finde experimentally a real union both in light and faith with the party I mentioned which is more than palpable giving me assurance that we are all one Upon this occasion I shall acquaint you in what manner my minde hath been busied these few last days and is yet full of it and to the end my relation may be more intelligible I shall take the matter somewhat higher The operation I have found in my self for these two or three years hath constantly held me fixed in the pursuit of our Saviour Christ to finde in him Eternal-Life before God the Father through the influence of his Spirit of which I have from time to time given you account And now I confess to you that though for that time I also honoured from the bottom of my heart our B. Lady the Saints and Angels and have been desirous to express it upon all occasions yet so it was that their presence and their commerce was obscured in and as it were very remote from my soul I assure you that those thoughts hath frequently run in my minde saying thus within my self I so much honour our Lady and some other Saints and Angels and I know not where they are I lifted up my heart easily towards them but there was no presence of them at all at least such as I now perceive it Some moneths ago I possessed an opening and a light in my soul accompanied with powerful effects concerning love and dear union with God making me to conceive inexplicable things of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost who is perfect Charity not by the reasonings and discourses of the understanding but by a single view most by one touch penetrating the heart with love And I beheld how the Son of God our Saviour came to advance us by his Incarnation into this love uniting himself to us whereby to reduce us all into this intimate and sweet union until he shall have compleated us all in himself to be made all of us one day all in God after he hath delivered up his Kingdom to his Father Ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus That God may be all in all And we enter into this blessed union with the Father Son and Holy Ghost Some ten or twelve days since being in my morning prayers on my knees to pray unto God I perceived in my self that I could findâ— no entrance unto him onely I kept my self there much humbled but the sight of the Father the access to him of the Son with whom I ordinarily converse with as much confidence as if he were yet upon earth and the assistance of the holy Ghost seemed at a strange distance withheld from me and I perceived an unworthiness in my self so great so real and so penetrating that I could no more lift up the eyes of my soul to heaven than these of my body Than was iâ— given me to understand that I had really that unworthiness which I felt But that I must seek my entry to God and to our Saviour in the Communion of Saints Whereupon I was on an instant possessed with a wonderful presence of the respect and love and union of the B. Virgin the Angels and Saints which I am not able to express nor to utter the greatness and solidity of this grace For this union is Life Eternal and the Ecclesiastical Paradise and this union is both for the Saints in Heaven and those on earth which I have almost always in full view and presence From thenceforward I understood that we were not made by God to be alone and separate from others but to be united unto them and to compose with them one divine total Even as a beautiful stone fitted for the head of a column is altogether unprofitable till it be settled in its place and cemented to the body of the building without which it hath neither its preservation its beauty nor its end This meditation left me in the love and in the true and experimental connexion of the communion and communication of Saints yet with a due order of those to whom I am more united which is my Life in God and in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the contents of that Letter CHAP. 7. His devotion to the Holy Sacrament ONe of the greatest Devotions of this holy man was that to the H. Eucharist considered both as a Sacrifice and as a Sacrament of which he had ever an incredible esteem honouring it with all possible reverence and affecting it with tender love blessing and praising God for its institution and exciting both by his word and pen the whole world to do the same He was accustomed to say that it was instituted to stay and place our Saviour God and Man in the midst of us to obtain for us all the benefits of grace whereof we are capable here and to dispose us for those of glory That the great design of God in the Incarnation the Life Death and Resurrection of his Son was to convey unto us his Spirit to be unto us Life Eternal which Spirit he hath taught us by his Word merited for us by his Death doth more confer upon us from his estate of Glory And the better to convey this unto us to cause us to live thereby and dye in our selves he giveth himself to us in this most Holy Sacrament dead raised up and glorified to produce in us by the operation of his Spirit these two effects of death and life He was not onely present every day at Mass but took it for a great honour to serve the Priest himself He received every day if not hindred by very important business or some pressing occasion of Charity And as the honour we render to this B. Sacrament consists not in often receiving but in communicating well and perfectly he took all care thereof that could be expected from one of so holy life and eminent Piety He spent many hours in prayers upon his knees before the Blessed Sacrament And being once asked by a friend How he could remain there so long He answered That there he recreated his spirit receiving from thence refreshment and new forces and yet sometimes he encountred with some trouble in that Devotion which may be gathered from this Letter to his Director dated the 27 of June in the year 1647. I have been very poor all this moneth I know not whether I was ever so lumpish both in spirit and body as I was upon the Festival day of the Blessed Sacrament I was present at Service at Procession at Mass at Communion heard the Sermon at Vespers and Compline but like a very beast not knowing how to demean my self either kneeling or standing I was in a kinde of restless condition of body and very wandring and distracted in spirit onely I knew well that in the bottom of my soul I had a desire to honour God through his Son Christ Jesus After Compline I found my self so dull and heavy that seeing my self unable to remain
to God which kept him from any other diversion I cloath my self which is soon done and after pass to the Chappel through a little Parlour where over the Chimney I have set an Image of the Holy Virgin holding her Son as the Lady of the House I kiss the earth before her and say Monstra te esse matrem c. I devote my self to her service entirely with the offering up of my Family Wife Children Domesticks and I have practic'd this offering of them to her a long time that by her means they all may be perfected for God and rising up I say to her Mater incomparabilis or a pro nobis After that I enter into the Chappel where I cast my self down and adore God abasing me before him and making me the most little most naked most empty of my self that I can and I hold me there by faith having recourse to his Son and to his Holy Spirit that whatsoever is his pleasure may be done by me and so I abide If I have any Penance to do upon half an hour after six I do it and then I read two Chapters of the New Testament barcheaded and on my knees At seven a clock I go up to a Closet where there are three Stations the first to the Virgin the second to St. Joseph and the third to Teresa to all which I render my little Devoirs and afterwards I give place to my affairs but if there be no business urgent I prostrate my self before God till the time that I go to Mass staying at the Church till half an hour after eleven except on those days when we dine some poor people for then I return at eleven Before dinner I make the Examen of the morning and some Prayers for the Church for the Propagation of Faith and the Souls in Purgatory after that I say the Angelus I dine at twelve and in that while have something read half an hour after twelve I spend an hour with them that have business with me and that 's the time I appoint for that purpose Afterwards I go forth whither the order of God shall direct Some days ore order'd and assign'd for certain Exercises therest are reserv'd and unlimited from one week to another Now if it fall out that I have nothing to do I pray in a Church but happen what will I endeavour not to fail to visit every afternoon the Holy Sacrament and to spend about evening an hour in Devotion About seven a clock when I have made some vocal prayers we go to supper during which time one reads the Martyrologie and the life of the Saint for the day following Supper being done I talk to my children and tell them something for their instruction At nine a clock the bell rings to Prayer which all my Family is to be present at which done each one retires but I keep me in the Chappel in Meditation till ten and then I go to my Chamber recommending my self to my God according to my Bottom of Self-Annthtlation to the Holy Virgin my good Angel and other Saints I take holy water and lay me down in bed where I say the de Profundis for the dead and some other little Prayers and so endeavour to repose And so you have in some sort the order of the day as to my Exterior But for the order of my Interior I have not as I may say any for since I left it will be a yearâ— the Holy Week next my breviary all my forms have left me and now instead of serving meâ—â—s means to go to God they would become hinderance I bear in me ordinarily but with many infidelities so great in all this that I am about to speak of that I write it not without regret because I am nothing but vice and sin I bear I say in me ordinarily an experimental verity and a plenitude of the presence of the most Holy Trinity or indeed of some Mysterie which elevates me by a simple view to God and with that I do all that the Divine Providence enjoyns me regarding not any things for their greatness or littleness but onely the order of God and the glory which they may render him For the Examens and things done in Community which I mentioned before I often cannot rest my self there I perform indeed the Exterior for the keeping of order but I follow always my Interior without making any change there because when a man hath God there 's no need to search him elsewhere and when he holds us in one manner it is not for us to take hold of him in another and the soul knows well what it is which bottoms it more clearly what unites it and what multiplies and distracts it For the Interior therefore I follow this Attractive and for the Exterior I see the Divine Will which makes me to follow it and which carrieth me to govern my self according to it with the discernment of his Spirit in all simplicity and so I possess by his grace in all things a great silence Interior a profound Reverence and solid Peace I confess me usually on Thursdays according to the order that hath been given me and communicate almost every day as perceiving my self drawn thereto as also to stand in great need of it In a word the Bottom which hath been shewed me to stand on is to render my self to God through Jesus Christ with such a purity as hath in it operation to worship God in Spirit and Truth after a manner altogether stript and naked and of loving him with all my heart with all my soul and with all my power and of seeing in all things and adoring the conduct of God and following it And this onely abiding in my soul all other things in me are defaced and blotted out I have nothing of sensible in me unless now and then some transitory touches but if I may dare to say it when I sound my will I finde it sometime so quick and flaming that it would devour me if the same Lord who animates it though unworthy did not restrain it I enter into an heat and into a fire and even to my fingers ends feel that all within me speaks for its God and stretcheth it self forth in length and breadth in his Immensity that it may there dissolve and there lose it self to glorifie him I cannot express this thing as it is I do not make a stand upon any thing that passeth in me but fall always into my nothingness where I finde my act of purity towards God as above He concludes afterward in these terms I beg your pardon my Reverend Father if this thing here be so ill ordered I have set it down as it hath happened to me I should be very happy if you could know all my miseries for you would have them in great commiseration This was the writing he gave to his Director They that shall read it will judge without doubt if they understand it well and penetrate
answerable to what is still undiscovered within him These were the models after which this servant of God and illuminated soul fashioned himself In a Memorial written the fifth of March 1645. which he gave to his Director to render him an account of that which passed in his Interior he said One time being in the street where coaches passed to and fro and not knowing whether I ought or no look on them that were in them because it was in a place of my acquaintance and whether this would not give some occasion of talk to see that I went in that manner on not looking at all aside I had on a sudden upon my spirit but after a manner that I cannot doubt but it was of God Trouble not thy self about being known and Stand not upon knowing These two words gave me so great light and force that I dwelt more than eight upon this Contemplation That herein consists the greatest aids of the life spiritual and I have it daily for a ground It is certain that since the greatest part of our evils and imperfections come from a desire to be seen and to see this amusement must have in it great venome against the advancement of a soul although she often perceives not the damage nor feels the hurt that comes from it That which defiles our actions of Piety is that self-love makes one glad when they are known and observed men shew always the most fair and hide the foul and insidâ— and all the outside is so composed that the minde is often more taken up about that than about God And very few there are that have not a great part in this vain eying and regard passive and active of the creatures O how these words wrought in me a great separation from the world what purgation and and what purity is it to be upon the earth and there see nought but God! O how undoubtedly such a one would live as if he were not known without caring what the world says or thinks without desire of taking or receiving any part there of knowing or being known of any neither by name livery or visage but according as our Lord did How one would march naked pure and free of spirit I was then in t he midst of the streets and of noise among crouding and justling in such tranquillity so united to God and so much taken up by him as if I had been in a desart and since that time I go thus through the streets yet with liberty to look upon what I should see but without being fixt to it And these words are again sent into my spirit in necessary occurrences and they keep and conserve me in God I am for all that very unfaithful to this Grace but the centre and the ground of it is not blotted out of me and this renders me more culpable Thus we have what was in his Memorial Let us end with what he wrote to a Lady 1643. upon this business of a life that is secret and retired from communion with the creatures to whom he said Let us encourage our selves to lead this life unknown and wholy hid from men but most known to intimate with God divesting our selves chasing out of our mind all those many superfluities and those many amusements which bring with them so great a damage that they take up our mindes instead of God so that when I consider that which thwarts and cuts into so many pieces this holy this sweet and amiable union which we should have continually with God it appears that it is onely a Monsieur a Madam a complement and talking indeed a meer foolery which notwithstanding doth ravish and wrest from us the time that is so precious and the fellowship that is so holy and so desireable Let us quit this I pray you and learn to court it with our own Master let us well understand our part our own world as we here phrase it not that world I mean which we do renounce but that wherein the children of God do their duties to their Father CHAP. 4. Of the disesteem he made of the world THat great affection which he bore to an obscure life was an evident mark of his disesteem of the world for if he had esteemed it he would not have desired to quit it Now to say to what height he mounted in the disesteem of it is a thing very difficult 'T is enough for us to know that he had it in extream contempt by observing as abovesaid how he renounced as far as in him lay all that the world could promise and could give him and wherewith it useth to enslave and captivate men how he degraded himself of his Nobility how he yielded up his goods and stript himself of their property as no otherwise to use them than in quality of a poor man withdrew himself from pleasures rejected the honors dignities to which his birth and excellent perfection gave him very great overtures how he floured all its allurements trampled under foot all its glories He beheld for this end our Lord as his pattern who from his entry into the world and birth made an open profession of an absolute contempt of the world because as he said he was not of the world I finde written by his own hand in a Memorial which he gave to his Director this rare and solid illumination som our Lord in this matter Being saith he in the moneth of November 1644. in a Chappel richly Wainscoted and adorned with very excellent Sculpture and with Imagery I beheld it with some attention having had some skill in these things and saw the bundels of flowers diluces and of flowers in form of borders and of very curious workmanship it was on a sudden put into my minde The original of what thou seest would not detain thee at all in seeing it And I perceived that indeed all these and those flowers themselves and not in picture would not have taken me up and all the ornaments which Architecture and Art inventeth are but things most mean and low running in a manner onely upon Flowers Fruits Branches Harpies and Chymaera's part whereof are in their very being but things common and vile and part of them meerly imaginary and yet man who croucheth to every thing renders himself amorous and a slave of them no otherwise than as if a good workman should stand to copy out and counterfeit some trifles and sopperies I considered by this sight how poor man was to be cheated amused and diverted from his Soveraign good And since that time I could make no more stand to consider any of these things and if I did it I should reproach my self for it as no sooner seeing them in Churches or elsewhere but this is presently put upon my spirit The original is nothing the copy and the image is yet less each thing is vain except the employment of our selves about God alone And in truth a Christian who is nurtured and elevated for
all pollution from them like as the Sun shineth upon a dunghil without taint or imperfection Simplicity quitted him from all multiplicity engagements reflections upon his own Interest Complacencies Vanity passion of Joy or Sadness from any of his own Performances or Speeches from Praise or Dispraise or from the Vices of the Times Places or Persons he conversed with to receive any pollution from them no otherwise than a new-born childe beholdeth a Pageantry which passeth before it which is forgotten as soon as removed Lastly Purity directed his eye in a straight line to God pretending to nothing but his glory in any thing that man had a hand in And this proceeding of his all ought to imitate if they desire to make progress in Vertue and arrive to perfection and particularly those that treat much with their neighbour in the negotiation of his salvation that they may do it with more advantage to him and with no damage to themselves PART IV. His Vertues whereby he was elevated and united to God CHAP. 1. His Interiour and his Application to the Sacred Trinity ALthough what we have hitherto said of the Heroick Vertues and famous Actions of Monsieur Renty which had respect either to his own perfection or the good of his neighbour is very remarkable Yet the principal and more admirable is that which remains viz. The state of his Interiour and his communication with God So David saith that the Kings-daughter is all glorious within and the Holy Ghost setteth forth in lofty expressions the Spouse in the Canticles for the beauty of her face and of her whole body But it addes that nothing could sufficiently be uttered concerning the hidden graces of her Soul and Interiour which were far more charming and attractive even as the chief excellencies of our B. Saviour consisted not in his Exteriour or in those things he did either for himself or for men but in the intimate union he had with God and those actions he produced in the profundity of his Spirit towards him In like manner our perfection consists not in our good works which appear outwardly nor in the exercises of Charity Humility Poverty and the like Vertues open to the eye but in the application of our spirit to God and our union with him by the acts of vertue and chiefly of the three Theological ones It consisteth I say in honouring and adoring him in the Temple of our souls in performing to him there the Sacrifices of a lively Faith upon the Altar of our Understanding in offering up the Holocausts of perfect Hope and ardent Charity upon the Altar of our Will and in a total subjection of our spirits to his and an union of all our faculties with him whereby we become purified sanctified and deified proportionably as the blessed Saints are in heaven where this perfection is compleated This was Monsieur Renties practice whereby he had a true feeling of S. Pauls words Your life is hid with God through Jesus Christ concerning which he expressed his thoughts thus to a friend There is nothing in this world so separate from the world as God and the greater the Saints are the greater is their retirement into him This our Saviour taught us whilst he lived on earth being in all his visible employments united to God and retired into the bosom of his Father His principal care was incessantly to cultivate and adorn his soul to unite it intimately to God by the operations of his understanding and will to give up himself with all his strength to this hidden and divine life of Faith Hope and Charity of Religion of a mystical Death and entire Abnegation of himself Some years before his death his particular attractive was the contemplation of the B. Trinity being the last end in which all must terminate Whereof he gave this account to his Spiritual Guide in the year 1645. I carry about with me ordinarily an experimental verity and a plenitude of the presence of the Holy Trinity And in another Letter thus All things vanish out of my fancy as soon as they appear nothing is permanent in me but God through a naked faith which causing me to resign my self up to my Saviour affordeth me strength and confidence in God the Trinity in that the operation of the three Divine persons is manifested to me in a distinct manner viz. The love of the Father which reconcileth us by his Son the Father and the Son who give us life through the Holy Spirit the H. Spirit which causeth us to live in in Communion with Jesus Christ which worketh in us a marvellous alliance with the Sacred Trinity and produceth often in our hearts by faith such inward feelings as cannot be expressed He writ also to a confident friend and one that was much devoted to this Sacred Mysterie How that the proper and special effect of Christian grace is to make us know God in the Trinity uniting us to the Son who causeth us to work by his Spirit And to say the truth we are consecrated by our Baptism to the worship of the B. Trinity Therein we are consecrated to his Glory receive its Seal and put on its Badge and Livery to manifest to us and to all the world that we are perfectly and absolutely its own He writ to the same party in the year 1648. on the same subject The Feast of the blessed Trinity giveth me this occasion to write that we may renew our selves in the honour and dependance we have upon this incomparable Mysterie I desire to joyn hearts with you to adore that which we are not able to express Let us melt into an acknowledgement thereof and foâ—tifie our selves by the grace of Faith through Christ to be perfected in this adorable Mysterie Infinite things might be spoken which my heart resenteth of the latitude of this grace but I cannot utter them I beseech you let us adore God let us adore Jesus Christ let us adore the holy Spirit which Spirit discovereth unto us the operations of love and mercy of these Divine Persons in us and let us make good use thereof The same year he clearly expressed his condition and the manner of wholly applying himself â—oâ—th Sacred Trinity how that his soul was most entirele united to the three Divine Persons from whence he received illuminations that surpassed all humane understanding how he lived perpetually retired and locked up as it were with the Son of God in the bosom of his Father Where this Son became his Light his Life and Love and the holy Spirit his Guide his Sanctification and Perfection how he did bear within himself the Kingdom of God which he explained by a resemblance of what the Blessed enjoy in heaven by vertue of that view and transcendent knowledge of the sacred Trinity which was communicated to him and that pure Love by which he felt his heart inflamed and as it were transformed into God in whom he possessed a joy and repose beyond all expression That
beams and treading in their steps gave himself to this exercise with such care and diâ—igence that we may aver this to have been his ordinary employment and his whole life a trade of praying I mean not here his vocal Prayers having spoken of them before I affirm that his affection was exceeding great to mental Prayer understanding well the necessity thereof as that whereby we come more intimately to know and reap the benefit of all Christian verities which until they be known are not at all beneficial and the utility thereof to learn a man what he is and enable him to exercise the real acts of vertue in the inward life and spirit of them elevating the soul to a familiar conference with God an honour more incomparably glorious though but for one quarter of an hour than is the most intimate communication with the greatest Monarchs for whole years together like as we esteem it a greater honour to discourse freely and familiarly with a King the space of one hour than many years with a Peasant Moreover he well understood the different manners of this Prayer and how it ascends by four steps The first is Prayer of Reasoning and Discourse The second that of the Will and Affections The third that of Union or Contemplation which divides it selfe into two branches viz. in Contemplation active or acquisite and Contemplation passive or infused which passive Contemplation is the fourth and highest round of this ladder of Prayer Prayer of the Understanding and of Discourse or Meditation is an application of the Spirit to understand some vertues of his salvation which he apprehended not before reasoning and discoursing thereon within himself ruminating upon its causes effects and circumstances of time place manner and persons belonging to it to draw from thence arguments of good life going from one circumstance and point to another from the causes to their effects and so backward which is called reasoning and because our minde is quick and ready in this operation not onely nimble to go but run in it therefore it is termed also discourse He began at this step and made some stay upon it where indeed every one ought to begin and rest until he is called by God to another because the most proper and naturall way that God hath given men to come to understand and affect any thing is that of Consideration and Reasoning wherefore each one must serve himself herewith till he be advanced higher The ordinary subject which he took for these meditations were the Life Passion and Death of our Saviour Which without all contradiction is the most profitable of all others since he is set before us for our pattern in the imitation and expression whereof consists our perfection and life eternal After some time having been faithful in this first stage he passed to the second that of will and affection being called with an Amice ascende superius Friend fit up higher Not unlike a Scholar who becoming a good proficient is set up to a higher class of deeper learning For he spent not all his days in Grammar but studied to proceed from one Science to another till he arrived to perfection This Prayer of Affection is a familiar and passionate treaty betwixt Christ and the Soul wherein very little or no discourse is used or a sincere communication with God as present and resident within us in which the soul quitteth all reasonings and disputes and by a simple direct contemplation and thinking upon God is carried on to him and enflamed with the desires of praising blessing adorning and glorifying him with several elevated acts of grace oblation petition and above all of Love the Queen of other Vertues most acceptable to and most glorious in the sight of God most advantagious to our selves enabling us with power to surmount all difficulties to practice all good works and uniting us more intimately to God This I say the Soul performs without discourse in regard that the understanding being sufficiently furnished with light from her former meditations hath no need to study new arguments or motives to produce love and other necessary affections but may serve herself of the former store The way to practise this is first of all to retire into the secret cabinet of our heart applying our selves to God who resideth there not by reason and discourse but by faith stedfastly believing his Divine presence with all his perfections And in order to this firm assurance to present our selves before him with profound reverence and adoration abasing our selves out of respect to his infinite greatness and the sense of our own vileness in the light of those words of David Domine quis similis tibi Quid est homo quod memor es ejus Lord who is like unto thee What is man that thou art mindeful of him or that he should dare to appear before thee Keep your self before him with these affections of Reverence and Humility and remain there for some considerable time the better to imprint them upon your soul for such time will be very well spent and continuâ— it yet longer if you finde your heart dilated and melted with these affections After this shutting out all ruminating and reflection upon the subject you desire to be employed upon as for example suppose it be this that God is all in all and your self are less than nothing that he is your Soveraign Lord and ultimate end that he hath a particular care of every thing that concerns you that our Saviour dyed for you and the like employ your self hereon by faith in a most simple naked manner reiterating acts of a lively faith of such a truth which the Church hath taught you and after this an act of Hope or of Praise or Thanksgiving or Contrition for your sins or of any other passion the soul shall be more disposed to but especially of love taking care that these affections have an influence upon your will and manners to produce in them a happy alteration These are the directions we are to observe in this second degree of Prayer which therefore is called Prayer of Gods presence and of Fâ—ith and of Affection Wherein also two things are carefully to be marked First that it is not requisite in this prayer to exercise at the same time several passions but rather one as Hope Love or any other well-grounded and prosecuted is sufficient And the rea on is plain because so long as God gives to the soul the grace to produce acts of any one vertue in such a manner as that she findes herself disposed and pressed thereto and to exercise the same with ease this is an evident token that it is his will that she should serve and honour him should sanctifie and perfect herself by the same and that she ought to continue therein so long as she findes that succour graciously assisting her Moreover on the souls part it would argue want of discretion to quit so good and profitable an exercise
