1. HAVING thus largely treated of the mortification of the
principal passions in sensitive nature, we are consequently to
speak of the mortifications of the will or appetites of the superior
soul, the general inordination whereof is pride, the root of all
other vices, and which of all other is the last cured, as being
fixed in the inmost centre of the spirit. Now pride doth generally
express itself one of these three ways: 1. in curiosity of knowledge,
or seeking to enrich the understanding with sciences
not profitable, and sought only out of an ambition of excelling.
This is mortified by a nameless virtue which St. Paul describes
2. Humility may be defined to be a virtue by which we, acknowledging the infinite greatness and majesty of God, His incomprehensible perfections, and the absolute power that He hath over us and all creatures (which are as nothing before Him), do wholly subject ourselves, both souls and bodies, with all their powers and faculties, and all things that pertain to either, to His holy will in all things, and for His sake to all creatures, according to His will.
3. Properly speaking, humility is only exercised towards God, and not to creatures; because all creatures are in themselves nothing as well as we, and so deserve as well to be despised. And on these grounds the heathens were incapable of this virtue, because they did not, nor could, intend God, who was unknown unto them; yea, it was not without ground that they disgraced and condemned this virtue (by which men compared themselves with others, preferring all before themselves) as a hindrance to other perfections; because the undervaluing one's self compared with others was, in their opinion, a means to deject men's spirits and hinder any heroical attempts of raising one's self above others; and also because if the person, comparing had indeed an advantage in perfections, it would be both unreasonable and unjust not to prefer himself. But what an inconsequent way of arguing this is, I shall hereafter show.
4. In this virtue of Humility, God, towards whom it was exercised, may be considered: 1. as absolutely and abstractly in Himself; 2. as compared with creatures; 3. as in His creatures, and in several degrees participated by them.
5. In this latter regard, we for God show Humility towards men, preferring others before ourselves, contenting ourselves with the meanest things in diet, clothes, books, &c., yea with the meanest parts and endowments of nature, flying all honour, authority, or esteem, &c.
6. If humility were thus practised by religious persons, &c., all other duties also would be cheerfully and readily practised; for if we did indeed esteem ourselves to deserve no honour, kind usage, &c., but the contrary, how could we be impatient for injuries received, unresigned in afflictions, infected with propriety, &c.? with what sweetness and peace would we live towards all! with what tenderness and charity would we embrace all, &c.!
7. Now the principal act of this Humility is that which is recommended by our holy Father in these words: `The eleventh degree of Humility,' saith he, `is when a soul shall not only pronounce with her tongue, but likewise in the most inward affection of the heart believe herself to be inferior to and more vile than all others, humbling herself and saying with the prophet, I am a worm and no man, the shame of men, and an abject among the common people; I was exalted by Thee, but I am humbled and confounded. And again, It was good for me that Thou didst humble me, that I may learn Thy commandments.'
8. Such true Humility is so rare to be found, that there are few that make profession of this act even in the tongue, insomuch that a man should be esteemed a hypocrite that should only pretend thereto; whereas, in truth the very essence of Humility, as regarding men, consists principally in the exercising this act; for we are not to conceive that any one is become truly humble by any one or more of the degrees of it, till he have attained (at least in preparation of mind) to the highest degree, with which our holy Father begins. Certain therefore it is, that true Humility requires this acknowledgment from us, that we believe ourselves to be inferior and more vile than all others.
9. Now though to ordinary human reason it may seem an
offence against prudence and truth for one (for example) that
knows himself to be skilled in arts, prudent, noble, &c., to prefer
10. And this will appear by discovering the grounds upon which, and the means by which, true Christian Humility is built and to be attained, the which are these:
11. In the first place, we are to know that God created all things for Himself, that is, in order and subordination to Himself, so that the perfection of their natures respectively consists in the preserving of this subordination, or in taking a true measure of themselves considered in themselves, and also as compared with God; and so doing we shall in very truth, without flattery or vanity, acknowledge that we ourselves and all creatures with us are in and of ourselves simply and in propriety of speech very nothing: we have nothing, we deserve nothing, we can do nothing, yea, moreover, that by all things that proceed from ourselves, as from ourselves, we tend to nothing, and can reap nothing but what is due to defectuousness; and on the contrary, that God alone of Himself is, and has being, and that illimited, replenished with all the perfections that being can possibly have.
12. This is the main, universal, unalterable ground of Humility,
by virtue of which all intellectual creatures in all states
and degrees are obliged to refer to God alone, not only themselves
and all manner of things (because without Him they have
no being at all, and only by Him they continue to enjoy that
13. By virtue of this indispensable subordination, or comparing of God with His creatures, the most perfect, most holy, and most sublime of all God's creatures do most profoundly humble themselves in His presence. The glorified saints do prostrate themselves before Him, casting their crowns at His feet; the Seraphim cover their faces, and our blessed Lord as Man, having a most perfect knowledge, perception, and feeling of the nothingness of creatures, and the absolute totality of God, did more than all saints and angels most profoundly humble Himself before the Divine Majesty of His Father, remaining continually plunged in the abyss of His own nothing. Moreover, in virtue hereof, He submitted Himself to all creatures, yea, forasmuch as concerned suffering, even to the devil himself. As a creature, He saw nothing in Himself but the nothing of a creature, and in all other creatures He saw nothing but God, to whom He humbled Himself in all, accepting as from Him whatsoever persecutions proceeded from others. True indeed it is, that without offending truth He could not believe any other creature to be more holy and perfect than Himself, and so could not in that regard humble Himself to them; but he considered all His own perfections as not His own, but God's, and therefore assumed nothing to Himself for them; yea, He did not at all consider them, but only to humble Himself and renounce all pretensions to them; and the least perfection that was in others He considered as belonging to God, and so humbled Himself to God in them.
14. But in the second place, although this consideration of
the not-being of creatures out of God, and the all-being of God,
be indeed the true and most proper ground of perfect Humility,
yet because a great supernatural light and grace is required to
15. By a serious and frequent consideration of these things, way will be made for the introducing of true solid Humility into our souls; but yet these alone will not suffice, except thereto we join: 1. abstraction of life, by which we will come to overlook and forget the imperfections of others, and only look upon our own, thence flying employments, charges, and dealing with others; or when necessity requires a treating with others, doing it with all modesty, charity, and a cordial respectfulness, being confounded at our own praises, &c.; 2. a care to practise according to what Humility obliges us, with quietness of mind accepting humiliations, contempts, &c., from others, endeavouring to welcome them, and even to take joy in them, &c.; 3. but especially internal prayer, by which we not only get a more perfect light to discover a world of formerly unseen imperfections, but also we approach nearer to God, and get a more perfect sight of Him, in whom all creatures, ourselves and all, do vanish and are annihilated.
16. Now when by these means Humility begins to get a
little strength in us, it is wonderful to see how inventive and
17. For then a devout soul knowing how valuable and necessary
a virtue Humility is, by which alone that most deadly
poison of our souls, pride, is destroyed: 1. she will become
scarce able to see anything in herself but what is truly her own,
that is, her defectuousness and nothing, nor anything in others
but what is God's; and thus doing she cannot choose but humble
herself under all others, preferring all others before herself, and
this without fiction, with all sincerity and simplicity; 2. she
will never compare herself with others, but to the intent to
abase herself; 3. if there be in her any natural endowments
wanting to others, she will consider them as not her own, but
God's, committed to her trust to the end to trade with them for
God's glory only, of which trust a severe account sball be
required; and being conscious of her negligence and ingratitude,
she will be so far from glorifying herself for such endowments,
that she will rather esteem them happy that want them; 4. if
she have any supernatural graces which others want, yea, or if
others are guilty of many open sins, she will consider that she
may, according to her demerits, be deprived of them, and others
enriched with them, who in all likelihood will make better use
of them; for she knows by many woful experiments the perverseness
of her own heart, but is utterly ignorant of others, and
therefore cannot, without breach of charity, suspect that they
will be so ungrateful; 5. she will not take notice of lesser
imperfections in others, yea, not knowing their secret intentions,
she will judge that those things which seem to be imperfections
may perhaps be meritorious actions; 6. in a word, considering
that God has made her a judge of herself, only to the end to
condemn herself, and of others only to excuse them, and knowing
that there can be no peril in judging (if it be possible) too
hardly of one's self, but much in judging the worst of another
in the smallest thing, though others be never so wicked, yet at
least she will judge this, that if God had afforded them the light
18. By such considerations as these, a devout soul will fix in her understanding a belief of her own vileness and baseness. For to make Humility a virtue it is the will that must even compel the understanding to say, `I will believe myself to be inferior to all, according as I find just cause by these considerations,' and the same will will upon occasion force practices suitable to such a belief. It will make the soul afraid to seek things pleasing to her, yea, content with all hard usage, as knowing she deserves far worse, and ought to expect to be trodden under foot by all creatures; so that in love to justice and equality she will even desire and rejoice in all affronts, persecutions, and contempts; or if certain circumstances, as infirmity of body, &c., shall require, and that she be necessitated to choose or desire, any consolations, she will accept them in the spirit of humility and mortification; that is, purely in obedience to the Divine Will, and not at all for the satisfaction of nature, being far from thinking herself worthy of anything but want, pain, and contempt.
