cannot and by that means they stun and ruin instead of helping them in their Flight for God will have them to advance to Contemplation and they draw them to Meditation because they know no other way 33. If a Confessor would reap Fruit he is not to look out for any Soul
that he may Guide it it concerns them to come of themselves and all are not to be admitted especially if they be Women because they are not wont to come with sufficient disposition Not to make ones self a Master nor be willing to appear so is an excellent means of doing good 34. The Confessor is to make use of the name of Daughter as little as he can because it is most dangerous God being so Jealous and the Epithet so Amorous 35. The Employments which a Confessor accepts of out of his Confession-seat ought to be but few because God will not have him to be an Agent in Business and if it were possible he should not be seen but in his Confessionchair 36. A Godfather or Executor to a Man's last Will and Testament he ought not so much as once to be all his life long because it brings many disturbances to the Soul all of 'um contrary to the Perfection of so high a Ministry 37. The Confessor or spiritual Director never ought to Visit his spiritual Daughters not so much as in case of Sickness unless he should indeed be then sent for on the part of her that is ill 38. If the Confessor procures an inward and outward Recollection his words will be though he knows it not like Coals kindled setting their Souls afire 39. In the Confessionary his Reproofs must be ordinarily gentle and sweet although in the Pulpit they are severe and rigorous because in this he ought to be raging as a Lyon and in that he ought to put on the meekness of a Lamb O how powerful is sweet Reproof for Penitents In the Confessionary they are already moved but in the Pulpit their blindness and hardness makes it necessary to frighten 'um yet these ought to be perswaded and reproved rigorously who come indisposed and would have Absolution by force 40. When all that is possible is done for the benefit of Souls the Fruit of it is not to be lookt after because the Devil doth subtilly make that seem his own which is God's and assaults with self-Conceit and vain Complacency the capital Enemies of Annihilation which the Confessor always ought to bring about for such a spiritual Dying 41. Although he often see that Souls are not advantaged and that those which are edified loose the Spirit let him not be disquieted at this but possess himself in peace like the Guardian Angels then let him take courage inwardly with the sence of his own Sincerity because sometimes God suffers such a thing among other ends to humble him 42. The Confessor ought to avoid himself and perswade the Souls under his Conduct also to avoid all sort of outwardness because it is much abhorred by the Lord. 43. Although he ought not to order Souls to be Communicated nor take any Communion from 'em whether for Tryal or Mortification since there are infinite ways of Trying 'em and Mortifying 'em without so great a prejudice yet he ought not to be niggardly with those Souls which are moved by a true Desire because Jesus Christ indured not to be shut up 44. Experience shews us that 't is a difficult thing to fulfil a Penance when it is great and immoderate 't is always best to have it of some profitable and moderate matter 45. If the spiritual Father shews with any singularity a greater Affection to a Daughter and such as gives very great disturbance to others of her Sex here he must use privacy and prudence and must not speak to any with particularity because the Devil loves to make strife with the Guide of Souls and makes use of those very words to disturb others 46. The continual and principal Exercise of Souls purely Mistical must be in the interior Man producing with privacy the destruction of Self-love and the incouraging of 'em to the induring of inward Mortifications by which the Lord Cleanses Annihilates and Perfects them 47. The Desire of Revelations uses to be a great hindrance to the interiour Soul especially 10 Women and there is not an ordinary Dream but they will Christen it with the name of a Vision 'T is necessary to shew abhorrence to all these hindrances 48. Although Silence be a difficult thing to Women in the things which the Director orders 'em yet must he procure it since it is not good that the things inspired into him from the Lord should become the Mark for Censures to shoot at CHAP. VII Wherein the same thing is Treated of Discoursing the Interests which some Confessors and Spiritual Directors use to have in which are declared the Qualities which they ought to have for the Exercise of Confession and also for the Guiding of Souls through the Mystical Way 49. THe Confessor ought to get Penitents incouraged to Prayer especially when they often present themselves at his Feet and make known to him their Desire that they have of their spiritual Good. 50. The Maxim which the Confessor ought mostly to observe that he may never come into Perdition is Not to accept any Present though the whole World were offered him 51. Though there are abundance of Confessors yet they are not all good ones because some of 'em know but little others are very Ignorant others betake themselves to the Applauses of the Gentry some seek the Favours of their Penitents some their Presents some are full of spiritual Ambition and seek Credit and Fame getting a multitude of spiritual Children to themselves others affect their Mastership and Command others affect the Visions and Revelations of their spiritual Children and instead of despising 'em the onely way of securing 'em to Humility they commend 'em that they may not leave 'em off and make them write 'em that they may shew 'em abroad for Ostentation All this is Self-love and Vanity in these Guides and great prejudice to the spiritual Profit of Souls since it is certain that all these respects and interests serve onely to hinder the use and exercise of their Office with advantage and profit which requires an universal freedom from such things and whose end and aim ought only to be the glory of God. 52. Other Confessors there are which with ease and lightness of Heart do believe and approve and commend all Spirits Others falling into the vicious extream do condemn without any reserve all Visions and Revelations such things are neither to be believed all nor condemned all Others also there are who are so inamoured of the Spirit of their spiritual Daughters that whatever they Dream let 'em be never so much Deceits they reverence 'em as sacred Mysteries O what a world of Miseries are known in the Church by these means Other Confessors there are also having on the Garb of wordly Courtesie and Civility having little regard to the holy Place of the Confessionary discoursing with their Penitents concerning things vain superfluous distractive and far from that decency which the Sacrament requires and from that disposition which should be fit to receive divine Grace
making particularly like discourses and about the Houshold Affairs of their Penitents before they come to Accuse themselves of their Sins whereupon that little Devotion which they brought along with 'em to the Sacrament becomes cool'd and good for nothing Sometimes it happens that many Penitents are fain to wait to be Confessed who are full of business of their own and when they see such a long Demur they grow weary and sad and fall into impatience losing the actual disposition of Mind wherewith they were before prepared to receive so healthful a Sacrament whereupon the medley of these distractive superfluous and vain matters not onely makes 'em lose their precious time but also prejudiceth the holy Place the Sacrament the disposition of the Penitent who is Confessed and that of others who wait to be Confessed all of 'em considerable mischiefs and worthy to be redressed 53. For Confession there are some good but for the Government of Spirits by the mystical Way there are so few says Father John Davila that in a thousand you shall possibly find one St Francis of Sales says One among ten thousand And the illuminated Thauler says That in a hundred thousand it was a hard thing to find one expert Master of Spirit The reason is because there are so few who dispose themselves to receive the mystical Science Pauci ad eam recipiendam se disponunt said Henry Arpius Lib. 3. Par. 3. Cap. 22. Would to God it were not so true as it is For then there would not be so many Cheats in the World and there would be more Saints and fewer Sinners 54. When the spiritual Guide desires effectually that all should be in love with Vertue and the love which they have of God is pure and perfect with few Words and few Reasons he will reap a very great deal of Benefit 55. If the interiour Soul when it is in the Cleansing it self of Passions and in the time of Abstraction has not a sure Guide to curb in the Retirement and Solitude to which its Inclination and great Propension draws it it will be unable and unfit for Exercises of Confession Preaching and Study and also for those of its own Obligation State and Calling 56. The skilful Director therefore ought to mind carefully when the Powers of it begin to be employed in God that there may not be given too free access to Solitude commanding the Soul not to omit the outward Exercises of its State as of Study and other Employments although they should seem distractive so that they be not contrary to his Calling because the Soul is so much Abstracted in Solitude is so turned Inward in its Retirement and is removed to such a degree from Exteriority that if it afterwards apply it self again it doth it with toyl and resistance and with prejudice to its powers and the strength and soundness of Head which is considerable hurt and worthy the weighing of spiritual Directors 57. But if these have no Experience they will not know when the Abstraction is formed and at the same time thinking it holy Counsel will encourage 'em to Retirement and find Destruction in it O how necessary it is that the Guide be Expert in the spiritual and mystical Way CHAP. VIII Pursues the same Matter 58. THose that Govern Souls without Experience go in the Dark and arrive not at the Understanding of the States of the Soul in their internal and supernatural Operations they onely know that sometimes the Soul is Well and that it has Light other times that it is in Darkness but what the State of all these is and what is the Root from whence these Changes grow they neither know nor understand nor can verify it by means of Books till they come to find it experimentally in themselves in whose Furnace the true and actual Light is made 59. If the Guide hath not passed himself through the secret and painful ways of the interiour Walk how can be comprehend or approve it It will be no small favour to the Soul to find one onely experienced Guide to strengthen it in insuperable Difficulties and assure it in the continual Doubts of this Voyage otherwise he will never get to the holy and precious Mount of Perfection without an extraordinary and singular Grace 60. The spiritual Director which lives disinteressed longs more for the internal Solitude than the Employment of Souls and if any spiritual Master is displeased when a Soul goes from him and leaves him for another Guide 't is a clear sign that he did not live disinterested nor sought purely the Glory of God but his own proper Esteem 61. The same loss and evil comes when the Director is secretly diligent to draw some Soul to his Direction which goes under the Government of another Guide this is a notable mischief for if he holds himself for a better Director than t'other he is proud and if he knows himself to be a worse he is a Traytor to God to that Soul and to himself during the prejudice he does to the advantage and good of his Neighbours 62. In like manner there is another considerable hurt that discovers it self in spiritual Masters which is that they do not suffer the Souls Guided by 'em to Communicate with others though they are more Holy Learned and Expert than themselves all this is Interest Self-love and Esteem of themselves They do not permit Souls thus to unburthen and vent themselves for fear they should loose 'em and that it may not be said that their spiritual Children seek that Satisfaction in others which they cannot find in them and for the most part by these imperfect ends they hinder Souls from being advantaged 63. From all these and infinite other imputations the Director is free that is once arrived at hearing the inward Voice of God by having passed through Tribulation Temptation and passive Purgation because that interiour Voice of God works innumerable and marvellous Effects in the Soul which gives place to it hearkens to it and relishes it 64. It is of so great Efficacy that it rejects worldly Honour Self-conceit spiritual Ambition the desire of Fame a wish to be Great a presumption of being the only Man and thinking that he knows all Thnigs it bids adieu to Friends Friendships Visits Letters of Complement Commerce of the Creatures Interest with spiritual Children Mastership and Business it turns away too much inclination to Confessorship the Affection that is disorder'd in the Government of Souls that makes a man think he is fitting for it it removes Self-love Authority Presumption treating of Profit making a shew of the Letters which a man writes shewing those written by his spiritual Children to make known what a great Workman he is it turns away the Envy of other Masters and Teachers and the procuring more Customers to his Chair of Confession 65. Lastly this interiour Voice of God in the Soul of the Director begets a mean Value and Solitariness and Silence and Forgetfulness
of Friends Relations and spiritual Children because it makes him never remember 'em but when they are speaking to him This is the onely sign to know the Disinterestedness of a Master and therefore such a one doth more good by being Silent than thousands of others that make never so great a noise with their infinite Documents CHAP. IX Shewing how a simple and ready Obedience is the onely means for walking safely in this inward Way and of procuring internal Peace 66. IF thou do'st in good earnest resolve to deny thy Will and do God's Obedience is the necessary means whether it be by the indissoluble knot of thy Vow made in the hands of thy Superiour in thy Religion or the free tying of thy self by the Dedication of thy Will to a spiritual and expert Guide that hath the Qualities shewn before in the precedent Chapters 67. Thou wilt never get up the Mountain of Perfection nor to any high Throne of Peace Internal if thou art onely Govern'd by thy own Will This cruel and fierce Enemy of God and of thy Soul must be conquered thy own Direction thy own Judgment must be subdued and deposed as Rebels and reduced to Ashes by the Fire of Obedience there it will be found as in a Touch-stone whether the Love thou followest be thine own or Divine there in that Holocaust must thine own Judgment and thine own Will be Annihilated and brought to its last Substance 68. An ordinary Life under Obedience is worth more than that which of its own Will doth great Penance because Obedience and Subjection besides that they are free from the Deceits of Satan are the truest Holocaust which can be sacraficed to God on the Altar of our Heart Which made a great Servant of God say That he had rather gather Dung by Obedience than be caught up to the third Heaven of his own Will. 69. You will know that Obedience is a ready way to arrive quickly at Perfection 't is impossible for a Soul to purchase it self true Peace of Heart if it doth not deny and overcome its own Judgment and Rebellion And the means of denying and overcoming ones Judgment is to be willing in every thing to Obey with Resolution him that stands in God's Place because the Heart remains free secure and unburthen'd by all that which goes from the Mouth with true Submission to the Ears of the spiritual Father Effundite coram illo corda vestra Ps 61. The most effectual means therefore to advance in the Way of the Spirit is to imprint this in the Heart that a man's spiritual Director stands in God's Place and whatever he orders and says is said and ordered from the Divine Mouth 70. The Lord often times manifested to that venerable Mother Ann Mary of S. Joseph a Franciscan Nun That she should rather Obey her spiritual Father than Himself History of her Life § 42. To the venerable Sister Catharine Paulucci the Lord also one day said You ought to go to your spiritual Father with pure and sincere Truth as if you came to Me and not enquire whether he be or be not Observant but you ought to think that he is Governed by the Holy Ghost and that he is in My stead Her Life Book 2. Ch. 16. adding When Souls shall Observe this I will not permit that any be Deceived by him O Divine Words worthy to be imprinted in the Hearts of those Souls which desire to advance in Perfection 71. God revealed to Lady Marina of Escobar That if our Lord Christ would have her Communicate after his mind and her spiritual Father should say Nay she was obliged to follow the mind of her spiritual Father And a Saint was lower'd down from Heaven to tell her the reason of it which was That in the first there might be Cheat but in the second none 72. The Holy Ghost advises us all in the Proverbs Ch. 3. that we take Counsel and trust not in our own Wisdom Ne innitaris prudentiae tuae And says by Tobit That to do well thou never oughtest to govern thy self with thine own proper judgment but always must ask others mind and judgment Ch. 4.14 Consilium semper a sapiente perquire Although the spiritual Father Err in giving Counsel you can never Err in taking it and following it because you act wisely Qui judiceo alterius operatur prudenter operatur And God doth not suffer Directors to Err that he may preserve though it should be with Miracles the visible Tribunal of the spiritual Father from whence is known with all Safety what is the Divine Will. 73. Besides that this is the common Doctrine of all the Saints of all the Doctors and Masters of Spirit Christ our Lord gave credit and security to it when he said That the spiritual Fathers should be understood and obeyed just like Himself Qui vos audit me audit St Luke 10. And this even when their Works do not correspond with their Words and Counsels as is manifest by St Matthew Chap. 1. Quaecunque dixerint vobis facite secundum autem opera eorum nolite facere CHAP. X. Pursues the same 74. THE Soul which is observant of holy Obedience is as St. Gregory says 35 Lib. in Job Cap. 13. Possessour of all Vertues It is rewarded by God for its Humility and Obedience illustrating and teaching its own Guide to whose direction it ought as being in God's place to be every way subject discovering freely clearly faithfully and simply all the thoughts all the works inclinations inspirations and temptations that it knows of it self In this manner the Devil cannot deceive it and it becomes secure of giving an account of its actions to God without fear as well those actions which it doth commit as those it doth omit Insomuch that whoever would walk without a Guide if he is not deceived he is very near it because Temptation will seem Inspiration to him 75. Thou oughtest to know that to be perfect it is not enough to obey and honour Superiours but it is also necessary to obey and honour Inferiours 76. Obedience therefore to make it perfect must be voluntary pure ready chearful internal blind and persevering Voluntary without force and fear Pure without worldly interest and respect or self-love but purely for God Ready without reply excuse or delay Chearful without inward affliction and with diligence Internal because it must not only be exterior and apparent but from the mind and heart Blind without ones own judgment but submitting that judgment with the will to his that Commands it without searching into the Intention End or Reason of the Obedience Persevering with firmness and constancy unto Death 77. Obedience according to St. Bonaventure Tract 8. Collationum must be ready without a delay devout without tyring voluntary without contradiction simple without examination persevering without resting orderly without breaking off pleasant without trouble valiant without faint-heartedness and universal without exception Remember O blessed Soul that although thou hast
