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
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
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
precept of the Church always looks at the benefit of the faithful and so great is our luke-warmness and the frailty of our times that a precept of Daily Communion would be an occasion of sin and ruine and therefore the Church does not injoyn Christians by precept any more than one Communion in a year though the desires that through devotion men would Communicate every day Many men shift off their coming daily to this Divine Banquet that they may not be taken notice of for it and that they may give no occasion to others to grumble and the Ministers hearing this reason hold their tongues and rest satisfied O hurtful silence must they permit for worldly respects that the faithful should lose so great a benefit Is it possible that they should let 'em live at a distance and separate from God and his sweet and loving friendship because the world should not censure ' em if there should be any great account made of what the world says not only the Soul would be lost but also the judgment Is it not known that the world makes it its business to speak ill of what good is and to persecute those that do not take part with it All those that serve great men do make open shew of the degree of their office greatness and dignity and shall a Christian think it a shame to himself to Communicate and be seen in the service of Jesus Christ If it were an evil work to Communicate every day it might breed scandal but if it be the best work that a Christian can do why should he keep from it through an idle fear of offending his neighbour The Jews were offended at the good works of Jesus Christ but for all that his Majesty never left off doing ' em He that doth ill and interprets the good that others do in an evil sense 't is he that gives cause for the scandal but to do well was never a scandal much less can so great a good as Communicating be one If a man should take offence by seeing us eat surely we would not for all that be such fools as to starve our selves We ought to take great heed of following vanities and worldly pleasures that we may not by them offend or scandalize our Neighbour from these vices we ought to keep our selves not from Daily Communion because this cannot cause scandal but will rather edifie our Neighbour and by our good example it may be he may come to change his life and resolve himself to frequent the Sacraments O how many people are there that are cheated by these worldly respects O unhappy men they are not ashamed to be base in their lives and yet they are ashamed to be Christians and to be known for such CHAP. III. Wherein are shewn some of the great benefits of which a faithful man is deprieved by being prohibited the Communion when he is sufflciently disposed for it THat the Minister may see and take good notice of the hurt which he does by deprieving the faithful of the Communion that desire and ask it without the guilt of Mortal Sin it will be necessary to lye before him some of those infinite benefits of which he defrauds 'em onely in one Communion that he may undeceive himself that deprieves 'em of infinite good for mortification sake First he deprieves such a one of the increase of grace and glory which he receives in the Communion whose effect is infallible ex opere operato though he should have venial sins about him He also deprieves him of the mortification of all his five senses and powers which he therein performs whilst his Eyes his Smelling his Tast his Touch his Imagination his Understanding and all his knowledge and capacity do tell him that that Host is Bread by all this he is humbled mortified and subdued whilst he believes that it is not that which he feels and tasts but that his God and Lord is in it He deprieves him also by taking the Communion from him of the cleansing of his sins and evil habits and being preserved from 'em for the time to come of many helps which are therein administred to him for the performance of every good thing and avoiding every evil one and it may happen that the Eternal Salvation or Damnation of a Soul may depend upon one of these helps He deprieves him of the lessening the pains of Purgatory which is participated in every Communion He deprieves him of the high acts of faith hope and charity which he exercises by believing that he receives that God whom he sees not nor feels and hoping in him whom he has not seen and being united with him by love God is goodness it self and he is willing to be communicated through love to Souls by means of the Divine and Sacramental Bread Is there a greater happiness in the world can there be a greater felicity and shall there be any Minister to deprieve the Soul of this benefit In this wonderful Sacrament Christ is united to the Soul and becomes one and the same thing with it In me manet ego in illo St. John 5. which fineness of love is the most profound admirable and worthy of consideration and gratitude because there is no more to give nor to receive and what Minister shall deprieve the Soul of this boundless grace All Blessings do here meet together in this precious Food here all desires of God are fulfilled here is the loving and sacramental Union here 's the Peace the Conformity the Transformation of God with the Soul and the Soul with God. By receiving Jesus in this Sacrament the Eternal Father and the Divine Spirit is also received here are all the Vertues Charity Hope Purity Patience and Humility because Christ our Lord begets all Vertue in the Soul by means of this heavenly Food and what a Heart must the Ministers have to forbid the Soul so great a Happiness If one onely degree of Grace is a gift of inestimable Value and so precious that 't is not to be bought for a thousand Worlds being a particle of God himself and a formal participation of the Divine Nature which makes us his Children and Friends Heirs of Heaven and the Habitation of the most Holy Trinity and if never so little Grace be worth more than all the Vertues Alms and Penances and the removing Mountains as St. Paul says and giving all away to the Poor is a meer Nothing without Grace How then can it be well to deprive the Faithful of the increase of Grace which he might find onely in one Communion How can the Minister deprive him of that and of many others that follow it without giving 'em other things equivalent to those they lose What can be of equal value with habitual Grace which a faithful Man might receive neither can the Humility which he may exercise nor the Reverence nor the Mortification upon the account of which he leaves off the Communion be worth so much