19. Now a superior is not to be judged to offend against this degree of Humility when he discovers, objects, reprehends, or punishes the faults of his subjects; for in so doing he sustains the person of God, to whom alone it belongs to exercise the office of a judge, yet withal the superior ought not therefore to esteem himself better than the person reprehended; for though perhaps in that one respect he cannot much condemn himself, yet for many other faults which he sees in himself and cannot see in others, he may and ought to remain humbled, yea, to be more confounded whensoever the duty of his place requires of him to be a reprehender of others, whilst himself doth far more deserve reprehension.
20. When by serious practice of humiliation joined with
prayer a soul is come to a high degree of purity in spiritual
exercises, then is attained that more admirable kind of Humility
which regards God; in which the soul contemplating His totality
21. And when prayer is come to perfection, then will the soul also mount to the supreme degree of Humility, which regards God considered absolutely in Himself, and without any express or distinct comparison with creatures; for hereby a soul fixing her sight upon God as all in all, and contemplating Him in the darkness of incomprehensibility, does not by any distinct act or reflection consider the vacuity and nothingness of creatures, but really transcends and forgets them, so that to her they are in very deed as nothing, because they are not the object which with her spirit she only sees, and with her affections only embraces.
22. This most heroical Humility can only be exercised in the act of contemplation, for then only it is that a soul feels her own nothing, without intending to reflect upon it. At all other times she in some degree feels the false supposed being of herself and creatures, because it is only in actual pure prayer that the images of them are expelled, and with the images the affections to them also.
23. Notwithstanding, a great measure and proportion of the virtue of such prayer remains, and is operative also afterwards out of prayer; for if the soul do see creatures, she never sees them as in themselves, but only in relation to God, and so in them humbles herself to God and loves God in them; and if she reflect upon herself, and turn her eyes inward into her spirit, desiring to find God there, there will not be any considerable imperfection, obscurity, or stain that will darken her view of God, but she will discover it and most perfectly hate it.
24. As for sins or imperfections in others, though never so heinous, they are no hindrance to her seeing of God, because either she transcends and marks them not, or is by their means urged to a nearer and more fervent love of Him for His patience --to a greater zeal for His honour impaired by the sins of men, and to a greater compassion towards sinners.
25. But the least imperfection in herself being really a hindrance to her immediate union with God and perfect sight of Him is, in so great a light as she then enjoys, perfectly seen and perfectly abhorred by her; yea, such faults as to her natural understanding formerly appeared no bigger than motes, do in virtue of this supernatural light seem as mountains; and defects which she before never dreamed or imagined to be in herself, she now sees not only to be, but to abound and bear great sway in her. To this purpose saith St. Gregory (1. 22, Moral. c. i.): Sancti viri quo altuis apud Deum proficient, eo subtilius indignos se deprehendunt, quia dum proximi luci fiunt, quidquid in illis latebat inveniunt: that is, Holy men the higher that they raise themselves approaching to God, the more clearly do they perceive their own unworthiness, because, being encompassed with a purer light, they discover in themselves those defects which before they could not see.
26. Hence it appears that there is a great difference between the knowledge of our own nothing, and the feeling or perception of it. The former may be got by a little meditation, or by reading school divinity, which teaches and demonstrates how that of ourselves we are nothing, but mere dependences on the only true being of God. Whereas the feeling of our own nothing will never be attained by study or meditation alone, but by the raising and purifying of our souls by prayer. The devil bath the knowledge of the nothingness of creatures in a far greater perfection than any man, and yet he hath nothing at all of the feeling. Now it is only the feeling of our not-being that is true perfect Humility, as, on the contrary, the feeling of our being is pride.
27. Now this feeling of our not-being has two degrees: 1.
The first is in regard of the corporal or sensitive faculties, to
wit, when the soul is so raised above the body and all desires
concerning it that it bath lost all care and solicitude about it,
having mortified in a great measure all inferior passions. This is
a high degree of Humility, but yet not perfect, as may appear
plainly by this, that after a soul bath attained hereto by a passive
union, there ordinarily follows the great privation or desolation,
28. The author of Secrets Sentiers saith that souls which are arrived to this state of perfect union are yet ordinarily permitted by God to descend oft from their high abstractions into their inferior nature, even as they were during their state of entrance into a spiritual course. So that (according to his doctrine) during such a descent they must needs be full of the feeling of their own being. But then, saith he, they from this descent do by little and little througb their internal exercises ascend higher than they were ever before, and such ascents and descents interchangeably continue all their lives. Thus saith Barbanzon, perhaps out of experience of what passed in his own soul. But whether from thence he had sufficient warrant to apply these observations so generally, I leave to the determination of the perfect, who only can judge of such matters.
29. But alas, these contemplations, and consequently the said blessed fruits of them, are very rare, and not at all in our own power to come at pleasure, inasmuch as a soul does not arrive to the perfection of prayer till after a passive union or contemplation, whereto well may we dispose ourselves according to our power; but it is in the free will and pleasure of God to confer it on whom, when, and in what manner it pleaseth Him.
30. But, however, let not beginners nor proficients in spirituality
be discouraged, for that as yet they cannot find in themselves
(or at least very imperfectly) a perception of their not-being,
not having as yet a supernatural intellectual species
evidently and even palpably representing to their minds God's
31. We ought therefore never to cease praying that God would reveal unto us our own nothing and His all-being: for prayer is the only effectual means to attain unto it. As for exterior acts and expressions of Humility, if they flow from prayer, they may be profitable and acceptable to God; however, for the peril of pride, which will insinuate and mingle itself even in Humility also, we should not be too forward to exercise voluntary outward affections of Humility out of a pretence of giving edification to others. And when we do such as are commanded in the Rule, and conformable to our state, we ought in them, as well as we can, to purify our intention.
CHAPTER XIV.
§§ 1, 2. Of the mortification of our natural inclination to liberty or independency, by the virtue of Obedience.
§ 15. Truly perfect obedience has no limits.
§§ 16, 17, 18. Several defects in obedience.
§§ 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. How a soul is to behave herself in obediences,
in things prejudicial, and in such as are pleasing to nature.
§ 24. An example of perfect simplicity in obedience.
§ 25. Of obedience to brethren required in our Rule.
§ 26. Prayer a necessary means to beget obedience.
1. THE second depravation of the will which is to be mortified is a natural love of liberty and independence, as also an ambition to dispose and rule others; and the proper virtue whereby this is mortified is (religious) Obedience, which is a branch of Humility, as the aforesaid depravation is of pride.
2. Obedience, therefore, as well as Humility, doth principally regard God, even when it is performed to man. And indeed unless our obedience to creatures do flow from our obedience due to God, it will never advance or perfectionate the soul, but rather nourish all depraved affections in it, as having its root in self-love, servile fear, yea oft in pride itself; whereas, if it be grounded on our duty to God, the soul thereby will become so humble, supple, and pliable, that it will not refuse to subject itself to the meanest creatures, it will cheerfully suffer all crosses, contradictions, and pressures, both external and internal.
3. Obedience is performed either: 1. immediately to God alone; 2. or immediately to man, but for God's sake. We will in this place only treat of this latter; for as for the other, it comprehends all the duties of piety and devotion, whether external or internal, and therefore needs not be spoken of particularly.