a mind to do the divine Will with all diligence thou wilt never find the way but by the means of Obedience When a man is resolved to be governed by himself he is lost and deceived Although the Soul have very profound signs that it is a good Spirit that speaks to it yet unless it submit to the judgment of the spiritual Director let it be esteemed an evil Spirit So says Gerson Tract de dist verar. Num. 19. and many other Masters of Spirit 78. This Doctrine will be confirmed by that case of St. Teresa The holy Mother seeing that Lady Catherine of Cardona led a Life of great and rigid Penance in the Wilderness resolved to imitate her contrary to the judgment of her spiritual Father who forbid her Then the Lord told her in her Life 366. You must by no means do this Daughter the good way thou hast secure thou seest all the Penance that Catherine doth but I value more thy obedience She from that time forward vowed to obey her spiritual Father and in the 26th Chapter of her Life we read that God often told her that she must not omit to acquaint her spiritual Father with her whole Soul and the graces that she had done her and that she should always take care to obey him in every thing 79. Thou seest how God hath been willing to secure that heavenly and important Doctrine by the holy Scripture the Saints the Doctors by Reasons and by Examples a-purpose to root out altogether the deceits of the Enemy CHAP. XI When and in what things this Obedience doth most concern the interior Soul. 80. THat you may know when Obedience is most necessary I will advise thee that when thou shalt find the horrible and importunate suggestions of the Enemy greatest upon thee when thou shalt suffer most darkness anguish drowth forsakings when thou shalt see thy self most beset with temptations wrath rage blasphemy lust cursing tediousness despair impatience and desolation then 't is most necessary for thee to believe and obey an expert Director resting thy self on his holy Counsel that thou may'st not suffer thy self to be carried away by the strong perswasion of the Enemy who would make thee believe in affliction and heavy desertion that thou art lost and abhorred by God that thou art out of his favour and that Obedience is past doing thee any good 81. Thou shalt find thy self encompassed with troublesome scruples griefs anguish distress martyrdoms distrusts forsakings of the Creatures and troubles so bitter that thy afflictions shall seem past comfort and thy torments unconquerable O blessed Soul how happy wilt thou be if thou dost but believe thy Guide and subject thy self to him and obey him Then wilt thou walk safe by the secret and interior way of the dark night although thou may'st seem to thy self to live in Errour and that thou art worse than ever that thou seest nothing in thy Soul but abomination and signs of condemnation 82. Thou wilt think verily that thou art possessed by an evil Spirit because the signs of this interior exercise and horrible tribulation seem as bad as the invasions of infernal Furies and Devils Then take care to believe thy Guide firmly for thy true Happiness consists in thy obedience 83. You must consider that when the Devil sees a Soul totally denying it self and submitting to the obedience of its Director he makes a strange uproar all Hell over to hinder this infinite Good and this holy Sacrifice Full of envy and fury as he is he uses to make strife between the two inspiring the Soul with wearisomness anger aversion resistance distrust and hatred against the Guide and sometimes he makes use of his Tongue to bespatter him with many Reproaches But if this Director be an expert one he laughs at these subtle Snares and diabolical Craftynesses And however the Devil may perswade the Souls of such a state with divers suggestions not to believe their Director that they may not obey him nor profit under him yet nevertheless they may believe and they do believe enough to obey though it be without their own satisfaction 84. Thou wilt ask of thy Guide some Liberty or wilt communicate to him some Grace received If in denying thee that Liberty or rejecting that Grace that thou may'st not grow proud thou withdrawest thy self from his Counsel and leavest him it is a sign that the Favour was false and that thy Spirit walks in danger But if thou dost believe and obey although he do soundly displease thee 't is a sign that thou art alive and unmortified nevertheless thou wilt profit with that violent and working Medicine Because though the inferiour part be troubled and do resent yet the superior part of the Soul doth embrace him and will be humbled and mortified because it knows that this is the divine Will. And though thou dost not know it yet satisfaction goes on emproving in thy Soul and so doth the confidence that thou hast in thy Guide 85. The means of denying self-love and of laying down ones own judgment you must know is subjecting it altogether with true submission to the Counsel of the spiritual Physitian If he hinders you your pleasure or demands what you desire not thousands of false and idle reasons do presently get about his holy Counsel where it is presently known that the Spirit is not altogether mortified nor his own judgment blinded which are irreconcileable Enemies to a ready and blind obedience and the peace of the Soul. 86. Then 't is necessary to overcome thy self and thy quick sentiments to despise those false and lying reasons by obeying holding thy tongue and executing his holy Counsel because that is the way to root up thy appetite and thine own judgment 87. For this reason the ancient Fathers as expert and skilful Masters of Spirit did exercise their Disciples in divers and extraordinary Ways To some they gave order to plant Lettice with the leaves downward to others to Water dry and withered Trees to others to sew and unsew again many times their Cloaths all marvellous and effectual stratagems to make tryal of simple obedience and to cut by the roots the weeds of their own Will and judgement CHAP. XII Treats of the same 88. KNow that thou canst not fetch one step in the way of the Spirit till thon endeavourest to conquer this fierce Enemy thy own judgment And the Soul that will not know this hurt can never be cured A sick man that knows his Disease knows for certain that although he is adry yet it is not good for him to drink and that the Physick prescribed him though it be bitter yet is profitable for him Therefore he believes not his Appetite nor trusts in his own Judgment but yields himself up to a skilful Physitian obeying him in every thing as the means of his Recovery and Cure The knowledge that he is sick helps him not to trust to himself but to follow the wise judgment of
his Doctor 89. We are all sick of the Disease of self-love and our own judgment we are all full of our selves we are always desiring things hurtful to us and that which does us good is unpleasant and irksom to us 'T is necessary therefore for him that is Sick to use the means of Recovery which is not to believe our own judgments and distemper'd sentiments but the wise Judgment of the spiritual and skilful Physitian without reply or excuse despising the seeming reasons of self-love and so if we obey we shall certainly recover and this love of ours which is the Enemy of our ease and peace and perfection and the spirit will be overcome 90. How often will thine own judgment deceive thee and how much wilt thou change thy judgment with shame when thou hast trusted to thine own self If any man should deceive thee twice or thrice wouldst thou ever trust him more Why therefore dost thou repose confidence in thine own judgment which has so often cozen'd thee O blessed Soul believe it no more believe it not subject thy self with true submission and follow blindfold this Obedience 91. Thou wilt be much satisfied to have an experienced Guide and wilt esteem him a great Happiness but 't will little avail thee if thou valuest thine own judgment more than his Counsel and dost not submit to it in all truth and simplicity 92. Suppose a great man be sick of a dangerous Disease He has in his House a famous and skilful Physitian and he quickly knows the Disease the causes the conditions and the state of it and knowing for certain that that Distemper is to be treated with severe Cauteries he orders Lenitives for it Now is not this a great disorder If he is sure that Lenitives will do little good and that Cauterizing is the proper way why does he not apply it to him Because although the sick person would have his health yet the Physitian knows best and that he is not disposed to take those strong Medicines and therefore like a wise man orders him gentle Lenitives because though he may not presently get up again by 'em yet he keeps the Disease from being mortal 93. What matter is it if you have the best Director in the World if yet notwithstanding you want true submission although he be a man of skill and knows the grievance and the remedy he doth not apply the proper Physick which concerns you most to deny your Will because he knows your very Heart and Spirit that it is not disposed to let the infirmities of your own judgment be removed So you will never be cured and it will be a Miracle if he can keep you in Grace with so fierce an Enemy of your Soul about you 94. Thy Director will scorn all manner of Favours if he be a wise man as if thy Spirit may not be well grounded believe him obey him embrace his Counsel because with this contempt if the Spirit be feigned and of the Evil One the secret Pride formed by him that counterfeits these Spirits will soon be known but if the Spirit be real though thou find'st displeasure in this humiliation it will serve thee for an extraordinary good 95. If the Soul take delight in esteem and in having the favours which it receives from God made open and publick if it doth not obey and believes not its Director which thinks meanly of 'em 't is all a lye and cheat and the Devil is that Angel that transforms himself The Soul seeing that the skilful Director despises these cheats if the Spirit be evil withdraws the feigned affection which it shewed him and indeavours by little and little to get from him seeking some other that its cheats may take with for the proud can never keep company with those that humble 'em but on t'other side if the spirit be true and of God by these means the love and constancy increases by induring 'em desiring much more its own contempt from whence the soundness and sincerity of the Spirit becomes qualified without deceit CHAP. XIII Frequent Communion is an effectual means of getting all Vertues and in particular Internal Peace 96. THere are four things the most necessary to get Perfection and internal Peace The first is Prayer the second Obedience the third frequent Communion the fourth internal Mortification And now since we have treated of Prayer and Obedience it will be fitting to treat also of Communion 97. You ought to know that many Souls there are that deprive themselves of the infinite benefit of this precious Food by judging that they are not sufficiently prepared and that no less than an Angelical Purity is necessary for it If thou hast a pure end a true desire of doing the Will of God without looking at sensible Devotion or thine own Satisfaction come with confidence because thou art well disposed 98. On this Rock of Desiring to do the Divine Will all difficulties must be broken all scruples overcome all temptations doubts fears resistances and contradictions and although the best Preparation for the Soul be often Communicating because one Communion disposes it for another yet I will shew the two ways of Preparation The first for the exteriour Souls which have good Desire and Will and the second for the spiritual Ones which live Internally and have a greater Light and Knowledge of God of his Mysteries of his Operations and Sacraments 99. The Preparation for the exteriour Souls is to be Confessed and retire from the Creatures before the Communion to stand still and consider what is to be received and who it is that receives it and that he goes to do the greatest business in the World which is to receive the great God. What a singular favour is that Purity it self condescends to be received by Filth Majesty by Vileness the Creatour by the Creature 100. The second Preparation in order to the interiour and spiritual Souls must be to endeavour to live with greater Purity and Self-denial with an universal taking ones self off from the World with inward Mortification and continual Retirement and when they walk in this Way they have no need of any actual Preparation because their Life is a continual and perfect Preparation 101. If thou do'st not-know these Vertues in thy Soul for the same reason thou must often draw near to this soveraign Table to get ' em Never let it hinder thee to see thy self dry defective and cold because frequent Communion is the Physick that cures those Diseases and increases Vertue for the same reason that thou art Sick thou must go to the Physician and that thou art Cold to the Fire 102. If thou drawest near with humility with a desire of doing the Divine Will and with the leave of thy Confessor thou mayst receive it every day and every day thou wilt grow better and better Never be afraid for seeing thy self without that affectionate and sensible love which some men say is necessary because this sensible