the spirit which is never so compleat as when it is alone Giving notice to a friend of the death of the Countess of Castres for whose spiritual good and perfection he had taken very much pains He writeth thus I was not in Paris but at Citry when she departed I was sent for post the day of her death which was Saturday but came two hours too late Entring the Town I understood the news from them that spake openly of it in the streets Presently I fixed my self to the will of God whereupon I found no more alteration in my soul than if she had been alive I see his order in this that I assisted her not at her death and make no doubt but that he permitted it for her advantage To a friend that had lost his Spiritual Director he writ thus Touching the remove of your Ghostly Father it would without question prove a great loss to you and all the Countrey from whence he went if the providence of God herein did not rather sanctifie and establish than destroy and if oftentimes by removing these petty visible and sensible supports he did not make way to settle us more firmly in our progress to which he designs us which is to dwell and to hold our selves in God together with Christ Jesus where we finde all truth and all power and who is so neer to us that he is even in the midst of â— and proportionably as our dependence upon creatures faileth through his providence he makes it appear aâ—d we experimentally finde that we are not left destitute thereby but that supply is made either by his Spirit that resideth continually in us for our relief or by the conduct of his Ministers which the fewer they are the more is that grace dilated and multiplied which we receive by them So great is the providence of our Heavenly Father as to take care of the meanest necessities of all his children who to him behave themselves as children Neither indeed ought we to be further engaged to those persons who assist us in our Spiritual conduct than as to Gods instruments whose help it is his will we should make use of but no longer than he pleaseth and when his will is either by death or otherwise to take them from us we ought not to be afflicted nor lose our courage but with submission and gratitude resign all to him which will be a good means to move him to provide others who perhaps with more advantage to us may understand the pulse of our souls In fine he was dead to all love of himself which he had so perfectly subdued that being naturally quick and hasty as we have formerly hinted he became so staid and equal in all his demeanor as caused admiration in those that knew him being naturally of a high spirit he had acquired a most profound humility of heart whereof he produced most evident actions exteriourly at all times and in all places And though his genius inclined him to wit and scoffing yet he so corrected it that none was more respectful and courteous to all even the meanest As for his passions those were so perfectly subdued and regulated that they never broke loose upon any occasion so that you might say he had none at all He had arrived to a perfect death in the superiour faculties of his soul his memory so emptied of all worldly things that it never presented any Idea's sufficient to distract his Devotions He made not any imperfection upon what was past as we have observed and our Saviour had endowed him with this singular grace not to be busied in his thoughts about those actions in which he was conversant which after they were done were obliterated wholly as to any care for them and quite blotted out of his memory that they might be no hindrance to what was in hand This Letter was writ to a familiar friend relating hereunto It is some while ago that finding my self in the midst of a world of people my spirit was enlightned and affected neither to desire to know any body nor to be known to any This hath wrought in me a wonderful separation from every thing and methinks herein consisteâ—h one of the chiefest points of a Spiritual Life which requires great purity of spirit wonderful estrangement and distance from the creature and which placeth the soul in this world as if it were no part of it in a state of perfect oblivion and ignorance of things which do not concern her that is no longer able to endure but onely what is necessary He was dead to his spirit reason and judgement living onely the life of Faith which is a Christians proper death It may be gathered from what hath been mentioned already that he acted nothing by this faculty of its self no more than if he had had no such power but wrought all by the moving of Christ Jesus who lived in him and operated by him Lastly he was annihilated and dead to his own will which we have placed after all as being the most important faculty in relation to Moral actions This therefore he had entirely resigned in conformity to Gods will not desiting absolutely any thing but in order thereto I adore saith he in one of his Letters so affectionately the will of God in whatsoever he pleaseth to make out for me that Hell it self should be my Paradise if he decreed me thither And in another thus Far be it from me to act in this business by my own spirit I would have it wholly annihilated that it might know no other language but Nothing and continually Nothing to follow in all the footsteps of the Divine will according to its measure and manner And to a third thus My Saviour hath graciously brought me into such a state of indifferency for every thing that I could be very well cortent all my life to be fixed to my bed a Paralytique not able to stir without making any reflection upon any service I might render to my neighbour or that I could render him no more all things according to the will of God being equal to me And in a fourth thus Of late I have been busied in such occasions both Exteriourly and Interiourly as were sufficient to have gravel'd such a weak mean spirit as mine had it not been absolutely resigned to the will of God It is upon him alone by this way of Abnegation that I bottom my self adoring with you and by your instruction the decrees of his Sacred and Divine Will who holdeth all things in his own hands to keep us subyect unto him by his justice and to sanctifie us also by love If the effects thereof upon us do evidence us to have the hearts of children that is 〈◊〉 Spirit of Christ Jesus to sigh after our heavenly Father and cry Abbâ— Peter SECT 2. Continuation of the same subject MOnsieur Renty was so absolutely resigned to God having quite lost and annihilated his own will into thâ—â— of God
and Annihâ—lation 312 Sect. 1. More of the same subject 317 Sect. 2. Continuation of the same subject 328 Chap. 10. Of his Corporal Death 335 The Conclusion of the Work how we ought to read the Lives of Saints 346 ERRATA PAge 88. l. ult for som read from p. 90. l. 2. for a boot of hay-ropes r. a bottle of hay p. 91. l. 15. for possessing it all r. possessing it at all THE HOLY LIFE OF Mon r De RENTY c. PART I. CHAP. 1. Of his Birth Infancy and Youth SO great and glorious were the vertues and good deeds of the late deceased Mon r de Renty that I can begin my discourse no otherwise than by ingenuously confessing my disabillity to set them out as they deserve not even so much of them as appeared outwardly to the eyes of men and much lefs the inward Treasure that lay hid in his Soul though that be the principall Yet notwithstanding undertake I must to write something thereof as not able to deny the requests of many persons of Piety and quality who well knowing that I had enjoyed the happiness of his acquaintance in a singular maner for divers years together even when he was in the very height of the glory of his Vertues and that so great a Treasure so much concerning the glory of God and the publicue good as this excellent and perfect Christian life of his was ought by no means to be buried in Oblivion did judge me in a sort obliged to prevent so great a damage Come we therefore to the business for the greater Glory of God who is admirable in his Saints and of our Lord Jesus Christ who replenished this rare man with his Graces and abundant communication of his Spirit and let us do it in the strength of that Divine assistance which as I stand in very great need of so I humbly beg it with all my soul Monsieur de Renty draws his Original from one of the most Noble Houses of Artois which is that of Râ—nty famous for its Anâ—iquity for its great Alliances and in particular to the House of Crowy whence came the Dukes of Arscot and Princes of Sâ—may for the Honorable Employment of its Ancestors and their Noble Acts in Arms and Battels and above all for its Piety a great testimony whereof was left in the year 1570. by Wambert called the good Count of Renty and Hamburg his Lady who were not contented onely to found and richly endow within their Territories an Abbey under the name and protection of St. Denis which had the blessing to have a Saint for Abbot to wit St Bertulphe but went on encreasing more and more like the Morning light in vertue and good works and built besides that three other Churches one dedicated to St Peter another to St. Martin and the third to St. Wast Monsieur Renty was the onely Son of Charls de Renty and Magdalen of Pastoureau who also descended by her Mother from the same House of Renty He was born at Beny in low Normandy in the Diocess of Bajeaux in the year of Grace 16â—â— having the Poor to present him at the Fonâ— God so ordering it by a particular Providence that the Poor should be Godfathers to him who afterwards during his life should be a Sollicitor Protector and Father of the Poor He was at the Font named Gaston and at Confirmation John Baptist being brought up where he was born till he was between six or seven years of age and then by the Lady his Mother was he brought to Paris and lived there with her about two years till he was put into the Colledge of Navarre and from thence sent to Caen to the Colledge of the Jesuit Fathers having with him for his conduct a Tutor being a Church-man and besides him a Governour who unhappily prov'd an Huguenote and might in â—he sequel have been notably prejudicial to him in corrupting his faith and manners But God out of his singular and paternal care of him as intending to make him one day a great instrument of his glory and of the salvation of many souls preserved him from the pernitious intents and endeavours of that dangerous man and became himself his Governor which occasioned him since then to say that God from his infancy had been most gratio â— to him and as David saith of himself had been hiâ— keeper from his mothers womb As he had naturally a very good wit piercing reach and great judgement so was he very notable and famous for his progress in his studies from the which notwithstanding he was taken at the age of seventeen and put into an Academy as they call their Schools of Gentile Exercises at Paris where he shewed himself most dextrous and accomplish'd in all the Exercises there taught but that which most of all pleased and as I may so say charmed him was the Mathematicks which he applyed himself to with such diligence that he deprived himself of all sorts of divertisemenis which youth is given to and therein attained to such proficiency that he understood them perfectly and composed therein some Books But the time being now come when God was minded to go closer to the work he had in hand and to dispose this choice soul to the execution of those things which he was designed for it pleased him so to order it that a Stationer to whom Monsieur de Renty often repaired to buy such Books as he stood in need of for satisfying the curiosity and ardent desire he had of knowledge in all Sciences suitable to his condition did one day present to him the famous little Book of the Imitation of Christ and desired him to read it but he having as then his minde taken up with other notions made no account of it for that time The Stationer having brought him another day some Books that he had need of presented the same again to him and with some earnestness besought him to be pleased to read it thereupon he yielded and read it and was thereby so enlightned and touched as before him a great multitude of persons of all sorts had been that entertaining now no other thoughts or affections he resolv'd to minde seriously his salvation and give himself up to God so that amongst the great fruits and signal victories obtained by that book we may well reckon for one this work of grace and change wrought upon Monsieur de Renty who also from that time forward had that Book in so great love aad esteem that he always carried it about him and made use thereof on all occasions The gracious effect which the reading of this Book wrought in his soul was so great that it bread and enkindled in his heart the thought and desire to quit the world to consecrate himself entirely to the service of God and to make himself a Carthusian although he could not but see himself to be an onely Son the Heir of a great Estate and endowed with qualities and perfections
that did open to him a way to the splendors of the world And as he was naturally resolute firm and constant succoured by the Divine affistance to whose will and pleasure he gave up himself as an absolute Sacrifice after he had duely examined and ordered his design he put himself upon the execution which passed in this manner Being one day upon Nostre-Dame Bridge with the Lady his Mother he desired leave to go forth of the Coach to buy something which being granted he stole presently out of her sight and slipping with cunning and diligence from street to street he gets out of Paris afoot in the moneth of December the year 1630. and takes the way to our Lady of Ardilliers and a few days after this escape advertised his Father thereof by this following Letter SIR I Nothing doubt but this alteration will bring with it some affliction to you the first motions of Passion being not in the power of men and indeed nature also enclining us to bemoan the loss of what she loves But fince that there is something of God in this business I most humbly beseech you to lay aside all passion out of your soul and consider that in it which is on Gods part Thus it is Sir that after I had combated two years with my self and resisted all the enspirations that God had given me during that time I was at last constrained to break off so long a delay in the quitting of the world avowing that I have not strength enough to undertake the working out my salvation in a place where is practised the contrary to what I would effect this is too perilous a matter for afceble person that hath a desire to march on sure ground and therefore I have judged that it would be more to the purpose to strangle the evil in the birth than to stay till it become greater and I not able afterwards to master it For so unlike are the maxims of the world to those of Jesus Christ that I cannot at all believe a soul that fears to offend him can live long in it and especially at the Court but that she shal soon be forced to abandon it when she shall see herself oblig'd to comply with the corruptions of the time which would not beseem me now to talk of since for a good while ago my design hath been rather to hide and bury in oblivion its fooleries than to recal them into my memory I am minded therefore to unwinde my self out of this Labyrinth although I know it will be said that I might well enough enjoy the world and and yet keep my self frow its enormities I confess it but let a man consider what comes after a man must resolve then to be the table talk of the Rabble of our Masters of the Mode that will give out that one 's a Bigot Pecisian a sour Fellow not fit for discourse and company a very burthen to the world with a thousand such like sayings whereof I have had already but too much experience In effect a pleasant thing it would be to see a young man of my inclinations enter the Court and there act the Reformado should you Sir but see it would not you your self in good truth be the first to laugh at me for my labour I therefore humbly beseech you to consider what a grief it would be to a Father to see his Son in the Court and great Meetings there onely to be contemned and set at nought not but that for all this a good Conscience counts it a great honor to suffer all these things for Gods sake but I believe it will make more for your contentment that I retire my self for at the Court a man must live as at the Court and being not able to serve two Masters I conclude with the Gâ—spel that he that serveth God ought to follow and attend on God I have always seen this practis'd in the world that when one hath a quarrel with another that mans friend is so far from offering his service to his adversary that he even shuns his company and conversâ—tion in like manner God and the world being in terms of hostility I should believe it a great offence not to do that for God which I would be sure to do for a friend which is but a mortal man And seeing when we love a thing we go not about to search out just the contrary to it so the means to avoid sin is to fly the occasions of it and shall it be said that for so wretched a thing as to make a little shew and to be talk'd of a man should endanger the loss of his soul No no and they that think so now will be of another minde when they must give an account to God for what is past then it will be that they will know what it is to live well or ill but then it will be too late and therefore leaving the dead to bury their dead according to the small illuminations we have let us labour to reform our life and to do something for the love of God who hath told us so expresly and so often that we must deny our selves for sake all and follow him which thing I believe you would not be willing to gainsay You are the cause of my demurring and retardment and since the time of my dayly praying for this retirement I have had many thoughts of your affliction which yet for all that will soon be mitigated when you shall consider that God doth all for the bâ—st and that it may be he hath sent you this tribulation to produce out of it some good effects I leave this to his secret dispensations and beseech you to believe that I am able to serve you at least as much in this new Profession as in that which you had design'd me to God give me the grace to do it I acquaint you not yet with the place where I am fearing least now at first your passion should cause you to come hither but within a short time when I shall know the state of things a little better I will not fail to gâ—ve you notice In the mean while I shall uncessantly pray him whom I am resolv'd to serve to abide with you and make you know how passionately I am Sir Your most humble Son and most obedient Servant Gaston de Renty Thus you have the Letter he sent to his Father wherein we may read his Spirit his Devotion and the pure and solid Illuminations that already shone in his Understanding His Father extreamly afflicted at his absence sends abroad every way to seek him and God who gave him this desire though not to take effect would so have it that he was found at Amboise although in disguise having chang'd a Gold-lac'd Suit into a poor mans habit He was brought back thence to his Father at Paris who thought it not amiss to carry him along with him to his Castle or Mannor House of Beny where he
number the time favourable and themselves fresh setting upon men harrass'd out and tired with the pains of a long march Thus God watcheth over them that fear him and for their sakes many others also This lodging might have faln to the lot of some one less deserving such a favour from God and that would not have made use of it so prudently For execution of business he was not at all defective therein having a body strong and robust a spirit active generous and resolute not fearing any danger But for an Additament hereto as it were the soul to the body and light to beauty we finde in him the fear of God Piety and Uprightness without which Nobility hath but a false glister power is destructive and War brings with it mischiefs horrible and without number Monsieur de Renty all the time of his being in the Armies performed constantly his Prayers and other Exercises of Devotion when he came to his quarters if there were a Church there His first care was to visit it and to do his devoir to our Lord if there were any Religious House he took up there his lodging and that he might not incommode them for himself alone when the Army staid any time in a place while many and much elder than he past away their time in Gaming Drinking Rybaldrie Swearing and other Disorders he contain'd himself within the bounds of his usual wisdom avoiding all these base and vitious actions and entertaining himself in Exercises of Vertue and Honour In every place where he had any power he wholly employed it to keep off disorders He forbad peremptorily his men the treating ill of their Hosts that entertain'd them or giving them occasion of complaint and he never took horse but he made come before him them with whom he quartered to tell him themselves if any had done them wrong and if he found that any of his had offended he forthwith saw it remedied and did them right One day being mounted and ready to depart having made this enquiry of his Hostess and she complaining that one of his Servants had stoln a shirt he caused them all forthwith to come before her that she might finde out the Thief which being done and one of them confessing that he had it upon his back he incontinently ordered that he should be stript of it before them all and it restored to the woman notwithstanding many persons of quality thought it very harsh and opposed the business But he always kept himself firm to Justice and said he would by no means endure any Thieves If all that have commands dealt in this sort as they ought people would not stand so much in dread of their Souldiers as of the most cruel of Enemies and God who is the Lord of Hosts would afford more blessing and success to their Arms. But as the passage most dangerous to Nobility of making Shipwrack of their Salvation is falling out and Duels so God was pleased that his Servant should meet with this perilous occasion to teach all Gentlemen and those that wear a Sword how they ought to behave themselves therein Being in the Army he he had a falling out with a punctilious Gentleman which coming to the knowledge of the Chief Officers he made it appear that this Gentleman had no reason at all to be agriev'd at him which thing they judged also to be very true But the other party not acquiescing in this determination appeal'd â—o that judgement which according to the unhappy Maxime of the World his Sword could yield him and challenged Monsieur de Renty to Duel who returned this answer to him that brought the challenge that the Gentleman was in the wrong and that he had given all satisfaction which in Justice he could desire But this not contenting this untoward spirit he persisted in his perilous design to make him meet with his sword to which finding himself much press'd he made an answer vvhich is so much the more considerable in that he vvas so young and had not as yet a reputation but vvas to get it by Arms The ansvver vvas this that he vvas resolv'd not to do it since God and the King had for bidden othervvise he vvould have him knovv that all his satisfactions he had endeavoured to give him came from no fear of him but of God and of his displeasure and that he vvould go every day after his vvonted manner vvhither the necessity of his affairs call'd him and that if he did assault him he vvould make him repent it This quarrelsome man seeing he could not provoke him to an open Duel found one day the means to meet him and so to make him dravv his Svvord vvhere by the just judgement of God this other came very ill off for he and his second being hurt and disarm'd got nothing for their rashness but shame and sorrovv But then this true Christian Gentleman instead of doing them more harm as he might led them to his Tent caused Wine to be given them their vvounds to be drest and their Svvords to be restor'd them And joyning to Charity and Generosity both Humility and Modesty as his greatest ornaments he kept the thing ever after in secret never opening his mouth concerning it to any as some vvould have done out of vain-glory and vvhich is more to be vvondred at he never aftervvards spake vvord thereof to his man vvho vvas present and serv'd him for a second in this Assault to vvhom also before the deed vvhen he savv himself forced to a defence he gave charge by no means to kill This was not the onely difference but he had others also with some of the Neighbours or at least good cause to complain of them to which business he brought all that Prudence Patience and Charity could contribute and always came off most happily and he was wont to say to his Domesticks concerning his own differences or theirs that there was more of courage and generosity to bear any injury for the love of God than to requite it with another and to suffer than to revenge because the thing was far more difficult that Bulls themselves had courage enough but that it was a brutish courage whereas that of ours should be reasonable and Christian CHAP. 3. His entire change and call to a high Perfection MOnsieur de Renty having lived to the age of 27 years it pleased God to touch him now more closely to enlighten him more clearly and to call him to that high Perfection whereunto by the faithful co-operation which he yielded to this call we have seen him to arrive that like a great Torch or Luminary he hath spread his beams far and wide to Paris and in all places where he hath been This came to pass at a Mission made by the Fathers of the Oratory some six or seven Leagues from Paris whither he went on foot and where he made a general Confession with all the care that those take who desire to do it
exactly And so great graces did he receive in this new call of his that he marked this time as the beginning of his intire Conversion to God and perfect Consecration to his Service In pursuit of this change as he knew that what good desire soever one hath to advance towards Perfection the way that leads thither was hard and full of dangers and therefore not to stray out of the way and be lost of necessity one must have a good guide so God out of his singular Providence for his Sanctification provided him one and such a one indeed as his need required and that was the Reverend Father de Condrien General of the Oratory a Personage of profound Science of great Piety and of high capacity for matters Interior who had the conduct of him for some twelve years space to wit as long as this Father lived and that with great care and affection extraordinary as so excellent a subject deserved who made by his means such a notable progress that it caused him to say to a certain person that Monsieur de Renty would one day be a great Saint The way he took in effect was this following not to speak of his Penances and Austeriâ—ies which are the first combats of a person well converted and call'd to great matters of which we shall treat hereafter he withdrew himself altogether from the Court he bad adieu to all employments of Vanity and Ambition to be taken up in those entirely which might glorifie God and help his Neighbour he renounced all visits of pure complement and unprofitable He set his minde to the exercise of Prayer and therefore said every day the Great Office rising even in the night to say Matins and after made an hour of Meditation insomuch that he continued everie night two or three hours in prayer and that in the greatest rigor of winter Every day he made two examens of his conscience with an exact search into his smallest faults one in the morning before dinner and the other at evening He confessed twice a week and communicated three or four times He went one day in a week to visit and instruct the poor sick people of the great Hospital de Dieu Another day those of his own Parish and a third the Prisoners and in the rest he used to meet at Assemblies of Piety But in regard he had more care and zeal for his Children and Domesticks as he was oblig'd and well knew to distniguish Commands from Counsels and Obligations from Voluntary Devotions he ordered that every evening by the sound of a bell they should be assembled to make together their Examens to say the Letanies of our Lady and other Prayers Every Saturday he made them in presence of his Lady a Discourse upon the Gospel of the Sunday following to imprint in them the Principles and Instructions of matters of their Salvation from which they reaped much edification and profit But that which was highly exemplary was the order he kept in his journeys which was thus There was as much regularity therein as in a well reformed Religious House In the morning before setting out they heard Mass as soon as in Coach and beginning to go the first thing done was the saying the Itinerarium which he never omitted how short soever the journey was he made next was the singing of the Letanies of our Lord then followed some Meditation after that he said a part of the Divine Office which being done he entertained the company with some good discourse and such as raised them up sweetly to God Beholding the spacious extent of the Countrey he would speak of the immensity of God upon the presenting of any beautiful object to their eyes as any Summer-house for delight any Meadow enameld with flowers any River winding pleasantly about the land he would discourse of the Beauty of God or of Paradise forming such acts of vertue upon it as toucht the very heart approaching near to the place where they were to dine he made the Examen and being come thither as also where he was to lodge at night as soon as out of Coach and before he entred the Inne would he go to the Church where if the door was shut and no man found to open it he kneeled down at the door to render his devoir to the holy Sacrament afterward he enquired if there were any Hospital in the place to the end he might go thither and exercise his Charity Being in his Irin the first thing of all he did in his chamber was to cast himself on his knees and to worship God to pray with great affection for all persons that entred that place and for pardon of all disorders that had been there commited When he saw any thing written upon the walls or chimney that offended modesty he defac'd it and in place thereof writ words of Instruction in Piety and the way to Happiness and endeavoured always before departure to give some good advice to the servants of the house and to such poor of the place as he could meet with that so by the example of our Lord he might not pass through any place without doing some good in it After dinner when up in Coach again he made some recollection and applied himself to his Interior for some little time then entertained some recreation which was grave and modest afterward with the company sang the Vespers which done he wisht them to refresh themselves a little and use some innocent divertisement in which to render it Christian and Holy he interwove some touches of Piety Often he caused them to sing with him the Articles of our belief in French which to that end he had caused to be set in Musick About four a clock they sung the Compline afterward he made by himself some mental Prayer and being come to his Inn his Exercises were the same with those of the morning and this was the rule he observed in his journey If that saying of the Jews be true that a may man be known in sickness at the table in play and in a journey we may easily judge by what hath been said already how much must needs be the vertue of this great servant of God As the end of Marriage is to have children and of Christian Marriage to render them vertuous in order to Eternal Happiness so he took very great care both by himself and others to make his children such and for that end to engrave deeply in them the fear of God to disaffect them from the esteem of the world to let them know that the Maximes of it are much contrary to the Spirit of Jesus Christ and that true Nobility consists in vertue Behold here his thoughts of this matter as he wrote them to a certain Lady For the Education of Infants God having distinguished their conditions seems to teach us that there ought to be a difference between the nurture of a Peasant and that of a Gentleman who being born to