4. To submit one's self to man for God's sake, or out of love
to God, is much harder than to do it immediately to God (and
consequently it is in that regard more meritorious, and will most
efficaciously and speedily bring a soul to perfection). The reasons
of the greater difficulty in our obedience to men are: 1.
Because we acknowledge our superior to be God's substitute, yet
we are not always convinced that his particular commands proceed
from him as such, but rather from passion, natural interests,
aversion, &c., so that we cannot see his commands to be so reasonable
(as God's are acknowledged to be), nor that obedience
b. For this reason it is that our holy Father, knowing the wonderful virtue and efficacy of obedience proceeding from the heart, requires in his holy Rule that subjects should in a sort communicate to their superiors that proper attribute of God, who calls Himself a seer and searcher of the heart; with humility and simplicity discovering unto them all their considerable imperfections in thoughts; and this he does not only out of an eye to the benefit that may come by the sacrament of penance, for this was to be done though the superior were no priest (as anciently oft they were not), but the ends of this obligation were: 1. For the more perfect humiliation of the subject, and a mortification of that natural aversion that we have from the discovering and submitting to the censures of others our secret defects. 2. To the end that the superior might be enabled to govern his subjects for their spiritual advancement.
6. We may reasonably impute to the disuse of this obligation the great decay of religious discipline and perfection in the world; because now, generally speaking, superiors know no more of their subjects but what they chance to observe in their outward behaviour, for as for internal matters (which are the principal), they all pass between each religious person and a private chosen confessarius.
7. But withal the disuse of the said obligation we are to impute: 1. Partly to the tepidity of subjects and their want of care to be governed by a way absolutely the best for themselves, however very heavy to corrupt nature. 2. But principally to the incapacity and insufficiency of superiors, in regard of which such a change of the said custom was esteemed even necessary.
8. Surely this most excellent practice had never been brought
into disuse, or would again be restored, if superiors (according
as our holy Rule requires, and as in the primitive times they
were) had continued, or generally now were: 1. Themselves
9. But however, matters standing as they now do, and obedience
being divided, as it were, between a regular and a spiritual
director, the subject is to perform to each the obedience which
is due; yet with this difference, that he is to consider that the
obligation of obedience to a spiritual director, voluntarily chosen
by the subject and changeable at pleasure, is far less strict than
to a superior, who has God's authority communicated to him,
10. Now since the only principal end why a religious person has engaged himself in a life of obedience is the good and advancenlent of his soul, and not any temporal convenience, as in secular governments, therefore, notwithstanding the common saying that our souls are exempted from human jurisdiction, and notwithstanding that in these days, as hath been said, superiors are not always the directors of their subjects' consciences, --yet unless their commands be obeyed in purity of heart, as for God's sake, and with submission not only of the outward but inward man also, that is, both the will and judgment, such obedience is not at all meritorious nor conformable to the general design of a religious life and to their vows of profession. For if all Christians, as St. Paul teacheth, be obliged to obey secular superiors, and servants their masters, not for fear of wrath or punishment, but for conscience' sake, and in order to God, who hath invested them with authority, intending principally the good of their souls in all manner of exterior obligations, surely this doth much more strictly hold in religious obedience, which was ordained and hath been undertaken only for the benefit of the soul.
11. Therefore, whereas later doctors and casuists have found
out exemptions in many cases abridging the authority ofsuperiors,
and disobliging subjects from obedience, a religious subject that
seriously aspires to perfection according to his profession will
be very wary how he makes use of the advantages and dispensations
afforded him, considering that although by such disobedience
he may perhaps escape the punishment of external
laws, yet he will not esteem himself quit from his obligation to
obey, unless the things unduly commanded be such as are in-
12. Moreover, a truly humble internal liver will very rarely, and not without extreme necessity, make use of that just liberty of appealing from an immediate superior allowed by the laws of the Church; and this he will never do for the ease of nature, or the satisfying of any passion, but purely for the good of the soul. Indeed, I do scarce know any case in which an appeal may be fit to be used by such souls, except perhaps when they find that their immediate superior, either out of ignorance or a disaffection to spiritual prayer, shall abridge their subjects of time and means necessary for the exercise of it, either by overburdening them with distractive and solicitous employments, or as it were purposely; and this frequently and customarily imposing on them obediences at the times appointed and proper for prayer. Yet surely the case must needs be extraordinary if a soul cannot, by using her dexterity and prudence, recover each day two halfhours for recollection.
13. Notwithstanding, some good use may be made of the opinion of doctors, touching the limits and bounds prescribed to the authority of superiors, and the degrees of obligation to such authority, for the necessary ease of devout, tender, and scrupulous souls. Not that such are to be encouraged to dispense with themselves in the duties required thereby, but lest they, out of tenderness in suspecting oft a mortal sin to have been committed by disobedience where perhaps there was scarce any fault at all, should be disquieted, perplexed, and hindered from reaping any benefit by prayer or any other duties. And indeed little danger is there that souls so disposed should from any larger interpretations make advantage to the ease of nature or the satisfaction of an inordinate passion.
14. Such souls, therefore, may know: 1. That the authority
of superiors is not illimited, but confined to certain conditions,
as that it must be juxta regulam, neither besides nor above the
Rule, and that their command must be ad edifacationem, and not
ad destructionem, &c. 2. That disobedience to their commands
which are according to the Rule is not a mortal offence, unless
15. Perfect obedience, saith the same St. Bernard, knows no ends or limits: it extends itself to all lawful things pertaining either to body or soul, and to all actions, both external and internal (as far as these last are voluntarily submitted to him), insomuch as that our holy Father, to cut off all pretences of disobedience, does not except even things impossible; so that if such things as not only in the faint-hearted opinion of the subject are esteemed such, but really are impossible, should be seriously and considerately imposed by a discreet superior (for trial), the subject is obliged to do his endeavour toward the effecting of them, so they be lawful and not destructive to the subject's life. Yea, we find examples of saints that upon commands of superiors have cast themselves into rivers, or leaped down precipices, or taken coals of fire into their hands, &c. But we are to suppose that, in these cases, there was a special divine instinct both in the superior commanding and the subjects obeying, as the events showed, the said subjects having never miscarried, but been miraculously delivered from any harm by what they so did in obedience; and therefore the like examples cannot be drawn into a rule.
16. The several defects in point of obedience (the avoiding
17. Now lest a beginner should be discouraged, seeing so
many conditions requisite to perfect obedience, and so many
defects to be avoided, he must consider that God does not expect
at the first from him an obedience in all points perfect. It
is well that he do the command without sin, that is, not making
the principal motive to be outward sensual respects, and without
behaving himself with a deliberate defectuousness, murmuring,
&c. By practice in obeying according to one's power, a soul
18. It is no marvel, neither is it a fault, that the body being wearied and exhausted with many obediences, there should thereupon be found in inferior nature a reluctance. But the mind or will should never be weary or backward, but remain ever invincible, forcing inferior nature to comply to the utmost of her power, but yet according to discretion.
19. In case a superior command a subject things not only heavy and grievous to nature, but even such as are apparently contrary to health and corporal strength, as a rigorous conformity to regular abstinence, fastings, watchings, &c., the subject must neither refuse the command nor show any unwillingness to obey; but having, after good consideration and experience, found himself unable and infirm, he may lawfully declare unto the superior such his infirmity, so he do it (as the Rule expresses it, pati enter et opportune) with patience, and taking an opportune time for it, not suddenly, querulously, and in a passion. But in case the superior do persist, the subject must obey, submitting both body, will, and judgment, and so committing the issue to God; and then the success, whatever it be, cannot but be good.
20. If the thing commanded, be grateful to nature, honourable, pleasing, &c., it is not good nor secure to be over-forward in obeying; it were better, so it might be done without offence, to seek to avoid it, wishing that others might rather be employed, or, however, to undertake it as obedience only, and, as it were, against our wills. But if the matter be harsh to nature, we are to do it with all possible readiness and cheerfulness, being desirous that others should be exempted from it.
21. It is not very hard internally to resolve universally to
forsake one's own will, submitting it to another. But really and
actually to perform this at all times, whensoever obediences are
imposed, and that frequently; and when the things are of difficulty
and contradiction to nature (and it may be), imposed by a
22. And a yet greater degree of perfection is it (to which notwithstanding internal livers ought to aspire) for a religions person that is hardly and injuriously treated by his superior to be content and desirous that he should continue to use him so or worse, so it might be without offence to God, and so that no harm might come to the superior's soul thereby.