perform such excesses of Corporal and External Penance to whom he moves the great love of God which they do conceive in the internal darksom and cleansing retirement of 'em because 't is not good to spend the Body and the Spirit all at once nor break their strength by rigorous and excessive Penances seeing they are weakned by internal mortification For which reason St. Ignatius Loyola said very well in his Exercises That in the cleansing way Corporal Penances were necessary which in the illuminating way ought to be moderated and much more in the unitive 116. But thou wilt say That the Saints always used grievous Penances I answer that they did 'em not with indiscretion nor after their own proper judgment but with the opinion of their Superiours and Spiritual Directors which permitted 'em to use them because they knew 'em to be moved inwardly by the Lord to those rigours to confound the misery of sinners by their examples or for many other reasons Other times they gave 'em leave to use them to humble the fervour of their Spirit and counterpoise their Raptures which are all particular Motives and make not any general Rule for all CHAP. XVI The great difference between External and Internal Penances 117. KNow that the Mortifications and Penances which some one undertakes of himself are light although they may be the most rigorous which hitherto have been done in comparison of those he takes from another's hands because in the first he himself enters and his own will which abate the grief the more voluntary it is whilst at last he doth but that which he is willing but in the second all that is indured is painful and the way also painful in which it is indured that is to say by the will of another 118. This is that which Christ our Lord told St. Peter St. John 21.18 When thou wast young and a beginner in vertue thou girdedst and mortifiedst thy self but when thou goest to greater Schools and shall be a proficient in vertue another shall gird and mortifie theeâ— and then if thou wilt follow me perfectly altogether denying thy self thou must leave that cross of thine and take up mine that is be contented that another crucifie thee 119. There must be no difference made between these and those between thy Father and thy Son thy Friend and thy Brother these must be the first to mortifie thee or to rise up against thee whether with reason or without reason thinking the vertue of thy Soul cheat hypocrisie or imprudence and putting stumbling-blocks in the way of thy holy Exercises This and much more will befall thee if thou wilt heartily serve the Lord and make thy self pure from his hand 120. Hold it for certain that however good those Mortifications and External Penances be which thou shalt undertake of thine own self thou wilt never by those only purchase perfection for although they tame the Body yet they purifie not the Soul nor purge the internal Passions which do really hinder perfect Contemplation and the Divine Union 121. 'T is very easie to mortifie the Body by means of the Spirit but not the Spirit by means of the Body True it is that in Internal Mortification and that of the Spirit it much concerns you for conquering your Passions and rooting up your own Judgment and Self-love to labour even to death without any manner of sparing your self although the Soul be in the highest state and therefore the principal diligence ought to be in Internal Mortification because Corporal and External Mortification is not enough though it be good and holy 122. Though a man should receive the punishments of all men together and do the roughest Penances that ever have been done in God's Church yet if he do not deny himself and mortifie himself with interior mortification he will be far from arriving at perfection 123. A good proof of this truth is that which befel Saint Henry Suson to whom after 20 years of rigorous Hair-cloth Discipline and Abstinence fo great that even to read 'em is enough to make ones hair stand on end God communicated light by means of an Extasie by which he arrived at the knowledge that he had not yet begun and it was in such a manner as that till the Lord mortified him with temptations and great persecutions he never could arrive at perfection his Life chap. 23. Hence thou wilt clearly know the great difference that there is between External and Internal Penances and Internal and External Mortification CHAP. XVII How the Soul is to carry it self in the Faults it doth commit that it may not be disquieted thereby but reap good out of it 124. WHen thou fallest into a fault in what matter soever it be do not trouble nor afflict thy self for it for they are effects of our frail nature stained by Original Sin so prone to Evil that it hath a necessity of a most special Grace and Priviledge as the most holy Virgin had to be free and exempt from Venial Sins Council of Trent Sess 6. Can. 23. 125. If when thou fallest into a fault or a piece of neglect thou dost disturb and chide thy self 't is a manifest sign that secret pride doth still reign in thy Soul didst thou believe that thou could'st not more fall into faults and frailties if God permits some failings even in the most holy and perfect men it is to leave 'em some remnant of themselves of the time that they were beginners to keep 'em more secure and humble it is that they may think always that they are never departed from that state whilst they still keep upon the faults of their beginnings 126. What dost thou marvel at if thou falâ—est into some light fault or frailty humble thy self know thy misery and thank God that he has preserved thee from infinite sins into which thou must have infallibly fallen and wouldst have fallen according to thy inclination and appetite What can be expected from the slippery ground of our nature but stumps bryers and thorns 't is a miracle of Divine Grace not to fall every moment into faults innumerable We should offend all the World if God should not hold his hand continually over us 127. The common enemy will make thee believe that as soon as thou fallest into any fault thou dost not go well grounded in the way of the Spirit that thou walkest in Error that thou hast not in earnest reformed thy self that thou didst not make well the general confession that thou hast not true grief and therefore art out of God and of his favour and if thou shalt sometimes commit again by misfortune a venial fault how many fears frights confusions discouragements and various discourses will the Devil put into thy heart he will represent to thee that thou employest thy time in vain that thou dost just as much as comes to nothing that thy Prayer doth thee no good that thou disposest not thy self as thou oughtest to receive the holy
Contingencies as he communicates these things to other Souls which have constantly gone through Tribulations Temptations and the true Cross in the state of perfect Humility Obedience and Subjection 15. O what a great Happiness it is for a Soul to be subdued and subject what great Riches is it to be Poor what a mighty Honour to be despised what a height is it to be beaten down what a Comfort is it to be Afflicted what a credit of knowledge is it to be reputed Ignorant and finally what a Happiness of Happinesses is it to be Crucified with Christ This is that lot which the Apostle gloried in Nos autem gloriari oportet in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi Gal. 6.14 Let others boast in their Riches Dignities Delights and Honours but to us there is no higher honour than to be denied despised and crucified with Christ 16. But what a grief is this that scarce is there one Soul which despises Spiritual Pleasures and is willing to be denied for Christ imbracing his Cross with love Multi sunt vocati pauci vero electi Matt. 22. says the Holy Ghost many are they who are call'd to perfection but few are they that arrive at it because they are few who imbrace the Cross with patience constancy peace and resignation 17. To deny ones self in all things to be subject to another's judgment to mortifie continually all inward passions to annihilate ones self in all respects to follow always that which is contrary to ones own will appetite and judgment are things that few can do many are those that teach 'em but few are they that practise ' em 18. Many Souls have undertaken and daily do undertake this Way and they persevere all the while they keep the sweet relish of their primitive Fervour but this sweetness and sensible delight is scarce done but presently upon the overtaking of a Storm of Trouble Temptation and Dryness which are necessary things to help a man up the high Mountain of Perfection they falter and turn back a clear sign that they sought themselves and not God or Perfection 19. May it please God that the Souls which have had light and been called to an inward peace and by not being constant in dryness and tribulation and temptation have started back may not be cast into outer darkness with him that had not on him a wedding garment although he was a servant for not being disposed giving himself up to self-love 20. This Monster must be vanquished this seven-headed beast of self-love must be beheaded in order to get up to the top of the high mountain of peace This Monster put his head every where sometimes it gets amongst Relations which strangely hinder with their conversation to which nature easily let 's it self be lead sometimes it gets with a good look of gratitude into passionate affection and without restraint towards the Confessor sometimes into affection to most subtle Spiritual vain-glories and temporal ones and niceties of honour which things stick very close sometimes it cleaves to spiritual pleasures staying even in the gifts of God and in his graces freely bestowed sometimes it desires exceedingly the preservation of health and with disguise to be used well and its own proper profit and conveniences sometimes it would seem well with very curious subtilties and lastly it cleaves with a notable propensity to its own proper judgment and opinion in all things the roots of which are closely fixed in its own will All these are effects of Self-love and if they be not denied impossible it is that a man should ever get up to the height of perfect Contemplation to the highest happiest of the loving Union and the lofty Throne of Peace Internal CHAP. IV. Of two Spiritual Martyrdoms wherewith God cleanseth the Soul that he Unites with Himself 21. NOw you shall know that God uses two ways for the Cleansing the Souls which he would perfect and enlighten to unite 'em closely to himself The first of which we will treat in this and the following Chapter is with the bitter Waters of Afflictions Anguish Distress and inward Torments The second is with the burning Fire of an inflamed Love a Love impatient and hungry Sometimes he makes use of both in those Souls which he would fill with Perfection sometimes he puts 'em into the strong steeping of Tribulations and inward and outward Bitterness scorching 'em with the Fire of rigorous Temptation sometimes he puts 'em into the Crucible of anxious and distrustful Love making 'em fast there with a mighty force because so much the greater as the Lord would have the Illumination and Union of a Soul to be so much the more strong is the Torment and the Purgation because all the Knowledge and Union with God arises from suffering which is the truest proof of Love. 22. O that thou would'st understand the great Good of Tribulation This is that which blots out Sins cleanses the Soul and produces Patience this in Prayer inflames it inlarges it and puts it upon the exercise of the most sublime act of Charity this rejoyces the Soul brings it near to God calls it to and gives is entrance into Heaven The same is that which tries the true Servants of God and renders 'em sweet valiant and constant that is it which makes God hear 'em with speed Ad dominum cum tribularer clamavi exaudivit me Psâ— 119. 'T is that which Annihilates Refines and Perfects 'em and finally this is that which of Earthly makes Souls Heavenly of Humane Divine transforming 'em and uniting 'em in an admirable manner with the Lord's Humanity and Divinity It was well said by St Augustine That the Life of the Soul upon Earth is Temptation Blessed is the Soul which is always opposed if it doth constantly resist Temptation This is the means which the Lord makes use of to Humble it to Annihilate it to Spend it to Mortifie it to Deny it to Perfect it and fill it with his Divine Gifts By this means of Tribulation and Temptation he comes to Crown and Transform it Perswade thy self that Temptations and Fightings are necessary for the Soul to make it Perfect 23. O blessed Soul if thou knowest how to be constant and quiet in the Fire of Tribulation and would'st but let thy self be washed with the bitter Waters of Affliction how quickly would'st thou find thy self rich in heavenly Gifts how soon would the Divine Bounty make a rich Throne in thy Soul and a goodly Habitation for thee to refresh and solace thy self in it 24. Know that this Lord hath his repose no where but in quiet Souls and in those in which the Fire of Tribulation and Temptation hath burnt up the dregs of Passions and the bitter Water of Afflictions hath washed off the filthy spots of inordinate Appetites in a word this Lord reposes not himself any where but where Quietness reigns and Self-love is banished 25. But thou wilt never arrive at this happy State nor
find in thy Soul the precious Pledge of Peace Internal although thou hast gotten the better of the External Senses by the Grace of God till it become purified from the disordered Passions of Concupiscence Self-esteem Desire and Thoughts how spiritual soever and many other Interests and secret Vices which lye within the very Soul of thee miserably hindring the peaceable entrance of that great Lord into it who would be united and transformed with thee 26. The very Vertues acquired and not purified are a hindrance to this great Gift of the Peace of the Soul and more the Soul is clogged by an inordinate desire of sublime Gifts by the Appetite of feeling spiritual Consolation by sticking to Infused and Divine Graces intertaining it self in 'em and desiring more of 'em to enjoy 'em and finally by a desire of being great 27. O how much is there to be purified in a Soul that must arrive at the holy Mountain of Perfection and of Transformation with God! O how disposed naked denied annihilated ought the Soul to be which would not hinder the entrance of this Divine Lord into it nor his continual Communication 28. This disposition of preparing the Soul in its bottom for Divine Entrance must of necessity be made by the Divine Wisdom If a Seraphim is not sufficient to purifie the Soul how shall a Soul that is frail miserable and without experience ever be able to purifie itself 29. Therefore the Lord himself will dispose thee and prepare thee passively by a way thou understandest not with the Fire of Tribulation and inward Torment without any other disposition on thy side than a consent to the internal and external Cross 30. Thou wilt find within thy self a passive dryness darkness anguish contradictions continual resistance inward desertions horrible desolations continual and strong suggestions and vehement temptations of the Enemy finally thou wilt see thy self so afflicted that thou wilt not be able to lift up thy Heart being full of sorrow and heaviness nor do the least act of Faith Hope or Charity 31. Here thou wilt see thy self forlorn and subject to Passions of impatience anger rage swearing and disordered appetites seeming to thy self the most miserable Creature the greatest Sinner in the World the most abhorred of God deprived and stript of all Vertue with a pain like that of Hell seeing thy self afflicted and desolate to think that thou hast altogether lost God this will be thy cruel cutting and most bitter torment 32. But though thou shalt see thy self so oppressed seeming to thy self to be proud impatient and wrothful yet these temptations shall lose their force and power upon thee they shall have no place in thy Soul by a secret Vertue the soveragin Gift of inward Strength which rules in the in-most part of it conquering the most affrightening punishment and pain and the strongest temptation 33. Keep constant O blessed Soul keep constant for it will not be as thou imaginest nor art thou at any time nearer to God than in such cases of desertion for although the Sun is hid in the Clouds yet it changes not its place nor a jot the more loses its brightness The Lord permits this painful desertion in thy Soul to purge and polish thee to cleanse thee and dis-robe thee of thy self and that thou mayest in this manner be all his and give thy self wholly up to him as his infinite Bounty is intirely given to thee that thou mayest be his delight for although thou dost groan and lament and weep yet he is joyful and glad in the most secret and hidden place of thy Soul. CHAP. V. How important and necessary it is to the interiour Soul to suffer blindfold this first and spiritual Martyrdom 34. TO the end that the Soul of Earthly may become Heavenly and may come to that greatest good of Union with God it is necessary for it to be purified in the Fire of Tribulation and Temptation And although it be true and a known and approved Maxim That all those that Serve the Lord must suffer troubles persecutions and tribulations yet the happy Souls which are Guided by God by the secret way of the interiour Walk and of purgative Contemplation must suffer above all strong and horrible Temptations and Torments more bitter than those wherewith the Martyrs were crowned in the Primitive Church 35. The Martyrs besides the shortness of their Torment which hardly endured days were comforted with a clear light and special help in hope of the near and sure Rewards But the desolate Soul that must dye in it self and put off and make clean its Heart seeing it self abandoned by God surrounded by temptations darkness anguish affliction sorrows and rigid drowths doth taste of Death every moment in its painful Torment and tremendous Desolation without feeling the least comfort with an affliction so great that the pain of it seems nothing else but a Death prolonged and a continual Martyrdom whereupon with great reason it may be said that although there be many Martyrs yet there are few Souls which follow Christ our Lord with Peace and Resignation in such Torments 36. Then it was men that Martyr'd 'em and God comforted their Souls but now it is God that afflicts and hides himself and the Devils like cruel Executioners have a thousand ways to torment the Soul and Body the whole Man being Crucified within and without 37. Thy sorrows will seem to thee insuperable and thy afflictions past the power of comfort and that Heaven rains no more upon thee thou wilt see thy self begin with griefs and besieged with sorrows Internal from the darkness of thy powers from the weakness of discourses strong Temptations will afflict thee painful distrusts and troublesome scruples nay Light and Judgment will forsake thee 38. All the Creatures will give thee trouble spiritual Counsels will bring thee pain the reading of Books how holy soever will not comfort thee as it used to do If they speak to thee of Patience they will exceedingly trouble thee the fear of losing God through thy unthankfulness and want of returns will torment thee to the Soul if thou groanest and beggest help of God thou wilt find instead of comfort inward reproof and dis-favour like another Canaanitish Woman to whom he made no answer at first and then treated her as the Creature he was speaking of * here Molines is beside his Text 39. And although at this time the Lord will not abandon thee because it would be impossible to live one moment without his help yet the succour will be so secret that thy Soul will not know it nor be capable of hope and consolation nay it will seem to be without remedy suffering like condemned persons the pains of Hell Circumdederunt me dolores mortis pericula inferni invenerunt me Ps 114. and it would change 'em as such with a violent Death which would be a great comfort but like those the end of those afflictions and bitternesses will seem impossible 40.