to the bottom the sense of his words that very great were the Vertues and highly rais'd the perfection of this excellent servant of God and by so much the more ought they to judge so as they may assure themselves that he hath not a jot exceeded in the report of the things which concern him but rather that he hath diminished them being by grace and indeed by nature also extreamly reserved and most considerare in whatsoever he said and especially in speaking of himself SECT 2. The Source from whence these Vertues flowed IF now we will examine the Principal of those Vertues and Perfections and the Well-spring whence they issued we shall finde that it was from the intimate Union which he had with the Lord Jesus Christ whereunto he alwaies above all things gave up himself His sage and illuminated Director the Reverend Father de Condrien knowing that the Union with Jesus Christ is the foundation of our Predestination Justification and Sanctification of all the grace and glory which we can ever have that Jesus Christ being the way whatsoever is out of this way can be nothing else but wandring that he being the Truth whatsoever is nor conformable thereto is nothing but lying that he being the Life whatsoever lives not by this life nor is quickned by the Spirit of Jesus Christ is not alive but of necessitie dead he did therefore that which ought alwaies to be done with great care by all Directors of souls which was to make him to know the importance and the necessity of this Unon to fix him stronglie and constanâ—lie to Jesus Christ for the Government of his Interior and Exterior to put him this Way to binde him to this Truth and to Unite him to this Life Monsieur de Renty followed exactly this conduct and therein made a great progress which he went on in perfecting to his death with marvellous improvements so that as the last touches which the Painter gives to his Picture are far different from those of the first rude draughts or as the Sun hath more of heat and light as he advanceth higher in his carreer and approacheth to Mid-day than when he but newlie riseth In like manner the applications the ties and the unions which this excellent man in his latter years had with Jesus Christ and the actions which he either did for him or received of him were quite other from those at his beginning for he was then wholie consummate in Jesus Christ he had as it were passed into him and he carried him as it were in a livelie manner in his soul in his thoughts in his affections in his desires in his words and in his works Hence it was that he had no other object before his eies but Jesus Christ that he thought not but of him that he loved nothing but him that he spake not but of him that he wrought not but for him and alwaies after his sampler that he read not but the New Testament which he carried alwaies with him and endeavoured by all means possible to engrave the knowledge and love of it in all hearts Wriâ—ing to his Director the year 1646. concerning his dispositions he sent him these words among other To speak to you of my Interior I feel my self not to will but God and in union with our Lord Jesus Christ to yield him all my homages This is the fulness of my heart and I feel this well when I sound it He said this to him in another Letter I am in great necessity of Jesus Christ but I ought to tell you by an acknowledgement of the Mercy of God by a certitude of this truth that I feel that he is more ruling in me than my self I know for all that that of my self I am but sin but withal I experiment my Lord in me who is my streâ—gth my life my peace and my All I beseech him to become our plenitude Moreover in another thus I finde my self said he much troubled what to send you because all things become raz'd out of my minde as soon as passed and I cannot retain within me anything but God and this in a kinde of a hoodowink'd blinded manner with a naked faith which faith making me know the evil bottom which is in my self gives me notwithstanding great force and confidence by way of abandoning and Self-Rejection upon our Lord Jesus Christ in God I haue found this morning a possage in S. Paul which I believe our Lord hath put into my hand to express my self by seeing it is the very â—ruth of what I experiment Fiduciam â—urem talem habemus per Christum ad Deum non quod sufficientes simus cogitare aliquid a nobis quasi ex nobis sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est This boasting we have by Christ to God-wards not as if we were sufficient to think any thing of our selves as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God It is about a fortnight since these words were put upon my spirit without any contribution on my part or of any thing that might renew the Idea's of them quaere venam aquarum viventium seck the vein of living water and just as they were exprest to me my spirit like as when one comes up a River to its Spring-head was to seek Jesus Christ from the beginning of his Pilgrimage to the point of his Glory when set down in his Throne at the right hand of his Father whence he sends his spirit to animate his Church and enliven those that are his I saw that there indeed was the Source whence the springs of living waters do flow to us and that thither we were to make our addresses I could report here more such touches with which his letters to his Director were besprinkled but I believe I have given enough for the present to evidence his disposition towards our Lord and his union with him When he wrote to other persons he always insened something of our Lord to excite them to binde themselves to him and to propose him to themselves in all things as a model of their actions One while he writes thus Let us forget all to think of this faith which makes alliance between God and us through Jesus Christ who is come to publish this truth which he hath sealed with his blood and which he will consummate in his glory at that time when we shall appear to have been faithful in following his Spirit Let us go after and with Jesus Christ to God for he is our way Another while thus 'T is a thing admirable that it hath pleased God to seud us his Son to the end that we may not look on him any more as our Creator onely but also through the alliance that we have with him we may call him Father He is therefore our Father from this time forward and it is certain that he considers us as his children in the person of his Son Incarnate But the thing of importance is a firm
aniting of our selves to this Son contiruing that life of his upon earth within this of ours by the direction of his Spirit Thus also in another Letter Let Jesus Christ be in each of us our bond our soul our life as he is our pattern Le ts take a nearer view of this Holy Original enter into his Principles lay hold on his desires execute his works and let men know that we are Christians Writing to another he spake thus I adore and bless with all my heart our Lord Jesus Christ for that he opens you his heart to possess wholly yours he will make it to dye and will reduce it to a Holy Poverty which shall cause you to taste the true Life and compleat Riches and to avow that it is a great mercy to belong to Jesus Christ I beseech him to bestow on you his most sanctifying graces and that we may beth dye well and live well by his Spirit Let us enter into this Spirit which will give us the Sentiments and the Energie of the Children of God All other presence and application to the Divine Majestie which is not by this union of the Soul to Jesus Christ is onely of the creature towards the Creator which carries indeed respect but gives not the life and approaches of children towards God their Father where being united to the Interior operations of Jesus Christ we finde there the affections of true children which we canâ— not have but by being united to the true Son Let us end with that which a person to whom he unbosom'd himself confidently in this matter reports of him This rare man said he appeared touched with a verie tender and fervent love towards our Lord Jesus Christ I have observed that his Conversations and Discourses did shoot alwaies at this mark to imprint in souls the knowledge and love of our Lord with true soliditie In discourse with him I had often from him these words I avow that I have no gust in any thing where I finde not Jesus Christ and for a soul that speaks not of him or in which we cannot taste any effect of grace flowing from his Spirit which is the principal of operations both inward and outward that are solidly Christians speak not to me at all of such a one Could I as I may so say behold both miracles and wonders there and yet not Jesus Christ nor hear any talk of him I count all but amusement of spirit loss of time and a very dangerous Precipice And at several other times he said Let us love Jesus Christ let us unite our selves to his Spirit and Grace miserable sinner as I am who love him not yet should I be much joy'd at least to see my defects supplied by others that love him fervently but I am too unworthy to obtain a matter so great and wherein my self do bear so small a part Seeing then this faithful servant and follower of Christ Jesus had so strong an application and intimate union with his Divine Lord as 't is easie to gather from what hath been spoken we cannot but ascribe to this application and union all his vertues which we are going now to speak of in several and to look upon them as effects of this cause streams of this Fountain and branches of this Stem PART II. His Vertues in particular and first the Vertues which did perfect him in regard of himself CHAP. 1. His Penances and Austerities AS our flesh and senses are by their nature and more by their corruption very opposite to a Spiritual Life and among the enemies of our weal and perfection none more importunate or more violent than they so God useth when he intends to elevate any to the accomplishment of vertue and to make them Saints to inspire in them at the beginning of their conversion a spirit of Penance and mortification of their bodies Monsieur de Renty being destin'd by God to this glory and quickned by this Spirit encounters his body with rigorous Austerities thereby to reduce it to its duty and hinder it from annoying him in his Interior Exercises He begins therefore to fast every day making but one meal which he continued divers years until he was enjoyned otherwise and to take more nourishment to be the better able to undergo the great labours he undertook for his neighbour Some days in the week he wore an iron Girdle set with a double rank of long prickles and a bracelet of the same on other days he disciplin'd himself rigorously at some times wore haircloath having continually on his breast a brass Crucifix reaching to the bottom of his stomack the nails whereof being very sharp entred into his flesh When he went into the Countrey and was come to his Inn he would go into the Kitchin to eat there if it might be among servants and other mean persons and that for two ends both there to morâ—ifie his body and to speak some good thing to those poor people and when night constrained him to take his chamber he dismissed his servants to lie in other rooms and himself past the night in a chair or cast himself on a bed in his cloathes and boots which was his custom till death Being come to Amiens where I was and a Lady one of the chief of the Town having prepared a stately bed in a brave Chamber for him in honour of his vertue and cuality he was much troubled and would not at all use it but laid him down upon a bench and the day after as being much asham'd complained to me of the Lady for it so that to enjoy the blessing of lodging him at her house she was fain to change his chamber and bed and to accommodate him after his own mode that is to say where he might not be so much at his ease His Mortification in diet was very great eating little and always of the worst as not forgetting that our misery came not but by eating of delicious fruit Dining in company on a Fish-day one of the guests that noted his actions observed that all he eat was some Pears onely and that with so great modesty and recollection that one might easily discern that his minde was on God and not upon his meat When one of his friends a man of piety at Caen entertain'd him one day at dinner with some little ceremony as a person of quality he ate very little became much mortified and ashamed as he declared afterwards that Christians should be Feasters adding that a little would suffice and what a torment it was to him to be where there was so muâ—h chear as a thing quite contrary to the poverty of Christ who notwithstanding should be to us for our rule He would tell his friends that a little bread a little lard and butter was sufficient Hereupon his friends acquainted with this grace of Mortification in him took no more thought concerning his diet knowing his best entertainment to be the meanest fare The perfection
with a Father to whom he had communicated his inclinations to leave all who told me that one day he desired of him with many tears and on his knees his advice in the matter and that he was never more surpriz'd than to see Monsieur de Renty at his feet and in these sentiments of poverty And I have heard him say that the touch from God to separate him from the creatures and to make him quit the manner of living suitable to his birth was so powerful over his soul that if another touch from the same hand had not kept him back at the same time he had abandoned all and according to the example of S. Alexis had gone to live a poor life as he did but that God that imprinted this desire of poverty in him did hinder the effecting of it to keep him in the state wherein he had placed him which was to him no small cross because the desire torments and afflicts the soul in proportion to its vehemency when it cannot arrive to the possession of the thing desired But because he was absolutely conformable as it was his duty in all things to the will of God he bare this cross as contrary as it was to his affection with great peace and a perfect submission to what God had ordered Another witness of like authority gives him this testimony He told me said he often in the confidence we had together that he was ashamed when he entred into his house to see himself so well lodged in this world and that it was one of his greatest afflictions to have so much wealth and to be so much at ease that he should be ravished to see himself reduced to bread and water and to get the same by labour and the sweat of his bâ—ows Having one day asked him how he could be so quiet amongst all the faâ—idious accidents and incommodities that he suffered He answered me upon condition that I would keep it secret that through Gods mercy he found himself in a disposition of peace and state of indifferency in affliction as well as in joy and that he had no sentiments any more of fear or desire of any thing And of this my self hath seen the experience in some difficulties where the better part of his estate ran a great hazard without any appearance of the least commotion in him and his words were Seeing God hath given me the management of this estate I will do to preserve it what shall behove me and then it is all one to me what success shall follow Another reports thus He had the Evangelical poverty in its perfection being inâ—irely estranged in spirit and thought in heart and affection from all the wealth of the world and he told me that he fealt no greater cross than to have riches and that he should be extreamly glad to be a beggar and unknown if it had been the will of God Hence it came that he bare a kinde of holy envy towards the poor that he deemed them very happy that in beholding them he said sometimes with sighing but with a sigh that one might see came from the bottom his heart Ah! that I am not as they that he honour'd lov'd caress'd and kneel'd before them not onely in humility but in esteem of their estare in its disposing us so much to the perfection of the new Law and resemblance it hath with Jesus Christ Being one day visiting the poor in the great Hospital of Caen he was seen bare headed and on his knees upon the floor of the great Hall beating in a Morter some Drugs for the use of the poor sick people such was the respect and honour that he bore to those for whom he laboured that it put him into that posture But for an end let us hear him tell us himself his sentiments upon this matter and although he speak of himself le ts make no scruple to believe him as being a person most worthy of credit Behold therefore what he wrote to the Nun abovementioned Sister Margaret of the Holy Sacrament my most holy Sister I have it in my heart that the Holy Childe Jesus the Infancy of Jesus was one of the Mysterieâ— to which more particularly and profitably he applyed himself as we shall see in its due place would have something of me which he hath a desire I should beg of him and dispose my self for the obtaining of it And I avow to you that the more there comes to me of the riches of this world the more do I discover the malignity the eto affixed and that they produce nothing but garboil and trouble and afford not much means of doing good My heart is most strongly carried to an effective stâ—ipping my self of all and to follow him alone seeing he is my way as being the most poor and depressed amongst all his followers But that I know that it would be a presumption to believe my self capable of this estate and a temptation to put my self upon it being at present related as I am I â—ould pant and sigh thither ward very much that which I will draw hence is this that being ignorant of the coursels of God I cannot tell how he will dispose of me for the future and I offer my self up to whatsoever it shall please him knowing that with him I can do every thâ—ng as without him I have neither the power nor will for any thing My most dear Sister I have great need of doing penance and to be humbled I am greatly ashamed of my condition and of what I am I have the commodity and abundance of all things of this world but my family and estate of things permits it not to be otherwise and I see the Churches and the poor upon whom I would bestow it all at least as much as I may in justice part with or else to be poor as the poor are so that I may be no more ashamed of being better provided than they Thus you have his thoughts which by Gods permission are come to light to make us see what grace can do in a heart well disposed and to what a pitch arrives this perfect Poverty of spirit SECT 2. His outward Poverty THe high esteem and affection which this great servant of God had of the forsaking the goods of this world being not able to contain it self within the Interior of his soul appear'd outward and visible in a thousand effects and carried him on to the poverty Exterior in all ways possible for not to speak of the great Alms he gave to the poor far different from the course of many who though full of riches yet never think of using them according to Gods rule he divested himself of very many things to be impoverished as much as he could for he parted with some books because richly bound wore no cloaâ—hes but plain and close together used no gloves what season soever or at least a rare thing it was to see him have any in effect
that either by his sloth he was not answerable to their extent or that by the sole misery of nature he used them and made them lose some part of their force as it happens to Plants of the Levant which removed into a strange soil do not retain their vertue but degenerate and savour of the earth they are removed to And if the spiritual things of nature are allayed and corrupted in their passage through our senses how much more reason is there to think that the Divine and spiritual things of grace will there become enfeebled and altered These considerations rendred him most humble even in the greatest gifts of God and in things of most sublimity SECT 2. The pursuance of his Humility in heart AS the affections we bear to any thing are always founded upon the esteem we make of it so Monsieur de Renty esteeming himself so low so little and nothing in consequence thereof did extreamly abase and vilipend himself within his heart This he did in every thing and one of his strongest inclinations according to grace which is a great token of the Spirit of God in a soul was to be always condemning of himself He wrote to his Director I have at the same time two apprehensions quite contrary the one to avow to you with thankful acknowledgement to God that he fills me with effects of his goodness and impressions of his Kingdom and the other that I am more disposed to condemn than to regard my self for upon the whole what I do is pittiful Another time after some speech to him of many great enlightnings and excellent sentiments which God had communicated to him he told him I rest not upon all this I told you onely what is past to render you an account not making use of my judgement but to condemn my self for vices suspending it as to other things and committing it to God He wrote to another Confident I know not what will become of our business one must not speak a word in sweetness and patience but I shall lose my credit somewhat if this could be throughly lost it would be great justice Alas if no body endur'd me and all the world condemn'd me my pride perhaps would be humbled Carried on by this Spirit he had an ardent desire though always with his ordinary tranquillity and giving himself up to the orders of God to receive some disgrace If I were to wish any thing it should be to be much humbled and nullified and to be treated as an off-scouring by others This would be my joy but I believe I deserve not so great a favour This desire carried him to such a point that had he not been withheld with the consideration of greater good he had done strange things to be disesteemed and receive confusion Out of this sentiment and abundance of his heart he said thus to one I should have great pleasure if it were permitted me to go naked in my shirt through the streets of Paris to make my self disesteemed and taken for a fool Whence we must observe two things the first that God gives sometimes to holy souls some thoughts affections and desires so raised above the common pitch and humane reason that they may seem extravagant as this here which he gave to Monsieur de Renty and which was before him also in our founder S. Ignatius The second is that we must not at all put in execution such desires till before hand they have been well examined and justly weighed in the ballance of Charity and edification of our Neighbour This burning desire which he had to be diesteemed made him seek for and love his own abjection and when it came to take it not onely with patience but also which is the highest step that one can mount in humility with joy He gave an evident and notable testimony thereof in the first journey he made to Dijon whither a suit that he had with the Lady his Mother and which to him by an extraordinary dispensation of God was one of the greatest exercises of patience and humiliation that he underwent in all his life of which I shall speak more at large in the following Chapter had obliged him to go for thus he wrote to his Director the 24. of July 1643. I am at Dijon now seeing God is so pleased where I have learnt by the prejudicate opinions that were entertained concerning me what it is that God would draw from my journey which is that I lead a life secret and unknown to men in the spirit of penance The bruit which they had spread concerning me was that I was a Bigot and had nothing but artifices and shews of devotion for the colouring of my naughtiness that indeed I have kept my self much private in my closet out of fear to give by coming abroad rather scandal than any example of vertue I have found a generality that sollicited against me though such as from whom I had good cause methinks for divers good reasons to hope for a prop than from any other but have found the quite contrary But so also as God hereby hath done me many favours I have been to see them where I have received humiliation with great joy I have been very wary of opening my self in any thing that might recommend me unto them I have onely done in my business what truth required and for any thing else I made it matter of confusion and humiliation as I ought to do I shall be here I believe as one excommunicate and the Scape-Goat of the old Law chased into the wilderness for my enormous sins for which I am of opinion God would have me do penance not by meer pain onely but by such as withal brings shame and confusion with it I tell you this to render you some account not dwelling on it any longer my sole scope being to love God and to condemn my self SECT 3. His Humility in words THe Humility of heart in which Monsieur de Renty was deeply rooted produced in him the Humility of speech which hindred him ever from speaking any word that savoured of vaunting or that carryed the least tincture of arrogance and esteem of himself or which was uttered in a haughty manner or in a tone imperious or conceited but on the contrary they were all of them tempered with humility and modesty and as he deemed himself to be indeed a sinner lazy ungrateful perfidious ignorant so did he set forth and qualifie himself with these names and titles We have seen hereof already something before whereto we will adde also this which he writ to a certain person I am to speak the truth but an Idiot a poor Layick and a sinner Writing to a Priest he said What do I an unclean one and a Plebeian in grace and in condition in the Church who live in a state that Jesus Christ refused for himself I speak to a Priest and to the anointed of the Lord my God if I should make a reflection
