ing that being which we are. O secure annihilation! What can hurt thee who is nothing ?*

By the following sublime passage, taken from one of the greatest ascetical writers of the seventeenth century, the reader will be possessed of what is meant by total Abnegation, perfect Resignation, spiritual Death, spiritual Nothingness, and Annihilation :

'Many men know of mortification and abnegation, but few come to the knowledge of their nothingness. And therefore God, as He is our blessed end, and hath His kingdom in our souls, is known by very few. To declare this, it is to be noted that after man had by prevarication lost the happy state and true life wherein God had first placed him, he manifoldly, through inordinate affections, fell upon creatures: first upon his own self, and afterwards upon inferior things without, also upon the gusts of God, yea upon God Himself, in all which he liveth and resteth inordinately, seeking his own ease and interest, whereas he ought only to seek God's honour and greater pleasure. Now, all these inordinate assumed lives must thoroughly be mortified and utterly destroyed before we can truly obtain God.

"The first inordinate life is the love which man hath to creatures, which is the grossest, and maketh the soul furthest from God. The second, which he hath to himself, is less gross. The third, which he hath to the gifts of God, is still less; and the fourth is the least gross of all. For by how much the more the adhesion is grosser and the object unseemlier, by so much the more is the soul of necessity estranged from God. The soul cannot rest in creatures that are without her, without she also resteth in herself; and yet she may rest in herself, and not rest in creatures without her. Likewise she cannot rest in herself without she also interiorly resteth in the gusts of God; nor in the gifts of God, without she resteth also in herself, since she desires them for herself and her own use. When she resteth not in the gifts of God (which is seldom), she seeks to rest in God through a natural and experimental certainty. All these lives and restings hinder the spiritual Death and Annihilation, and consequently the true enjoying of God, wholly and totally, as hath been said.

It is easier to the devout soul to mortify and take away the grosser adhesion than the lesser; for Nature, having nothing else left her, holds herself with all her forces thereunto-like as in the corporal death, where the last separation of the soul from the body is the most difficult and painful, life depending thereon. Hence, when we have mortified and separated the soul from all external creatures, she much more subtilely rests in herself and the gifts of God, and still more subtilely, secretly, closely and lastly in God. Hence, it is necessary to propose unto the soul seeking God certain parts or points whereby she may deliver or free herself from all those lives or loves, and obtain in place

In this

2. If we thus leave ourselves will-less, self-less, being-less, we suddenly become plunged into the unerected Being of God, and living in Him comes our only by Faith, Hope, and Love, our enemy-as

annihilation God Himself be

of them this happy Death and Nothing above mentioned. I say, therefore, in brief, that the right way to this Death or Nothing, and consequently to God (which in divers books, after several methods, and in sublime words and senses, are described), consists in an utter and absolute Abnegation of all created things, and a perfect Resignation of oneself out of pure love to God through a naked and an habitual faith. What we understand by these words we will presently declare, and it shall appear by what follows, that the soul is perfectly separated from all creatures, as also from herself, and is consequently wholly dead and annihilated, as touching affection, to all creatures.

'Through an utter Abnegation, she dieth to all external creatures; through perfect Resignation, to herself; by pure Love, to all the gifts of God; and by naked Faith, to God Himself, as far as seeking herself with any kind of propriety in Him. And so by this perfect Nothing and Death she is recollected, with all her powers to herself, in herself, and at length made fit to be carried above and out of herself into God. By this utter Abnegation of all external created things she becomes recollected to herself: by that perfect Resignation she is yet more simple and uniformly recollected in herself, as also unloosed and unwrought from herself. The pure Love opens to her a way above herself, and converts her right to God, and the naked Faith fasteneth and fixeth her there; and, taking leave of all her senses, the knowledge which therewith she hath that God is in her doth assuage and quiet in her all desires and longings, and holds also the will recollected in herself in a high peace in her hidden interior and innermost spirit, when God is truly present. And when the soul remains there, having in this manner all her forces and powers united and recollected, she obtains all the parts in her (as we will hereafter speak of), and thus at last she is happily elevated to that noble contemplation of God for having then fully freed herself from all impediments mediating or interposing between God and her; and she remains with all her capacities naked and bare, converted to God, Who through His infinite mercy the very same instant doth infuse into her His divine light, endowing and irradiating with the same the clean and pure soul who simply for His love hath put herself into such a poverty and emptiness of all things. And so the spirit, with great simplicity and freedom, is elevated to the happy enjoying of the secret presence of God, to which by her own strength she can in no wise attain.' The Kingdom of God in the Soul, pp. 120-125.