But if thou O blessed Soul should'st know how much thou art beloved and defended by that Divine Lord in the midst of thy loving torments thou wouldst find 'em so sweet that it would be necessary that God should work a Miracle to let thee live Be constant O happy Soul be constant and of good courage for however intolerable thou art to thy self yet thou wilt be protected inriched and beloved by that greatest Good as if he had nothing else to do than to lead thee to Perfection by the the highest steps of love and if thou do'st not turn away but perseverest constantly without leaving off thy undertaking know that thou offerest to God the most accepted Sacrifice so that if this Lord were capable of pain he would find no ease till he has compleated this loving Union with thy Soul. 41. If from the Chaos of Nothing his Omnipotence has produced so many Wonders what will he do in thy Soul created after his own Image and Likeness if thou keepest constant quiet and resigned with a true knowledge of thy Nothing Happy Soul which even when 't is disturbed afflicted and disconsolate keeps steady there within without going forth to declare exteriour Comfort 42. Afflict not thy self too much and with inquietude because these sharp Martyrdoms may continue persevere in Humility and go not out of thy self to seek aid for all the good consists in being silent suffering and holding patience with rest and resignation there wilt thou find the Divine Strength to overcome so hard a warsare he is within thee that fighteth for thee and he is strength it self 43. When thou shalt come to this painful state of fearful desolation weeping and lamentation are not forbidden thy Soul whilest in the upper part of it it keeps resigned Who can bear the Lord's heavy hand without tears and lamentation That great Champion Job even he lamented so did Christ our Lord in his forsakings but their weepings were accompanied with resignation 44. Afflict not thy self though God do crucifie thee and make tryal of thy fidelity imitate the Woman of Canaan who being rejected and injured did importune and persevere humbling her self and following him though she were treated as she was It is necessary to drink the cup and not go back if the scales were taken from thine eyes as they were from St. Paul's thou would'st see the necessity of suffering and glory as he did esteeming more the being Crucified than being an Apostle 45. Thy good luck consists not in injoying but in suffering with quiet and resignation St. Teresa appeared after her death to a certain Soul and told it that she had only been rewarded for her pain but had not received one dram of reward for so many Extasies and Revelations and Comforts that she had here enjoyed in this World. 46. Although this painful martyrdom of horrible desolation and passive purgation be so tremendous that with reason it hath gotten the name of Hell amongst mystick Divines because it seems impossible to be able to live a moment with so grievous a torment so that with great reason it may be said that he that suffers it lives dying and dying lives a lingring death yet know that it is necessary to endure it to arrive at the sweet joyous and abundant riches of high contemplation and loving union and there has been no holy Soul which has not passed through this spiritual martyrdom and painful torment St. Gregory the Pope in the two last Months of his Life St. Francis of Assize two years and a half St. Mary Maudlin of Pazzi five years St. Rose of Peru fifteen years and after such miracles as made the world amazed St. Dominick suffer'd it even till half an hour of his happy exit CHAP. VI. 47. THE other more profitable and meritorious martyrdom in Souls already advanced in perfection and deep contemplation is a fire of divine love which burns the soul and makes it painful with the same love sometimes the absence of its beloved afflicts it sometimes the sweet ardent and welcome weight of the loving and divine Presence torments it This sweet martyrdom always makes it sigh sometimes if it enjoys and has its beloved for the pleasure of having him so that it cannot contain it self other times if he does not manifest himself through the ardent anxiety of seeking finding and enjoying him all this is panting suffering and dying for love 48. O that thou could'st but come to conceive the contrariety of accidents that an inamour'd Soul suffers the combate so terrible and strong on one side so sweet and melting and amiable on the other the martyrdom so piercing and sharp with which love torments it and the cross so painful and sweet withal without ever being in the mind of getting free from it whil'st thou liv'st 49. Just so much as light and love increases just so much increases the grief in seeing that good absent which it loves so well To feel it near it self is enjoyment and never to have done knowing and possessing it consumes its life it has food and drink near its mouth whil'st it wants either and cannot be satisfied it sees it self swallowed up and drown'd in a sea of love whil'st the powerful hand that is able to save it is near it and yet doth not do it nor doth it know when he will come whom it so much does desire 50. Sometimes it hears the inward voice of its beloved which courts and calls it and a soft and delicate whisper which goes forth from the secret of the Soul where it abides which pierces it strongly even like to melt and dissolve it in seeing how near it hath him within it self and yet how far off from it whil'st it cannot come to possess him This intoxicates it imbases it scares it and fills it with unsatisfiableness and therefore love is said to be as strong as death whil'st it kills just as that doth CHAP. VII Inward Mortification and Perfect Resignation are necessary for obtaining Internal Peace 60. THE most subtle Arrow that is shot at us from Nature is to induce us to that which is unlawful with a pretence that it may be necessary and useful O how many Souls have suffer'd themselves to be lead away and have lost the Spirit by this guilded Cheat Thou wilt never last the delicious Manna Quod nemo novit nisi qui accipit Apoc. ch 2. unless thou dost perfectly overcome thy self even to die in thy self because he who endeavours not to die to his Passions is not well disposed to receive the Gift of Understanding without the infusion whereof it is impossible for him to go in into himself and be changed in his Spirit and therefore those that keep without have nothing of it 52. Never disquiet thy self for any accident for inquietude is the door by which the Enemy gets into the Soul to rob it of its peace 53. Resign and deny thy self wholly for though true self-denial is harsh at the beginning 't
is easie in the middle and becomes most sweet in the end 54. Thou wilt find thy self far from Perfection if thou dost not find God in every thing 55. Know that pure perfect and essential Love consists in the Cross in self-denial and resignation in perfect humility in poverty of spirit and in a mean opinion of thy self 56. In the time of strong temptation desertion and desolation 't is necessary for thee to get close into thy center that thou may'st only look at and contemplate God who keeps his throne and his abode in the bottom of thy Soul. 57. Thou wilt find impatience and bitterness of heart to grow from the depth of sensible empty and mortified love 58. True love is known with its effects when the Soul is profoundly humbled and desires to be truly mortified and despised 59. Many there be who however they have been dedicated to Prayer yet have no relish of God because in the end of their Prayers they are neither mortified nor attend upon God any longer for obtaining that peaceable and continual attending 't is necessary to get a great purity of mind and heart great peace of soul and an universal resignation 60. To the simple and the mortified the recreation of the senses is a sort of death they never go to it unless compelled by necessity and edification of their neighbours 61. The bottom of our soul you will know is the place of our happiness There the Lord shews us wonders there we ingulf and lose our selves in the immense ocean of his infinite goodness in which we keep fixt and unmoveable There there resides the incomparable fruition of our Soul and that eminent and sweet rest of it An humble and resign'd Soul which is come to this bottom seeks no more than meerly to please God and the holy and loving Spirit teaches it every thing with his sweet and enlivening unction 62. Amongst the Saints there are some gigantick ones who continually suffer with patience indispositions of body of which God takes great care But high and soveraign is their gift who by the strength of the Holy Ghost suffer both internal and external crosses with content and resignation This is that sort of holiness so much the more rare as it is more precious in the sight of God. The spiritual ones which walk this way are rare because there are few in the world who do totally deny themselves to follow Christ crucified with simpleness and bareness of spirit through the loansom and thorny ways of the Cross without making reflexions upon themselves 63. A Life of Self-denial is above all the Miracles of the Saints and it doth not know whether it be alive or dead lost or gained whether it agrees or resists this is the true resigned Life But although it should be a long time before thou comest to this state and thou should'st think not to have made one step towards it yet affright not thy self at this for God uses to bestow upon a Soul that Blessing in one moment which was denied it for many years before 64. He that desires to suffer blindfold without the comfort of God or the creatures is gotten too far onwards to be able to resist unjust accusations which his enemies make against him even in the most dreadful and interior desolation 65. The spiritual man that lives by God and in him is inwardly contented in the midst of his adversities because the Cross and Affliction are his Life and Delight 66. Tribulation is a great treasure wherewith God honours those that be his in this life therefore evil men are necessary for those that are good and so are the Devils themselves which by afflicting us do try to ruine us but instead of doing us harm they do us the greatest good imaginable 67. There must be tribulation to make a man's life acceptable to God without it 't is like the Body without the Soul the Soul without Grace the Earth without the Sun. 68. With the wind of tribulation God separates in the floor of the Soul the Chaff from the Corn. 69. When God crucifies in the inmost part of the Soul no creature is able to comfort it nay comforts are but grievous and bitter crosses to it And if it be well-instructed in the laws and discipline of the ways of pure love in the time of great desolation and inward troubles it ought not to seek abroad among the creatures for comfort nor lament it self with 'em nor will it be able to read Spiritual Books because this is a secret way of getting at a distance from suffering 70. Those Souls are to be pitied who cannot find in their hearts to believe that Tribulation and Suffering is their greatest Blessing They who are perfect ought always to be desirous of dying and suffering being always in a state of death and suffering vain is the man who doth not suffer because he is born to toyl and suffering but much more the Friends and Elect of God. 71. Undeceive thy self and believe that in order to thy Soul 's being totally transformed with God it is necessary for it to be lost and be denied in its life sense knowledge and power and to die living and not living dying and not dying suffering and not suffering resigning up and not resigning up it self without reflecting upon any thing 72. Perfection in its followers receives not its glories but by Fire and Martyrdom Griefs Torments Punishments and Contempt suffered and endured with gallantry and courage and he that would have some place to set his feet on and rest himself and does not go beyond the reason of reason and of sence will never get into the secret cabiner of knowledge though by reading he may chance to get a taste and relish the understanding of it CHAP. VIII Pursues the same Matter 73. YOU must know that the Lord will not manifest himself in thy Soul till it be denied in it self and dead in its senses and powers nor will it ever come to this state till being perfectly resigned it resolves to be with God all alone making an equal account of Gifts and Contempts Light and Darkness Peace and War. In summ that the Soul may arrive at perfect quietness and supreme internal peace it ought first to die in it self and live only in God and for him and the more dead it shall be in it self the more shall it know God but if it doth not mind this continual denying of it self and internal mortification it will never arrive at this state nor preserve God within it and then it will be continually subject to accidents and passions of the mind such as are judging murmuring resenting excusing defending to keep its honour and reputation which are enemies to Perfection Peace and the Spirit 74. Know that the diversity of states amongst those that be spiritual consists only in dying all alike but in the happy which die continually God hath his honour his blessings and delights here below 75. Great is the
and though they know their own misery yet they are loth that other folks should know it This is dissembled humility and feigned and nothing but secret pride 95. Theirs is the true humility which have gotten a perfect habit of it these never think of it but judge humbly of themselves they do things with courage and patience they live and dye in God they mind not themselves nor the Creatures they are constant and quiet in all things they suffer molestation with joy desiring more of it that they may imitate their dear and despised Jesus they covet to be reputed trifles and sport by the World they are contented with what God alots 'em and are convinced of their faults with a pleasing shame they are not humbled by the counsel of Reason but by the affection of the Will there is no honour that they look after nor injury to disturb 'em no trouble to vex 'em no prosperity to make 'em proud because they are always immovable in their Nothing and in themselves with absolute peace 96. And that thou mayest be acquainted with interiour and true Humility know that it doth not consist in external Acts in taking the lowest place in going poor in cloaths in speaking submissively in shutting the eyes in affectionate sighing nor in condemning thy ways calling thy self miserable to give others to understand that thou art humble It consists onely in the contempt of thy self and the desire to be despised with a low and profound knowledge without concerning thy self whether thou art esteemed humble or no though an Angel should reveal such a thing to thee 97. The torrent of Light wherewith the Lord with his Graces inlightens the Soul doth two things It discovers the Greatness of God and at the same time the Soul knows its own stench and misery insomuch that no Tongue is able to express the depth in which it is overwhelmed being desirous that every one should know its Humility and 't is so far from vain-Glory and Complacency as it sees that Grace of God to be the meer Goodness of him and nothing but his Mercy which is pleased to take pity on it 98. Thou shalt never be hurt by Men or Devils but by thy self thy own proper Pride and the violence of thy Passions take heed of thy self for thou of thy self art the greatest Devil of all to thy self 99. Have no mind to be esteemed when God incarnate was called Fool Drunkard and said to have a Devil O the Folly of Christians that we should be willing to enjoy Happiness without being willing to imitate him on the Cross in Reproaches Humility Poverty and in other Vertues 100. The truly humble man is at rest and ease in his Heart there he stands the tryal of God and Men and the Devil himself