so great things as the possession of God and Eternal glory ought to undervalue all that which is is here below yea how resplendent soever with much more reason than a great King will reject a boot of hay-ropes to which hay indeed the Prophet compares all worldly glories in comparison of his Crown and Kingdom This was the cause that employed this servant of God to animate a Lady to the vilifying of the world by writing to her in this manner I shall tell you that seeing we are not Christians but by the tie the dependence and the life we have of Jesus Christ I wonder how it comes about that a thing so little as man drawn out of nothing in his first original infected with his first Parents sin and the addition of his own raised to so high a degree of honour as the alliance of Christianity gives him in being one onely Christ with the Son of God in being his brother and a co-heir with him in the life to come I wonder I say how after such admirable Prerogatives man can esteem the world and make any account of its vanities Shall he have his heart here and be a man of this world after these considerations The things of the earth whereof death also will quite strip us and for ever shall they fill our hearts in that little time we have to be here to work out our salvation to obtain the treasures prepared for us and to render thanks to God for his mercies should we not make appear to God and men a faith that is altogether lively in quitting freely the things of this world its honours false or at least not profitable its establishments perishable its opinions extravagant and all that which will pass away like a dream even as we see our great Grandfathers are gone and there is no more memory of them their risings and settings their contentments and displeasures which did stick so close to their hearts and which they had so much pain to accommodate to the Law of Jesus Christ and to the genius of their times all this is vanished away Is it not true that we have cause to think them to have been out of their wits if they considered any other thing but God in their ways The same thing will happen to us each thing will pass away and God alone will abide O how good it is to be fastned to him alone He encourageth the same Lady in another Letter thus Courage all is well we must dye to the world and search out the obstacles that it brings to our perfections to condemn them and to live in the world in the Apostles sense as not living there at all possessing it as not possessing it all Let us drive stoutly out of our mindes the complacence and affection to our brave houses let us ruine the delights of our gardens let us burn our Groves let us banish these vain images which we have of our children hiding secretly in the love of them that which is but indeed our own self-love though we seem dead to it and it makes us desire esteem and approve in their persons that which we condemn in our selves to wit the luster and glittering of the world I know there is a difference of conditions but all ought to reject these entailments as men account them upon great birth and noble blood I mean these principles of aspiring to the highest and entertaining no sufferings such principles as these our children carry from that birth we give them but it behoveth that the second birth which we procure them from Jesus Christ do repair these disorders Let us take from them this vanity of minde all these stately demeanors and the examples of these Grandees in story whose punishments are as eminent in hell as their presumption hath been glittering on the earth for otherwise it will be found we shall conduct them to no better end In another Letter he explains to her what he had said concerning her Houses and Gardens and which without this Explication would seem to be very harsh My design said he was not that you should demolish your walls and let run into a rude wilderness your gardens to be more at liberty for God I understand my speech of the disingagements and the ruines which must be made in our mindes and not be executed on things insensible and which have no worth in them but in form When I say we must set all on fire my thoughts were of following that admirable spirit of the Apostle who would that we have poverty among our riches and divestment in the midst of our possessions he means that our spirits be truly purified and separated from the creatures which we really make our solace because a Christian that tends to perfection doth himself great wrong in dwelling upon these amusements and entertaining in his heart other inclinations than those of Jesus Christ who saw all the world without destroying it but withal without applying himself to it the business of his Father and his glory was his life the windings of rivers and the ornaments of fields were to him but things of feeble consideration and not matters of imployment Hither it is that I would have one come and desire no more It is in effect thus That we must contemn the world whereunto God carries us and to bring us thither more efficaciously he permits by turns and often that we receive therein disgraces and meet with pain and trouble as when a man sets thorns in a way to make men take another The which Monsieur de Renty knowing very well see what he writes thereof to a certain person God hath his ends through all these contrarieties which is that those that are his should be yet more his in affiance in recumbency in life and in all The bruite of the world and its turning upside down are advantageous to make known its spirit its confusion its vanity to them that are not of it and who being in the spirit of death wait for nothing more there than for death bringing forth in the mean while the effects of life eternal which is a kinde of advancement out of mortality whilst we are in it CHAP. 5. Of his Patience QUestionless the humble man is patient because he esteems himself worthy of the evil he suffers and of much more also And if we will search into the true cause of our impatiences and drive up to the spring head we shall finde it to be our pride and the esteem of our selves Monsieur de Renty being most humble as we have seen was also by consequence most patient as this Chapter is going to relate And now at first when I am thinking of it there comes into my minde the description that Tertullian makes of patience representing her with a visage sweet and calm a forehead serene without all shew of frowning or sadness a carriage always equal few words and a contenance such as one sees in persons innocent and assured
Now they that knew him will say that this is the very portraicture of him in his native colours as being the very image of Patience to the life having all these qualities in a very high degree He had also many other interior qualities necessary for this vertue for those now mentioned concern onely the exterior Persons that had lived a very long time with him and had studied with care all his actions never heard him complain for any thing whatsoever neither for sickness nor loss nor in any other occasion of sufferance but they always observed in him a constancy immoveable a patience invincible and which passed often into joy with an eveness so great and so marvellous that he spake not one word higher than another nor used any gesture which might argue a spirit over eager or forward In his second journey to Dijon which he made with the Lady his wife and the late deceased Countess of Chastres the second or third day he was assaulted with a violent Rheumatism which put him into pain all over his body and being to lie down in bed as need was he went thither quite stooping supported by a staff and by a person that led him In this voyage he suffered extream pain without saying ever a word or making the least complaint These Ladies perceived it seeing him grow wan and pale as a clout and afterwards in a moment all on fire and although they told him that surely he was very ill he answered nothing to it nor embraced the easement of talking of his grief which naturally the sick desires but entertained them with discourses of the excessive dolours of Jesus Christ and what a favour it was from God when a soul suffers for him but in terms so full of sweetness and with so much of love and zeal that the company was affected with great devotion in hearing him These two Ladies not able to get out of him what his pain was and desiring much to know it they requested the Prioress of the Carmelites of Dijon supposing she might have more power with him than themselves to ask him concerning it which she did To whom he answered plainly My pains are great even to crying out and swouning but although I feel them in the greatest extremity yet through Gods grace I yeild not up my self to them but to him He told her moreover that being led into his Chappel of Citry and set down upon a bench by reason of his sickness the bench broke without any appearance at all to him that such a thing could happen and that he believed the evil spirit had broken it to move him to impatience making him to fall untowardly But by the mercy of God I was no more moved thereat said he than you see me now although the pains that surprized me were very sharp A man had need have great command of himself and be very patient to be able in like occasions not to be moved at all and to keep himself in the same posture of spirit as if nothing had hapned I had the favour said this good Mother to be with him about two hours while he was exercised with these great torments which I saw him bear with so much calmness and modesty without stirring at all and talking just no otherwise than if in going out of the Speak-house he had been in perfect health whereas God knows he was in great pain resting upon a staff and going twofold All our Nunnery was much afflicted to see him in this condition and it was the motion of some to make a vow for his health to the Lady of Grace whose Image here they honour believing that the Mother of God would not deny them it both for the veneration that this servant of God rendred to this Image as also for the great obligations our house had to him The whole Society made the vow upon the day of her Nativity after Mass whereat Monsieur de Renty was present but by no means being able to kneel The vow was accepted for after that night he came without staff into the Parlour and a few days after he could kneel down and was grown well within the nine days of the Vows continuance They keep the staff in the Covent in devotion and memory of this grace and he in acknowledgement of the benefit received sent a Heart of Chrystal in a Case of Gold to hang about the Neck of the Virgin Having lost a Son whom he dearly loved he endured this sharp affliction without saying a word save onely in testifying his perfect submission to the orders of God and with so much patience as might justly render it an action Heroical Often had he great exercise of patience in the works of Charity which he rendred to his Neighbour not onely enduring hunger thirst heat cold wet weariness of body and other outward pains inseparable attendants on the employments he had but also contempts and reproaches While he was employed on certain set days in an Hospital in catechising poor Passengers a certain man that was there setled was offended at this action of humility and signal charity in a person of that condition looking upon it as an encroachment and intrusion upon his office and came to finde him out as he was in the midst of the poor instructing them and gave him in their hearing divers injurious and offensive words to discourage him from coming again Monsieur de Renty seeing this man take on so against him heard him without being moved and patiently enduring his contempt and outrages after all makes answer with much humility and respect that he desired to teach those poor people which he saw to have great need of it that he was not willing to come on any such days as he would take but seeieg that he would not be at the pains himself he prayed him not to hinder a good work This did not satisfie the man at all but he comes four days together into the Hospital to drive out Monsieur de Renty as soon as he began the Catechism doing it instead of him which this most courteous Nobleman endured all the time with an admirable patience He practised this vertue with great care and conduct through all the things of this life whereof there is not any but will give occasion of patience so that whatsoever hapned general or particular though it check'd and justled his nature his body spirit judgement will inclinations desires designs and those of the best sort every thing that concerned him in what way soever he endeavoured to improve it towards grace and perfection and possess his soul in patience and tranquility receiving and suffering all without any alteration or being either exalted or dejected by them Praying to God before the Holy Sacrament saith he in a memorial under his own hand a poor man came to me to beg an Alms at that time I applied my self to recollection when men use to receive such interruptions with some contradiction and the word
regard to him which was a request altogether extraordinary made to Judges by one of the parties and which well makes appear the affection and the honour which Monsieur de Renty bore to his mother and how far he was from seeking his own interest The day being come wherein these Gentlemen were to give their sentence whilst they were employed in the framing of it the said Lady was in one chamber of the house and her son with Madam his Lady and a Gentlewoman in another where the employment of her most vertuous son was to pray to God for a success of the business to his glory and the procurement of peace and for this end he caused them to say with him some hymns till the time that there was brought him the award to sign it which was read to him and which he heard with great calmness of spirit and although it was not advantagious to him and that there was a notable forfeiture on them that should not stand to it he signed it without dispute or endeavour to get better terms Upon this believing that his mother would be fully satisfied with what had been decreed when he returned to his lodging he caused to be sung Te Deum Laudamus beginning it first himself and from his heart in way of thanksgiving for this conclusion which he supposed would be a bond of peace between his mother and him and a means of living happily with her the rest of his days But God to purifie and refine him yet more and to lay a cross upon his shoulders which he bore divers years in a most holy disposition permits that the thing should not take effect according to his desire because his mother not accounting herself satisfied with this advantage which these Arbitrators had given her found our a way to appeal from the award yet without being obliged to pay the forfeiture for refusal and to sue him for her pretended right at the Parliament of Dijon Her son did all that was possible for him to make her alter this design and to sweeten her heart towards him and for the bringing of this about he had recourse to remedies supernatural he made long prayers and joyning penance thereto he fasted with extraordinary rigour and macerated his body with great austerities hoping God would have regard to these actions and to the sincerity of his intentions After he had thus prepared himself for some time he went to his mother and cast himself on his knees before her with a reverence humility and submission able to mollifie the most obdurate heart the which thing he did not for once onely but often and with abundance of tears and begg'd of her with the most efficacious words that he could make use of that she would be pleased to take him and all his family unto her and entertain them as she thought meet and after that she might dispose as she pleased of all the goods that his father had left him She would not consent to this humble and reasonable request but persisted in her resolution to go to Dijon and sue him there which he perceiving though he might by an expedient presented to him have crost that and never stirr'd out of Paris yet out of respect to her and to comply with her in this business would not make use of it but determined to go thither and did so And this he did out of a disposition to confusion and debasement which indeed he met with to purpose finding mens minds prejudiced against him with a perswasion of great injury for one that made profession of so high piety to deal so with his mother which he endured that he might be partaker of the reproaches and honour the self-abasement of the son of God who came into the world for our sakes in the similitude of sinful flesh and appeared as a criminal although he was very Innocence it self And so passed he here for a guilty person in this business though he was not at all in fault but on the contrary exercised therein actions of Heroical vertue of which you shall now see some of them A person of piety and Superiour of a Religious House acquainting him with all the evil and strange reports which were spread abroad of him in Dijon where none were to justifie him being a meer stranger there he heard it all without any sign of passion but with admirable calmness elevated himself to God in heart and words and humbled himself before him whereat she was much edified She demanded after this whether there had been put in any injurious papers against his mother as was reported He answered No though Proctors and Advocates sometimes say more than one would have them yet that he had seen all the writings and found them all drawn with that respect which was due to a mother She ask'd him also if he was not afflicted at her manner of proceeding against him seeming very harsh and extraordinary He said No because I so much adore the order of God over me that I cannot be afflicted at that which he permits to befal me I am a great sinner and therefore not onely my mother but all the world have just cause to take part against me In brief he was never heard to make any complaint of hard usage from his mother but continually laid the blame upon his sins The same person addes in a Memorial how that divers seeking out ways of accord had the greatest trouble in the world to make her joyn in it every day inventing new difficulties even when it was believed that all had been given her whatsoever she desired and that in the midst of these delays from day to day herself said to Monsieur Renty Sir I shall willingly say the Te Deum when once I hear your business ended And one day when they believed Articles would have been signed without retracting on which day notwithstanding all was broken off he came with a pleasant countenance to desire her to say the Te Demm It is now the time to say the Te Deum said he since you had the goodness to promise it And may I be so bold as to desire to say it with you O what a great and wise God have we who knows well how to do all things as they ought and when they ought not according to our precipitations but to his order which is our Sanctification Hereupon he said the Te Deum with a spirit so elevated to God as gave sufficient evidence of his being wholly filled with him And afterward said It s well though nothing be done yet it was very meet to say the Te Deum to render thanks to God for that he hath done his own will and not that of a finner unworthy to be heard or regarded This action filled me with admiration wrote this person and so much the more because the business was believed to be broken without hopes of making up again And I no less admired his silence in a business that
his labour and vertue which had made this blessed work in him and had changed his nature for they that knew his youth report that naturally he was of a swelling hasty haughty and jeering disposition which he had so corrected or to say better annihilated that in truth it was admirable insomuch that he was become moderate staid patient humble and respectful in a degree of consummate perfection So that if we consider him well a man may say that he was of a disposition quite contrary and diametrically opposite to that which he brought from his mothers womb teaching us by an example so assured and illustrious that a man may prevail much over himself if he endeavour it sincerely and that whatever vice he hath he may at last rid himself of it if he force himself according to those words of our Lord The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force And therefore he recommended in a special manner this holy courage and the necessity of self-enforcement as being that by which we may measure what profit we have made in true vertue and a means also absolutely necessary for the gaining of perfection He wrote to a person that practised devotion thus O how much to be feared is it that we cheat our selves with the name and the appearances of devotion relying much on our exercises of piety which it may be are barely performed and in speculation onely never coming to the practise nor to the conquest over our selves In the morning we worship Jesus Christ as our Master and Director and yet our life all the day following is not directed by him we look upon him as our pattern and imitate him not we take him for our rule and guide of our affections and yet we do not sacrifice to him our appetites we make him the model of our conversation which yet is never the more holy we promise him to labour and get above our selves but it s no more than in imagination The truth is that if we know not our devotion rather by the violence and enforcement we make upon our selves and the amendment of our manners than by the multiplication and simple usage of spiritual exercises it is to be feared they will be rather practises of Condemnation than of Sanctification For after all to what purpose all this if the work follow not if we change not our selves and destroy not that which is vitious in our nature It is no otherwise but as if a builder should pile together many materials towards making of a brave Edifice and yet never begin it And yet we see the work of Jesus Christ is almost reduced to this pass amongst the spiritual persons of these times He said to another that the love which a Christian soul was obliged to bear to he vertues which Jesus Christ hath taught us ought not to end in the simple sentiments of esteem and respect toward them whereby souls of the common sort are easily perswaded that they have done their duty but therein they deceive themselves for that our Lords will is undoubtedly that they make a further entry into the solidity of his Divine practises specially in Mortification Patience Poverty and Renouncement of our selves and that is the cause why there are so few souls truly Christian and solidly spiritual yea even sometimes amongst the Religious was this that men contented themselves to make a stand at this first step I will end this Chapter and this Second Part with a Letter which he writ to his Director who had thought it fit for him to visit a person that had great need of succour and instruction for some spiritual dispositions which he performed with much success and benediction This Letter dated the 14 of May in the year 1647. will make us well see the great disengagement that he had from himself and his perfect Mortification attended with gifts inestimable and his great light whereby he clears and explicates matters of great subtilty The tenour is as followeth For the person whom you know and the visit I made him it is God and your direction that hath done all I am so much afraid to mingle therein any thing of mine that going to the place where he is yet I perceive I shall not visit him without a new order from you or that he much desire it I have not since that time so much as sent any commendations to him considering with my self that we must keep the man reserved and in great sobriety And I thought it fit to cast all this upon you as my guide in the business Ha Father the great imperfection of souls is the not waiting enough on God the natural disposition strugling and not brought into subjection comes in with fine pretexts and thinks to do wonders and in the mean while it is that which sullies the purity of the Soul that which troubles its silence and turns aside its sight from Faith from Affiance and from Love whence it hapneth that the Father of Lights expresseth not in us his Eternall Word nor produceth in us his Spirit of Love The Incarnation hath merited all not onely for the abolition of our faults but also for all the dispositions of grace whereunto Jesus Christ is minded to â—ssociate us of which this is the principal and was in him so far as he was man to do nothing our selves but to speak and act according as we receive knowing that we alone are not to do the work but that the holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Jesus and which governed him in all his ways is within us which would stamp upon us his impressions and give us the life the life real and experimental of our faith if ballasted and held back by patience we would but wait his operation This is it in which I feel my infirmity and yet whither I finde a great attractive I see that which I cannot utter for I possess that which I cannot express And the cause Father why I am so brief comes both from the imperfection of my natural disposition and from ignorance as also from a great largeness of the Divine goodness which works in me that which I cannot utter The effect of this is a fulness and a satiating of the truth and clearness of the magnificence of God of the greatness of Jesus Christ and of the riches which we have in him of the most Holy Virgin and of the Saints one sees here all praise and adoration and comtemplates them within I tell you here of many things me seems and yet all this is done with one draught so simple and so strong in the superiour part of the Spirit that I am nothing diverted from it by any exteriour employments I see all I understand all and I do though it be ill all that I have to do This is that I present you with to receive therein from you instruction and correction Thus we see the admirable benefits that come from perfect Mortification and
the delicious fruits that are produced from this mysterious grain of wheat when it is dead PART III. CHAP. 1. His application to our Lord Jesus Christ in regard of his Neighbour WE have observed in the first part of this History that the grand exercise of Monsieur Renty was to apply and unite himself to our Saviour and from that union and his example to derive all his vertues and good works This was the general course he held in them all to mould himself after him for the composition of his Exterior and Interior never taking his eye off this Divine Copy but endeavouring to draw each line exactly and pensil his true lineaments making him his native and perfect Original This was the scope of all his designs and cares and particularly of his charity to his neighbour for which he propounded our Saviour as his grand Exemplar marking what he had done and what he had suffered for men weighing those affections and tendernesses he bore towards them how he sought after and conversed with them how he instructed comforted and encouraged them sometimes reproving otherwhiles bearing with their infirmities and at all times carrying them in his most dear embraces and most intimate inclosure of his heart He pondered what he had delivered concerning this vertue of charity that it was it that he had established as the ground and perfection of his new Law having left us this one command more expresly which with special propriety he had termed his own and the execution whereof he had inforced above all other he much thought upon it how that this Master had charged us to love our neighbour according to the model measure and fashion that he had loved us And finally that he had made this vertue and no other the distinctive character betwixt such as possessed his Spirit in truth and those that had it onely in appearance Wherefore having well-weighed these actions and doctrines of our Saviour and resolved to do his utmost to render himself a good Christian and his perfect Imitator he determined as far as he could both to embrace this doctrine and follow his actions and to love his neighbour with the bent and spirit of of such a divine Master Writing to Sister Margeret a Carmelite of Beaulne he said I sigh after my Saviour Jesus desiring to imitate and follow him whither he pleaseth I beseech you by your prayers obtain for me his Spirit to be my life my whole life sigh and groan for me after my God that I may be wholly for him in his Son that I may follow him and not live but by his Spirit And to another person he writ thus I have so great a view of the love and of all the effects of the love of the most Holy Soul of our Lord that this Interior so full of clemency bounty and charity makes me conceive far otherwise than ever how that we ought to live of this Divine love even in our deportment towards men and how in effect it is in him that the whole Law is accomplished in its perfection Furthermore to the same party thus Since God hath manifested himself to us by his Son and hath admitted us through him into his grace and made us partakers of all his actions both towards God and man how can we ever quit this his dear Son He that hath Jesus Christ hath a key which opens many doors it discovers unto us large prospects it enricheth us with vast treasures and breaks open the prison of mans heart as being too strait for his Immensities And to the same thus also Ah how good is that desart when after Baptism we are conducted thither with our Lord by the Spirit of God Thence it was that our Saviour came out to converse with men to teach them and work their salvation Since therefore we together with him make up but one Jesus Christ as having the honour to be his members we should live his life take on us his Spirit and walk in his steps This was the ground that made this perfect Disciple apply himself with all his power to this admirable Charity which we are now coming to speak of at large endeavouring in all the commerce he had with men to unite himself most intimately to our Saviour rendring himself up as an instrument to be guided by his hand in the helping of others beseeching him to breath upon him this Spirit of Charity recommended so much to us in his word but more in his actions and to inflame him with this divine fire which he hath kindled in the midst of his Church to be wholly burnt and consumed with it he consulted him in all his doubts concerning it begging of him to inspire what and how and when he should speak and act for the good of his neighbour and that in him and by him these might all be done He look'd upon men not according to their natural qualities their beauty nobility riches dignities and wordly honors but according to their more noble relations and those common to all viz. as creatures divine the lively images of God created to praise and love him to all eternity as dyed and purpled in the blood of Jesus brothers and co-heirs with him his purchase and inheritance bought with the price of his life and a thousand dolours and who therefore must be infinitely dear unto him and most passionately beloved of him In this capacity it was that he beheld men loving and applying himself to their necessities and he arrived by the purity of this conduct to so far perfection that as on the one side he was extreamly useful to his neighbour and received therein wonderful blessings from God so on the other this communication with them did not distract nor bring any prejudice to himself but very much good There are that advise them who have to do with others in the matter of their salvation especially with such from whose converse any danger may arise to consider them as bodies without souls or as souls without bodies and as pure spirits The counsel is good and some make profitable use of it but Monsieur Renties view was to look upon God and Jesus Christ in every man and to consider that it was they that demanded succour of him and prepared his thoughts to talk to them and perform what was necessary for their souls and bodies believing truly that it was to God and Christ that he rendred these assistances and service And this same thought is much to be made use of that we may do good and take no hurt from others otherwise we shall hazard ourselves and do little good for when we proceed upon the inclination and motives of nature the effects have a relish of their cause proving no more but natural or vicious or at most indifferent viz. loss of time light discourses amusements engagement of affections which carry in them much of sense and degenerate afterwards into something worse whereby instead of purifying one another a