23. There are no commands, though never so impertinent or distracting, that can prejudice perfect souls that are come to an established state of recollection, and habitually enjoy the Divine presence. But great harm and danger may come thereby to the imperfect, the which, notwithstanding, by patience, quietness, and meekness in obeying, may come to make their profit even from them also, so that, though they lose one way by a hindrance to their recollection, they may repair that loss by rooting these virtues more firmly in their souls. However, the superior must expect to have a severe account required of him for indiscreet and harmful impositions laid upon his subjects.
24. A memorable example of obedience, joined with a mortification
very sensible to humble souls (to wit, a mortification
caused by an obligation to accept undue and unproportionable
honour), we read of in the story of the great St. Basil, who,
having obtained at his own request from a neighbour bishop a
priest to attend him, recommended as an humble and obedient
person, St. Basil, for a trial of these virtues, required of him to
prepare some water for the washing of his feet. The good priest
with a modest cheerfulness obeyed, and having quickly brought
the water, St. Basil, sitting down, commanded him to wash his
feet, who readily and diligently performed that command. That
25. There is mentioned in our holy Rule another sort of obedience, of great efficacy to bring souls to perfection, to wit, an obedience not out of obligation and duty to superiors, but only from respect to brethren (specially ancients) in religion, and this out of charity, and in conformity to St. Paul's advice (which is very general) that we should in honour prefer every one before ourselves. This kind of obedience, as receiving proper commands from such, is now out of practice. And whether this disuse has proceeded from want of simplicity and humility in the younger sort, or from imperfection and want of discretion and gravity in the more ancient, or perhaps from jealousy and love of being absolute in superiors, it is hard to say; but surely it is a great loss. There were likewise obligations imposed upon all juniors, after any the least offence taken by the ancients, to make present satisfaction by prostrations, the which were to continue till that pardon and a benediction were given. Indeed, in those times, in which so much abstraction of life and so seldom mutual conversations were used, offences were so rare that it would be no hard matter for such simple humble souls as most religious persons then were to comply with these obligations. So that the only way to restore them is to restore that most profitable abstraction, solitude, and silence again.
26. It is vain for any one to seek the attaining to the perfection
of obedience (which, besides the outward work, requires
a submission of the spirit itself to God alone, in the superior,
and a renouncing of one's own judgment upon the dictates of
CHAPTER XV.
§ 1. We do not here treat of all kinds of mortification or virtues; but principally such as are most proper and most necessary to be known and practised in order to an internal life.1. HITHERTO we have treated of the first instrument and mean of perfection, to wit, Mortification; at least, so far as we conceived proper to the design of this book, that is, in order to internal prayer of contemplation. And therefore it is that we have not enlarged the discourse to comprehend universally all moral virtues (the which are mortifications to all our distempered affections), but only such as are more peculiar to religious or internal livers. For the rest the reader is referred to other books of Christian morality, which abundantly treat of that subject, the doctrine of which may be applied to the present purpose, if reflection be made on the advices which have already been given concerning the special virtues hitherto treated of. To the which I will, for conclusion of this treatise, add a few more touching virtues in general.
2. The first advice is this, that before a soul can attain to perfect contemplation it is necessary that she be adorned with all sorts of Christian virtues, not one excepted, according to the saying of the Psalmist: Ibunt de virtute in virtutem: videbitur Deus Deorum in Sion--that is, They shall go from one virtue to another, and then (and not till then) the God of gods shall be contemplated in Sion. So that if a soul make a stop at any virtue, or willingly favour herself in any inordinate affection, it will not be possible for her to ascend to the top of the mountain where God is seen.
3. The second regards the manner of attaining to virtues; for we are not so to understand these words of the Psalmist as if a soul's progress to perfection was by a successive gaining of one virtue after another; for example, first possessing herself of the virtue of temperance, and, having got that, then proceeding to patience, humility, chastity, &c. But they are all in the root gotten together, and we make no progress in one virtue, but withal we make a proportionable progress in all the rest. And the reason is, because charity is the root of all Christian virtues, they being only such duties as charity (which alone directs us to God, our last end) would and doth dictate to be practised on several and different occasions.
4. True it is that, either by our natural tempers or by having more frequent trials and occasions of exercising some virtues, certain passions opposite to them may be, according to the material disposition in corporal nature, more subdued and regulated than others; yet, in regard of the disposition of the spiritual soul that is, the judgment of the mind and resolution of the will), the soul (according to the merit of the object) is equally (by an equality of proportion) inclined to all good, and equally averted from all ill. Because divine love is equally inconsistent with all mortal sins, and doth combat and subdue self-love in all its branches. Our progress, therefore, expressed in the phrase de virtute in virtutem, is to be understood to be from a lower and more imperfect degree of charity, and all its virtues, to a higher, till we come to the mount of perfection.
5. The third advice is, that this progress and increase in
virtues is neither equal at all times--for the soul, by resisting
stronger temptations and in virtue of more efficacious prayer,
doth make greater strides and paces--neither is it always observable
either by the traveller himself or others. Yea, it is neither
necessary nor perhaps convenient that, we should much heed
the rules that are given by some for examination of our proficiency.
Such inquiry seems not very suitable to humility, and
probably will not produce any good effect in us; it may suffice
us that we go on, and that God knows perfectly our growth in
piety and love, and will most assuredly reward us proportionally,
6. Fourthly, all increase of sanctifying grace, by whatsoever instruments it be produced, as by regular austerities, temperance, exercises of mortification, &c., is performed according to the good internal dispositions and actuations of soul accompanying the use of them. Yea, the same may also, in a certain proportion, be affirmed even of the sacraments themselves (in adultis), the which, although, by their own intrinsical virtue, and (as the Council of Trent, sess. vii. can. 8, expresses it) ex opere operato, they do confer a peculiar grace and aid, and this, quantum est a parte Dei, at all times and on all persons that duly receive them (see sess. vii. can. 6 and 7), yet, withal, the quantity and measure of the said grace is in the same council (sess. vi. cap. 7) said to be (Secundum propriam cujusque dispositionem et cooperationem) according to the peculiar disposition and cooperation of each person respectively; that is, those that come with more (or less) perfect, intense, continued, and multiplied internal acts of faith, hope, charity, devotion, &c., do accordingly receive a more (or less) plentiful measure of sacramental grace. Now what are all these dispositions and preparations but the exercising of internal prayer? Whence appears how wonderful ail influence internal prayer, both by way of merit or impetration, and likewise by a direct efficiency, hath in the producing and increase of divine virtues in the soul.
7 . Fifthly, if a soul out of the times of prayer shall in occasions (for example) of contradictions, persecutions, &c., neglect to exercise patience, she must necessarily exercise impatience, and, by consequence, will make little or no progress by her prayer; yet, if then she shall use any reasonable care, diligence, or watchfulness over herself, though not for the getting of much, yet not to lose much out of prayer, God will, by means of her prayer seriously prosecuted, infuse such a measure of grace as will cause a progress, notwithstanding 'frequent failings through frailty or inadvertence, &c., but it will be late ere the effects of such infusion will appear.
8. Sixthly, increase in virtue doth purely depend on the
9. Seventhly, according to our progress in virtues so is our progress in prayer; and till the soul be in a very high degree purified from self-love she is incapable of that perfect degree of prayer which is called contemplation. According to that saying of our Saviour (Matt. v.), Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; that is, `Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' And the reason is evident, because until the internal eye of the soul be cleansed from the mists of passion and inordinate affections, it neither will nor can fix itself upon so pure and divine an object. True it is, that in every the most imperfect degree of prayer (by which the soul is proportionally purified) God is, in some qualified sense, contemplated. But we do not apply the term Contemplation except only to the most sublime degree of prayer; the which yet is never so perfectly absolute in this life but that it may, without limitation, increase; because the soul is never so perfectly freed from the bitter fruits of original sin (ignorance and concupiscence), but there will ever remain matter and exercise for further mortification or purification.