above all reason and discretion possessing himself in peace and quietness looking for with all Humility the pure pleasure of God as well in Life as Death Things without do no more disquiet him than if they never were The Cross to him and even Death it self are Delights though he make no such shew outwardly But oh who do we speak of for few there are of these sort of humble Men in the whole World 101. Hope thou and desire and suffer and dye without any bodies knowing it for herein consists the humble and perfect Love. O how much Peace wilt thou find in thy Soul if thou do'st profoundly humble thy self and even hug Contempt 102. Thou wilt never be perfectly humble though thou knowest thy own Misery unless thou desirest that all men should know it then thou wilt avoid Praises embrace Injuries despise every thing that makes a fair shew even to thine own self and if any Tribulation come upon thee blame none for it but judge that it comes from God's Hand as the Giver of every good 103. If thou would'st bear thy Neighbours faults cast thine Eyes upon thine own and if thou thinkest to thy self that thou hast made any progress in Perfection by thy self know that thou art not humble at all nor hast yet made one step in the Way of the Spirit 104. The degrees of Humility are the qualites of a Body in the Grave that is to be in the lowest place buried like one that 's dead to stink and be corrupted to it self to be dust and nothing in ones own account finally if thou would'st be Blessed learn to despise thy self and to be despised by others CHAP. XI Maxims to know a simple humble and true Heart 105. ENcourage thy self to be Humble embracing Tribulations as Instruments of thy Good rejoyce in Contempt and desire that God may be thy onely Refuge Comfort and Protector 106. None let him be never so great in this World can be greater than he that is in the eye and favour of God and therefore the truly humble Man despises whatever there is in the World even to himself and puts his onely trust and repose in God. 107. The truly humble Man suffers quietly and patiently internal Troubles and he is the Man that makes great way in a little time like one that sails before the Wind. 108. The truly humble Man finds God in all things so that whatever contempt injury or affront comes to him by means of the Creatures he receives it with great peace and quiet Internal as sent from the Divine Hand and loves greatly the instrument with which the Lord tryes him 109. He is not yet arrived at profound Humility that is taken with Praise though he does not desire it nor seek it but rather avoids it because to an humble Heart praises are bitter crosses although it be wholly quiet and immovable 110. He has no internal Humility who doth not abhor himself with a mortal but withal a peaceable and quiet hatred But he will never come to possess this treasure that has not a low and profound knowledge of his own vileness rottenness and misery 111. He that is upon excuses and replies has not a simple and humble heart especially if he does this with his Superiours because replies grow from a secret pride that reigns in the Soul and from thence the total ruine of it 112. Perfidiousness supposes little submission and this less humility and both together they are the fewel of inquietude discord and disturbance 113. The humble heart is not disquieted by imperfections though these do grieve it to the Soul because they are against its loving Lord nor is he concerned that he cannot do great things for he always stands in his own Nothing and Misery nay he wonders at himself that he can do any thing of Vertue and presently thanks the Lord for it with a true knowledge that it is God that doth all and remains dissatisfied with what he does himself 114. The truely humble man though he see all yet he looks upon nothing to judge it because he judges ill onely of himself 115. The truely humble man doth always find an excuse to defend him that mortifies
him at least in a found intention Who therefore would be angry with a man of good intention 116. So much nay more doth false humility displease God as true pride does because that is hypocrisy besides 117. The truely humble man though every thing falls out contrary to him is neither disquieted nor afflicted at it because he is prepared and thinks he deserves no less he is not disquieted under troublesome thoughts wherewith the Devil seeks to torment him nor under temptations tribulations and desertions but rather acknowledges his unworthiness and is affected that the Lord chastises him by the Devil's means though he be a vile instrument all he suffers seems nothing to him and he never doth a thing that he thinks worth any great matter 118. He that is arrived at perfect and inward Humility although he be disturbed at nothing as one that abhors himself because he knows his imperfection in every thing his ingratitude and his misery yet he suffers a great cross in induring himself This is the sign to know true Humility of heart by But the happy Soul which is gotten to this holy hatred of it self lives overwhelmed drowned and swallowed up in the depth of its own Nothing out of which the Lord raises him by communicating Divine Wisdom to him and filling him with Light Peace Tranquility and Love. CHAP. XII Inward Solitude is that which chiefly brings a Man to the purchase of Internal Peace 119. KNow that although exteriour Solitude doth much assist for the obtaining internal Peace yet the Lord did not mean this when he spake by his Prophet Hos 2.14 I will bring her into solitude and speak privately to her But he meant the interiour Solitude which joyntly conduces to the obtaining the precious jewel of Peace Internal Internal Solitude consists in the forgeting all the Creatures in disengaging ones self from 'em in a perfect nakedness of all the affections desires thoughts and ones own will. This is the true Solitude where the Soul reposes with a sweet and inward serenity in the arms of its chiefest good 120. O what infinite room is there in a Soul that is arrived at this Divine Solitude O what inward what retired what secret what spacious what vast distances are there within a happy Soul that is once come to be truly solitary There the Lord converses and communicates himself inwardly with the Soul there he fills it with himself because it is empty cloaths it with light and with his love because it is naked lifts it up because 't is low and unites it with himself and transforms it because it is alone 121. O delightful Solitude and Cifer of eternal Blessings O Mirrour in which the eternal Father is always beheld There is great reason to call thee Solitude for thou art so much alone that there is scarce a Soul that looks after thee that loves and knows thee O Divine Lord how is it that Souls do not go from Earth to this Glory How come they to lose so great a good through the onely love and desire of created things Blessed Soul how happy wilt thou be if thou do'st but leave all for God! seek him onely breathe after none but him let him onely have thy sighs Desire nothing and then nothing can trouble thee and if thou do'st desire any good how spiritual soever it be let it be in such a manner that thou mayest not be disquieted if thou missest it 122. If with this liberty thou wilt give thy Soul to God taken off from the World free and alone thou wilt be the happiest creature upon Earth because the most High has his secret habitation in this holy Solitude in this Desart and Paradise is injoyed the conversation of God and it is onely in this internal Retirement that that marvellous powerful and divine Voice is heard 123. If thou would'st enter into this Heaven of Earth forget every care and every thought get out of thy self that the love of God may live in thy Soul. 124. Live as much as ever thou canst abstracted from the Creatures dedicate thy self wholly to thy Creatour and offer thy self in Sacrifice with peace and quietness of Spirit Know that the more the Soul disrobes it self the more way it makes into this interiour Solitude and becomes cloathed with God and the more lonesome and empty of it self the Soul gets to be the more the Divine Spirit fills it 125. There is not a more bessed life than a solitary one because in this happy life God gives himself all to the creature and the creature all to God by an intimate and sweet union of love O how few are there that come to relish this true Solitude 126. To make the Soul truely solitary it ought to forget all the creatures and even it self otherwise it will never be able to make any near approach to God. Many men leave and forsake all things but they do not leave their own liking their own will and themselves and therefore these truly solitary ones are so few wherefore if the Soul does not get off from its own appetite and desire from its own will from spiritual gifts and from repose even in the Spirit it self it never can arrive at this high felicity of internal Solitude 127. Go on blessed Soul go on without stop towards this blessedness of internal Solitude See how God calls thee to enter into thy inward center where he will renew thee change thee fill thee cloath thee and shew thee a new and heavenly Kingdom full of joy peace content and serenity CHAP. XIII In which is shewed what infused and passive Contemplation is and its wonderful Effects 128. YOu must know that when once the Soul is habituated to internal Recollection and acquired Contemplation that we have spoken of when once 't is mortified and desires wholly to be denied its appetites when once it efficaciously embraces internal and external Mortification and is willing to dye heartily to its passions and its own ways then God uses to take it alone by it self and raise it more than it knows to a compleate repose where he sweetly and inwardly infuses in it his light his love and his strength inkindling and inflaming it with a true disposition to all manner of Vertue 129. There the Divine Spouse suspending its powers puts it to sleep in a most sweet and pleasant rest There it sleeps and quietly receives and enjoys without knowing it what it injoys with a most lovely and charming calm There the Soul raised and lifted up to this passive State becomes united to its greatest Good without costing it any trouble or pains for this union There in that supream Region and sacred Temple of the Soul that greatest Good takes its complacency manifests it self and creates a relish from the creature in a way above sense and all humane understanding There also onely the pure Spirit who is God the purity of the Soul being uncapable of sensible things rules it and gets the mastership
impossible thing to be sesparated from its beloved and his infinite treasure 145. There are six other steps of Contemplation which are these Fire Union Elevation Illumination Pleasure and Repose With the first the Soul is inkindled and being inkindled is anointed being anointed is raised being raised contemplates contemplating it receives pleasure and receiving pleasure it finds repose By these steps the Soul rises higher being abstracted and experienced in the Spiritual and Internal Way 146. In the first step which is Fire the Soul is illustrated by the means of a divine and ardent ray in kindling the affections divine and drying up those which are but humane The second is the Unction which is a sweet and spiritual Liquor which diffusing it self all the Soul over teaches it strengthens it and disposes it to receive and contemplate the divine truth and sometimes it extends even to nature it self corroborating it by patience with a sensible pleasure that seems celestial 147. The third is the Elevation of the Inner Man over it self that it may get fittest to the clear fountain of pure love 148. The fourth step which is Illumination is an infused knowledge whereby the Soul contemplates sweetly the divine truth rising still from one clearness to another from one light to another from knowledge to knowledge being guided by the Spirit Divine 149. The fifth is a Savoury Pleasure of the Divine Sweetness issuing forth from the plentiful and precious Fountain of the Holy Ghost 150. The sixth is a Sweet and Admirable Tranquility arising from the conquest of Fightings within and frequent Prayer and this very very few have experience of Here the abundance of Joy and Peace is so great that the Soul seems to be in a sweet sleep solacing and reposing it self in the divine breast of love 151. Many other steps of Contemplation there are as Extasies Raptures Melting Deliquium's Glee Kisses Embraces Exultation Union Transformation Espousing and Matrimony which I omit to explain to give no occasion to speculation And because there are whole Books which treat of these Points though they are all for him who finds nothing of 'em any more than a blind man doth of Colour or a deaf man of Musick In a word by these steps we get up to the chamber and repose of the pacifick King and the true Solomon CHAP. XVI Signs to know the Inner Man and the Mind that 's purged 152. THE Signs to know the Inner Man by are four The first If the Understanding produce no other Thoughts than those which stir up to the light of Faith and the Will is so habituated that it begets no other Acts of Love than of God and in order to him The second If when he ceases from an External Work in which he was employed the Understanding and the Will are presently and easily turned to God. The third If in entring upon Prayer he forgets all outward things as if he had not seen nor used ' em The fourth If he carries himself orderly towards outward things as if he were entring into the World again fearing to embroil himself in business and naturally abhorring it uâ—less when charity requires it of him 153. Such a Soul as this is free from the Outward Man and easily enters into the interior solitude where it sees none but God and it self in him loving him with quiet and peace and true love There in that secret center God is kindly speaking to it teaching it a new Kingdom and true Peace and Joy. 154. This spiritual abstracted and retired Soul hath its peace no more broken though outwardly it may meet with combats because through the infinite distance tempests do never reach to that serenest heaven within where pure and perfect love resides and though sometimes it may be naked forsaken fought against and desolate this is only the fury of the storm which threatens and rages no where but without 155. This secret love within hath four effects The first is called Illumination which is a savoury and experimental knowledge of the greatness of God and of its own nothing The second is Inflammation which is an ardent desire of being burnt like the Salamander in this kind and divine fire The third is Sweetness which is a peaceable joyful sweet and intimate fruition The fourth is a swallowing up of the powers in God by which immersion the Soul is so much drencht and fill'd with God that it can't any longer seek desire or will any thing but it s greatest and infinite good 156. From this fullest satiety two effects arise The first is a great courage to suffer for God. The second is a certain hope or assurance that it can never lose him nor be separated from him 157. Here in this internal retirement the beloved Jesus hath his Paradise to whom we may go up standing and conversing on the Earth And if thou desirest to know who he is who is altogether drawn to this inward retirement with enlightened exemplification in God I tell thee it is he that in adversity in discomfort of spirit and in the want of necessaries stands firm and unshaken These constant and inward Souls are outwardly naked and wholly diffused in God whom they continually do contemplate they have no spot they live in God and of him himself they shine brighter than a thousand Suns they are beloved by the Son of God they are the darlings of God the Father and Elect Spouses of the Holy Ghost 158. By three signs is a mind that is purged to be known as St. Thomas says in a Treatise of his The first sign is diligence which is a strength of mind which banishes all neglect and sloth that it may be disposed with earnestness and confidence to the pursuit of vertue The second is severity which likewise is a strength of mind against concupiscence accompanied with an ardent love of roughness vileness and holy poverty The third is benignity and sweetness of mind which drives away all rancour envy aversion and hatred against ones neighbour 159. Till the mind be purg'd the affection purified the memory naked the understanding brightened the will denied and set afire the Soul can never arrive at the intimate and affective union with God and therefore because the spirit of God is purity it self and light and rest the soul where he intends to make his abode must have great purity peace attention and quiet Finally the precious gift of a purg'd mind those only have who with continual diligence do seek love and retain it and desire to be reputed the most vile in the World. CHAP. XVII Of Divine Wisdom 160. DIvine Wisdom is an intellectual and infused knowledge of the divine perfections and things eternal which ought rather to be called Contemplation than Speculation Science is acquired and begets the knowledge of Nature Wisdom is infused and begets the knowledge of the Divine Goodness That desires to know what is not to be attained unto without pains and sweat This desires not to know