man pollutes and undoes himself He that will conduct souls to Christ and God must of necessity carry them through such ways as lead thither CHAP. 2. His Charity to his Neighbour taken in general HAving a purpose to speak of his Charity which his man of God had towards his Neighbour I shall speak first of it in general and say thus much that it was so great and enlarged that it seemed to have no bounds in that he loved not onely all Christians and faithful people but even all men not excepting any because he beheld motives in all of them of a true charity and sincere love looking upon them as creatures of God and his chief Workmanship for whom our Saviour became man and laid down his life whom he loved and desired to save these all he likewise loved and laboured their good Thy Commandment saith David is exceeding broad the same dimensions he prescribed to his charity loving the present and absent domesticks and strangers good and bad esteeming all according to their degree honoring all speaking well of and doing good to all and ill to none There was not any considerable publique good work done either at Paris and a great way off it wherein he had not a great share There was no undertaking there that rended to the honour of God or good of man of which he was not either the Author or Promoter or Finisher and very often all these together He was one at all the meetings for Piety and in many as the soul and primum mobile he kept correspondence through the whole Kingdom concerning works of charity received from all parts letters desiring his advice in all difficulties that occur'd in the erecting or advancing of Hospitals Seminaries of Religion Places of Devotion Fraternities of Vertuous Persons agreeing to associate together for the better applying themselves to their own and others salvation and for the managing of all sorts of good works One of good report writ thus concerning him from Caen Monsieur Renty was our support and onely refuge in the execution of all our designs which related to the service of God the saving of souls and relief of the poor and distressed To him we wrote continually as well for the settling of our Hospitals and houses for receiving of loose women converted as also for the suppressing the insolence of some Hereticks who shewed contempt of the blessed Sacrament too openly Finally we received counsel and succour from him in all like occasions in which he expressed a great zeal for the glory of God and extirpation of vice Since his death we have not met with any to whom we could have the like recourse about the things of God Another from Dijon wrote thus We cannot but acknowledge the great benefit this Province hath received from Monsieur Renty wherever he came wherein he hath wonderfully advanced all works of Piety We may truly say that his days were filled with the plenitude of God and we believe that he scarce lost one minute of time in which he either spake not or acted not something tending to his service He applied himself to the necessities of the English Irish and captives in Barbary and of the Missions into the Levant he took very great pains for the good of the Hospital at Marcelles for the relief of Galley-slaves and contributed much to the advancing of the affairs of new France in America he had a design likewise to purge all Trades and Manufactures from corruptions that had grown upon them to rectifie and sanctifie them that men might live upon them like Christians which thing he together with others had happily begun and perfected the same in two of them as shall be shewed hereafter Moreover as one of the great effects of Charity is Concord and Union so had he a wonderful care to conserve encrease and perfect it in himself and others wherefore he lived in perfect amity with all the world with Seculars Ecclesiasticks and Religious esteeming respecting and speaking honorably of them all and when any difference fell out among them he was greatly afflicted for it endeavoring by all means to pacifie and unite their spirits and to accord their divisions knowing that the God whom we worship is a God of peace who would have us live in peace and that never any discord comes from him but from the Devil the sower of Tares that nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity that spirit of Union and Love than Division and Schismes in Charity making us not live like brothers but strangers and enemies that instead of profiting in vertue we multiply and encrease our sins and vices The spirit of the new Law is a spirit of such perfect Charity and intimate Union that as St. Paul saith it makes no distinction as to the heart of Jew nor Gentile of Barbarian nor Scythian of bond nor free but Jesus Christ is all to all to unite and close and oblige them all in himself According to which this true Christian writeth thus in one of his letters The words which we ought chiefly to imprint upon our hearts are those of mutual love which our Saviour bequeathed us in the close of his Testament this love should inspirit all Christians to perfect them in one and cause them to live and converse together as brethren and children yea as one sole childe of God And because this Union with Christ our Saviour to whom we all belong is the best and most necessary disposition in such as are employed about the good of their neighbor to the end that they may receive from him both light and strength to enable them according to his purposes together with his saving Spirit to assist and ground them in all vertues and especially such as qualifie a man for that purpose therefore his utmost endeavour was to unite himself intimately to him and in all things to act by his Spirit and to acquire these vertues and render himself perfect in them These vertues are set down by St. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians upon which he made frequent reflections and long meditations and although he carried always the New Testament in his pocket yet that he might read and consider them often he wrote them down with his own hand carrying it apart about with him The Contents whereof were Charitas patiens est benigna est Charitas non aemulatur non agit perperam Non in flatur non est ambitiosa Non quaerit quae sunt sua non irritatur c. Charity is patient full of sweetness envieth not is not malicious nor hurtful is neither vain nor ambitious seeketh not her own interests is not froward nor cholerick thinks no ill but interprets all to a good sense rejoyceth not at the faults of others but on the contrary takes great content in others well-doing suffereth much believeth all things not out of feebleness of spirit but out of goodness and holy simplicity if its neighbor mend not presently
by Divine Power in all the Cities Villages Private houses as well Religious as Secular whither the Divine Providence conducted him to enlighten men with the knowledge of God and his Son Christ Jesus To inkindle in their hearts perfect Charity and bring them to a good life In all which he was exceedingly blessed with happy success as shall be shewed hereafter Being one day at Paris in the time of Lent going to a poor mans house to exercise some of his ordinary acts of Charity and hearing a great noise of people singing and dancing in the next house he left his poor man and went in thither and look'd upon them who were so surprized and astonished at his presence that they presently quitted their dancing and singing And he fell into a discourse against those disorders and dissoluteness in that holy time of Lent with such fervour as drew tears from their eyes and wrought so effectually upon some of them that the next day they went to Confession Another time he visited a poor maid who being abused by a young man and gotten with childe was lest in great necessity whom he found plunged in so deep a melancholly that she had resolved to make away herself yet by the grace and power which God gave to his good counsel he comforted her dejected spirits and brought her into such a condition that she went to Confession After this he went to seek out the young man who at the first onset behaved himself very ill contemning his wholesome advice But after several arguments inforced from the danger of his soul and other threatnings of Gods Judgements hanging over his head he melted into tears promising to do whatever he pleased to command him insomuch that by his advice he was reconciled to God by true repentance and to the maid by wedlock and since that time have led a good life together During his abode at Amiens a poor woman had undone herself by selling salt a thing forbidden in France under heavy penalties and being taken in it Who thereupon fell into an excessive sadness and grief retaining also such an hatred against them that had reduced her to this misery that she could not be perswaded upon any terms to forgive them whereby she became uncapable of the Sacraments in the extremity of her sickness Monsieur Renty was brought to her in the company of two or three other persons who talked with her a long time without any success Insomuch that seeing whatever he said prevailed nothing fell upon his knees in the middle of the room inviting the company to do the like and after some few prayers bespake the sick party saying and will not you joyn with us to beg mercy of God To which she yielding he caused her to repeat after him word by word certain acts of repentance and charity by which she found her minde so strangely altered that she appeared quite another woman and openly professed that she did forgive them from her heart And receiving with much meekness all his instructions prepar'd herself to the worthy receiving of the Sacraments Being one day at the great Hospital in Paris instructing the sick how to dispose themselves for a general Confession one of the Religious women intreated him to speak with a person that was newly brought in thither who had been without any cause at all run thorow the body with a sword and was so incensed against the party that he could not indure with patience any should speak of forgiving him But no sooner did Monsieur Renty urge to him the duty of a good Christian in such a case with other speeches to pacifie and sweeten his spirit but he was appeased and said he forgave him with all his heart adding that he was ready both to see and embrace him expressing moreover very much sense of Piety Certain Abbots and other Ecclesiasticks of quality and vertue met at Pontoise to settle a Mission Monsieur Renty who was very intimately acquainted with the most part of them came to visit them where according to his usual custom without speaking thereof to any one he went to the prison and meeting there with a most obstinate sinner who had continued so along time and neither by intreaty nor threatning by fair means nor foul nor by any other means which the Mission could use be brought to Confession The Mission sending for Monsieur Renty to dine with them word was brought after much search for him that they might happily meet with him at the Prison where he was found sitting at the table with the Prisoners for whom he had provided a dinner discoursing lovingly with them comforting and stirring them up to a good life Amongst the rest the foresaid party in particular upon whom he had the greatest design to whom he spake with so much power dealing with him so discreetly or divinely rather that he brought him to his bent working in him a resolution effectually to change his life and make a good confession of all his sins which gave a just occasion to one of the Mission to say That Monsieur Renty had accomplished that in three days which others would have had much ado to have brought about in three years I omit many others of the like kinde concluding with this one which seems very remarkable He was requested to visit a devout woman who was tormented with excessive pains both inward and outward and had great need of comfort and direction who received so great relief from his instructions that within some few days she writ as followeth The effect which I found by the conference I had with this worthy servant of God was such that as soon as I had gotten victory over my self to speak and lay open my heart unto him straightway my blessed Saviour communicated his goodness so powerfully to me that I was even peirced by the effects of his presence I found also a very particular assistance from the blessed Virgin whom this holy man did invoke at the beginning of our discourse And I can assure you of a truth that I was sensible of much comfort and ease of my affliction insomuch that his speeches had so great an influence upon my soul and wrought so effectually that I have continued ever since in a good condition And though my pains are not abated yet I finde such an alteration in my self that I seem to be no more my own but all that is within me breatheth after nothing but the Execution of the will of God and the accomplishment of his good pleasure at any rate And though nature suffers some difficulty in it yet she must now learn to yield to grace and make resistance no longer My torments are not changed and yet I profess to suffer nothing because I am very well content to suffer And although my inferiour sensitive part is much pained yet my superiour part cannot nor indeed is it capable of suffering by reason of its conformity to the will of God All my care during
Saviour to speak to her by his mouth which really was not without cause if we duly consider the passage I shall now relate The Lady speaking to him one day about procuring some relief of a most pressing excessive pain with which her spirit was afflicted and not finding any comfort from whatsoever he said she was moved to cast herself down upon her knees to deliver up her own will to our Saviour and by a perfect resignation to enter into what designs his good pleasure had decreed concerning her which she did accordingly And after rising from her knees she no more beheld Monsieur Renty but in him our B. Saviour shining with a very great splendor saying to her do what my servant directs thee Which words at that very instant wrought such a wholesome and divine effect upon her that her pain vanished she remaning filled with God in joyning a perfect tranquillity of spirit accompanied with a lively repentance for her sins and an absolute contempt of the world and of herself Though this happy intercourse betwixt him and this Lady accompanied with such signal blessings from God had contracted a strict and perfect amity betwixt them yet he was very wary wise and reserved in his addresses visiting her onely when the work of God did require and making no longer stay nor discourse with her than what was precisely necessary Which the Lady thinking to be a little harsh bemoan'd to a friend whom she knew to have some power with this holy man in these words Monsieur Renty doth extreamly mortifie me with his civilities and reservedness I have great need to see him often and yet cannot obtain it yea when we are together he will not sit down except it be when I am sick or that I am not able to stand any longer and always with his hat in his hand I beseech you tell him what out of that great respect I owe him I dare not my self what pain and inquietude I suffer to see such his carriage toward me who ought be continually under his feet The party acquainted him with thus much and received this answer I proceed in this manner because my duty to God and to the Countess of Chastres require it and moreover since my Saviour doth oblige me to treat with her I must do no more than what is necessary and so retire to which this posture is most convenient If we sit down we should forget our selves and talk more than is needful and perhaps pass on to things unprofitable Wherefore we both ought to stand upon our guard I being a lay man and a sinner do not speak to her but with great confusion though I know it to be the will of God and am certified by several pious and judicious men that it is my duty Those that undertake the conduct of souls ought seriously to ponder this prudent answer and perswade themselves that the business consists not in speaking much to them but in disposing them to speak to God and in making them fit for God to speak to them to beget in their souls the substantial Word his Son And after wholesome counsel given consonant to their state and disposition in putting them upon its execution with good courage vertue consisting not in words but deeds Thus you have the course he took in directing this Lady who thereby arrived to great perfection making most excellent use of all her great sufferings of body and minde attaining to so great contempt of the world that she dyed with a design notwithstanding her great infirmities and sickness to become a Carmeline in the Monastery of Beaulne And that we may have a taste of his skill in conducting several other persons of great vertue let us consider these following Rules of great Perfection which he gave to them and which without doubt were drawn from his owne private observation I have protested in the presence of the blessed Sacrament that I will live according to the Maxims and Counsels of Jesus Christ and to that end 1. Never to desire or endeavour directly or indirectly to increase my fortune in riches or honour neither to consent to any advantages which my friends would procure for me unless in obedience to and advice of my Ghostly Father and Director of my Conscience 2. To study the contempt and hatred of worldly riches and honours to speak of them no longer according to the flesh but according to the spirit of Christianity and for the better establishing of its Maxims in my soul to avoid as much as I can the conversation of such as are guided by contrary Rules 3. To entertain no Suit in Law either as Plaintiff or Defendant until all possible ways have been used for an accommodation without any humane respect In which I will submit to advice 4. To cut off all superfluities as well in what concerneth my own person as my family that I may be the better enabled to assist the poor For the better execution whereof I will once every Moneth after Communion examine my self therein as strictly as if I were then to give an account to God 5. Never to contest but to yield to all the world as much as I can both in point of Honour Precedency and of Opinion Dispute and of another Will which I ought to prefer before my own 6. To shun all delicacies not to do or desire any thing upon the motive of pleasure nor to admit of any such thing unless it be joyned with necessity or condescention to my neighbour or the health of my body or the refreshment and relaxation of Spirit 7. To bear with patience Contempt Injuries Contradictions Losses Oppressions and Affronts 8. To do all that with discreet zeal I can to hinder others from offending God or blaspheming his Holy Name or detracting or slandering their neighbour 9. To avoid and reject all kinde of tenderness and delicacy for the ease of the body yea to diminish and cut off as much as I can such commodities and conveniences as may be forborn without danger of health 10. To receive with all readiness and charity the requests of my neighbour and to supply his necessities in what I can possibly by my self or by others 11. To perform the duty of Fraternal correption with all Charity and Humility in the most prudent manner I can and to receive it most willingly from others 12 Once every Moneth at least I will examine my self upon the faults I have committed against these present Resolutions And once a year many may meer together to renew this Protestation and advise together of the way and means to accomplish it SECT 11. The great skill he had in the Interior matters of the Soul WE must of necessity confess that the knowledge of Interior things is most difficult and that the discerning of Spirits is without contradiction the most obscure of all Sciences And to be acquainted therewith requires eminent grace from God and a light no less than what flows from the
Sun of Righteousness For if the skill of curing the body be difficult and onely conjectural by reason that we are guided therein by Exterior Signs which often prove ambiguous and equivocal whereupon the most expert Physicians finde themselves frequently mistaken and prescribe quite contrary remedies how much more must the skill of governing Souls in the matter of their salvation which are spiritual and remote from sense yea and supernatural be attended with great difficulties and involved in wonderful obscurity But Monsieur Renty proved very skillful herein having received a wonderful light from God to search out the mysterious secrets and understand the most abstruse windings of Souls in which his own experience was no small advantage to him His more than ordinary light served him to discern truth from falsehood the safe from dangerous the motions of a good spirit from those of the evil one to bring disquieted souls to their repose to fortifie and en ourage them to disengage them from all worldly things to unite them to our Saviour Jesus Christ and by him to the Divinity to be guided in all things by his holy Spirit I shall here present you with a taste of this excellent skill and some beams of this Divine light in these matters which I found amongst his Papers under his own hand which may give great insight into the mysteries of a Spiritual life There be saith he in those Papers three kindes of elevations and groanings of the Soul after God about which she ought constantly to be busied to enable her to accomplish the Precepts of our Saviour that is to pray always and never to slacke this holy Exercise lest she fall into oblivion of God and after that into sin The first is the elevation and groaning of the Penitents who begin at the Purgative way The second is of the Believers who have proceeded to and do practise the Illuminative And the third is of the Perfect who are arrived at the Unitive The first are exercised in the renouncing of sin and the vanities of the world in bewatilng their former life and seeking God sending forth from the depth of fear and revexence their groans and sighs to him which is the beginning of life eternal The Believers seek after the knowledge of his will by his Word which is his Son desiring to conform their lives after his example who is our Way our Life and Truth And this is the progress of this life The Perfect groan in the presence of God after an Union with him in imitation of our Saviour exercising it by acts of love and so fulfilling the first and great Commandment in which consisteth the perfection of our life here below There are some Souls in the first estate who renouncing sin and quitting the vanities of the world receive great sensible consolations from God and taste ravishing delights But if they endeavour not to pass on to the second to understand and practise the will of God in his Son the Devil will soon deceive them by this bait causing them to rest in the complacency of these gusts So that not making progress in Christ who is their way they will wander into by-paths to the danger of a precipice Their condition being a kinde of imperfect floating self-denial and desire to be for God to do his will and love him with a false Interior peace upon which they rest and whence afterwards they degenerate into a very dangerous condition because they are not truly grounded upon Jesus Christ whom God hath appointed for our sole Guide But if after they are thus purged from the gross affections of the world they be not likewise purified from themselves giving up all to Christ Jesus with a serious resolution to imitate him and enter into his Sacrifice of Self-annihilation Instead of receiving the Spirit of God they shall confirm themselves in their own and forming to themselves false illuminations shall be guided by their own sense and by what their own corrupt nature suggests to them as glittering and pleasing with great danger of falling headlong into the errours of the Enthusiasts who perswade themselves that every thing that occurs to their phansie comes from God Out of an opinion that they neither will nor seek nor love any thing but God and so become little or nothing at all sensible of the checks of their own Conscience If you observe those that begin their Spiritual life in this manner you will finde them to have little faith or dependance on Christ Jesus And if you ask them what they desire or whetherto they tend they will answer in general To whatsoever God will have It will be necessary to set these right and if they be not too far gone with these gusts and sensible consolations to carry them to desine indeed what God will have but desire it according to the model of our Saviour and the precepts of his Gospel which he hath left us as his Will and Testament and to be our Light and the Rule of our inlightnings We have many who rest in this first step being yet esteemed and admired even by persons who pass for spiritual and of on by their Ghostly Directors calling this the my stical way In which notwithstnading the decaitful spirit of Nature and the Devil play their game under the mask of these dark illuminations of these false peaces of these quaint terms high words and mysterious notions of these volumes of spiritual writings the fruits whereof are for the most part in the paper from whence it is seen so often that those who have begun well and with much purity do fall afterwards into gross faults whilst Property and Self-pleasing steal into the soul in the room of Christ Jesus We have others which heed no other thing than the preaching of John Baptist by their Austerities and Pennances setting up there rest here without proceeding on to Christ Jesus to receive his Spirit relying upon an inward satisfaction and confidence in their mortifications and sticking there Others so stay upon Jesus Christ onely as if he had no Father having affectionate devotions to his Humanity and much led by the sensible go no further They know Jesus Christ but not Jesus Christ God and man who is our Life Truth and Way Others build all their hopes upon the Blessed Virgine and other Saints and their particular Devotions to them which are very good when they are grounded upon repentance for their sins and a true conversion of the soul But these grosly deceive themselves by hoping of succour from the Blessed Virgin and the Saints or of having any communion in their merits when they quit not their own vicious courses These three estates thus understood and distinguished afford great light in the conduct of souls whereby to understand their beginning progress and perfection with the deviations they are subject unto And every one of these estates hath its proper work its sufferance and its prayer The work of the first
estate of beginners and Penitents is to finde out all that inclineth to sin that obstructeth our salvation or withdraweth us from God to avoid it Their Cross or Sufferance is to bewail their offences to mortifie their passions and subdue their bodyâ—n any thing that makes it rebel against Reason and the Spirit and also to punish the irregular motions of Concupiscence Their prayer is to beg grace and strength for their performance of these things The work of the second namely of Believers is to study Jesus Christ his Life and Doctrine Their Cross is to bear the troubles that befal them in imitation of our Saviour to suffer contempt and persecutions which attend all such as follow him Their prayer is to beg his Life his Spirit and his frame of Soul to act interiorly and exteriorly after his model The work of the third and Perfect one is to do each thing by the Spirit of Christ through their union with God Their Cross is in bearing with as they ought ought the corruptions darkness and stupidity of this world as also persecution for righteousness which thing shall never be wanting Their prayer is to ask continually a more abundant participation of the Spirit of Christ a more intimate union with God a greater dying to themselves a more faithful improving of his grace and talents received with perseverance to the end Moreover in the first estate we must labour hard in resisting of sin in vanquishing our passions and renouncing vanities which young beginners cannot do without many repeated acts much violence to themselves But those to whom God hath given an entrance into the two other estates do it easily with a simple and facile guidance of their spirit not diminishing their acts of humiliation but hindering the oppression and trouble thereof In the second estate is requisite on our parts a vigorous correspondence in following Iesus Christ not acting any more from our selves but in him in singleness of heart and enduring with patience and longanimity the purging and purifying of our spirits by Iesus Christ In which work we must be content to suffer many secret tempests and inward tumults arising from the reluctancies of our old habits and our spirit stirred up by the motions of nature full of many images and impressions And finally be content to lose our very souls with much patience that we may receive them again cloathed with Christ Iesus In the third estate is contained a work of Passion that is of Prayer where the bounty of God doth all as it were the soul tasting a certain experimental satiety of the presence and truth of God and of his love in Iesus Christ in which she reposeth She findes herself often absorpt in the joy of the greatness the power the goodness and the infinite perfections of God of the alliance with his Son his love his manner of conversation and the admirable effects which the participation of his Spirit produceth joying in the possession of these good things with a tranquility content and vigour surpassing all sense and expression A good progress thorow the two former estates makes way for the third where we must be careful considering the uncertainty and mutableness of our natures to use great industry to be sure of going forward and of repeating also what we have done the better to ground our selves and repair our losses Thus we have his insight into spiritual things evidencing the great advancement of his illuminated Spirit which God had enlightned in more than an ordinary manner declaring unto him the designs he had upon souls Giving him to penetrate into the obscurest recesses of their Consciences and to discover what was most secret and hidden to speak with words not studied and premeditated but which were inspired and put into his mouth at that hour which proved most powerful and effectual In the year 1644. A maid whom God had indued with pious affections was desirous to become a Carmeline She communicated her intentions to Monsieur Renty begging his advice Who at first finding some difficulties in the business judged it fitting for her to think no more of it Notwithstanding afterwards God inspired him at his prayers with a very great certitude that it was his will she should proceed in the business maugre all difficulties pointing out to him the very place where the thing should be done He informed her thereof which she hearkned unto with due respect as if Christ himself had spoken unto her and commanded her to enter into that Monastery where she remains at this very day In the year 1647. having visited a person afflicted with great pains who had need of such a man as he he writ thus to his Director I have been with the party you know of and have told her what I thought convenient to her condition Our Saviour enlightned me to discover to her his good pleasure concerning her how that this sad and dark condition was not sent to bring her to a stand and trouble at it but to facilitate her way to perfection and carry her without amusement to our Saviour Christ Lesus who is our Sanctification I acquainted her how we ought to lay this sure foundation that our selves are nothing but infirmity and misery it self So that when any one tells us thereof he tells us no news And that God from this insufficiency of our selves to all good means to extract that excellent vertue of Humility and Diffidence of our selves obliging us thereby to go to his Son our Saviour to finde strength in him and remedy for all our miseries I was much enlarged upon each thing which she told me and God gave her so great a plenitude of light and grace that she spake marvellous things touching the operation of the Holy Trinity in her with other excellent notions manifesting a very particular assistance of his Divine Grace In this estate I left her Concerning himself he addes thus As concerning my self I have not much to say onely I finde within my self through the mercy of God a great tranquility in his presence through the Spirit of Christ Jesus and such an inward experience of Eternal Life as I am not able to express And this is that whither I am most bent and drawn Yet I finde my self so strangely naked and barren that I wonder at the condition I am in and by which I discourse For in my addresses to this party I begun my speech not knowing how to pursue it and after the second sentence I had not the least foresight of what should be the third and so of the rest Not but that I seem to have a perfect knowledge of the things I speak in such a manner as I am capable of it But I onely utter what is given me and in the same way as it is communicated I communicate it to others Which done there seems to remain nothing in me but the foundation from whence it springs He grew to so high a reputation in this knowledge of