Recollection or Acquir'd Contemplation The first is of beginners the second of Proficients The first is sensible and material the second more naked pure and internal 2. When the Soul is already accustomed to discourse of Mysteries by the help of imagition and the use of corporal Images being carried from Creature to Cteature and from Knowledge to Knowledge though with very little of that which it wants and from these to the Creator Then God is wont to take that Soul by the hand if rather he calls it not in the very beginnings and leads it without ratiocination by the way of pure Faith making the intellect pass by all considerations and reasonings draws it forward and raises it out of this material and sensible state making it under a simple and obscure knowledge of Faith wholly aspire to its Bridegroom upon the wings of Love without any farther necessity of the perswasions and informations of the Intellect to make it love him because in that manner the Soul's love would be very scanty much dependent on Creatures stinted to drops and these too but falling with pauses and intervals 3. By how much less it depends on Creatures and the more it relies on God alone and his secret documents by the mediation of pure Faith the more durable firm and strong will that Love be After the Soul hath already acquired the knowledge which all the meditations and corporal images of Creatures can give her if now the Lord raise her out of that state by stripping her of ratiocination and leaving her in divine darkness to the end she may march in the streight Way and by pure Faith â—et her be guided and not love with the scantiness and tenuity that these direct but let her suppose that the whole World and all that the most refined conceptions of the wisest understandings can tell her are nothing and that the goodness and beauty of her beloved infinitely surpasses all their knowledge being perswaded that all Creatures are too rude to inform her and to conduct her to the true knowledge of God. 4. She ought then to advance forward with her love leaving all her understanding behind Let her love God as he is in himself and not as her imagination says he is and frames him to her And if she cannot know him as he is in himself let her love him without knowing him under the obscure veils of Faith in the same manner as a Son who hath never seen his Father but fully believing those who have given him information of him loves him as if he had already seen him 5. The Soul from which Mental Discourse is taken ought not to strain her self nor sollicitously seek for more clear and particular knowledge but even without the supports of sensible consolations or notices with poverty of spirit and deprived of all that the natural appetite requires continue quiet firm and constant letting the Lord work his work though she may seem to be alone exhausted and full of darkness and though this appear to her to be idleness it is only of her own sensible and material activity not of God's who is working true knowledge in her 6. Finally the more the Spirit ascends the more it is taken off of sensible objects Many are the souls who have arrived and do arrive at this gate but few have passed or do pass it for want of the experimental guide and those who have had and actually have it for want of a true subjection and entire submission 7. They 'll say that the Will will not love but be unactive if the Intellect understand not clearly and distinctly it being a received Maxim that that which is not known cannot be loved To this it is answered that tho' the Intellect understand not distinctly by ratiocination Images and Considerations yet it understands and knows by an obscure general and confused Faith which knowledge tho' so obscure indistinct and general as being supernatural hath nevertheless a more clear and perfect cognition of God than any sensible and particular notice that can be formed in this life because all corporal and sensible representation is infinitely distant from God. 8. We know God more perfectly says St. Denis by Negatives Myst â—â— Theol. c. 1. â— 2. than by Affirmatives We think more highly of God by knowing that he is incomprehensible and above all our capacity than by conceiving him under any image or created beauty according to our rude understanding A greater esteem and love then will flow from this confused obscure and negative than from any other sensible and distinct way because that is more proper to God and abstracted from creatures and this on the contrary the more it depends on creatures the less it hath of God. Second Advertisement Declaring what Meditation and Contemplation are and the difference that is betwixt them 9. Lib. 3. de fide c. 24. ST John Damascene and other Saints say that Prayer is a sallying out or elevation of the mind to God. God is above all Creatures and the Soul cannot see him nor converse with him if it raise not it self above them all This friendly conversation which the Soul hath with God that 's to say in Prayer is divided into Meditation and Contemplation 10. When the Mind considers the Mysteries of our holy Faith with attention to know the truth of them reasoning upon the particulars and weighing the circumstances of the same for exciting the affections in the will This mental Discourse and pious Act is properly called Meditation 11. When the Soul already knows the truth either by a habit acquired through reasoning or because the Lord hath given it particular light and fixes the eyes of the mind on the demonstrated truth beholding it sincerely with quietness and silence without any necessity of considerations ratiocinations or other proofs of conviction and the will loves it admiring and delighting it self therein This properly is called the Prayer of Faith the Prayer of Rest Internal Recognition or Contemplation Which St. Thomas with all the mystical Masters says is a sincere 2. 2. q. 180. Art. 3. p. 4. sweet and still view of the eternal truth without ratiocination or reflexion But if the Soul rejoyces in or eyes the effects of God in the creatures and amongst them in the humanity of our Lord Christ as the most perfect of all this is not perfect Contemplation as St. Thomas affirms ibidemâ— since all these are means for knowing of God as he is in himself And although the humanity of Christ be the most holy and perfect means for going to God the chief instrument of our salvation and the channel through which we receive all the good we hope for nevertheless the humanity is not the chief good which consists in seeing God but as Jesus Christ is more by his divinity than his humanity so he that thinks and fixes his contemplation always on God because the divinity is united to the humanity always thinks on and heholds
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
