the entertainments of piety? How can a mind dulled and astonished with the continual noises of the world, hearken attentively to God's holy inspirations ?* to enter into your 5. Wherefore, strive timely and diligently to enter and strive into your interior; prevent your soul, which is interior, ever active and never idle, with pious thoughts, lest evil habits press in first and prepossess it; apply yourselves speedily and seriously to introversion, spiritual silence, and inward attendance to God alone; adhere to Him only, and remain immovable from this maxim: To desire nothing, demand nothing, think of nothing, love nothing, labour for nothing, but Him alone, that One and All Who is needful for you. Do this * St. Teresa likens worldly solicitudes and external distractions to serpents, lizards, vipers, and venomous creatures.' As long as a religious man allows his heart to be engrossed by multiplicity, so long will he be unable to draw near and behold clearly with the spiritual eye of contemplation the Face of God. For these filthy vermin are an impediment that blind his eyes in such a way that he sees nothing else but them.' And a little further on the saint says:-'It is very important, in order to enter into the second Mansion, that every one should endeavour, according to his state, to give up every business which is not necessary. This is so essential for arriving at the principal Mansion, that unless one begin to do this, I consider it impossible to arrive.' The Interior Castle, p. 47. ་ Our author appears to be quoting here, as from memory, the celebrated maxim of the Pilgrim in Walter Hilton's Scale of Perfection-I am nothing, I have nothing, I covet nothing but One.' Hilton's explanation of this maxim of the poor Pilgrim journeying to Jerusalem is so full of divine beauty and perfection that I shall give it in extenso. Humility saith, "I am nothing, I have nothing;" Love saith, "I covet nothing but One, and that is Jesus." These two strings, well fastened by the recollection of Jesus, make good music in the harp of the soul when they are cleverly touched by the finger of reason, for the lower thou strikest one, the higher soundeth the other. The less thou feelest that thou art, or that thou hast of thyself through humility, the more thou wilt desire to have as if nothing else concerned you, and as if there were nothing but Him and yourself, and you and Himself considerable in the whole world. your heart upon Christ 6. The surest way to compass this happy and heavenly design, is to keep your eyes and heart by fixing fixed constantly and continually upon Christ crucified. crucified. This is the solid ground from whence the highest contemplatives take their first rise; hither— into this sacred Ark of our Saviour's humanity-they must again return after their lofty soarings into the Divinity, and here they must settle when elsewhere they can find no footing. And surely a soul that seriously considers His sufferings, contemplates His mercies, and reflects upon His virtues, will find its whole time too short to visit each room of His several perfections, and none at all left to be lost upon extravagant and worldly fancies. THE FOURTH AMBUSH. BITTERNESS OF HEART. Bitter 1. BITTERNESS of heart comprehends all kind of sadness, melancholy, frowardness, restlessness, ness of indignation, despitefulness, proneness to im- prehends all patience, discontent, tediousness of mind, froward heart com sadness, ness, &c.; Jesus through love. . . . And since this alone is truly precious and noble, therefore, whatever else thou hast or whatever thou dost, hold and esteem it as nothing, at least to rest in, without the sight and the love of Jesus.' The Scale of Perfection, p. 209, edited by R. E. Guy, O.S.B. aversion, distaste of all things, dislike of others, suspicions, sinister interpretations, unpleasantness, murmurings, detractions, rancour, malice, rash judgments, and the like. all which proceed from perverse na 2. The source of these bitter streams is either perverse nature, or indiscreet austerities, or an over-serious application of the mind to study ture, &c., and thoughtfulness, or a secret presumption of self-perfection and sufficiency, or an immortification of passions, or a reflection upon past injuries, or an envying at others' virtue, praise, preferment, and prosperity. 3. And all these anguishes of mind and harsh and must be sweetened with charity, nesses in conversation are great impediments to our progress in spirituality, and must necessarily be sweetened and seasoned with the sugar of perfect charity. For if we truly love our Lord God, how can we scorn His image stamped in the souls of our brethren? Do they cease to be God's amiable creatures because they displease, despise, or neglect me ?* May they not be God's friends, though they are my foes? Are they not more likely to love God because they dislike me, who am so truly unworthy to be loved by any one? Are not my seeming enemies, upon due consideration, my surest friends, since by mortifying me they increase my stock of merit, occasion my more serious application to the practice of virtue, and egg me onwards in the way of all perfection ?† Read chapter xvi. of the Conflict. † Read note to chapter xix. § 15, of the Conflict. and by be and affable 4. You must therefore buckle yourselves, O dear souls, against all these bad and bitter disposi- ing amiable tions, by loving all in and for God, by being to all. amiable to all, affable to all, meek to all, merciful to all. Strive to be gentle in words, cheerful in countenance, pleasing in your actions, patient in enduring, compassionate to others in their failings, charitable in assisting them, ready to pardon them, pious to interpret their actions for their best advantage, far from troubling or thwarting them, free from contristating or confounding them. ambush be 5. There is also another private and perilous corner in this ambush of bitterness of heart, which is To this a certain grudging at the proceedings of God's longs a cerprovidence, and a repining at His permission providence; of adversities to befall us. tain repining at God's which must by a cordial 6. Take heed, dear souls, of slipping into this sad and dismal gulf of discontent and murmuring be corrected against God, in the least thought, word, or resignation. gesture. Be not dejected or disquieted at anything, but say cordially, cheerfully, faithfully, and resignedly: -It is the Lord! let Him do what seems good in His own eyes. Alas, can self-love so blind my understanding as to make me think I deserve not to suffer this and much more? I offer up myself to Thy sweet pleasure, 0 my God; my heart is ready and prepared to perform what Thou pleasest, and to endure what Thou permittest; and I am wholly resigned to Thy holy will in all things which shall befall me for time and eternity.' R THE FIFTH AMBUSH. SCRUPULOSITY. 1. WHICH includes all inward affliction, fearfulness, Scrupulosity perplexity, vexation, and trouble of the soul, and is an evident effect of some secret pride and selflove. aims at the destruc 2. This dangerous ambush is designed by our enemy to cut off all succours of Faith and Confidence tion of our in God's mercy and goodness from us, that so Confidence. by degrees he may lead us on, and cast us headlong into the precipice of despair!* Faith and 3. To avoid this deceit, which aims at your utter To avoid ruin and destruction, your only secure and short way, O dear souls, is to cast yourselves really, this we must rely upon God * Scrupulosity usually springs from one of three causes: 1. The Dispensation of God. 2. Pride. 3. Ignorance. The scrupulosity which arises from the Dispensation of God is sent as a trial to prove the fidelity of the soul, purge it of self-love and confidence, and lead it by interior afflictions to higher perfection and closer union of charity. In this case, it becomes an instrument of sanctification, and as such should be welcomed as a signal grace and token of God's special predilection. Every soul called to a high degree of prayer will have, as a rule, sooner or later to pass through this harassing torture, which darkens and envelops the soul in a cloud of fear, doubt, and desolation. Whilst in this state, a soul should remain in the hand of God like an earthen vessel in the furnace, enduring patiently its sufferings in silence and resignation until the Good Shepherd shall be pleased to release it from its cruel bondage, and leading it into green pastures near the running brook, restore it to peace, refreshment, and the joy of the Holy Ghost. When, however, scrupulosity proceeds from pride or perverse nature it is displeasing to God, and should be made a matter of sacramental confession. It may be known by its fruits:1. Vanity, which regards as unsound the advice of our spiritual director. 2. Disobedience, which wilfully neglects his commands. 3. Obstinacy and Presumption, which makes us trust to our own reason |