bulwark of

has been already said*-finds nothing to lay defence. hold on, because our annihilated souls are nowhere but in God, where they are securely covered and protected under His wings, and Who is obliged, if we may say so, to be our bulwark of defence against all assaults of our enemies.t

THE FIFTEENTH MAXIM.

That all sorts of People may safely addict themselves to this holy Exercise of Recollection.

1. It is true that this way of prayer is delicate and slippery for beginners to tread in. Yet, if they

will faithfully and strictly observe these few

That the Recollec

prayer of

tion infallibly leads

high per

necessary precautions here prescribed, they will souls to find, to their unspeakable comfort, that to be fection. most true in themselves which experience hath proved to be true in others; who, though deeply engaged in worldly vanities and affections, falling seriously, resolutely, courageously, and humbly to divine Contemplation and Recollection, became-after being some time employed in purging their souls from sin, and settling themselves in virtue according to counsel and obedience -quickly, truly, and totally changed, and were conducted, as it were by a nearer cut, without pains and tediousness, to higher perfection than they could have attained in a long time by the ordinary ways of discursive meditation.

See Maxim 10, § 4.

†This state corresponds to St. Teresa's Seventh Mansion. See Interior Castle, p. 220.

CC

2. For this is most certain, that God denies not

what lies in

If we do His grace to those who do what lies in their own power. Now

our power,

God always gives us

His grace.

any one of us, being assisted with God's grace and a good will, may do this: -1. We may purge our souls from sin, by confession, contrition, satisfaction, the means ordained by God and His Church. 2. Resign and give up ourselves, and all that we have, are, and can, to God's Divine Majesty. 3. Adore Him in spirit and truth, and present ourselves before Him as His poor, needy, naked creatures. 4. Abstract our understandings, memories, and wills from all objects and images of creatures, though never so good, high, and holy. 5. Enter into the obscurity of Faith, Hope, and Love, and leave our souls, as it were, sleeping and swallowed up in the abyss of the Divinity. 6. And finally, all we have to do is briefly this:-We must leave our houses empty, that our Lord and Lover may take full possession; and then we may assure ourselves that at the very instant in which our dear Lord shall find our hearts vacant, He will enter presently into them, inhabit them, instruct them, and show them how sweet He is to those souls who truly seek Him.*

Only per

3. Let us but persevere constantly and courageously in this pious practice, and we shall soon perwe shall at- ceive our unspeakable profit and progress; and Union. though it seems to ourselves that we perform

severe, and

tain divine

The Lord is good to them that hope in Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.' Lam. iii. 25.

it with much impurity and imperfection, yet our continued endeavours, assisted by God's concurring grace,, will speedily raise us up to divine Union.

THE SIXTEENTH MAXIM.

That outward Observances are Helps in the Practice of this Exercise.

All ex

1. ALL external practices, duties, and mortifications, as fastings, disciplines, retirements, vocal devotions, &c. must be directed to further our

internal conversation with God, and to help us

ternal observances should minister to in

terior devo

tion, other

worse than

in the acquisition of solid virtue and divine wise are Union; for else they will but puff us up, and useless. make us proud of nothing, profiting little with much labour.*

the

not offend

we

We must against the

least ordinance or

2. Yet we must be wary of offending against the least ordinance of the Church, order of House, or disposition of our Superiors; must be conscientious, careful, and punctual in rule. each ceremony and constitution, omitting nothing on pretence that it is no great matter, nor commanded under sin, or not much conducing to our spiritual advancement; for this is a token of an ignorant, unfaithful, or indiscreet spirit. God's will is as well in little as in great things; and whoso is careless in small matters. will soon fail in higher.

'Quid prodest solitudo corporis, si solitudo defuerit cordis.' S. Gregorii Magni, Moralium, lib. xxx. cap. 12.