10. Eighthly, virtues are in no other state of life so perfectly established in the depth and centre of the spirit as in a contemplative state, because all the exercises thereof do principally and directly regard the exaltation, spiritualising, and purification of the spirit by a continual application, adhesion, and union of it to God, the Fountain of light and purity.
11. Lastly, by the means of contemplative prayer in an
internal life, virtues are most easily obtained, most securely
possessed, and most perfectly practised. In an active life a person
that aspires to perfection therein stands in need of many things
to enable him for the practice of the duties disposing thereto;
for the exercise of external works of charity there are needful
riches or friends, &c.; and for spiritual almsgiving there is re-
THE END OF THE SECOND TREATISE OF MORTIFICATION.
TO THE
VENERABLE AND R. LADY D. CATHERINE GASCOIGNE
THE LADY ABBESS OF THE RELIGIOUS DAMES ON THE HOLY ORDER OF
ST. BENEDICT, IN CAMBRAY;
AND TO ALL THE RR. DAMES, ETC., OF THE SAME CONVENT.
If I had not any pressing obligation (as I have many) to
take all occasions to acknowledge both my worthy esteem and
resentment also for your many favours, yet without injustice I could
not but return unto Your Ladyship, &c., these instructions about
the prayer of Contemplation, which from your full store I first
received. I could wish it had been in my power to commend them
to the liking and practice of others, as the admirable piety of the
Venerable Author (whose memory will always be in benediction
with you) did to yours. But being able to boast no other virtue in
this matter, but only diligence and fidelity (asserted by Your
Ladyship's own testimony), I should doubt that the unworthiness of the
compiler would to their disparagement prevail against the excellency
of the Author, and his argument, were it not that I am confident
that a view (apparent to all that know that Convent) of the many
most blessed effects that they have produced there, will have the
force to recommend them to strangers, and to defend them against
contradictors. Your great charity (RR. DD.) makes you think
yourselves not unbeholding to me for dispersing thus abroad to all
that will accept them these your richest jewels, your most delicious
provisions, your most secure armour, that is, all that makes your
solitude and scarcity, &c., deserve to be the envy of princes' courts,
the habitation of angels, and temples of God Himself. For prayer
Madame and RR. DD.,
Your servant in our Lord most humbly devoted,
Br. SERENUS CRESSY.
Doway, this 23d of July, 1657.
THE FIRST SECTION.
OF PRAYER IN GENERAL, AND THE GENERAL DIVISION OF IT.
CHAPTER I.
1. THE whole employment of an internal contemplative life having been by me comprehended under two duties, to wit, Mortification and Prayer, concerning (the former) mortification we have discoursed largely in the precedent treatise. We are now henceforward to treat of the other most noble and divine instrument of perfection, which is Prayer; by which and in which alone we attain to the reward of all our endeavours, the end of our creation and redemption--to wit, union with God, in which alone consists our happiness and perfection.
2. By prayer, in this place, I do not understand petition or supplication, which, according to the doctrine of the schools, is exercised principally by the understanding, being a signification of what the person desires to receive from God. But prayer here especially meant is rather an offering and giving to God whatsoever He may justly require from us--that is, all duty, love, obedience, &c.; and it is principally, yea, almost only exercised by the affective part of the soul.
3. Now prayer, in this general notion, may be defined to be
an elevation of the mind to God, or more largely and expressly
thus: prayer is an affectuous actuation of an intellective soul
towards God, expressing, or at least implying, an entire dependence
on Him as the Author and Fountain of all good, a will and
4. This is the nature and these the necessary qualities which are all, at least virtually, involved in all prayer, whether it be made interiorly in the soul only, or withal expressed by words or outward signs.
5. Hence it appears that prayer is the most perfect and most divine action that a rational soul is capable of; yea, it is the only principal action for the exercising of which the soul was created, since in prayer alone the soul is united to God. And, by consequence, it is of all other actions and duties the most indispensably necessary.
6. For a further demonstration of which necessity we may
consider: 1. That only in prayer we are joined to God, our last
end, from whom when we are separated we are in ourselves,
wherein our chief misery consists. 2. That by prayer grace and
all good is obtained, conserved, and recovered; for God being
the Fountain of all good, no good can be had but by recourse to
Him, which is only by prayer. 3. That by prayer alone all exterior
good things are sanctified, so as to become blessings to us.
4. That prayer does exercise all virtues, in so much as whatsoever
good action is performed, it is no further meritorious than
as it proceeds from an internal motion of the soul, elevating and
directing it to God (which internal motion is prayer); so that
whatsoever is not prayer, or is not done in virtue of prayer, is
little better than an action of mere nature. 5. That there is
no action with which sin is incompatible but prayer. We may,
lying in our sins, give alms, fast, recite the Divine Office,
communicate, obey our superiors, &c.; but it is impossible to
exercise true prayer of the spirit and deliberately continue under the
guilt of sin, because by prayer, a soul being converted and united
to God, cannot at the same time be averted and separated from
Him. 6. That by prayer alone, approaching to God, we are
placed above all miseries; whereas, without prayer, the least
7. And hence it is that all the devil's quarrels and assaults are chiefly, if not only, against prayer; the which if he can extinguish, he has all that he aims at--separating us from the fruition and adhesion to God, and therewith from all good. And hence likewise it is that the duty of prayer is enjoined after such a manner as no other duty is, for we are commanded to exercise it without intermission. Oportet semper orare et non deficere, --We must needs pray continually and never give over.
8. In the precedent description of prayer in general, I said that it was an affectuous actuation of an intellectual soul, by which words is signified: 1. That it is not prayer which is performed by the lips only, without an inward attention and affection of the soul--that is, that prayer which is not mental is not indeed properly prayer; 2. That whatsoever employment the mind or understanding exercises in prayer, by discoursing, inventing motives, &c., these are only preparations to prayer, and not prayer itself, which is only and immediately exercised by the will or affections adhering to God, which shall be showed hereafter.
9. Hence it follows that the ordinary division of prayer into vocal and mental is improper, because the parts of the division are coincident; for vocal prayer, as distinguished from (and much more as opposed to) mental, is indeed no prayer at all; and whatever it is, what esteem God makes of it, He shows by His prophet, saying: ` This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they honour Me,' &c.
10. Yet both a good sense and a good use may be made of
that division, being explicated after this manner, viz.: that
though all true prayer may be mental, yet, 1. Some prayers are
merely mental without any sound of words; yea, there may be
such pure blind elevations of the will to God, that there are
not so much as any express internal words or any explicable
thoughts of the soul itself. 2. Other prayers may be withal
vocally expressed in outward words, the soul attending to the
CHAPTER II.
§ 1. Of Vocal prayer.1. THE design of this Treatise being to deliver instructions concerning internal contemplative prayer, therefore little shall be said of Vocal prayer, and that little also shall be of it considered, as it may among others be, an instrument or mean to bring a soul to contemplation.
2. It cannot be denied but that in ancient times many holy souls did attain to perfect contemplation by the mere use of vocal prayer; the which likewise would have the same effect upon us if we would or could imitate them both in such wonderful solitude or abstraction, rigorous abstinences, and incredible assiduity in praying. But for a supply of such wants, and inability to support such undistracted long attention to God, we are driven to help ourselves by daily set exercises of internal prayer to procure an habitual constant state of recollectedness, by such exercises repairing and making amends for the distractions that we live in all the rest of the day.
3. Notwithstanding God's hand is not shortened, but that if He please He may now also call souls to contemplation by the way of vocal prayer, so as that they are their general and ordinary exercise; which, if He do, it will be necessary that such souls should, in their course, observe these following conditions:
4. The first is, that they must use a greater measure of
abstraction anal mortification than is necessary for those, that
5. The second condition is, that those who use vocal prayer must oblige themsulves to spend a greater time at their daily exercises than is necessary for the others, to the end thereby to supply for the less efficacy that is in vocal prayer.
6, The third is, that in case they do find themselves at any time invited by God internally to a pure internal prayer (which is likely to be of the nature of aspirations), they then must yield to such an invitation, and for the time interrupt or cease their voluntary vocal exercises for as long time as they find themselves enabled to exercise internally. These conditions are to be observed of all those who, either in religion or in the world, desire to lead spiritual lives, and cannot without extreme difficulty be brought to begin a spiritual course with any kind of mere menial prayer.
