WORKS QUOTED IN THE NOTES.

Angela, Blessed, of Foligno, Visions and Instructions of.

The Ancren Riwle: from a semi-Saxon мs. of the thirteenth cen

tury. Camden Society.

Augustine, St. 1. Confessiones. 2. Epistolæ ad Hieronymum. 3. Soliloquia. 4. Homilia in N. Testamentum.

Anselm, O.S.B., St. De Similitudinibus.

Baker, O.S.B., F. Augustine. 1. Sancta Sophia; 2 vols. Douay, 1657.

2. Notes to the Divine Cloud.

Balduke, F. John. The Kingdom of God in the Soul; Paris, 1657. Bellarmine, Cardinal. De Ascensione Mentis in Deum. Coloniæ, 1850. Benedict, Our Holy Father St. Regula.

Bernard, O.S.B., St. Sermones in Cantica, &c.

Bona, O.S.B., Cardinal. Via Compendii ad Deum. Romæ, 1866. Bonaventure, St. Stimulus Amoris. Opuscula. Lugduni, 1619. Blosius, O.S. B., Abbot. 1. Spiritual Works of; edited by Rev. John E. Bowden. 2. A Mirror for Monks; edited by Lord Coleridge. Cassian. 1. Vita Patrum. 2. Verba Seniorum.

Climacus, St. John. The Holy Ladder of Perfection; edited by F. Collins.

Cross, St. John of the, The Complete Works of; 2 vols. Translated by Lewis.

Denis, St. 1. De Mystica Theologia. 2. Epistola Caio Monacho. The Divine Cloud; or The Cloud of Knowing and Unknowing. Composed probably in the early part of the fifteenth century; edited by F. Collins.

Faber, F. Spiritual Conferences.

Fonseca, Christopher de. A Discourse of Holy Love. 'Done into English,' 1652.

Gregory the Great, St. Moralium.

Grou, Père. The Hidden Life of the Soul; Rivingtons.

Hilton, Walter. The Scale of Perfection; edited by Rev. Father E. Guy, O.S.B.

Instructions for Particular States; Anonymous, 1710.

xlviii WORKS QUOTED IN THE NOTES.

Juliana, Mother, an Anchoress of Norwich, who lived in the reign of Edward III. Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love.

Mabillon. Acta Sanctorum O.S.B.

More, O.S.B., Dame Gertrude. The Confessions of a Loving Soul; 1658. Nelson, Robert. The Beggar and no Beggar, or Every Man a King if He Will; London, 1716.

Palma, F. Louis de la. The History of the Sacred Passion.

Petersen, Master Gerlac.

Richardson.

The Fiery Soliloquy with God; 1378.

Sales, St. Francis de. 1. Treatise on the Love of God, Douay, 1630.

2. The Spirit of; Rivingtons, 1872.

Schram, O.S.B. Theologia Mystica.

Teresa, St. 1. The Life of; Lewis. 2. The Book of the Foundations of; Lewis. 3. The Way of Perfection; Dalton. 4. The Interior Castle; Dalton.

Thaulerus, Dom J. Opera omnia.

Thomas, St. Summa Theologica.

Vaughan, O.S.B., Right Rev. Archbishop. The Life and Labours of St. Thomas of Aquin; 2 vols. Longmans.

Whytford's Translation of The Following of Christ, 1556; edited by Very Rev. Cathedral-Prior Raynal, O.S.B.

THE

SPIRITUAL CONFLICT.

CHAPTER I.

WHEREIN CHRISTIAN PERFECTION CONSISTS; AND OF FOUR THINGS NECESSARY TO OBTAIN IT.

The im

this know

1. IF thou heartily and seriously desirest, O dearly beloved in Christ, to reach the height of Christian portance of perfection, and to be truly united to thy Lord ledge. God by becoming one spirit with Him, thou must, before undertaking this most profitable employment and noblest of all imaginable enterprises, understand, in the first place, wherein this perfection of spiritual life consists.

Some

fection in

2. For some there are who, for want of this necessary consideration, imagine that this high per- place perfection is placed in leading an austere life, in austerity; the maceration of the flesh, in the use of hair-cloth, in much fasting, watching, and the like rigorous exercises and bodily afflictions.

B

3. Others, especially women, judge of their progress others in re- in spirituality by their daily recital of many prayers; prayers, their assisting at many Masses, their frequent confessions and communions.

citing many

strict obser

vance:

4. And there are very many, yea, even some of them others in religious and cloistered persons, who persuade themselves that perfection consists in frequenting the choir, in the exact observance of silence and solitude, and in well-ordered discipline.

all which

means are

good, but do

conduce to

5. Thus, some by their pious practices, some by other external exercises, tend to this desired pernot directly fection, but are all wide of the direct way leading perfection. unto it. For though these outward and devout employments conduce very much towards the attaining it, yet in them alone and their exact observance it consists not. It is true that the discreet use of them is undoubtedly a forcible means to obtain the grace of the Holy Ghost, to fortify us against the frailty of the flesh, to shield and arm us against the deceits and assaults of our common and cruel enemy, and finally, to perform our practices of piety, especially whilst we are new champions and novices in this spiritual conflict, with more sweetness and alacrity. Yea, they produce plenty of fruits in those also who are well-experienced and skilful combatants in this holy warfare; who afflict their body, because it has been instrumental in offending their Creator; who love silence and live in solitude, in order to shun all occasion of sin and attend to their heavenly meditations with the more quietness and tran

quillity; who untangled from the impediments of the world, are therefore devout and diligent performers of the divine office, fervent and frequent in works of charity, prayer, and holy communion, and all this for no other reason than God's honour and glory, and to unite themselves to Him by the sacred bonds of sincere affection.

that rest in these lower exercises are in great danger,

6. Yet they who rest here, and place their end in these outward exercises, do oftentimes endanger And they their own salvation; and this not by reason of the exercises themselves, which are truly and naturally holy, and warranted by the practice and example of many great and glorious saints, but because they are so totally attentive to these lower exercises as to leave their inward man in its natural affections, and unrescued from the snares of the devil. For the deceitful fiend, finding them gone astray in following their affections to those devotions, gives them not only peace, but also pleasure in the pursuance of them. They seem to taste the very sweets of paradise, yea, to walk and talk with God, and hear His divine whispers in their souls—such is their vain persuasion !—and are sometimes so absorbed in their curious and deep fancies of meditation, that they conceive themselves to be separated from the world, severed from all creatures, and even rapt into the third heavens.

7. But how dangerously all such souls are deceived, and how widely they have strayed from the as may apright way of perfection, will easily appear by the actions,

pear by the rest of their