what it doth know although it understands it all In a word the men who are scientifical entertain themselves in the knowledge of the things of the world and the wise live swallowed up in God himself 161. Reason enlightened in the Wise is a high and simple elevation of spirit whereby he sees with a clear and sharp sight all that is inferiour to him and what concerns his Life and Estate This is that which renders the soul simple illustrated uniform spiritual and altother introverted and abstracted from every created thing This moves and draws away with a sweet violence the hearts of the humble and teachable filling them with abundance of sweetness peace and pleasantness Finally the wise man says of it that it brought him all good things at once Venerunt mihi omnia bona pariter cum illa Wisd 7.11 162. You must know that the greatest part of men lives by opinion and judges according to the deceivableness of imagination and sence but the man that 's wise judges of every thing according to the real verity which is in it whose business is to understand conceive penetrate into and transcend every created being even to himself 163. 'T is a great property of a wise man to do much and say little 164. Wisdom is discovered in the works and words of the wise because he being absolute master of all his passions motions and affections is known in all his doings like a quiet and still water in which wisdom shines with clearness 165. The understanding of mystical truths is secret and shut up from men who are purely scholastical unless they be humble because it is the science of Saints and none know it but those which heartily love and seek their own contempt Therefore the Souls who by imbracing this means get to be purely mystical and truly humble dive even to the profoundest apprehensions of the Divinity And the more sensually men do live according to flesh and bloud the greater distance are they at from this mystical Science 166. Ordinarily it is seen that in the man which hath much scholastical and speculative Knowledge Divine Wisdom doth not predominate yet they make an admirable composition when they both meet together The men of Learning who by God's mercy have attained to this mystick Science are worthy of Veneration and Praise in Religion 167. The external actions of the mystical and wise which they do rather passively than actively though they are a great torment to 'em yet are ordered prudently by 'em by number weight and measure 168. The Sermons of men of Learning who want the Spirit though they are made up of divers stories elegant descriptions acute discourses and exquisite proofs yet are by no means the word of God but the word of men plated over with false Gold These Preachers spoil Christians feeding 'em with wind and vanity and so they are both of 'em void of God. 169. These Teachers feed their Hearers with the wind of hurtful subtilties giving 'em stones instead of bread leaves instead of fruit and unsavory earth mixt with poisoned honey instead of true food These are they that hunt after honour raising up an idol of reputation and applause instead of seeking God's glory and the spiritual edification of men 170. Those that preach with zeal and sincerity preach for God. Those that preach without 'em preach for themselves Those that preach the word of God with Spirit make it take impression in the heart but those that preach it without Spirit carry it no farther than to the ear 171. Perfection doth not consist in teaching it but in doing it because he is neither the greatest Saint nor the wisest Man that knows the truth most but he that practices it 172. 'T is a constant Maxim That Divine Wisdom begets Humility and that which is acquired by the Learned begets Pride 173. Holiness does not consist in forming deep and subtle conceits of the knowledge and attributes of God but in the love of God and in self-denial Therefore 't is frequentlier observed that Holiness is more amongst the simple and humble than among the learned How many poor old women are there in the World which have little or nothing of humane Science but are rich in the love of God! How many Divines do we see that are over head and ears in their vain wisdom and yet very bare in things of true light and charity 174. Remember that 't is always good to speak like one that learns and not like one that knows Count it a greater honour to be reputed a meer Ignoramus than a man of Wisdom and Prudence 175. However the Learned who are purely speculative have some little sparks of Spirit yet these do not fly out from the simple bottom of eminent and divine Wisdom which hath a mortal hatred to forms and species's the mixing of a little Science is always a hindrance to the eternal profound pure simple and true Wisdom CHAP. XVIII Treating of the same 176. THere are two ways which lead to the knowledge of God. The one remote the other near The first is called Speculation the second Contemplation The Learned who follow Scientifical Speculation by the sweetness of sensible Discourses get up to God by this means as well as they can that by this help they may be able to love him But none of those who follow that way which they call scolastical ever arrives by that onely to the mystical Way or to the excellence of Union Transformation Simplicity Light Peace Tranquillity and Love as he doth who is brought by the Divine Grace by the mystical Way of Contemplation 177. These men of Learning who are meerly scolastical don't know what the Spirit is nor what it is to be lost in God nor are they come yet to the taste of the sweet Ambrosia which is in the in-most depth and bottom of the Soul where it keeps its Throne and communicates it self with incredible intimate and delitious affluence Nay some there are which do e'en condemn this mystical Science because they neither do understand nor relish it 178. The Divine who doth not taste the sweetness of Contemplation has no other reason to be given for it but because he enters not by the Gate which St Paul points to when he says Siquis inter ves videtur sapiens esse stultus fiat ut sit sapiens 1 Cor. 3.18 If any one among ye seem to himself to be wise let him become a fool that he may be wise let him shew his humility by reputing himself ignorant 179. 'T is a general Rule and also a Maxim in Mystick Theology That the Practice ought to be gotten before the Theory That there ought to be some experimental Exercise of supernatural Contemplation before the search of the knowledge and an inquiry after the full apprehension of it 180. Although the mystical Science does commonly belong to the humble and simple yet notwithstanding that men of Learning are not uncapable of it if they
happy state of Annihilation which is the last disposition for Transformation and Union which the Soul it self doth not understand because 't would not be Annihilated if it should come to know it And although it de get to this happy state of Annihilation yet it must know that it must walk still on and must be further and further Purified and Annihilated Here is most delicious Nonsence and a very curious Bull. 195. You must know that this annihilation to make it perfect in the Soul must be in a man 's own judgment in his will in his works inclinations desires thoughts and in it self so that the Soul must find it self dead to its will desire endeavour understanding and thought willing as if it did not will desiring as if it did not desire understanding as if it did not understand thinking as if it did not think without inclining to any thing embracing equally contempts and honours benefits and corrections O what a happy Soul is that which is thus dead and Annihilated It lives no longer in it self because God lives in it And now it may most truly be said of it that it is a renewed Phaenix because 't is Changed Spiritualized Transformed and Deified CHAP. XX. In which is shewed how this Nothing is the ready way to obtain purity of Soul perfect Contemplation and the rich Treasure of Peace Internal 196. THe way to attain that high state of a Mind reformed whereby a man immediately gets to the greatest good to our first original and to the highest peace is his Nothingness Endeavour O Soul to be always buried in that misery This nothing and this acknowledged misery is the means by which the Lord works wonders in thy Soul. Cloath thy self with this nothing and with this misery and see that this misery and this nothing be thy continual food and habitation even to the casting down thy self low therein and then I assure thee that thou being in that manner the Nothing the Lord will be the Whole in thy Soul. 197. Why thinkest thou do infinite Souls hinder the abundant current of the Divine gifts 'T is onely because they would be doing something and have a desire to be great all this is to come away from Internal Humility and from their own Nothing and therefore they prevent those wonders which that infinite goodness would work in 'em They betake themselves to the very gifts of the Spirit and there they stick that they may come out from the Center of Nothing and so the whole Work is spoil'd They seek not God with truth and therefore they find him not For know thou must that there is no finding of Him but in the undervaluing of our own selves and in nothing 198. We seek our selves every time we get out of our Nothing and therefore we never get to quiet and perfect Contemplation Creep in as far as ever thou canst into the truth of thy Nothing and then nothing will disquiet thee Nay thou wilt be humble and ashamed losing openly thy own reputation and esteem 199. O what a strong Bulwark wilt thou find of that Nothing who can ever afflict thee if once thou dost retire into that Fortress Because the Soul which is despised by it self and in its own knowledge is Nothing is not capable of receiving Grievance or Injury from any Body The Soul which keeps within its Nothing is internally Silent lives resign'd in any torment whatsoever by thinking it less than what it doth deserve It shuns the suspition of a Neighbour never looks at other folks faults but it s own is free from abundance of Imperfections and becomes Commander of great Virtue Whilst the Soul keeps still and quiet in its nothing it perfects it it enriches it the Lord draws his own Image and likeness in it without any thing to hinder it 200. By the way of Nothing thou must come to lose thy self in God which is the last degree of perfection and happy wilt thou be if thou canst so lose thy self then thou wilt get thy self again and find thy self most certainly In this same shop of Nothing Simplicity is made interior and infused recollection is possessed quiet is obtained and the heart is cleansed from all manner of imperfection O what a Treasure wilt thou find if thou shalt once fix thy habitation in Nothing and if thou once gettest but snugg into the center of Nothing thou wilt never concern thy self with any thing that is without the great ugly large step that so many thousand Souls do stumble at unless it be as thy office may call thee to it 201. If thou dost but get shut up in Nothing where the blows of adversity can never come nothing will vex thee or break thy peace This is the way of getting to the command of thy self because perfect and true dominion doth only govern in Nothing with the Helmet of Nothing thou wilt be too hard for strong temptations and the terrible suggestions of the envious Enemy I defie all the Quakers in England to match this incomparable piece of Nonsence and Enthusiastick Cant. 202. Knowing that thou art nothing that thou canst do nothing and art worth just nothing thou wilt quietly embrace passive drynesses thou wilt endure horrible desolations thou wilt undergo spiritual martyrdoms and inward torments By means of this Nothing thou must die in thy self many ways at all times and all hours 203. Who must awaken the Soul out of that sweet and pleasant sleep if once it comes to take a nap in Nothing This is the way that David got to perfect annihilation without so much as knowing it Ad nihilum redactus sum nescivi Psal 17. Keeping thy self in nothing thou wilt bar the door against every thing that is not God thou wilt retire also from thine own self and walk towards that internal solitude where the divine Spouse speaks in the heart of his Bride teaching her high and divine wisdom Drown thy self in this Nothing and there shalt thou find a holy Sanctuary against any Tempest whatsoever 204. By this way must thou return to the happy state of Innocence forfeited by our first parents By this gate thou must enter into the happy land of the living where thou wilt find the greatest good the breadth of charity the beauty of righteousness the streight line of Equity and Justice and in sum every jot and tittle of Perfection Lastly do not look at nothing desire nothing will nothing nor endeavour nothing and then in every thing thy Soul will live repos'd with quiet and enjoyment 205. This is the way to get purity of Soul perfect contemplation and peace internal walk therefore in this safe path and endeavour to overwhelm thy self in this Nothing endeavour to lose thy self to sink deep into it if thou hast a mind to be annihilated united and transformed CHAP. XXI Of the high Felicity of internal Peace and the wonderful Effects of it 206. THe Soul being once annihilated and renewed with perfect