7. And, indeed, if any such souls there be to whom vocal prayer (joined with the exercise of virtues) is sufficient to promote them to contemplation, certain it is that there is no way more secure than it, none less subject to indiscretion or illusions, and none less perilous to the head or health. And in time (but it will be long first) their vocal prayers will prove aspirative, spiritual, and contemplative, by their light and virtue illustrating and piercing to the very depth of the spirit.
8. But in these days this case is very extraordinary, and indeed
unknown; and therefore contemplative religious persons
ought not, upon any pretence, to dispense with themselves for
the exercise of mental prayer, whatever pretensions or
temptations they may have thereto. They may, perhaps, find their
vocal prayers to be more clear and undistracted, and, on the
contrary, their recollections to be painful and disturbed; but
yet, in time and by constancy in pursuing internal exercises,
they will find the contrary, and perceive that the ground of the
9. To the like purpose we read that St. Ignatius found extraordinary illustrations in soul being at his study of human learning; whereas at his ordinary mental prayers he could find no such effects, but, on the contrary, much difficulty and obscurity; but this in time he discovered to be the working of the devil.
10. The use of voluntary vocal prayer in order to contemplation may, in the beginning of a spiritual course, be proper: 1. For such simple and unlearned persons (especially women) as are not at all fit for discoursive prayer; 2. yea, even for the more learned, if it be used as a means to raise and better their attention to God; yet so that it must always give place to internal prayer when they find themselves disposed for it.
11. But as for that vocal prayer, either in public or private,
which is by the laws of the Church of obligation, no manner of
pretences of finding more profit by internal exercises ought to
be esteemed a sufficient ground for any to neglect or disparage
it; for though some souls of the best dispositions might perhaps
more advance themselves towards perfection by internal exercises
alone, yet, since generally, even in religion, souls are so
tepid and negligent that if they were left to their own voluntary
devotions they would scarce ever exercise either vocal or mental
prayer; therefore, inasmuch as a manifest distinction cannot be
made between the particular dispositions of persons, it was
requisite and necessary that all should be obliged to a public
12. Now, whereas to all manner of prayer, as hath been said, there is necessarily required an attention of the mind, without which it is not prayer, we must know that there are several kinds and degrees of attention, all of them good, but yet one more perfect and profitable than another; for, 1. there is an attention or express reflection on the words and sense of the sentence pronounced by the tongue or revolved in the mind. Now this attention being, in vocal prayer, necessarily to vary and change according as sentences in the Psalms, &c., do succeed one another, cannot so powerfully and efficaciously fix the mind or affections on God, because they are presently to be recalled to new considerations or succeeding affections. This is the lowest and most imperfect degree of attention, of which all souls are in some measure capable, and the more imperfect they are the less difficulty there is in yielding it; for souls that have good and established affections to God can hardly quit a good affection by which they are united to God, and which they find gustful and profitable for them, to exchange it for a new one succeeding in the Office; and if they should, it would be to their prejudice.
13. The second degree is that of souls indifferently well
practised in internal prayer, who, coming to the reciting of the
Office, and either bringing with them or by occasion of such
reciting raising in themselves an efficacious affection to God, do
desire without variation to continue it with as profound a
recollectedness as they may, not at all heeding whether it be
suitable to the sense of the present passage which they pro-
14. A third and most sublime degree of attention to the divine Office is that whereby vocal prayers do become mental; that is, whereby souls most profoundly and with a perfect simplicity united to God can yet, without any prejudice to such union, attend also to the sense and spirit of each passage that they pronounce, yea, thereby find their affection, adhesion, and union increased and more simplified. This attention comes not till a soul be arrived to perfect contemplation, by means of which the spirit is so habitually united to God, and besides, the imagination so subdued to the spirit that it cannot rest upon anything that will distract it.
15. Happy are those souls (of which God knows the number is very small) that have attained to this third degree, the which must be ascended to by a careful practice of the two former in their order, especially of a second degree! And therefore in reciting of the Office even the more imperfect souls may do well, whensoever they find themselves in a good measure recollected, to continue so long as they well can, preserving as much stability in their imagination as may be.
16. And the best means to beget and increase such a recollected way of saying the Divine Office is the practice of internal prayer, either in meditation or immediate acts of the will, the only aim and end whereof is the procuring an immovable attention and adhesion of the spirit to God. And this, as to our present purpose, may suffice concerning vocal prayer.
CHAPTER III.
§ 1. Of internal prayer in general, and principally of internal affective prayer.1. INTERNAL or Mental prayer (which is simply and merely such, and) which we made the second member in the division of Prayer in general (if indeed it be a distinct kind), and of which only we shall treat hereafter, is either, 1. imperfect and acquired; 2. or perfect, and that which is called properly infused prayer. The former is only a preparation and inferior disposition, by which the soul is fitted and made capable of the infusion of the other, to wit, the Prayer of Contemplation, which is the end of all our spiritual and religious exercises. I shall therefore, in order, treat of them both and of their several special degrees, beginning with the lowest, and thence ascending orderly till we come to the highest, which will bring a soul to the state of perfection.
2. But before I come to deliver the special instructions pertinent
to the exercise of the several degrees of internal prayer,
it will be very requisite, by way of preparation and encouragement,
to set down the necessity and excellency of internal
prayer in general; I mean especially of that which is Affective.
For as for discoursive prayer or Meditation, the world is but
even burdened with books, which with more than sufficient
niceness prescribe rules and methods for the practice of it, and
with too partial an affection magnify it, the authors of such
books neglecting in the mean time, or perhaps scarce knowing
3. Some there are that, because they do not find in the writings of the ancient Fathers and mystical Doctors such exact instructions touching the practice of internal prayer as are now common and abounding in the Church, do therefore undervalue and despise it as a mere human invention, not at all necessary, but rather, on the contrary, subject to great inconveniences, exposing souls to illusions, errors, &c. And therefore they, in opposition to it, do only recommend and exact vocal prayer, and a solemn protracted performance of it.
4. Notwithstanding, to any one that shall heedfully read the writings, not only of the ancient solitaries, but likewise of St. Augustine, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen and others, it will evidently appear that they both knew and practised most profound and recollected devotions internally, yea, and exhorted souls to a continual attendance to God and His divine presenoe in the spirit; sufficient proofs whereof shall occasionally hereafter be inserted.
5. True, indeed, it is that they have not delivered any exact
methods for the practice of such prayer, which in those times
were not at all necessary, or at least not at all needful to be
communicated to the world. For to souls that lived (as anciently
they did) entirely sequestered from all worldly business
or conversation, in continual laborious and penitential exercises,
having no images of creatures to distract their minds, and much
less any inordinate affections to creatures to depress them from
mounting to spiritual union with God, it was more than sufficient
for such to know that their duty and the end of their solitude
was to live in a continual conversation with God, suffering
themselves to be conducted and managed by His Holy Spirit. To such,
all other more nice or particular instructions would have proved
but distractive and entangling; and therefore we see that our
holy Father, though he ordained daily conventual short recollections
for the exercise of (that which he calls) pure prayer, yet
he neithar interprets what be means by such prayer (for all his
6. But in these days, in which religious persons and others that aspire to spiritual contemplation do either want the means to enjoy, or have not the courage and strength to support, such solitude and austerities, lest the spirit of contemplation should fail in the world, God raised up first in Germany masters of contemplative prayer, as Suso, Harphius, Eschius, Thaulerus, &c., in former times, and more lately in Spain, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, &c., who, no question, by the direction of God's Spirit (as the grace of miracles conferred on them may witness), have judged it necessary to supply the want of the foresaid advantages, by adding a certain obligation to the daily practice of internal recollected prayer, prescribing orders and times for the performance of it. They have likewise more exactly discovered the degrees and progress of prayer, and, in a word, most earnestly do they exhort souls to a diligent pursuance of it, professing that without it, it is impossible to comply with the essential design of a spiritual or religious life.