in speaking or to do it with a higher tone than ordinary whatsoever was his haste if he made any report or gave account of business he did it so briefly and in words onely necessary and pertinent that a very hard matter it would be as one said of him to finde one that spake better and yet less than he Things that were vain or unprofitable or the news of the times were never the subject of his discourse but always something good and the Kingdom of God in imitation of our Saviour and where this discourse was diverted to worldly business or trifles he either took leave of the company or stole away without saying any thing And when he talk'd even of good things it was with moderation saying that there was much need of sparingness and sobriety when we speak of God and good things and that it was one of the greatest amusements that troubled him when he was amongst spiritual persons to hear them often spend precious time in talking of vertue at large and without sâ—uit departing from such Conferences with dry empty and dissipated spirits Whereas the secret of Christian vertue consists not in speaking but in doing and that substantial word of God is onely one and this sufficiently efficacious to produce the holy Spirit and in its unity to work marvellous things His conversation moreover was in a true and high manner humble respective affable officious obliging and cordial Patient he was in suffering the ignorances rudenesses imperfections cross humors and other faults of his neighbours prudent in applying himself to their dispositions and passing by many small matters without seeming to take notice of them at all And so profitable and edifying was his demeanour that wherever he came his very looks and modesty his words his silence and all his Exterior comportment cast forth a fragrancy and sweet persume of Vertue Devotion and Piety and made a good impression upon the spirits of others His very presence charmed many into recollection the very sight of him was enough to bridle any and his acquaintance have confest that their knowing that he was in the Church hath wrought more attention in them at their prayers and some of them eight days after their having enjoyed his company have felt in themselves the effects of grace in an extraordinary attraction and devotion towards God Wheresoever he came he was flock'd unto from all parts out of that reverend esteem they had of him and the desire of those consolations they were sensible of in his presence Notwithstanding when he perceived any value set upon himself or any applause of what he did or said he was deeply humbled in spirit testifying by his carriage the discontent of his soul hanging down his head casting down his eyes with deep silence during such commendations with a grave and set demeanor expressing his inward affliction which begot respect and edification in the beholders For conclusion I shall adde one thing very remarkable and which shews how perfect and accomplished he was in his conversation namely this that his extraordinary way and fashion of converse of dealing and treating with others and of his devotion was not check'd blamed or condemned by any but approv'd priz'd and commended so that generally all had him in esteem reverence and love and said of him in proportion as was said of his Master Christ He hath done all things well Such a general approbation as this and in one that dealt in so many and difficult businesses must needs be very rare and argue a most prudent and advised spirit And as these things got approbation so his humility his honesty his respect to each one even the lowest his affability charity patience and other vertues gained him the hearts of all yet as it is a perilous thing to be so much esteemed praised and approved by all so God by a wise and divine counterpois to secure his vertue and keep him from tripping in so slippery a way did permit that from whence he should have received the most esteem approbation and satisfaction to wit from the Lady his Mother he found the quite contrary and that in a way most strange and afflictive to him as we have seen before CHAP. 3. His conduct of his business IT is without contradiction that few men in Paris or in all France were so much imployed as he in the affairs that concerned the service of God For which he was furnished with great strength of body and minde to manage so great and several businesses without difficulty with great tranquility order and content husbanding his time to the best advantage disparching one speedily after another and sometimes many together He hath been seen to do three things together without trouble or mistake And at other times when pressed with many dispatches at once to read Letters give Audience and write Answers to different persons all at the same time of which he hath quitted himself handsomely and well In one of his Letters he wrote thus It is very true that business findes me out from all parts insomuch that I am often inforced to read write and do business all at a time A little assistance would do well though I have many sharers however let not that trouble you for I dispatch as much at present as I can the rest in due time without encombring my self therewith Our Saviour doth gratiously bestow on me a peace of minde in all this so that I am not at all distracted with it His order was seriously to consider of things before any resolution and if after his own sense given to which he was not at all espoused he found anothers reason to be better he quitted his own A thing very necessary to men of business yet rare to be found since if we take not heed we all idolize our own judgement and falling in love with our private light are dsirous to be leading men affecting to see our own opinions crowned Having composed rules for a Society of Pious persons and digested them thorowly he presented them to be examined by some vertuous persons from whom he admitted with great humility some corrections cancelling them with his own hand requesting that they might be put in other terms more proper than his own After he had resolved on any thing he shewed himself prompt firm and constant for the execution not quitting it till he had brought it to the end it should be Not like those who hot at first grow presently cold and begin many things well but finish nothing Sometime when he had brought a thing into a fair way to perfection he committed it to a friend to finish not out of any inconstancy of spirit but to gain time for the undertaking and doing of more And withal that herein he might avoid the honour of it Out of his great humility passing that to another which would exercise his humility in letting another have the praise which redounds more to him that happily ends a good thing
than to him that begins it In all affairs that concerned the service of God he had an unmoveable constancy and undaunted courage never flagging or yielding up himself And besides the force of his words there appeared in his countenance an extraordinary assurance although his ordinary deportment was always sweet and quiet which particularly appeared in all meetings where he manifested so much spirit and God invested him with such a force that those that beheld him felt themselves struck with an awful respect When he spake and gave his opinion his proposals carried so much light in them his judgement so much solidity his reasons so great force he taking every thing in its due place and observing each juncture of time that all were constrained to acquiess in his determination But if any approved not of his advice or disputed his reasons he knew how to inforce them with such arguments especially where he had any authority in the Assembly that at length they yielded But if they chanced to make another reply he gave not one word more but his very silence and the steadiness of his countenance and his other carriage restrained any further dispute And the meeting ended he would go to that party and crave his pardon with great humility Sweetly informing him that what he aimed at was not to make good his own opinion but for the cause of God to which by duty he was obliged But in other things that he was most ready to yield to every one We meet daily with those spirits that are very inconstant in business doing and undoing every hour very indecisive and mutable But he was of another temper quick-sighted to penetrate into a business judicious to determine it and constant not to vary in a resolution well grounded so that his word was his law and was taken by others as current as an obligation When his presence was requested at any consult he would be punctual at the time appointed that none should stay for him Where taking his place and that the lowest if it were possible his demeaner was so modest and composed that all were edified by it Listening to others with great attention and seriousness as if he had no other business And after his opinion given very brief and material his presence being no further useful he would take leave being a great husband of his time since other business for Gods service still attended him else where And notwithstanding the throng of business and though never so important he quitted not for them his Exercises of Piety nor his care of perfection which he preferred before all other his affairs knowing that as wholesome meat taken immoderately doth hurt and instead of strengthening the stomach weakens and suffocates its natural heat So these Exterior employments even the most holy if a man surcharge himself bring much prejudice and extinguish the ardour of Devotion Wherefore he was careful not to over-burthen himself with them being very vigilant that they should not distract and dissipate him nor quench the Interiour motions of the Spirit nor secularize his soul but ferve onely as means to elevate and unite him more to God In the multitude of business he was still recollected and as much alone in great meetings as the Hermites in their solitudes which might be gathered from his modestie and composed countenance evidencing his application to his Interiour and his union to God from whom he drew light and strength for the managing and prudent ordering of these buâ—nesses One day he wrote thus to his Director My recollection hinders no business at all but rather furthers it For without it I should have a solicitous desire of doing all my self whereas I act now in a most serene way in which I have no share for it is our Lord that doth all In another Letter thus Finding my self one day much burthened with divers-business I had a desire to draw off my minde wholly and at the same instant I found it Since which time they create me no trouble and I dispatch them more readily without thinking of them This grace hath been often renewed to me although in several manners which I acknowledge to be very great because it preserves me disingaged even in the multiplicity of business And notwithstanding he never omitted any thing of prudence or industry for the effecting his business yet the success he expected much more from Gods benediction than from his industry or any humane endeavours knowing well that what was undertaken for the service of God and good of his neighbour was to be accomplished by his grace Wherefore in every thing he had a great recourse to prayer instantly commending all his exercises to God and in all imployments and choice of persons which he made use of his eye was more upon grace than nature or any Exterior abilities And knowing that the affairs of God are not without their difficulties but meet with great oppositions even sometimes to be overturned he was armed with patience in the undertaking to suffer with courage not starting at the greatest dangers but still hoping of the success If they miscarried at any time he rested well satisfied after all fair means attempted on his part Thus he writ to a friend It is a great infirmity in our humane nature that she needs applause in matters of grace Wherefore I look at it as a great favour from God when I have the honour of executing any enterprize solidly undertaken and well approved of and acknowledged to proceed from the Spirit of God by those to whom he hath committed in his Church the judgement of such things notwithstanding the accomplishment of it meets with many crosses and contradictions In another thus We may take up good and holy designs and God doth often inspire them yet when he is pleased to permit a contrary event we must adore his secret will which brings with it more of mercy in the crossing of them than if they had succeded to our comfort We should always be jealous over our own spirit that it fix not upon any thing And again thus The sweet Jesus hath his designs which he conducts by such means as we would not at all make choice of and the reason is because he would thwart our wills and abate our dependancies upon earth And therefore often thwarts he our just undertakings being more jeolous of the Sacrifice of our hearts than of any thing else how specious soever But the principal rule which this holy man observed in these affairs was never to look at them in themselves but in the will and design of God and to proceed in view of this Whence it came to pass that he applied himself to business not as appearing glorious pleasant or profitable but as agreeable to the will of God to which he submitted his own making poor and mean imployments equally considerable and sometime preferred before greater Hence he took up things cast aside by others undertook charities out of the road
For these three moneths I have not it may be spent three or four hours at my prayers upon my knees together out of the Church and should I perform them at all no otherwise than on this fashion I should but very ill discharge my â—uâ—y It is certain that I have discharged it ill enough yet I understand that God is pleased in the midst of these imployments to which he hath appointed me to make me sensible of his presence and power in uniting my soul to himself by certain intimate ways and that the outward work may be performed by the hand whilst the soul solaceth herself in that real alliance of Sons with their Father by the Spirit of the Son who admitteth us into his communion together with that of the blessed Virgin the Angels and Saints yea and of the whole Heaven if you will Such a wonderful expansion of soul can our Lord give when and how he pleaseth I enjoyed at the same time such a sensible impression of God yet excelling all sense as being acted in the more noble part of the Soul viz. the Spirit that if I had been thrown like a boul I could never have lost the sight of my God All things are here transitory for our Lord turns this boul in a strange manner when it pleaseth him And these dâ—verse turnings are done for the souls advantage whereby she is fashioned for every occasion that she may do nothing for or by herself but all for God and according to him Moreover I evidently see that a person whom God employeth in these low affairs if he follow them with the same fidelity as if they were greater keeping his station by obedâ—ence and self-denial is as acceptable to him as he that is occupied in the noblest functions The work it self making not the difference but the faithful execution of it by submitting to his good pleasure Will nothing please you but to convert a thousand worlds and bring all souls to God you shall be content to carry stones and sometime to sit still and do nothing The Sâ—crifice of Patience is both well pleasing to God and comfortable to our selves And I believe it is without comparison more rare to finde a soul faithful in patience and content to do no more than God would have him than faithful in actions which appear abroad I know well that God doth all in all but this Sacrifice of Patience and of Câ—ssation is more commendable in a heart who hath the love and zeal of his honour and in pursuit hereof is hurried on to action and hath need of greater force to withhold it from doing than to incite it This kinde of Cessation seems to be nothing at all available for the nourishment of such zeal and this hunger and thirst after righteousness which would devour the four quarters of the world is reverberated like the fire pent in which circles and works about until it finde a vent by this consideration that God is all-sufficient in himself and hath no need of us for advancing of his glory that we receive more honour from our imployments than he service being so impure that we blemish every thing we meddle with and rob it of some lustre and prove often not onely unprofitable but endamaging servants I have one word more to tell you that you may direct me in it which is that I am really ashamed and confounded in my self that I do no more for God considering his dignity hâ—s love his gifts and communications by the alliance of Jesus Christ and his Spirit Which indeed together with the sense of my great imbecility for any thing that is good of my sins and miseries would work my extream torment did I not bethink my self of his all-sufficiency in himself and that he doth with us as he pleaseth in keeping us in obedience and profound annihilation Thus far his Letter wherein are many good things to be learnt CHAP. 4. The excellent use he made of all things and his application to the Infancy of our Lord for that purpose IT must needs be that Monsieur Renty made excellen use of all accidents that occurr'd to him and generally of all creatures to attain to such a height of perfection whereof this usage of them as muâ—h as is in man is undonbredly the prinâ—ipal means to which all others are subordinate otherwise and without it unpâ—ofitable and meer hinderâ—nâ—es True it is that God hath placed in the bosom of each thing as in riches poverty honours disgrace health sickness good and evil a secret vertue and moral capâ—city to advantage us in our salvation and to be instruments of perfection even as so many cords to draw and unite us to himself but all this according to our usâ—ge of them For bâ—ing well used they produce good effects but contrarily abused instead of uniting us to God they estrange us further from him rendring us more imperfect and vicious and instead of advantages prove the instruments of our ruine Wherefore he being well instructed in this grand secret of Spiritual life imployed all his care to practise it perfectly Which that we may better understand it will not be amiss to follow it to the Spring-head The holy man had continually in his heart making it the principal conduct of his devotions as we have mentioned and may be easily deduced from the series of this History to unite himself to our Lord Jesus Christ and that upon good grounds Since out of him as saith S. Peter there is no salvation God having chosen him the sole Mediator of Redemption and the repairer of our miseties loving no creature in the world but him with a love of perfect amity Whereupon by S. Paul he is stiled the Son of his love and good pleasure and we alone are accepted in and thâ—ough him who are found beautiful and shining with glory when we are united to him and out of him we appear deformed hideous and most abominable being indeed without him filled with sin and his enemies Wherefore every man is so far dear and amiable to him as he stands united to his Son which is manifested in the Blessed Viâ—gin and his Apostles all our actions pleasing him so far as they are united to him even as each member of our body participates of life according as it is animated by our soul Having therefore perfectly learn'd this fundamental truth of Christianity his study was to unite himself to our Lord Jesus Christ and to copy him forth as his Rule and Law for the regulating of his Exterior and Interior adoring him daily under this notion applying himself with great reslection to his words actions designs and the several mysteries receiving from each of them great enlightnings Thus he writ to me one day upon the mysterie of his Incarnation I have had the grace divers times very intimately to understand that ineffable mysterie hidden with God from all ages and manifested now to the Saints according to S. Paul which is the
Jesus to do whatever pleaseth him in great Innocency Purity and Simplicity without reflection or return upon any thing whatsoever without taking share in any work without having joy or grief from any thing that arrives not looking upon things in themselves but in his will and conduct which we will endeavour to follow by the appearance and presence whiâ—h we shall render his Cratch and to the Divine States of his Infancy I therefore this day lose my own being to become wholly a slave subsisting upon the holy Infant Jesus to the glory of the Father and of the Holy Ghost This I signed into the hands of the most blessed Virgin my Mother my Patroness and my Protectress and in the presence of S. Joseph Gaston Jean Baptist And as he did with an intire heart consecrate himself to this holy Infant so did this bestow himself freely on him revealing it particularly to Sister Margaret of the B. Sacrament that he should from thenceforward be guided and animated by the Spirit of his Infancy and that he was descending to him to be his Master his Light and his Intelligence And shewing her one day his heart he said See here the habitation of my Servant Upon which she wrote to Monsieur Renty how the Infant Jesus had bestowed himself upon him to be a Spiritual and Celestial Ayr for him to breath constantly even as his body breathed this Material Ayr and that his Innocence Purity and Simplicity should subsist in him instead of himself destroying in him what his nature had corrupt and polluted And herein he made so large a progress that she often saw him within a beam of light so penetrated and filled with the grace of this holy Infancy like a spunge in the Ocean even absorpr in that abyss of infinite riches beyond his expression And he himself writ concerning it to a person in these words The Divine King of the Cratch the holy Infant Jesus doth so accumulate his favours upon me that I beseech you to thank him They are inexplicable From this time his custom was every Eve of the 25 day of each Moneth to enter into his Chappel at ten a clock at night and there to remain in pâ—ayer till midnight He adored the precious moment of our Saviours birth and entrance into this world performing certain acts of Devotion before the Image of his Sacred Infancy which further he honoured by inviting a poor childe to dinner entertaining him with wonderful great respect And during all that time that he celebrated the voyage of the Infant Jesus into Egypt and return to Nazareth he had to dinner every day three poor folks for the honour of Jesus Mary and Joseph during which time he would never ride in a Coach though his business often called him to painful and troublesome journeys afar off on foot and at length he quite gave over the use of a Coach After he had ingaged himself in this devout application to the Infancy of our Lord and being filled with his grace and animated by his Spirit had received thereby wonderful impressions and illuminations His Ghostly Father desired of him to write down his conceptions of that Divine Mysterie and wherein chiefly that grace consisted which begat this ensuing Letter in the year 1645. You have laid your commands upon me to set down in writing wherein consists the grace of the Infancy of our Saviour so far as I understand it This Adorable Lord hath renewed in me this morning two Conâ—eptions which he had given me a Moneth since three days one after another by which I shall be able to express what I conceive of it Being at my prayers in the Church about a Moneth ago I fell into some inward inquietude about my Devotion to this Infancy by reason that my Spirit was possessed with this thought That a Christian should regard our Saviour intirely from his Incarnation to his Glory where he sits at the right hand of his Father aâ—d from whence he sends us his Spirit And that we should make our addresses to all these mysteries according to our necessities and therefore to tie our selves to one particular were to send up maimed Devotions and to limit the extent of Verity and Grace After this I went to receive the B. Sacrament abandoning my self wholly to my God according to my usual custom A little while after the Communion I saw by an enlightning our Saviour entire that is all his mysteries from his Incarnation to his state of Glory where he resides at present governing us And in particular the Greatness and Dignity of this mysterie of his Infancy and withal I was instructed that this mysterie is our Port and our Address for to obtain our Consummation in glory That this is it to which we must direct our selves and here stay our thoughts and that it would be temerity to proceed to other mysteries on the same manner I saw it rashness to desire and demand orosses for our selves since it is the work of Gods grace to conduct us to them and uphold us under them I saw it rashnes to desire Mount Thabor that is high illuminations Finally that we ought not presently to address our selves to those other mysteries of our Saviour but onely to this of the Infancy which brings us into the ignorance the separation from and in applacation of things of this life making no further use of them than as they are given us for necessity which keeps us in great silence and produceth a Mortification of the Exteriour man whilst the Interiour is busied in contemplating the most holy Soul of our Saviour continually imploying it self in looking up toward his Father in his Love in zeal of his Glory in the Offering of himself and in the obedience to proceed forward in all innocence and purity and simplicity to all his other estates through which his Father had appointed him to pass I found then that for the happy conducting of our selves through all conditions whether of light or darkness of Thabor or Calvary we must for to receive and improve grace begin at the Infancy which teacheth us our first lesson of Abnegation to be taught of God of silence and innocence without any regard or pretensions to our selves but with the same spirit of submission and obedience that this blessed Babe Christ Jesus there practised and taught us This light and knowledge hath established me more than formerly in this mysterie finding there my bottom abiding there with attention and reverence to do what shall be commanded me afterward For the soul doth not raise it self by it self to any thing but on the contrary doth empty herself resting still in her own littleness with great recognition of what passeth and with the simplicity of a pure resigned aspect O Father how guilty shall I appear before God in answering so little to the greatness of his gifts It is my grief and a great one as he well knoweth Some three days after these words of S. Paul
were unexpectedly suggested unto me Hoc sentite in vobis quod in Jesu Christo c. Let the same minde be in you as was in Christ Jesus But chiefly was I affected with these words Semetipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens He emptied himself taking upon him the form of a servant and those that follow Factus obediens usque ad mortem Being made obedient even to death And light was given me to understand how that these words carry with them the proof of that which I had contemplated three days before of the right way and proceeding of this my Saviour who in his Infancy humbled himself even to the form of a servant and all the rest of his life to death being obedient to the Cross following the decrees of his Father not by election but by submission and patience This second view confirmed me further and after another manner in this mysterie The Infancy therefore of our Saviour is an estate where we must dye to all things and where the soul in Faith Silence Reverence Innocence Purity and Simplicity doth attend and receive the orders of God making it his daily work in Abnegation neither looking before nor behinde but being united to the holy Childe Jesus Who with an absolute Resignation received orders from his Father for his visitation by the Shepherds and Wisemen for his Circumcision going up to Jerusalem flying into Egypt his return back his journey to Jordan to be baptized into the Wilderness to be tempted for his Preaching and finally his Death upon the Cross Resurrection Ascexsion and Consummation in Glory Thus Father ought we methinks to follow Jesus our Model in these steps through the grace of this Infancy This is it he wrote to his Director concerning this Mysterie and why he chose it before others and which appears also in a Letter to another For this reason ought we to address our selves to the Infancy rather than the Cross or any other Mysterie because he emptied himself as saith the Apostle of his own good pleasure and chose the Manger but not the Cross to which he was conducted by his obedience To teach us to chuse of our selves Annihilation and after to suffer our selves willingly as little children to led into Egypt the Desart the Cross and the Crown Besides these solid enlightnings relating to this Mystery he had moreover others touching the three Verrues of Purity Innocence and Simplicity in which chiefly consists the spirit of this Mysterie and which it produceth in a soul that is united unto it Thus he expressed uimself concerning them I have beheld my soul upon the Bulwark of Innocence and upon the Foundation of Death Annihilat on and Nakedness to live in Divine Purity with the holy Infant Jesus But because this is somewhat obscure he writ thus more clearly to his Director I have vâ—ewed my soul upon its Scituation of Death Annihilation and Nakedness that is to say purged and stripped out of its self and of every creature For when the soul is suspended as in a desart from beholding any thing at all and without any prop to rest upon God draweth her straightway to himself by the cords of pure love which he letteth down from heaven as saith S. Katherine of Genoa and this cord is no other than the Infant Jesus in union of whom we ought to render unto God all the rights of a perfect Sacrifice which in Purity Innocence and Simplicity is sacrificed and consumed for his glory It hath often been declared to me and this is my very basis as far as my infidelity may permit me to say it that I ought to act no further save by the conduct of the Infant Jesus having still before me his sacred actings his unspotted love to his Father his sacrificing himself for his Glory and the destruction of sin his submission to all his Decrees which he understood distinctly waited upon with patience and executed in their several seasons In the Manger in his flight into Egypt in his thirty years Concealment in his travels till his death acting nothing by his own but according to the perfect will of his Father Whereby I am taught my duty to work in the same purity of spirit 〈◊〉 For the conservation of which Innocence and Simplicity are communicated unto me like two Bulwarks to uphold me therein Innocence is one Bulwark of this Purity or if you please a bright Chrystal through which I behold all things without offence that is to say without receiving infection from them so that the vices and disorders of men do not fix or make any impression upon me This Innocence carries me forth to my neighbour with exceeding great benignity and sweetness and is an incredible relief and succour to me in all imployments by reason of the multitude of mischiefs and sins I daily meet with it being my Saviours pleasure I should fly to this for remedy against them Innocence therefore applies it self to what is before me in all my actions to the end that Purity should receive no trouble in its operation that is to say in the respect it hath towards God Simplicity is the other Bulwark and Guard of Purity and hath its influence chiefly upon what is past and done separating my soul from all duplicity and multiplicity and reflections upon what hath been done or seen Thus is my soul happily inclosed betwixt two Bulwarks and two Walls whereof the one viz. Innocence preserveth her against the present and the future the other of Simplicity from what is past and behinde her Happy are those souls that are called to this Mysterie and to be acquainted with and enjoy God made man in the Manger From which no doubt they receive great blessings in the penetration and possession of the Purity Innocence and Simplicity of this Divine Babe in the same manner as men finde it more easie to obtain favours on the Birth-day or Coronation of a great Prince than at other times Thus this man of God and Infant of Grace declared his sense touching these three Vertues and such the noble and divine uses which he made of them Purity having influence on his intentions ruling in all his Interiour and Exteriour actions so that thereby he singly aimed at the glory and interest of God Just as an infant worketh simply according to nature in looking crying hearing eating and sleeping performing all these purely according to natures principles both for the efficient and final cause of each of them In like manner doth the childe of Grace produce all his actions by the instinct of Grace and hath it for his ultimate end purely aiming at Gods glory in imitation of Christ Jesus who behaved himself in the same manner in the Manger towards God his Father even as a sucking childe by innocence he looketh upon every object with a pure and innocent eye not engaged upon any thing but abstracted and free from all malice all impressions of their Species or Idea's much more from