which with an intire indifference give up themselves into the hands of God to do what he pleases with ' em how few are there of those pure Souls which be of a simple and disinterested heart and which putting off their own understanding knowledge desire and will do long for self-denial and spiritual death O what a scarcity of Souls is there which are willing to let the Divine Creator work in 'em a mind to suffer that they may not suffer and to die that they may not die How few are the Souls which are willing to forget themselves to free their hearts from their own affections their own desires their own satisfactions their own love and judgments that are willing to be lead by the high-way of self-denial and the internal way that are willing to be annihilated dying to themselves and their senses that are willing to let themselves be emptied purified and uncloathed that God may fill and cloath and perfect ' em In a word how small O Lord is the number of those Souls which are blind deaf and dumb and perfectly contemplative 219. O the shame of us the Children of Adam who for a thing of meer vileness do despise true felicity and hinder our greatest good the rich treasure and infinite goodness Great reason has Heaven to lament that there are so few Souls to follow its precious path-way Viae Sion lugent eo quod non sint qui veniant ad solemnitatem Lam. 1.4 I submit every thing with humble Prostration to the Correction of the Holy Roman Catholick Church THE CONTENTS First Advertisement BY two Ways one may go to God the first by Meditation and Discourse or Reasoning the second by pure Faith and Contemplation Second Advertisement Declaring what Meditation and Contemplation are and the difference that is betwixt them Third Advertisement What is the difference betwixt the Acquired and Active Contemplation and the Infused and Passive with the Signs whereby it is known when God will have the Soul to pass from Meditation to Contemplation Fourth Advertisement The Burden of this Book consisting in Rooting out the Rebellion of our Own Will that we may attain to Internal Peace FIRST BOOK Of the Darkness Dryness and Temptations wherewith God purges Souls and of Internal Recollection CHap. 1. To the end God may rest in the Soul the Heart is always to be kept peaceable in whatsoever Disquiet Temptation and Tribulation Page 1. Chap. 2. Though the Soul perceive it self deprived of Discourse or Ratiocination yet it ought to persevere in Prayer and not to be afflicted because that is its greater felicity Page 4 Chap. 3. A Sequel of the same Matter Page 8 Chap. 4. The Soul is not to afflict it self nor intermit Prayer because it sees it self encompassed with dryness Page 12 Chap. 5. Treating of the same thing declaring how many ways of Devotion there are and how the sensible Devotion is to be disposed and that the Soul is not idle though it reason not Page 16 Chap. 6. The Soul is not to be disquieted that it sees it self encompassed with darkness because that is an instrument of its greater felicity Page 19 Chap. 7. To the end the Soul may attain to the supreme internal Peace it is necessary that God purge it after his way because the Exercises and Mortifications that of it self it sets about are not sufficient Page 21 Chap. 8. A Sequel of the same Page 23 Chap. 9. The Soul ought not to be disquieted nor draw back in the Spiritual Way because it finds it self assaulted by Temptations Page 25 Chap. 10. Wherein the same Point is handled Page 28 Chap. 11. Declaring the Nature of Internal Recollection and instructing the Soul how it ought to behave it self therein and in the Spiritual Warfare whereby the Devil endeavours to disturb it at that time Page 30 Chap. 12. A Sequel of the same Matter Page 35 Chap. 13. What that the Soul ought to do in Internal Recollection Page 38 Chap. 14. Declaring how the Soul putting it self in the presence of God with perfect Resignation by the pure act of Faith walks always in virtual and acquired Contemplation Page 44 Chap. 15. A Sequel of the same Matter Page 47 Chap. 16. A Way by which one may enter into Internal Recollection through the most holy Humanity of our Lord Christ Page 52 Chap. 17. Of Internal and Mystical Silence Page 56 THE SECOND BOOK Of the Ghostly Father the Obedience that 's due to him of Indiscreet Zeal and of Internal and External Penance CHap. 1. The best Way to baffle the Craft of the Enemy is to be subject to a ghostly Father Page 60 Chap. 2. A Sequel of the same Matter Page 64 Chap. 3. The indiscreet Zeal of Souls and the disordinate Love of our Neighbours disturb Internal Peace Page 67 Chap. 4. A Sequel of the same Page 70 Chap. 5. Light Experience and a Divine Call are necessary for guiding Souls in the Inward Way Page 72 Chap. 6. Instructions and Counsels to Confessors and Spiritual Directors Page 74 Chap. 7. Wherein the same thing is treated of discoursing the Interest which some Confessors and Spiritual Directors use to have in which are declared the Qualities which they ought to have for the Exercise of Confession and also for the guiding of Souls through the Mystical Way Page 79 Chap. 8. Pursues the same Matter Page 83 Chap. 9. Shewing how a simple and ready Obedience is the only means for walking safely in this Inward Way and of procuring Internal Peace Page 86 Chap. 10. Pursues the same Page 89 Chap. 11. When and in what things this Obedience doth most concern the Interior Soul Page 92 Chap. 12. Treats of the same Page 95 Chap. 13. Frequent Communion is an effectual Means of getting all Vertues and in particular Internal Peace Page 99 Chap. 14. Pursues the same Matter Page 101 Chap. 15. Declaring when Spiritual and Corporal Penances ought to be used and how hurtful they are when they are done indiscreetly according to ones own judgment and opinion Page 104 Chap. 16. The great difference between External and Internal Penances Page 107 Chap. 17. How the Soul is to carry it self in the faults it doth commit that it may not be disquieted thereby but reap good out of it Page 110 Chap. 18. Treateth of the same Matter Page 112 THE THIRD BOOK Of Spiritual Martyrdoms whereby God purges Souls of Contemplation Infused and Passive of Perfect Resignation Inward Humility Divine Wisdom True Annihilation and Internal Peace CHap. 1. The difference between the Outward and Inward Man Page 115 Chap. 2. Pursues the same Page 119 Chap. 3. The Means of obtaining Peace Internal is not the delight of Sence nor Spiritual Consolation but the denying of Self-love Page 121 Chap. 4. Of two Spiritual Martyrdoms wherewith God cleanseth the Soul that he unites with himself Page 125 Chap. 5. How important and necessary it is to the Interiour Soul to suffer blindfold this first and Spiritual
make us believe they do He hath been mightily conversant in Modern Casuists and Schoolmen and that makes him so ill a Divine as to tell us of receiving good by the Sacrament ex opere operate i. e. Never minding what is done but only the doing the bare action of it I could not forâ—â—â—â— shewing a mark of dislike when I found him quâ—â—â—ing two such bouncing Authorities out of St Austine and St. Jerome for delivering Souls out of Purgatory by the efficacy of Mass I confess they are very pregnant for his purpose if he can but shew us those Words in the true Writings of those two Fathers but to send us to the Man in the Moon to know further this is not fair nor Scholar-like If any man else will undertake to shew us those Words in the undoubted and unforg'd Works of St. Austine and St. Jerome he will make me for my part in that point A Quietist THE AUTHOR'S Advertisement 'T IS none of my intention to Difcourse in this Subject by the way of Humane Respects or Passion nor to defend hard Controversies nor promote my own Opinions and though I have Written this short Treatise at the continual ingagements and instances of Zealous Persons yet God's greater Glory and the Spiritual advantage of Souls have been my onely desire Nor is it any less my design that by this Treatise and these Reasons the Faithful should govern themselves in the business of frequent Communion without the Prudent and Holy Counsel of their Spiritual Fathers because I always look upon it more fitting to obey their Orders though it should hinder the Communion than to communicate every day according to their own Sense and Judgment This Compendium of the Reasons and Authorities of Councils Saints and Doctors is onely drawn up a-purpose that Confessours may see the small reason there is to hinder those Souls from taking the Communion which desire it receive good by it and are obedient to their Directions A Short TREATISE Concerning Daily Communion CHAP. I. No Minister ought to keep a faithful Person from the Communion that does desire and ask it whilst he doth not know his Conscience defiled with mortal Sin. THE Council of Trent treating of the Preparation which Priests and Lay-men ought to make for the worthy Receiving of the Holy Eucharist hath these following words Sess 13. Cap. 17. The Custom of the Church makes it clear that Examination and Proof is necessary in order to the Communion that no man knowing himself guilty of mortal Sin though he may seem Contrite to himself come to the Sacrament unless he have before been at Sacramental Confession Which comprehends all Christians and even Priests who are bound by their Office to Celebrate it from whence 't is clearly to be inferred that the Council makes no other disposition necessary for the Communicating of Lay-men and the Priest's saying Mass than not to have any mortal Sin. Why then should the Ministers be a hindrance to those which have that disposition The Ministers will not say that their Authority is greater than that of the Council nor that they are more Learned than all those Fathers of the Church that came to it nor will they say less that they have a greater light from God than that which he then communicated to his Spouse the Church Therefore the Ministers ought not to require a greater disposition than being without mortal Sin whilst the Council requires no more Either the Ministers and Priests which say Mass daily have this Holiness and Perfection themselves which they require in Laymen or else they have it not they will not say they have it because it would then be pride in 'em If they have it not and yet Celebrate Mass every day why do they require it from Laymen in order to the granting 'em the Communion daily 'T is good to advise 'em to this Perfection but if they should not have it it will not be reasonable to deprive 'em of so great a good because they may have reason to fear that Christ our Lord may say to 'em as he did to the Pharisees St Matthew 23.24 That they bind heavy burdens upon men and they themselves will not touch 'em with one of their fingers And that also is verified which David said Psalm 61.10 That men are deceitful in the weight Mendaces filii hominum in stateris Since they have one weight for themselves and another for Laymen If the Council judges that not being in mortal Sin is a worthy disposition towards saying Mass daily consecrating and offering Sacrifice which is the holiest Service how much more worthy will such a disposition be for onely the receiving the Communion If Councils the Church Popes Saints and Doctors require no greater disposition to receive fruit from this Sacrament than not being in mortal Sin why must the Ministers require a greater The Council of Trent hath the following words Sess 28. Cap. 6. Optaret quidem Sancta Synodus ut in singulis missis fideles adstantes non solum spirituali affectu sed Sacramentali etiam Eucharistiae perceptione Communicarent quo ad eos hujus sacrificii fructus uberior perveniret That is the holy Council would look upon it as a very good thing that in every days Mass the Faithful who assist at it would be Communicated not onely Spiritually and in their desires but also Sacramentally by receiving the Holy Eucharist that they might thus obtain the more abundant benefit by this most Holy Sacrament The Council therefore desires that the Faithful would Communicate every day that they hear Mass with the disposition of having no mortal Sin as it signified Sess 13. Cap. 7. Will any Ministers say that this is not well and so openly set themselves in opposition to the desires of the Church The Congregation of the Council declared it an Errour that any Bishops in a Capriccio should limit and hinder Daily Communion from being taken by Merchants and House-keepers The holy Rota reports it in the year 1587 Barbos in Concil Trid. Sup. c. 22. and after it had Decreed that all Laymen might be communicated even every day though they should be Merchants and House-keepers it adds the following words Quapropter exhortandi sunt fideles ut sicut quotidie peccant ita quotidie medicinam accipiant That is wherefore the Faithful are to be exhorted that as they Sin daily so they daily receive this Medicine of the Sacrament of the Eucharist And the same Council of Trent says Sess 13. c. 2. de Instit Sanctiss Sacr. Qui manducat me ipse vivet propter me tanquam antidotum quo liberemur a culpis quotidianis a peccatis mortalibus praeservemur The Communion is as an Antidote to free us from daily Sins and preserve us from mortal Sins If the Council and its Decree speaks here not of the Basils and Antonies nor of the Catharines and Clares as some say it is required for 'em to be but of those that Sin
daily why should they be kept from the Medicine that they may not Sin The Council of Milan 3 de Euch. and that of Cabilon Cant. 46. are of the same mind The blessed Pius Quintus says Catech. Rom. 2. p. c. 4. § 60. The Curates are bound to exhort the Faithful often that as they hold it necessary to feed the Body daily so they hold it also necessary to feed the Soul as often with this Sacrament because the Children of Israel did eat Manna in the Wilderness daily and that Manna was the Figure of this sacred Food And that sentence Thou sinnest every day be communicated also every day is not onely St. Augustine's but the saying of all the Saints St. Ignatius Bishop and Martyr Epist ad Eph. exhorts that we often come and receive the Eucharist because the frequency of it weakens the power of Satan The Council of Alexandria says De Euch. c. 5. That without this frequency it will be a hard matter to preserve Grace St. John Chrisostome In Epist S. Paul ad Tim. says It is no rashness for a Christian to come often to the Sacrament he that remembers not a great fault of himself may come to it every day Theophylact In Prim. S. Paul ad Corinth 11. says To know whether thou mayest Communicate be thou the Judge and having examined thy self thou mayest do it without staying for a Festival unless thou findest thy self burthened with a great fault St. Cyprian In Orat. Dom. Serm. 6. says Let us ask this daily Bread being in no great fault let us receive this Bread every day which gives us Life Eternal and let us beg that our Bread which is Christ our Lord may be daily given us to keep us in his Grace No small loss it is to forbear Communicating every day St. Hilary says De Consecrat dist 2. c. 51. If thy Sins are not so grievous as to deserve Excommunication not being mortal if they should be mortal after Confession as Suarez expounds it Disp 60. Sess 3. never keep off from the daily Medicine which is the Body and Blood of the Lord. St. Ambrose says 5 de Sacram. c. 4. Receive daily that which is to help thee daily he that does not deserve to receive it every day doth not deserve to receive it in a whole year Sins are daily committed and therefore this Divine Bread is for every day Thou offendest every day wash thy self therefore of thy Sin every day in the Fountain of Repentance and if thou comest every day to this Divine Sacrament thou wilt find wholesome Medicine and not the Poison of Judgment St. Jerom says In Apol. Cont. Jovin We should always receive the Holy Eucharist that we may be without mortal Sin And in his time which was the Year 470 he says the holy Custom of Communicating every day continued in Rome and in Spain St. Augustine says Tract 26. in Johan If thou comest without Sin come and welcome 't is Bread and not Poyson Again Ep. de verb. Dom. Ser. 28. 'T is better to Communicate for Devotion than let it alone for Reverence And in another place This is the daily Bread receive it daily because it will daily do thee good and thou mayest receive it every day Some ascribe that sentence to the same Father Quotidie Eucharistiae Communionem percipere nec laudo nec reprehendo With which a Bishop reproved S. Catharine of Siena because she took the Sacrament every day and the Saint replied to him How he durst reprove in her that which St. Austine durst not reprove Bellarmine therefore De Script Eccles in the Year 420. says that this sentence is not St. Austine's but Gennadius's of Marseilles and so many other Authors assure us St. Gregory De Conseor d. 2. c. Quid sit Sanguis says The Lord gave us this Salutary Sacrament to pardon our daily Sins let us receive it every day St. Bernard In Serm. de Caena Dom. says The wounded man seeks Medicine we are all of us wounded when we have Sinned our Medicine is the Divine Sacrament receive it daily and thou wilt recover daily St. Apollonius In vitis Patrum ejus vita advised his Monks to be communicated every day that they might be preserved in Grace St. Bonaventure De Praecept Relig. Proces 7. c. 21. Though thou shouldst find thy self luke-warm with little Fervour in thee yet trusting in the Mercy of God thou mayest safely come to the Communion if thou think'st thy self unworthy so that thou remembrest no mortal Sin of thine own come because the weaker thou art the greater need hast thou of the Physitian Thou do'st not receive Christ to sanctify Him but that he may sanctify thee The Council of Alexandria Cap. 5. de Euchar says Without this frequency 't is hard to keep in Grace St. Antony of Florence Par. 3. lib. 14. cap. 12. § 5. 