7. I will content myself in this place to express the grounds
and sum of the exhortations of those and other illuminated persons
(the glorious instruments of God for the reviving of decayed
spirituality in the world) by producing, a passage of Cardinal
Bellarmine's, which may be applied to this purpose, taken out of
one of his sermons (in fer. 2. Rogat.), which is this, Ego illud
mihi videor verissime posse affirmare, &c.--that is,
`This I believe I may most truly and confidently affirm' (saith he)
`that without a diligent pursuit of internal prayer none will ever
become truly spiritual, nor attain to any degree of perfection. We
see many which oftentimes in the year do approach to the Sacrament
of Penance, and, as far as human frailty and infirmity will
permit, do with sufficient diligence endeavour to purge away all
the stains and uncleanness of sin; and yet they make no progress,
but are still the very same that they were, and having been
at confession, if a week after they come to the same tribunal
again, they bring neither fewer nor lesser faults than such as
were formerly confessed. Yea, without offending against truth,
8. This, with very great reason, may he further extended, even to those religious who by their profession ought to aspire to contemplation, and being mistaken in the true way thereto, erroneously believing that by an exact performance of outward observances and the solemn saying of the Office, adjoining the exercises of such internal discursive prayer, do yet find but little fruit as to any interior reformation or simplification of their souls, by reason that they rest in such active exercises (which in a short time, to solitary livers, lose all their virtue), and do not from them proceed to the truly enlightening exercises of internal affective prayer (which is a prayer of the heart or will, by good affections quietly and calmly produced, and not with the understanding), a prayer made without those distracting methods or that busying of the imagination and wearying of the soul by laborious, discourses, which are only inferior and imperfect preparations to true prayer.
9. Now to a consideration of the necessity of internal affective
prayer we will add certain virtues, benefits, and preeminences
thereof, compared with all other sorts of prayer,
either vocal or discoursively mental, the which virtues are in-
10. The first excellency of internal affective prayer above all other is, that only by such prayer our union in spirit with God (in which our eternal happiness consists) is perfectly obtained. For therein the will with all the powers and affections of the soul are applied and fixed to the loving, adoring, and glorifying this only beatifying Object, whereas in vocal prayer there is a continual variety and succession of images of creatures suggested, the which do distract the souls of the imperfect from such an application. And meditation, in which discourse is employed, is, so far, little more than a philosophical contemplation of God, delaying this fixing of the heart and affections on God, which are only acceptable to Him.
11. The second virtue is this, that by this prayer of the will, the soul entering far more profoundly into God, the fountain of lights, partakes of the beams of His divine light far more plentifully, by which she both discovers God's perfections more clearly and also sees the way wherein she is to walk more perfectly than by any other prayer; and the reason is because, when the soul endeavours to apply all her affections entirely on God, then only it is that, being profoundly introverted, a world of impurities of intention and inordinate affections lurking in her do discover themselves, and the obscure mists of them are dispelled, the soul then finding by a real perception and feeling how prejudicial they are to her present union in will with God; whereas, when the understanding alone, or principally, is busied, in the consideration of God or of the soul herself, the imagination (which is very active and subtle) will not represent to the soul either God or herself so liquidly and sincerely; but being blinded and seduced by natural self-love, will invent a hundred excuses and pretexts to deceive the soul, and to make her believe that many things are intended and done purely for God, which proceeded principally, if not totally, from the root of concupiscence and self-love.
12. A third admirable perfection of internal affective prayer
is this, that not only divine light, but also grace and spiritual
13. To this may be added that such prayer is universal mortification, and a mortification the most profound, intime, and perfect that a soul can possibly perform, entirely destructive to sensual satisfaction. For therein the will forces inferior nature and all the powers of the soul to avert themselves from all other objects pleasing to them, and to concur to her internal actuations towards God; and this oftentimes in the midst of distractions by vain images, during a torpid dulness of the heart, yea, a violent contradiction of sensuality, when there is, according to any sensible perception, a total disgust in the soul to such an exercise, yea, when the spirit itself is in obscurity, and cannot by any reflexed act reap any consolation from such an exercise. Such an exilium cordis, such a desertion and internal desolation is a mortification to the purpose; yet, as of extreme bitterness, so of unexpressible efficacy to the purifying and universal perfecting of the soul and spirit. Therefore St. Chrysostome (Tract de Oratione) had good reason to say: It is impossible; again I say it is utterly impossible that a soul which with a due care and assiduity prays unto God should ever sin.
14. A fourth excellence of internal affective prayer is that
it is the only action that cannot possibly want purity of intention.
Souls may, from an impulse of nature and its satisfaction, ex-
15. Lastly, affective prayer of the will is that alone which
makes all other sorts of prayer to deserve the name of prayer;
for were that excluded, meditation is but an useless speculation
and curiosity of the understanding, and vocal prayer but an
empty sound of words; for God only desires our hearts or affections,
without which our tongues or brains are of no esteem at
all. Yea, there is not so much as any profitable attention in any
prayer further than the heart concurs. For if the attention be
only of the mind, that will not constitute prayer, for then study
or disputation about divine things might be called prayer.
Hence, saith an ancient holy hermit, Nunquam vere orat quisquis
etiam flexis genibus evagatione cordis etiam qualicumque
distrahitur; that is, that man does never truly pray who, though
he be upon his knees, is distracted with any wandering or in
attention of his heart. And likewise the learned Soto, to the
same purpose, conclusively affirms, Orationi mentali deesse non
potest attentio, cum ipsa attentio, &c.; that is, attention cannot
possibly be wanting to mental prayer (of the heart) since the
attention itself is the very prayer. And therefore it is a
contradiction to say that one prays mentally and is not attentive,
as is of itself manifest; for as soon as ever the mind begins to
wander it ceases to pray. Therefore vocal prayer is only that
prayer which may want attention, namely, when the thoughts
16. These inestimable benefits (to which more may be added, as shall be shown), which flow from internal prayer of the will, being considered, a well-minded soul will think no pains too much that may avail to purchase so invaluable a jewel. And religious superiors will esteem that nothing does so essentially belong to their duty as to instruct and further their subjects in the practice of it: according to the counsel of St. Bernard, Docendus est incipiens spirituuliter orare, et a corporibus vel corporum imaginibus cum Deum cogitat quantum potest recedere; that is, whosoever begins a religious course of life must be taught spiritual prayer, and in elevating his mind to God to transcend all bodies and bodily images. And with just reason did the holy Grecian Abbot Nilus (a disciple of St. John Chrysostome) say, Beata mens quae dum orat, &c. Happy is the soul that when she prays empties herself entirely of all images and forms; happy is the soul that prays fervently and without distraction: such a soul increases continually in the desire and love of God; happy is the soul that, when she prays, does altogether quit the use and exercise of all her senses; happy is the soul that during the time of prayer loses the possession and interest in all manner of things (but God)!
17. And, indeed, a soul must expect to pass through a world
of difficulties before she attain to such a purity in prayer, for as
the same author saith, Universum bellum quod inter nos et daemones
conflatur, non est de alia re quam de oratione; that is, all
the war and controversy that is between us and the Devil is
about no other thing but prayer, as being most necessary to us,
and most destructive to all his designs. And hereupon a certain
holy Father, being asked what duty in a religious life was the
most difficult, answered, to pray well. The reason is because
prayer can never be perfectly exercised till the soul be cleansed
CHAPTER IV.
§§ 1, 2. Conditions required to affective prayer: of which the first is, that it ought to be continual, by our Lord's precept.1. HAVING showed the necessity and excellency of Affective Prayer, I will now treat of certain qualities and conditions requisite thereto, of which I will at the present insist only on three, to wit: 1. The first, regarding the extension of it; 2. the second, the intension or fervour of it; 3. the third, the cause or principle from which it must proceed, to wit, the Divine Spirit.
2. As touching the first point, to wit, the extension of prayer,
it is our Lord's command that we should never omit this duty
of prayer (oportet semper orare et non deficere), we ought always
to pray, and not to cease (or faint in it). And St. Paul exhorts
indifferently all Christians (sine interinissione orate), pray
without intermission. Now in this precept of our Lord there is an
obligation so express, so universal, and so confirmed, and repeated
both affirmatively and negatively, that all exception and derogation
seems to be excluded, and that it binds both semper et ad
3. This being evident, how can any one without grief and indignation read the strange dispensations and escapes invented and allowed by some late writers to defeat this so necessary a duty? Because, perhaps, no man can positively say that, hic et nunc, actual prayer is necessary and obliging under mortal sin, therefore they conclude that, except two or three moments of our life, it is not at all necessary to pray; that is, in the first moment that a child comes to the use of reason, and in the last moment when a soul is ready to expire; for then, indeed, some of them (not all) acknowledge that without mortal sin a soul cannot deliberately and wilfully neglect to lift up itself to God. As for the Divine Office, those to whom the reciting of it is of obligation, such (say they) are only bound under mortal sin to the external pronunciation of the words; as for the mentality of it, that is only a matter of counsel of perfection.