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
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
nakedness finds in its superiour part a profound peace and a sweet rest which brings it to such a perfect union of love that 't is joyful all over And such a Soul as this is already arrived to such a happiness that it neither wills nor desires any thing but what its Beloved wills it conforms it self to this Will in all emergencies as well of comfort as anguish and rejoyces also in every thing to do the Divine Good pleasure 207. There is nothing but what comforts it nor doth it want any thing but what it can well want To dye is enjoyment to it and to live is its joy It is as contented here upon Earth as it can be in Paradise it is as glad under privation as it can be in possession in sickness as it can be in health because it knows that this is the will of its Lord. This is its life this its glory its paradise its peace its repose its rest its consolation and highest happiness 208. If it were necessary to such a Soul as this which is gotten up by the steps of annihilation to the region of peace to make its choice it would chuse desolation before comfort contempt before honour because the loving Jesus made great esteem of reproach and pain if it first endured the hunger of the blessings of Heaven if it thirsted for God if it had the fear of losing him the lamentation of heart and the fighting of the devil now things are altered and hunger is turned into satisfying the thirst into satiety the fear into assurance the sadness into joy the weeping into merriment and the fierce fighting into the greatest peace O happy Soul that enjoys here on earth so great a felicity Thou must know that these kind of Souls though few they are be the strong Pillars which support the Church and such as abate the divine indignation 209. And now this Soul that is entered into the heaven of peace acknowledges it self full of God and his supernatural gifts because it lives grounded in a pure love receiving equal pleasure in light and darkness in night and day in affliction and consolation Through this holy and heavenly indifference it never loses its peace in adversity nor its tranquility in tribulations but sees it self full of unspeakable enjoyments 210. And although the Prince of Darkness makes all the assaults of Hell against it with horrible temptations yet it makes head against 'em and stands like a strong Pillar no more happening to it by 'em than happens to a high mountain and a deep valley in the time of storm and tempest 211. The valley is darkned with thick clouds fierce tempests of hail thunder lightning and hail-stones which looks like the picture of Hell at the same time the lofty mountain glitters by the bright beams of the sun in quietness and serenity continuing clear like heaven immovable and full of light 212. The same happens to this blessed soul the valley of the part below is suffering tribulations combats darkness desolations torments martyrdoms and suggestions and at the same time on the lofty mountain of the higher part of the soul the true sun casts its beams it enflames and enlightens it and so it becomes clear peaceable resplendent quiet serene being a meer ocean of joy 213. So great therefore is the quiet of this pure foul which is gotten up the mountain of tranquility so great is the peace of its spirit so great the serenity and chearfulness that is within that a remnant and glimmering of God do redound even to the outside of it 214. Because in the throne of quiet are manifest the perfections of spiritual beauty here the true light of the secret and divine mysteries of our holy faith here perfect humility even to the annihilation of it self the amplest resignation chastity poverty of spirit the sincerity and innocence of the Dove external modesty silence and internal solitude liberty and purity of heart here the forgetfulness of every created thing even of it self joyful simplicity heavenly indifference continual Prayer a total nakedness perfect disinterestedness a most wise contemplation a conversation of heaven and lastly the most perfect and serene peace within of which this happy soul may say what the wise man said of wisdom that all other graces came along in company with her Venerunt mihi omnia bona paritur cum illa Wisd 7.11 215. This is the rich and hidden treasure this the lost groat of the Gospel this is the blessed life the happy life the true life and the blessedness here below O thou lovely greatness that passest the knowledge of the sons of men O excellent supernatural life how admirable and unspeakable art thou for thou art the very draught of blessedness O how much dost thou raise a soul from earth which loses in its view all things of the vileness of earth thou art poor to look upon but inwardly thou art full of wealth thou seemest low but art exceeding high in a word thou art that which makest men live a life divine here below Give me O Lord thou greatest goodness give me a good portion of this heavenly happiness and true peace that the World sensual as it is is neither capable of understanding nor receiving Quem mundus non potest accipere CHAP. XXII A mournful Exclamation and lamentable Moan to God for the small Company of Souls that arrive at Perfection the Loving Union and the Divine Transformation 216. O Divine Majesty in whose presence the Pillars of Heaven do quake and tremble O thou Goodness more than infinite in whose love the Seraphins burn give me leave O Lord to lament our blindness and ingratitude We all live in mistakes seeking the foolish world and forsaking thee who art our God. We all forsake thee the Fountain of Living Waters for the stinking dirt of the world 217. O we children of men how long shall we follow after lying and vanity Who is it that hath thus deceived us that we should forsake God our greatest good Who is it that speaks the most truth to us Who is it that loves us most Who defends us most Who is it that doth more to shew himself a Friend who more tender to shew himself a Spouse and more good to be a Father that our blindness should be so great that we should all forsake this greatest and infinite goodness 218. O Divine Lord what a few Souls are there in the world which do serve thee with perfection how small is the number of those who are willing to suffer that they may follow Christ crucified that they may embrace the Cross that they may deny and contemn themselves O what a scarcity of Souls is there which are disinterested and totally naked how few are those Souls which are dead to themselves and alive to God which are totally resigned to his divine good pleasure how few those who are adorn'd with simple obedience profound knowledge of themselves and true humility How few those