6. says Those that live well must be sure to be advised to receive this most holy Sacrament frequently because as long abstinence from bodily Food weakens the Body and disposes it for Death so the much abstaining from this spiritual Food weakens the Soul spends the fervour and by degrees inclines it to mortal Sin. Pope Adrian In 4 Sent. Tract de Euchar. says When once the preparation is made according to Humane frailty 't is safer to receive than keep from the most Holy Sacrament St. Thomas Aquinas 3 Par. quaest 80. art 10. asks If it be lawful to Communicate every day And answers with St. Austine This is daily Bread receive it every day that thou mayest every day be profited by it St. Isidore Lib. 3. de Eccles Offic. hath this Some say that if there be no Sin the Communion ought to be taken daily and they say well if they receive it with Veneration and Humility St. Anaclete Pope De Conscer dist 1 2. ca. Peracta perceiving Daily Communion grow into disuse brought it up again ordering that after Consecration all those that were present should be communicated because this Custom as he says in a Decree of his was established by the Apostles and kept by the Roman Church and those that did not communicate were turn'd out of the Church Innocent the Third in tract Miss lib. 4. cap. 44. says He may communicate who has his conscience free from mortal sin and is grieved for that which is venial St. Athanasius 1 ad Cor. probit autem having examined thy Conscience always come to the Communion without staying for a holy day Henriquez relates it lib. 8. de Euchar. cap. 88. n. 2. that St. Austin St. Ambrose and St. Jerome do commend those who communicate daily without sin Those that the Confessor shall judge worthy of absolution may be advised by him to receive the Communion though they fear an easie relaps 'T is not necessary to make an experiment of frequent Communion from a man's good and profit by it because spiritual profit which is insensible is much less found than corporal profit Thomas a
who reckon themselves Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to make it their proper work and business to set themselves against the Devil's intentions not depriving people of their Daily Communion but advising 'em to it and procuring it for ' em Fryer Joseph of St. Mary after he had told us the words of the holy Council of Trent where he says that he desires that all men would communicate daily in his Apology for frequent Communion has these following words Is it therefore possible O my Christian Fathers and Brethren that the Church should have any such children who do so openly contradict her and that understanding from their Mother that it would be a good thing for Christians to communicate every day they should say it is not convenient and so oppose themselves to her and contradict her Certainly this looks like the Devil's temptation to hinder the growth of Souls though it be done with good zeal and to such as be zealous of God's honour and of the Church their Mother this will not look well Thus far the Author Now let any Summist and Learned Man that has a great opinion of himself see whether it be lawful to oppose the Authority of so great a Tribunal and the laudable Custom of the Church and her Declarations against the Practice and Doctrine of the Apostles and against the Preaching of the holy Doctors of the Church Let no man mutter or deny the holy Communion says Lewis Fundone tract de diu Sacr. p. 2. c. 21. fol. 149. as if there were no occasion for it and let him have a care that God do not deny him Heaven since to condemn this is to condemn the commendable Customs and most ancient Practice of the Church and the greatest Servants of God. Thus far the Author Father Peter of Marseilles a Benedictine addit ad memor Compostel fol. 62. says That as often as a man communicates without the guilt of mortal sin either by not having committed it or by being pardoned it he receives grace by it This disposition is not of so small moment as some think since the holy Council of Trent thinks it enough for reverence and holiness They are mightily to be commended that do their best to perswade the faithful to communicate daily and consequently what a great error and prejudice of Souls are they that hinder Lay-men the Sacramental Communion every day Nothing but Mortal Sin says St. Thomas can keep a Christian from the Communion How therefore does it come to pass that the Ministers keep men from it when they have no Mortal sin to indispose ' em It would be well considered that Christ is in this Sacrament for salve for our wounds for comfort to our troubles and for strength in our adversities and lastly for a pledge and memorial of the love that he bears to Souls and that this great Lord stands crying out whether there be any that would have him and the Souls answer that they will have him but asking the Ministers of the Church to give 'em their Lord and divide to them their daily bread the Ministers turn the deaf ear to it being Stewards of Gods house and are very pinching and niggardly in distributing that which the Lord commands and so freely gives Such a stinginess as this is to be lamented with Tears of Blood. Who would not weep to see that when Gods hand is so open in giving his servants should be so close-fisted and covetous in distributing and that God being so bountiful of his own blessings which cost him his blood they should be so greedy in a thing that cost 'em nothing and in a word this Sacrament being that open fountain of David free to all the Sons of Jacob who go to it for the pretious water without giving any thing for it the Ministers sell it so dear that it costs many even tears of blood to obtain it which gives 'em the lamentation of Jeremy that they are fain to buy the water which is their own as dear as if it did belong to some body else Master John d'Avila a Man known sufficiently for his exemplary Goodness and Learning and Preaching being asked whether a Superiour or one that had the cure of Souls might deny the Communion to him that should ask it of him every day not having lawful impediment made answer thus My opinion is that no lawful impediment appearing the Prelate and he that in his room hath the business of Administrating the Eucharist is obliged to give it to him that is under him every time that he asks it He that denies the most holy Sacrament is unjust and deprieves him of his right and due that asks it A Christian as St. Thomas says has so much a right to ask it that the Prelate cannot deny it him except it be for a publick sin Asking it in publick he ought to give it him though he knows that he has Sin in secret and then how much more ought he to one that asks it devoutly he is cruel he takes away the Spiritual Bread from his Child and I must condemn him for a sinner in it All this says the above-mentioned Author in his Treat 23. Part 3. Will they say if it be a good and holy thing to Communicate every day why doth not the Church then command it and why did not the Founders of Religions who were indued with so much light leave it for a rule and why did not some Saints imbrace this frequency Saint Mark the Evangelist cut off his Thumb that they might not make him ordain Saint Francis of Assize would never be a Priest Saint Benet was a long time without Communicating Before I come to answer I will ask whether it be well that a man in health should not eat something every day because the Law doth not command it why have some Saints abstained from food some days whether single life be good and not Marriage as St Paul says 1 Cor. 7. because the Law commands it not and why some Saints have not been Married whether it be a good and holy thing to hear Mass daily because the Church does not command it and why some Saints have retired into the desert where they could not hear it Again before I come to answer I will suppose that some examples of the Saints are more to be admired than imitated and that therefore they do not make a general rule that if some have not Communicated they were only a few and they that did Communicate numberless and therefore 't will be more safe to follow the most and not the fewest I answer the difficulty and the question that things necessary ought to be commanded that which is evil ought to be prohibited and that which is good and holy ought to be advised The holy Church doth always act rightly and therefore she doth not command the faithful to Communicate daily because how holy and good a thing soever it be yet 't is not essentially necessary and the
therein so that thou oughtest not to grieve and disturb thy self nor be disconsolate in seeing thy self obscure and darksom judging that God hath failed thee and the light also that thou formerly had the experience of thou oughtest rather at that time persevere constantly in Prayer it being a manifest sign that God of his infinite mercy intends to bring thee into the inward path and happy way of Paradise O how happy wilt thou be if thou embrace it with peace and resignation as the instrument of perfect quiet true light and of all thy spiritual good 40. Know then that the streightest most perfect and secure way of proficients is the way of darkness beause in them the Lord placed his own Throne And he made darkness his secret place Psalm 18. By them the supernatural light which God infuses into the Soul grows and increases Amidst them wisdom and strong love are begotten by darkness the soul is annihilated and the species which hinder the right view of the divine truth are consumed By this means God introduces the Soul by the inward way into the Prayer of rest and of perfect contemplation which so few have the experience of Finally by darkness the Lord purges the senses and sensibility which hinder the mystical progress 41. See now if darkness be not to be esteemed and embraced What thou oughtest to do amidst them is to believe that thou art before the Lord and in his presence but thou oughtest to do so with a sweet and quiet attention not desire to know any thing nor search after delicacies tendernesses or sensible devotions nor do any thing but what is the good will and pleasure of God Because otherwise thou wilt only make circles all thy life time and not advance one step towards perfection CHAP. VII To the end the Soul may attain to the supreme internal peace it is necessary that God purge it after his way because the exercises and mortifications that of it self it sets about are not sufficient 42. SO soon as thou shalt firmly resolve to mortifie thy external senses that thou may'st advance towards the high mountain of perfection and union with God His divine Majesty will set his hand to the purging of thy evil inclinations inordinate desires vain complacency self-love and pride and other hidden vices which thou knowest not and yet reign in the inner parts of thy Soul and hinder the divine union 43. Thou 'lt never attain to this happy state though thou tire thy self out with the external acts of mortification and resignation until this Lord purge thee inwardly and discipline thee after his own way because he alone knows how secret faults are to be purged out If thou persevere constantly he 'll not only purge thee from affections and engagements to natural and temporal goods but in his own time also he will purifie thee with the supernatural and sublime such as are internal communications inward raptures and extafies and other infused graces on which the Soul rests and enjoys it self 44. God will do all this in thy Soul by means of the cross and dryness if thou freely givest thy consent to it by resignation and walking through those darksom and desart ways All thou hast to do is to do nothing by thy own choice alone The subjection of thy liberty is that which thou oughtest to do quietly resigning thy self up in every thing whereby the Lord shall think fit internally and externally to mortifie thee because that is the only means by which thy Soul can become capable of the divine influences whil'st thou sufferest internal and external tribulation with humility patience and quiet not the penances disciplines and mortifications which thou couldest impose upon thy self 45. The husbandman sets a greater esteem upon the plants which he sows in the ground than those that spring up of themselves because these never come to seasonable maturity In the same manner God esteems and is better pleased with the vertue which he sows and infuses into the Soul as being sunk into its own nothingness calm and quiet retreated within its own center and without any election than all the other vertues which the Soul pretends to acquire by its own election and endeavours 46. It concerns thee only then to prepare thine heart like clean paper wherein the divine wisdom may imprint characters to his own liking O how great a work will it be for thy Soul to be whole hours together in Prayer dumb resigned and humble without acting knowing or desiring to understand any thing CHAP. VIII A Sequel of the same 47. WIth new efforts thou l't exercise thy self but in another manner than hitherto giving thy consent to receive the secret and divine operations and to be polished and purified by this Lord which is the only means whereby thou wilt become clean and purged from thine ignorance and dissolutions Know however that thou art to be plunged in a bitter sea of sorrows and of internal and external pains which torment will pierce into the most inward part of thy Soul and Body 48. Thou 'lt experience that the creatures will forsake thee nay those too from which thou hoped'st for most favour and compassion in thy streights the brooks of thy faculties will be so dried up that thou shalt'st not be able to form any ratiocination nay nor so much as to conceive a good thought of God. Heaven will seem to thee to be of brass and thou shalt receive no light from it Nor will the thought comfort thee that in times past so much light and devote consolation have rained into thy Soul. 49. The invisible enemies will pursue thee with scruples lascivious suggestions and unclean thoughts with incentives to impatience pride rage cursing and blaspheming the Name of God his Sacraments and Holy Mysteries Thou 'lt find a great lukewarmness loathing and wearisomness for the things of God an obscurity and darkness in thy understanding a faintness confusion and narrowness of heart such a coldness and feebleness of the will to resist that a straw will appear to thee a beam Thy desertion will be so great that thou 'lt think there is no more a God for thee and that thou art rendered incapable of entertaining a good desire so that thou 'lt continue shut up betwixt two walls in constant streights and anguish without any hopes of ever getting out of so dreadful an oppression 50. But fear not all this is necessary for purging thy Soul and making it know its own misery and sensibly perceive the annihilation of all the passions and disordinate appetites wherewith it rejoyced it self Finally to the end the Lord may refine and purifie thee after his own manner with those inward torments wilt thou not cast the Jonas of sense into the sea that thereby thou mayest procure it With all thy outward disciplines and mortifications thou'll never have true light nor make one step towards perfection so that thou wilt stop in the beginning and thy Soul will