that we may be all one in him and experimentally feel what the love of God is toward us In all that I read in the Scripture I neither understand nor find any thing else but this Love and perceive clearly that the very design and end of Christianity is nothing but it Finis autem praecepti est charitas de corde puro The end of the Law is love out of a sincere heart And this is acquired by Faith in Christ Jesus as the Apostle saith in the following words Fide non ficta by faith unfeigned Which uniteth and bindeth us to him whereby we sacrifice unto the Divinity our souls and our bodies through his Spirit which conducteth us to the compleat end of the Law to deliver us up to God and bring down him to us in charity and a gracious inexplicable union to whom be praise for ever Amen My heart was this morâ—ing enlightned with a great Charity upon these words That we are set in this world to know and love and serve God Which gave me to understand that the true effect of the knowledge of God is to annihilate our selves before him for this knowledge coming to discover unto us that infinite Majestie the soul abaseth and emptieth it self through the deep sense of fear and reverence according to the measure of this discovery And this is the first step of the soul in this estate Next he love of God manifested to us in the giving us his Son begins to affect us with love And as the former view of his greatness contracted us in fear so this his love in Christ Jesus enlargeth and elevateth us to love God in him and to conceive some good desires according as his spirit breathes in us And this is the second step The third is to serve him that is by putting this love into practice by good works For these desires are but blossoms and these good works the fruit I could say much on this subject if I could express my own feeling of it For here we finde all in all that is God revealed by Jesus Christ loved and served by his Spirit This Divine Lord sets up a blessed Society and a Kingdom in our souls wherein he rules and reigns there by love unspeakable and eternal Writing to another person he expresseth himself thus I give thanks to our Lord for that he hath disposed you to a perfect Abnegation of your self This is done to lead you into the pure estate of love which without that cannot be pure in that our love to God consisteth not in receiving gifts and graces from him but in renouncing all things for him in an Oblivion of our selvee in suffering constantly and couragiously for him Thus did he express the nature of Love not to consist in taking but giving and the more and greater matters we give the more we manifest our Love This Love carries up the Lover according to the measure of its flame continually to think upon his Beloved to will what may please him to study his interest to procure his glory to do every thing that may work his contentment and to be extreamly apprehensive of any thing that may offend him Accordingly he being all on fire with the love of God was perfectly sinsible of these effects All his thoughts words and works were the productions of this love for notwithstanding he practised other vertues yet they drew their original from this Furnace of Charity which in him was the beginning and motive and end of all which he testified to his Confidents frequently and in words so enkindled with it as were sufficient to warm the most frozen hearts I have observed saith one of his Confidents this Divine fire so ardent in his blessed soul that the flames thereof have burst forth into his Exteriour and he hath told me that when ever he proncunced the name of God he tasted such a sweetness upon his lips as could not be expressed and that he was even pierced thorow with a hâ—avenly suavity To another he write about 9. or 10. years agoe that he could nor conceal from him how he felt a fire in his heart which burnt and consumed without ceasing Another of them assures that he hath often seen him enflamed with this Love of God that he appeared even like one besides himself and how he told him when these transportings were upon him that he was ready to cast himself into thefire to testifie his Love to God and in one of his Letters to a friend he concludes thus I must now hold my peace yet when I cease to speak the fire within that consumes me will not let me rest Let us burn then and burn wholly and in every part for God since we have no being but by him why then do we not live to him I speak it aloud and it would be my crown of glory to seal it with my blood and this I utter to you with great freedom In a Letter to another thus I know not what your intent was to put into your Letter these words Deus meus omnia my God and my all Onely you invite thereby to return the same to you and to all creatures My God and my all my God and my all my God and my all If perhaps you take this for your motto and use it to express how full your heart is of it think you it possible I should be silent upon such an invitation and not express my sense thereof Likewise be it known to you therefore that he is my God and my all And if you doubt of it I shall speak it a hundred times over I shall adde no more for any thing else is superfluous to him that is truly penetrated with my God and my all I leave you therefore in this happy state of Jubilation and conjure you to beg for me of God the solid sense of these words Being transported with this Love of God it wrought in him an incredible zeal of his honour which he procured and advanced a thousand ways Which may be understood partly by what we have already writ and several other which are unknown because either they were wholly spiritual or concealed by him even from his most intimate friends The 12 of March in the year 1645. he writ thus to his Director upon this subject One day being transported with an earnest desire to be all to God and all consumed for him I offered up to him all I could yea and all that I could not I would willingly have made a Deed of Gift to him of Heaven and Earth if they had been mine And in another way I would willingly have been the underling of all mankinde and in the basest estate possible yea and if supported by his grace I could have been content to have suffered eternal pains with the damned if any glory might have accrew'd to him thereby In this disposition of a calm zeal there is no sort of Martyrdome no degree of greatness or littleness of
honour or disgrace that passed not through my spirit and which my soul would not readily have embraced for the advancement of his glory Here a man would be content to be a King to govern all or the meanest Beggar or most miserable Wretch to suffer all for him and this without reason through an excess of reason It is an impossible thing to understand how in so short time the soul should wish such different things and a large discourse would be too narrow to declare one circumstance thereto belonging All I could do in this condition was to give up my liberty to God writing the Deed in paper and signing it with my own blood See here the zeal of a man all on fire with the love of God where likewise his conformity to his will an infallible mark of this love is very observeable Those persons who knew him perfectly report that this intimate union of his will to Gods will was one of his singular graces and himself declared that he was constantly in this blessed frame to which he had applied himself more particularly for several years in which he made it evidently appear that the object and end of all his actions was the Divine will into which his own was wholly absorpt He writ thus to one concerning the sickness and death of the Countess of Castres to whom he had as we have formerly mentioned a very near relation founded upon grace I must tell you that during my absence from the Countess of Castres my heart was tenderly sensible of her pain knowing that she suffered very much But my desire submits to the Order of God and when that is signified to me he gives me grace to obey Coming to Paris I received the news of her death when I resigned my self wholly to God attending his good pleasure for what would follow Another time he writ thus to his Director I have been held these three weeks with a seavour together with a defluxion and an exceeding great weakness and my frame of spirit during this condition hath been a simple prosecution of and adherence to the will and pleasure of God I discover nothing in particular worth writing to you saving that I have a heart ready to receive any afflictions that can befall me I desire whatever is decreed from above and beg it with all my heart We have set down before how that in the year 1641. one of his children whom he dearly loved departed this life When the news was brought him he spake not one word nor shewed the least disturbance but absolutely submitted to the order of God corresponding thereunto in a perfect reconciliation of his own affection to the childe and his great loss of him At the end of the year 1643. his Lady fell desperately sick even to death being left of all her Physicians speechless and without sense but he notwithstanding the deep resentment of such a heavy loss and a business that touched him to the quick manifested such an absolute conformity to the will of God as brake forth into these words I cannot deny but my nature is deeply affected with the sense of so great a loss yet my spirit is filled with so wonderful a joy to see my self in such a state as to give up and sacrifice to my God a thing so near and dear to me that if civility did not forbid it I would make appear outwardly and give some publique testimony of my readiness thereunto By this heroick deportment he evidenced that the will of God was so absolutely his that he not onely will'd that which he will'd though never so difficult but that he willed it as God doth that is with much pleasure and content for so God doth not simply will and act things but wills and acts them with infinite it delight being in himself most infinitely happy But pleased God to restore his Lady to her health with respect as we may piously imagine to this heroical carriage of his faithful servant as likewise to avow he made to our blessed Lady for the obtaining thereof Neither did his conformity onely go thus far but advanced further yet even to things of a higher consideration referring to his perfection and salvation for notwithstanding that he earnestly aspired to Holiness and endeavoured thereafter with an unspeakable courage fervour and diligence yet all this was with an entire resignation of himself to the designs of God concerning himself For opening his case to this Director upon this point he writ thus My present condition consists in an adherence of my will to whatsoever God is pleasad concerning me and this I am sensible of from the bottom of my soul I have of late undergone very great aridities of spirit except some few intervals where all is said open and my soul resigneth herself to God in an inexplicable manner from which she remains full of certainty and of truths which will not easily vanish though they cannot without difficulty be unfolded Having writ and signed with his own blood a Deed of Gift of his Liberty as we have mentioned before he writ thus to the same person concerning it From that instant God hath bestowed upon me such a conformity to his will that as I acknowledge all things to be guided by his hand so likewise I receive every thing from it And to another intimate friend he writ thus The party meaning himself hath since that time felt such a wonderful great conformity to the will of God that he can will nothing but what God willeth neither can he understand how any man should will any thing else this makes every thing pass smoothly and currently This disposition of spirit made him look upon things not in themselves but as contain'd in the will of God and this he gave as a chief advice to attain to perfection It behoveth a soul saith he to give up it self to God walking on in simplicity in all its operations applying it self to every thing not for the thing it self but in order to the will of God not engaged at all to it but to God obeying and honouring him in every thing And from this perfect subordination to the will of God sprung his admirable Tranquillity of minde and from this fountain flowed those rivers of peace and profound repose which he possessed in so great perfection that from the most sudden surprizals his spirit was not altered one jot neither were his inferiour faculties of body put into any disorder as himself acknowledgeth For thus he writ to me one day I comprehend not that thing you call Mortification If one lives in this estate of Conformity for such finding no resistance in his spirit is not capable of it Who so willeth whatever God willeth is daily content let what will happen CHAP. 5. His great Reverence and Fear of God which produceth in him a most admirable purity of Conscience ONe of the most excellent dispositions of the soul in her Interiour life is that of great Reverence
herself may arrive Seeing a Gentleman of his birth and age in a Secular life and the throng of so great employments attained hereto onely if we use the like diligence and be faithful to the Spirit of God the onely means to attain to this perfection CHAP. 6. His great Reverence to Holy Things MOnsieur Renty did not onely carry a great Reverence to God but likewise to all things belonging to his Service and to all Holy things which sprang from that sense of Vertue and Religion imprinted in his soul producing the like fruits Exteriourly In the first place he had a singular respect to all Holy places and it will be very hard to recoâ—n with what Respect and Devotion he behâ—ved himself in Churches At his entrance his demeanour was exceeding modest and religiously grave He never sare down there nor put on his hat not so muâ—h as in Sermon time he would abide there as long as possibly he could and hath been observed upon great Festivals to remain there upon his knees for seven or eight hours He was very silent in the Church and if any person of any condition spoke to him his answer was short and in case the business required longer time he would carry him forth or some other way free himself thereof Secondly he used great veneration to all Ecclesiastical persons even to the meanest but the Reverence he gave to Priests was wonderful He would never take the upper hand of them without extream violence as appears by that passage in the former Chapter Whensoever he met them he saluted them with profound humility and in his travel would light off his horse to do it and render them all honour possible When they came to visit him he entertained them cordially with exceeding great respect at their departure waiting on them to the gate and if any dined at his table gave them the upper place which civility he observed to his own Chaplain When any Mission was in any of his Lordships he entertained the Missioners apart where they were served in plate when other Gentlemen and persons of quality that visited him were onely in pewter waving herein all humane respects A Nobleman and his Lady came one day to him upon a visit accompanied with a Priest that was Tutor to their children After he had received them observing the Priest at the lower end of his Hall with some of their Retinue quitting civilly the Nobleman and his Lady he went down to the Priest shewing great respect to him as to the most honoatable person of the company In fine his opinion of the Priesthood was so venerable looking upon it as the most potent means for procuring the glory of God that he said to a friend That he had a design to enter into that Order if God should ever bring him into a condition capable of it And as he had this singular Reverence toward them so likewise had he an earnest desire that they and generally all Ecclesiastical persons should understand the excellency of the condition to whiâ—h God had call'd them leading a life agreeable to their Dignity He writ to his Director in the year 1645. upon occasion of several Ecclesiasticks of his acquaintance who correspond not to their Profession and Obligation that his heart melted into sorrow for them and that he prostrated himself before his Saviour and begged with tears for some Apostolike Spirits to be sent amongst us our poor Fishermen Give us O Lord our poor Fishermen I often repeated I meant the Apostles But this word ran much in my minde not being able to use any other and my spirit wronght much upon these words Pescheurs Pecheurs Fishermen and Sinners I look upon these men simple indeed in their Exteriour but great Princes in their Interiour whose life and outward appearance vile in the eyes of men and estranged from the pomp of the world converted souls by their Sanctity by their Prayers by their Vâ—gilance and restless Labours And herein I discover a great mistake ordinary in the world which believes that outward greatness and pomp is the way to keep up ones credit and render him more capable to do good to his neigbours But we are foully mistaken for it is grace that hath power upon souls and an holy and humble life that gaineth hearts With the same spirit he bewailed much the hasty and irreverent reciting of their Office in many places Being this day present at Divine Service saith he in a Letter to me many words therein put me in minde of the holiness thereof and yet I could not without much grief take notice of some chanting it hastily without devotion or spirit and others hearing it accordingly Good God what pitty is this where is our faith My eyes were ready to run over with tears but I forced my self to refrain them In the third place he had a great respect and love to Religious Persons and all such as dedicated themselves to the Service of God encouraging and assisting them with all his might This Letter he writ to one that was assaulted with great combats I must needs let you know the tender resentment I have of those tempests and present storms that you endure I know no reason why men should alarum you thus nor that you have done any thing against the Gospel which is the onely thing they should condemn you for I believe it will be very hard for them to gather a just cause of reproach from your design For my own part I do not wonder at these crosses its sufficient to know that you belong to Jesus Christ and do desire to follow him reckoning contradiction to be your portion in these days of your flesh Be you onely firm in your confidence upon our Lord suffering no storms from without to trouble you or obscure that light that hath guided and pressed you to this business I pray God deliver you from the reasonings of flesh and blood which often multiply upon us in such matters assuring you that if you give not car to them God will manifest himself unto you that is he will comfort and fortifie you in faith and in experience of the gifts of his Holy Spirit To another he writ thus Blessed for ever be the Blessed Infant Jesus for the happy entrance of those two devout souls into Religion which you mention I shall rejoyce exceedingly in their perseverance the best argument of their effectual calling If the other party you know of had a little more confidence and courage to break her fetters it would be a great step for her And surâ—ly there is not need of so much prudence and deliberation to give up our selves to him who to the Gentiles is foolishness and to the Jews a stumbling block This world is a strange cheat and amusement insinuating into and infecting every thing God hath no need of our good parts nor of our rare qualities who commonly confounds the wisdom of the wise by little things which he chuseth
Blessed be that littleness which is held for weakness and yet overthroweth all the Power and Prudence of flesh Treating with some Religious Persons he seemed as it were rapt on a sudden with the consideration of their happy condition speaking to them thus O how happy are you my Sisters After which falling upon a discourse of their Vocation he spake so effectually as wrought in them an ample acknowledgement of their obligation to God and a courage to proceed in well doing This following Letter he writ to a Gentlewoman newly entred into Religion who next under God did owe her calling to him I thank my Saviour with all Reverence for those good dispositions to your Profession signified in your Letter I understand and am sensible of abundant grace wrought in you whereby I assure my self of a noble pregress I am to expect from the bounty of God who is to that soul that gives herself to him Merces magna nimis Her exceeding great reward You have made a leap which puts you in a new world Blessed and adored be God who in the fulness of time out of his wisdom and love to a soul sends his Son unto it to redeem â—t from the Law of Servitude and translates it into the Adoption of his Sons This hath he now wrought in you in a more special manner and the excellentest way that could be You was never united to Jesus Christ as you are now by your holy Profession You had heretofore something to give that was never before engaged and he something to receive that was not formerly in his possession But now all is given and all is received and the mutual donation is accomplished No more Self no more Life no more Inheritance but in Jesus Christ He is all in all things until the time that according to the Apostle he delevering us up all and wholly to his Father his Faâ—her also shall be iâ— Jesus and in all his members all in all for ever Amen Fourthly he had a very great Devotion to all the Saints in Heaven but more partifulatly to S. Joseph and S. Teresa whom in the year 1640. he chose for his Patroness and above all the rest to the Saint of Saints the B. Virgin in testimony whereof he dedicated himself to her Service at Ardilliers then when he designed himself for a Carthusian And in the year 1640. he desired to be admitted into the Society erected to her honour in the house of the professed of the Jesuits of S. Lewis and for many years he wore a seal upon his arm with her Image graven wherewith he sealed all his Letters We have likewise mentioned how he gave to an Image of Nostre-Dame de Grace a heart of Chrystal set in Gold to testifie to that Admirable Mother as he used often to stile her his love and that with this heart he resigned up to her his own Finally this man of God most entirely honoured and loved the Spouse of Christ his Holy Church reverencing every thing that came from her making great account of all her ceremonies saying That he found a certam grace and particular vertue in the prayers and customs of the Church conforming himself most readily to her practises Being present commonly at High-Mass in Paris he would go to the Offering amongst the people and ordinarily with some poor man He assisted at ceremonies where it was rare to finde not onely men of his quality but far meaner persons as the consecrating of the Fonts in the Holy Week at long Processions in all extremities of weather Upon which occasion he writ one day to a friend Our Procession goeth this day into the Suburbs and since our Saviour hath favoured us with this great mercy to be of this little flock we ought to follow his standard and I take it for a signal honour to follow the Cross which way our holy Mother the Church leads us there being nothing in her but what is glorious since she acts in every thing by the Spirit of Religion in the presence of God whereby she unfolds great mysteries to those that are humble and respective From which expressions actions we may infer that he being a man of such quality and taken up with such a multitude of business had a very reverend esteem of all the ceremonies of the Church otherwise he would never have rendred such Obedience and Honour to them And though it be most true that he highly honoured these ceremonies yet he desired likewise that by the Exteriour pomp that appeared to the eyes Christians might be led on to the Interiour and more Spiritual complaining that the outward Magnificence wherewith Churches are adorned do often stay and amuse them and instead of carrying them on to God their chief end diverts them from him To this purpose he writ thus to a friend We should take notice of that simplicity in which the Divine Mysteries were conveyed to us that we may not be held too long with the splendour in which at this day they are celebrated These thoughts came into my minde in hearing the Organs and Church Musick and beholding the rich Ornaments used in the Divine Office we must look thorow this state at that spirit of Simplicity Purity and Humility of their primitive Institution Not but that these are holy and useful but that we should pass thorow it to the Simplicity and Poverty of Bethlehem Nazareth Egypt the Wilderness and the Cross But above all he was singularly devoted to an union of spirit and affection and universal communion of all good things whith all the faithful in all places of the world and to be admitted into the communion of Saints being an Article of our Creed very dear unto him Wherefore he highly valued all of each Nation and Profession without espousing any particular spirit or interest to respect one above others to magnifie one and derogate from another He honoured all Ecclesiasticks Secular and communicated with them concerning all his Exercises of Charity for his Neighbour he gave great respect to all Parish Priests was very serviceable to him of his own Parish he frequented the Societies of the Religious loved and made use of them for direction of his conscience And notwithstanding the great variety and several orders of them in the Church yet was not his heart divided but affected with an equal esteem and approbation and a general affection to all according to their degree being guided herein by one Spirit viz. that of Christ Jesus which enliveneth all the faithful as members of his body in the same manner as out bodily members notwithstanding they be different in sight figure and offices are knit together and all perfectly agree because they are all quickned by the same soul All misintelligence and disagreeing is a sign of two spirits that rule there and division is the principle of death Concerning this communion of Saints he one day suffered some difficulty Whereupon he writ this excellent Letter to his Directoâ— I