4. In the ancient times there was a certain sect of heretics that wandered as far wide the contrary way; who, upon a mistaken interpretation of this precept of our Saviour, neglected, yea, condemned all other things besides prayer, despising the sacraments, omitting the necessary duties of their vocation, refusing to do any external acts of charity, &c.; and from this frenzy they were called Euchitae, that is, persons that did nothing but pray.
5. But the truth lies between these two extremes; for most
manifest it is that we are obliged to aspire unto uninterrupted
prayer, and yet most certain also it is that besides simple prayer
there are many other duties required of us. The sense, there
fore, and importance of our Lord's precept of praying continually
without failing may be cleared by two passages of St. Paul.
The first is this (1 Tim. iv.), Cibos creavit Deus ad percipiendum,
&c.; that is, God hath created meats to be received with giving
of thanks by His faithful servants, and those which have known
the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to
be rejected which is received with giving of thanks; for it is
sanctified by the word of God and by prayer. The second is
6. Now, as we said in the first Treatise, that although all are not obliged necessarily to attain unto the perfection proportionable to each one's state, yet all are necessarily bound to aspire thereunto; because no man can love God with a sincere love, and such an one as may be accounted worthy of Him who is our only God and beatitude, that shall fix any limits to his love, or that shall not aspire continually to a further and higher degree of his love; so here, likewise, we are to conceive that this precept of praying continually so indefinitely expressed, so earnestly pressed, so universally applied, both by our Lord and His apostle to all Christians, doth infer an indefinite and universal obligation, so as that although none but the perfect do really fulfil it, yet all, even the most imperfect, cannot without danger dispense with or neglect the endeavouring and aspiring to the fulfilling of it. Every one must exercise as much prayer as shall be necessary to sanctify his vocation, and make the works and duties of his life acceptable to God and helpful to the procuring of his eternal felicity.
7. And the ground of this obligation is both very firm and
manifest, which is this, that even reason dictates that all the
things we do we ought to do them in order to our last end,
which is God; that is, with a sanctified intention (for whatsoever
is not done with a right intention in order to God is of no worth
at all, being only a work of corrupt nature). Now, since there
are only two things which do sanctify all things and actions, to
wit, the word of God and prayer: the word of God generally,
8. Hence we may infer that the degrees of grace and sanctity in any man are to be measured according to the virtue that prayer has upon his actions, for the more and more frequently that his ordinary actions are performed in virtue of prayer, the more perfect and holy such an one is, and the more approaching to his chief end; and he whose actions do not, for the most part, flow from the virtue of prayer is not yet right disposed towards his last end.
9. Now, though perhaps scarce any man can say that, hic et nunc, actual prayer is necessarily obliging under mortal sin, yet withal, most certain it is that that man has reason to doubt that he is in a mortally sinful state that does not use so much prayer as thereby to sanctify and render meritorious the generality of his more serious actions, or (which is all one) he is in a state mortally sinful that for the most part lives wilfully and habitually in a neglect of grace, which can no way be obtained without prayer. Therefore it is observable that the disciples of our Lord never asked any instructions but how to pray, for that skill being once had, all other good things are consequently had; and when all other actions are performed by grace obtained by prayer, and for the end proposed in prayer, then a person rnay be said to lie in continual prayer, and much more if they be accompaided with an actual elevation of the spirit to God.
10. This is the perfection of prayer to which our holy Rule
obliges us to aspire, namely, besides the set exercises either of
vocal or internal prayer, to preserve our souls in an uninterrupted
attention to God and tendance in spirit to Him, so as that whatsoever
actions we do, they should be accompanied (instantissima
11. Now it is impossible for a soul to continue without interruption in vocal prayer, there being so many necessary occasions hourly occurring to employ the tongue other ways, besides that, it would utterly exhaust the spirits. And as for meditation, the exercise thereof is so painful that it would destroy the head to force the imagination continually to invent and discourse internally on divine or spiritual objects.
12. Therefore by no other manner of prayer but the internal
13. Now a question may be made, whether in contemplative orders, where likewise there is used much abstraction, solitude, and other austerities, souls may attain to this uninterrupted prayer by the way of meditation, or else of long-continued vocal prayers alone, without appointed recollections of internal affective prayer constantly exercised?
14.. Hereto it may be answered, first, that as for meditation, it is an exercise so disproportionable to the nature of such a state (except as a preparation for awhile in the beginning), that it is not possible to be the constant and continued exercise of such persons; for, as shall be shown, the imagination and understanding, by much exercise thereof in an undistracted life, will become so barren, and it will produce so small or no effects in good affections in the will, that it will be disgustful and insupportable, so that all use of meditation must be for a long space passed and relinquished before the soul will be brought to this good state of having a continual flux of holy desires.
15. But in the second place, touching long-continued vocal
prayers and offices, without any set exercises of internal recol-
16. Notwithstanding, certain it is that vocal prayers though never so much prolonged and in never so great solitude, yet will never produce this effect where the true spirit of contemplative prayer is not known, and such ignorance hath been even in orders of the greatest abstraction and austerity; thus we see that Germanus and Cassianus, though practised many years in a strict cenobitical life, yet were astonished when they heard the holy hermits discourse of pure spiritual prayer, free from images, &c.
17. It remains, therefore, that, ordinarily speaking, the only
efficacious and immediate disposition to the habit of uninterrupted
prayer is a constant exercise of internal prayer of the
18. This, I say, will be the effect of such constant and fervent exercise of recollections; for as for those which are commonly called ejaculatory prayers, that is, good affections now and then, by fits, and with frequent interruptions exercised, though they are very good and profitable, and withal very fit to be used in the midst of reading especially, or any other external employments, yet they alone will, though joined to the ordinary use of the Divine Office, be insufficient to produce such a habit of soul. And the reason is because being so short and with such interruption exercised, the virtue of them is presently spent, and will have little or no effect upon subsequent actions; but as for the ejaculatory prayers mentioned and worthily commended by the holy hermits in Cassian, the nature of them is quite different from those forementioned, for they are indeed not different from infused aspirations, being the effects flowing from the habit of continual prayer already acquired, and not imperfect preparations thereto.
19. To conclude, none can account themselves to have satisfied
(in that perfection that they ought) the obligation imposed
upon them by this necessary precept of our Lord (Oportet senaper
orare et, non deficere); but, 1. Such as do actually exercise
as much prayer as may consist with their abilities, and as is
necessary to produce contemplation (if such be their state of life),
and, moreover, such actual prayer as is suitable thereto, yet not
indiscreetly straining themselves beyond their power to perform
it perfectly at first, lest it happen unto them, according to the
saying of the prophet (Jerem. xxviii.), Quia plus fecit quam
potuit, idcirco periit; that is, because he did more than he was
able, therefore he perished. 2. Such as when discretion or
other necessary employments do withdraw them from actual
prayer, yet do preserve in their minds a love and desire of it,
and a firm resolution courageously to break through all
discouragements and hindrances to it. 3. Such as do endeavour to
20. Therefore let souls consider in what an insecure and dangerous state they remain that content themselves with a few heartless distracted vocal prayers, since not any temptation can be resisted without an actual exercise of prayer, and that the best prayer that the soul can make. Besides, it is not with prayer as with other arts or habits; a student by cessation from study doth not presently lose nor so much as diminish the knowledge that he had before, but a soul that is not in actual prayer, or at least in an immediate disposition and an habitual desire of prayer, sinks presently into nature and loses much of that strength that she had formerly. There are not always occasions to exercise particular virtues, as temperance, patience, chastity, &c.; because temptations do not always assault us; but we may always pray, and always we have need so to do, for a soul, except she be in prayer, or that the virtue of prayer be alive in her, is in a state of distraction and disunion from God, and, consequently, exposed to all manner of enemies, being withal deprived of the only means to resist them, so that the dangers and miseries of an unrecollected life are inexplicable.