so powerfully supported in it and it made so easie to her by that Divine assistance and fall upon another that is likely to prove difficult for want of the same assistance Whence we may conclude that we ought not to change our exercise of Piety so long as God supplies us with sufficient grace to attend it The second is that we should reiterate many actof the same vertue as of Faith Hope Love or which is better continue and hold on the same act thus to acquire a rooting and establishment of these vertues which is not gotten but by vigoâ—ous and effectual reiteration of their acts as a nail is not driven up to the head with one blow but must be strucken hard and often And so it is with vertues whose force and sound profit consists in their having a well-rooted and grounded possession of the soul whereas they are worth little or nothing till they are habituated therein even as the tree brings forth neither leaves nor fruits until it hath taken deep rooting The same thing is to be done for any moral conclusions which are drawn from these acts that is to double and redouble them till they be fixed and made effectual as for example after some repeated acts of Faith that God is your first Principle and that of your self you are nothing and that all your hope is in him and our Saviour say with your self once twice and twenty times over with affection and a quiet but vigorous application if I believe this great truth of God and my self why do I attribute any thing to my self why do I not humble and abase my self under him why do I not love him upon whom all my good depends why do I not look upon my self and all creatures in the world as nothing If I hope in God and my Saviour why then do I fear any thing else is not here ground enough to live with confidence and joy what is he that can molest or trouble me Live then O my soul in tranquillity and repose as this same hope doth oblige thee These acts thus redoubled and repeated with constancy and vigour will without doubt produce great effects in the soul which is the fruit that this Prayer of Affection should bring forth Herein did Monsieur Renty exercise himself for many years reaping thereby an inestimable treasure of spiritual riches This Prayer saith he in one of his Papers is not by discourse and reasoning but by a loyal love tending always to give more than to receive The obscurity of Faith is of greater evidence to the soul than all the illuminations she can procureâ— which faith she ought to use with Reverence and Thanksgiving not with Complacency or Affectation Here needs no stretch of the Spirit this Prayer never offends the brain this is a state of modest deportment in which the soul keeps herself in the presence of God expecting what his spirit shall please to infuse into us which we receive in simplicity and in considence as if himself spake to us The ordinary dispositions with which he entred into this Prayer were first A profound Reverence and an abasing of himself in Gods presence whose infinite Majeste held him in a deep sense of his own meanness saying that we ought to consider our selves before it as little and less than the smallest Atomes Secondly A strong and absolute Confidence in his Infinite Goodness and Mercy which bearing up his Humility and the sense he had of his own vileness made him still hope all things He exhorted all of his acquaintance that were capable of it to use this kinde of Prayer as the most excellent profitable and easie of all others since it puts not a man to the labor to consider nor penetrate into or discourse of any subject but is easie for all sorts but chiefly for the unlearned who herein have need of no more but a simple belief applying themselves thereto with Affection He counselled men to give themselves more to the operations of the will than the speculations of the understanding and that place of S Paul to Titus where he exhorts us to live in sobriety he expounded of the sobriety of the senses and chiefly of that of the Spirit to cut off in our prayers multiplicity of notions and discourse and to proceed therein by Faith In effect the mysterie of faith is incomparably transcendent above all the Science and Discourse of the most quaint and sublime wits for as every thing is but visible by his own light a Torch by his and the Sun by the Sun things of glory by the light of glory so those of grace by the light of grace whereof the most perfect without doubt is that of Faith Reason is bestowed upon us for the discovery of natuâ—al things and Faith for Supernatural and Divine With men we discourse by Reason and with God by Faith and since God is at an infinite distance above man and Grace above Nature we may well conclude that Humane discourse of the finest thâ—ed is too heavy for that high pitch which can soar no further than natural Reason can conduct it Moreover whatsoever notions we have in this world of God and things spiritual they are in some degree deceitful and false not representing things as they are really since our spirit conceives nothing here below but what hath passed thorow the senses where spiritual things are refracted and receive much earth and come to us distorted and disguised But it is Faith alone that represents them in their real entities There are but two indubitable lights on which we may relie and which surpass all others in excellency which sanctifie and deifie our understanding elevating it to its first principle and oâ—iginal of all verity which is the Divine Intellect that is to say the light of Faith here and the light of glory hereafter These two being participations of that knowledge which God himself hath which demonstrates the dignity and perfection of Affective Prayer which quitting Discourse proceeds by Faith Neither did he make long stay upon the former way of Prayer but passed on further ascending to that of Union and Contemplation which was bestowed upon him in a very high degree Holy men speaking of this Contemplation the sublimest degree of Prayer here upon earth make thereof two sorts Acquisite and Infused The latter is that which God alone produceth in the soul to which she contributes nothing but a simple consent to receive his operation which is also called Contemplation Passive The former is that which man assisted by Gods grace may acquire by his own labour and exercise by his own industry and is therefore called Active The Infused hath so absolute a dependence upon God that it s given when and to whom he pleaseth who also takes it away which we cannot hinder no more than all the men in the world with all their strength put together can stay the Sun from rising and setting But all are in some measure capable of
it by God and for God In another Letter to him thus I finde for some time that my prayer is no more regular I possess the Sacred Trinity with a plenitude of verity and clearness and this with such an attraction so pure and so vigorous in the superior part of my soul that my outward employment create me no diversion at all And another time he writ thus Jesus Christ worketh the experience of his Kingdom in my heart and I finde him there my Lord and Master and my self wholly his I discover now a greater enlarging of my heart but so simple that I am not able to express it save onely thus that it is a simple but most real sight of the Trinity accompanied with praising blessing and offering up all homage thereto All which is done so silently that it causeth no noise below neither can it be discerned in the higher part of my soul by parcels so as to be expressed except it be by reflexion Whether I utter my self well to you or no I know not This blessed man thus united by contemplation to God the supream verity received abondant light both for himself and others upon all subjects but especially those he had for the understanding of the holy Scriptures and especially the New Testament and therein the mysteries of our Saviour were admirable Thus in a Letter to his Director Upon one word I shall read in the New Testament I shall sometimes discover notions of those truths in so full and piercing a manner that I ever feel my body replenished therewith that is my whole nature penetrated And to one of his friends thus When I read the Sacred Scripture I fortifie my self to enter into those effects they work which is a plenitude of the truth of God wherewith the soul is solidly and experimentally satisfied And he made notes upon all the Lent-Gospels full of piety and those great illuminations with which his spirit was replenished This is a short account of the Prayer of this great servant of God so far as we could discover it for the chief part thereof is that which passed within the Sanctuary of his own Soul where his union and converse with God was so wonderful that after he had spent seven or eight hours therein he found himself in the end as if he had onely then begun it except onely that he had then yet more desire to continue it and at length arrived to that height that he never ended it at all being wholly and constantly in recollection and application to God Whereupon he professed to an intimate friend that he need neither particular place nor time for prayer since in all places times and business he continued it CHAP. 9. The state of his Mystical Death and Annilation WE are now come to the highest degree of Vertue and the ultimate disposition of soul to render her capable of a most intimate union with God wherein her perfection consists She must dye first before she can live this new life and must be annihilated to become truly something This death and annihilation stands not in the destruction of mans naturals to deprive him of understanding memory will and affections much less of his senses but in the ruine of the old man which is wholly corrupt and infected with sin in such sort that the understanding and other faculties spiritual and corporal be cleansed and animated by the Spirit of Christ Jesus to work no more according to nature corrupted nor yet nature pure but nature elevated by grace and sanctified by Jesus Christ Now as the corruption and malignity of the old man holds an entire possession of our nature and the poyson of sin is spread all over body and soul so that from the crown of the head to the soul of the foot as saith the Prophet there is no sound part in us So all these parts must be healed this corruption purged out and the malignity perfectly mortified and destroyed When I say perfectly I mean so much as this can be done here on earth for it is onely in heaven in the estate of glory where this happiness is compleatly perfected but in this world there will still remain something to be purged This holy man writing to one concerning this state of death and annihilation tells him how that singing in the Church with others the Magnificat he was illuminated upon these words Deposuit potentes de sede c. He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble which represented to him a soul full of it self compleat in the power and riches of its parts and natural endowments in its life of Exterior and Interiour sense undertaking to see and understand every thing full of it self and quite empty of God Then he addes Now our Saviour gave me to understand in this verse that he divesteth this soul of her own proper arrogant spirit rich in nothing but iniquity that he humbles and empties and annihilates her and so exalteth the lowly advancing her at length to a wonderful condition where I saw her reduced to an happy and rich annihilation emptied of herself and dispoiled of what she possessed of sense and man divested not onely of the old man but of the gifts of God that are in her to be presented before him in nakedness and simple obedience I understood that in this estate the soul being affected with great humility and affiance likewise God did in her that which he pleased and that she was throughly enlightned and that she discovered afar off the least things as we usually do a little bush in the midst of a mown field He writ this following Letter to his Director upon the same subject Since the time that I gave up my liberty to God signed with my blood as I told you I was given to understand to what a state of annihilation the soul must be brought to render it capable of union with him I saw my soul reduced into a small point contracted and shrunk up to nothing And at the same time I beheld my self as if encompassed with whatsoever the world loves and possesseth and as it were a hand removing all this far from me throwing it into the occan of Annihilation In the first place I saw removed all Exterior things Kingdoms great Offices stately Buildings rich Houshold-stuff Gold and Silver Recreations Pleasures all which are great encombrances to the souls passing on to God of which therefore his pleasure is that she be stripped that she may arrive at the point of nakedness and death which will bring her into possession of solid riches and real life Secondly all Interior things which are more delicate and precious as Acquired Sciences skill and sublime Learning operations of the Memory and strength of Vnderstanding humane Reason experience of Sense of which the soul must likewise be purged and dye to itâ— own proper actions And I perceived that we must come like little Infants simple and innocent separated
how much she was troubled to see him so much honoured and esteemed by men Who answered her First That she had great reason for it in that he so little deserved it And secondly upon her demand how those commendations assected him He replied I neither attend nor return any answer to them they affect me no more than a stock through the grace of God I am insensible of praise and dispraise the one nor the other make not any impression upon my spirit but I entertain them without reflexion And he had good reason since'as all the prayers men bestow upon us make us not one jot the better so neither their opprobries the worse Besides that ordinarily in the distribution of these the greatest piece of injustice in the world is committed by commending such as least deserve it but rather shame and confusion and blaming such whom God highly esteemeth In the fourth place he was dead and crucified to all supernatural good things all spiritual delights and favours which without comparison are of greatest value above all that we have named even to all gifts vertues perfections which he desired and sought after with a most disengaged and self-denying spirit not lusting after this or that vertue this or that degree of perfection but willing and desiring all according to Gods will about which he expressed himself further thus The love of our selves is so afraid to be stripped out of any thing that it suffers us not to be carried forth to our true rest as long as it can subsist and uphold it self by its own right and property which should teach us to use all diligence for the annihilation of our own desires even of those that seem to us to tend onely to vertue I say that seem to us whereas indeed if God gave us a true light we should undoubtedly see that the course which tends to our divesting of all these things carries us on secretly but most really to the true possession of them and our own preservation and that we must daily descend to our own nothingness in which alone God is to be found Thrice happy are all such poor in spirit He was also dead and annihilated to all gusts of Devotion all sensible Graces and Consolations of which our love-sick souls are so greedy Upon which subject he expressed himself thus I am better satisfied with those graces in which sense hath no part than with those that have more of the sensible of which indeed I am somewhat jealous for we finde amongst spiritual persons great store of counterfeit riches of the Spirit those I mean who are all for gusts and sensible consolations and illuminations in this state of exile wherein we ought to live rather by faith than feeling and which is much to be â—amented We meet very few that are not infected with this â—â—ch it being the natural condition of man to desire to see and to that end to affect and search for enlightnings and wanting the experimental knowledge of that which comes from God which is not to be gotten but by quitting his own he looks after that which he findes in himself mistaking it for Divine because it is modeliz'd to his own gust and fancy And in another Letter thus As for obscurities aridities and other troubles of spirit they are to be born with upon any terms and we must give up our selves as forlorn creatures throwing our selves into God on all sides of us as a fish in the Ocean which is its proper element into God at all times and for all things If we be true members of our Saviour Christ Jesus we shall see nothing but submissions and abnegations and shall sense nothing else but these He was dead and annihilated also to all glorious and extraordinary favours enjoyments of which he had no other feeling than the Sun which being covered over with light and crowned with glory yet is no way sensible thereof insomuch that having received by the mouth of a great Saint promises of some great favours from God he returned this answer to his Director Those things whereof they have given me notice and assurance must be as they may I rest nothing upon them nor confide in them knnowing it to be my duty to live by faith Being certified at another time of a special favour received from our Saviour it had no other operation upon him but the impression of a great confusion and profound humility And as they gave him all these things in writing at large he parted with them all to his Director together with all his other secrets and most important papers of Devotion especialy those written with his own blood formerly mentioned an evident demonstration of his great humility by reason that most men are taken with those parcels of piety grounding this their affection to them upon some benefit receiveable by them But the reliance which is placed upon God must be disengaged from every thing else This he made appear by this Letter to his Director I have received the paper which mentions this grace and favour whereof I send you the copy having no other reflection thereupon but to meet it with the greatest latitude of heart I can possible to bless God acknowledge his goodness and serve him for it I have burnt the original with several other papers of the like nature If you judge it not convenient that I should do so let me receive your commands accordingly for the future I could wish if there be any thing left for me to wish that I had nothing left me but my God This is the sure replenishment of the soul and rich treasure of the heart Moreover he was wholly dead to all that God wrought by him taking no share thereof nor interesting himself any more with them after they were done than if they had been performed by another Fifthly he was crucified and dead to all affections not onely such as are irregular but those also which are purely natural of all creatures and in particular of those who used his counsel and depended upon him for the conduct of their souls wherein the obligations and relations on both parts use to be more than ordinary insomuch that upon a separation there falls out de jection of spirit and distractions of Devotion To this purpose he writ to one of those persons thus I cannot without much trouble bear the great matter you make of my converse and of my removes Let us breath after God and make good our alliance with Jesus Christe to learn in and from him a profound abnegation of our selves And in another Letter thus Jesus Christ is ever the same and his grace is continually advancing and as long as I am to him so long shall I be to you for him and in him he is not wont to part souls by the separation of bodies since his custom is to separate onely what is imperfect as being that which very often brings with it some hinderances to the perfect life of
that he neither desired noâ— feared any thing in this world And in fine enjoyed such a sweet tranquillity of spirit and repose which nothing could disturb or alter that from thence arose a wonderful and invariable equality shining forth in his Exterior at all times in all places upon all occasions One of his intimate friends desirous to try one day whether he had an affection to any thing questioned with him about every thing he could think of to put him to the rest and among other things asked him whether he desired not that these works which he had undertaken for the glory of God might succeed and take effect To whom â—he replied that he had no other aim in all his actions and enterprizes than the accomplishing of the will of God and that although he used his utmost endeavour that such things might succeed yet notwithstanding he was perfectly resigned in all things to his Majesties good pleasure adding many other expressions testifying his Mortification to all desires and a perfect transformation of his will into that of Gods This discourse was not quite finished but there hapned an occasion to put it to the tryal for one came running in crying that all the Heaven was on fire which news usually very frightful made no alteration in him at all who most calmly and composedly looking up to the heavens said the fire is here in Paris without any further distance though he understood presently that it was so violent that the street he lived in was in danger to be burnt down and his neighbours said it was necessary to quite forsake their quatters by reason that the fire was not far off and was likely in a very short space to reach them In this publique fright he keeping his ordinary equality and referring all to the will of God went into his Chappel where he continued long time in prayer offering up himself in sacrifice to God and resigning up his own will unto him some persons looking upon him with great admiration in this posture whilst so many hundreds were at their wits end and preparing for a speedy flight He professed to another secret and familiar friend that he felt himself through the mercy of God in such an absolute state of death to every thing that neither Angels nor men the loss of all he had the subversion of his family nor any other accident could remove him from his settled tranquillity And this he said not hyperbolically or by way of ostentation but out of a solid experimental establishment in that fortitude common with him to all great Saints Such was the mystical death and annihilation of this man of God by which his soul was enriched with a vast treasure of spiritual wealth causing him to lead a most perfect life and uniting him most intimately to God to which this death is absolutely necessary because no being can arrive to that which it was not formerly without ceasing first to be what it was as wood cannot pass into the nature of fire as long as it keeps its former nature this must be quitted and the matter be divested of all the form of wood both in substance and accidents and reduced into a state of privation to be made capable of the fires unitement to it And this is a general rule in nature admitting no exception that each subject must be predisposed to receive a new form and so much more as this form is more noble and this disposition consists in the privation of the subject and loss of other forms to gain a new one So also to make a spiritual man he must no more live according to nature but that he may be capable to be united to God must necessarily dye and be annihilated to himself And if fire require this total privation in the matter to communicate it self thereto with greater reason doth God who is altogether a spirit infinitely pure the first and soveraign entity require of a man this universal nakedness and privation this death and annihilation to himself and all created beings before he give and unite himself with him for in giving himself he giveth also the fruition of himself of his beauty goodness wisdom and his other perfections and by this union renders the receiver happy Hence also may be gathered what admirable purity is requisite in a soul for this union with God in Heaven in the state of glory that for this we must either conserve our Baptismal Innocence or if that hath been lost or fullied we must be purged here or in Purgatory by severe penances notwithstanding our other good works and the high degrees of sanctity to which we have attained And the same in proportion may be averred of the soul here in this estate of grace where it must be very pure to prepare it well for its union with God here in this life And seeing her pollution ariseth from her love to the creature and to herself and from the life of the first Adam according to the lusts and appetites of our own spirit it must dye to all these creatures and likewise to its self just as the body to be made perfect and to partake the true life of immortality and bliss must necessarily dye first so likewise must our souls if we will have them arrive to perfection consisting in this union with God to lead a holy and Divine life which alone can truly be called life To this purpose he writ thus to his Director I see clearly that the onely way to a Divine Union is to be perfectly divested of every thing that is not God and dead to our selves and every creature O that I well understood the importance of this nakedness and death and what is it that hinders the bonds of this Celestial love and union with his Divine Majestie and that Soveraign Beauty but a certain shew of and light adherence to some creature and shall we suffer that a thing so small and so unworthy should possess in the room of God and that Holy Spirit which is an all-consuming fire of love invirancing us on all sides should not have the power to work upon us the same effect which this elementary fire worketh upon wood Why should not I vicious and discontented creature in the midst of these my wretched plenitudes acquire happiness in the possession of God which I may do by his grace in separating my self gently from the creature by a single and affectionate application to the Creator To another person he writ thus When S. Paul saith You are dead and your life is hid with God in Christ Jesus He layeth death as the necessary foundation of a Christian whereby to remove from him all affection and inclination to the creature As we see that a dead man hath no more any motion or sense of any thing for though we are frequently sensible of the rebellious motions of corrupted nature yet they onely spring to be choaked and stifled in their birth To this purpose the
world that you may have no part therein And above all my children that you may live in the fear and love of God and yield due obedience to your Mother On Saturday which was the day of his death about half an hour past ten in the forenoon being newly recovered out of a violent fit of a Convulsion which had like to have carried him away looking attentively on those that were present he made signs with his hands head and eyes with a pleasant countenance for a person of quality and his intimate friend to come neer him Which being done he spake thus to him Sir I have one word to say to you before I dye then pausing a little to recover his strength he testified his affection to him but in words that could not distinctly be understood at length raising his voyce and speaking more articulately and plainly he proceeded The perfection of Christian life is to be united unto God in the faith of the Church We ought not to entangle our selves in novelties let us adore his conduct over 〈◊〉 and continue faithful to him unto the end let us adhere to that one God crucified for our salvation let us unite all our actions and all that is in us to his merits hoping that if we continue faithful to him by his grace we shall be partakers of the glory of his Father I hope we shall there see one another one day which shall never have end The party ready to reply and give him thanks Monsieur Renty stopped his mouth saying Adieu this is all I have to say to you Pray for me Some time after this and a little before his death fixing his eyes stedfastly upon heaven as if he had discovered something extraordinary he said The Holy Infant Jesus where is he Thereupon they brought him his Picture which he kissed devoutly and asking for his Crucifix took it in his hands and kissed it most affectionately Then turning himself towards death presently entred into his last agony which held not above a quarter of an hour of which he spent the most part in pronouncing the Holy name of Jesus making as well as he could acts of Resignation and commending his spirit to God after which he expired sweetly and his holy soul as we have good cause to believe departed to its place of rest Thus lived and dyed Monsieur de Renty one of the most glorious lights that God hath bestowed upon his Church in this age and one of the greatest ornaments of true devotion that hath appeared this long time He died at Paris the 27 year of his age the 24 of April 1649. about noon neer the time of our Saviours elevation on the Cross of which a certain person having a particular knowledge in his prayers applied the merits of this passion to him at the instant of his death in such sort that this application together with his own acts of resignation and annihilation which he had made and with which he both honoured and embraced the Cross are piously believed to have perfectly purged his soul and put it into a condition of entring into its beatitude and enjoyment of God at the instant of its dissolution There are reports of several Revelations and Visions concerning his state of glory and how at the instant of his death a Globe of light was seen ascending from earth to heaven Certain miraâ—ulous cure are also related to be done by his intercessions and spiritual relief supernaturally afforded to several devout persons by his admonitions which things will not seem incredible when we consider his holy life and heroick vertues rendring him one of the miracles of our age Yet since I have not the like assurance of these as of what I have already written and that true Sanctity and Châ—istian perfection consists not in suâ—h things which are not at all imitable I shall not insist upon them I onely adde by way of conclusion that we have great reason to admire the secret counsels of God in taking out of the world a man so useful who being in his full strength and flower of his age and in such an eminent degree of credit reputation and capacity might wonderfully have advanced the honour of God and good of his neighbour But when I say it was the hand of God all things are therein concluded And hereby he is pleased to let us know that he hath no need of us for the advancing of his glory the execution of his designs which he can bring about without us and when he is pleased to make use of us his instruments therein we are to behave our selves with great humility in his presence He hath translated him to another place where he glorifies his Majestie with greater perfection to a place and state that truly deserves the name of glory and that not onely in consideration of what the Saints receive but of what they render to the King of glory Moreover we may affirm that these holy men great pillars of the Church and comforts of the faiâ—hful are frequently taken away before their time as a just punishment upon us for the little use and benefit we make of their conversation and example And truly when first I heard the news of his sickness and the danger that he was in I could not but make this reflection that considering so solid and compleat a vertue notwithstanding that great need the world had of him and the exceeding great good he might still have done in it it was very likely he might dye as being a fruit ripe for heaven even as fruit in its maturity is ready to be gathered and takes hurt by being plucked too soon or too late Thus did God gather this good man in the maturity of his graces and perfection of his vertues as a man perfect and compleated to place him in heaven there to receive his just reward where he waits for us to adore and glorifie and love together with him in all perfection God the Father the Son and H. Ghost to whom be Honour Praise Benediction and all sorts of Adoration and Service now and for ever Amen THE CONCLUTION OF THE WORK How we ought to read the Lives of Saints TO conclude this work and render it more useful to the Reader I think it will not be amiss to afford him some instructions how to read the Lives of Saints and Histories of persons eminent in vertue to the end that that fruit may be reaped by them for which they were compiled These eminent souls then are to be considered two several ways 1. As they have relation to God 2. As to our selves For the first as they relate to God it is certain that these Saints and Persons famous for Piety are the greatest Master-pieces the richest Ornaments the most precious Jewels the choicest Works and the greatest Instruments of Gods Glory that are upon earth For if the meanest righteous man is incomparably more noble and honourable than all sinners put together since