The decay of internal piety is unquestionably the source of the various errors that have arisen in the church; all which would speedily be sapped and overthrown, was inward religion to be re-established. Errors are only so far prejudicial to the soul, as they tend to weaken faith, and deter from prayer; and if, instead of engaging our wandering brethren in vain disputes, we could but teach them simply to believe, and diligently to pray, we should lead them sweetly unto God.

O how inexpressibly great is the loss sustained by mankind from the neglect of the interior?! And how tremendous must the great day of retribution be to those who are entrusted with the care of souls, for not having discovered and dispensed to their flock this hidden

manna.

Some excuse themselves by saying, that this is a dangerous way; pleading the incapacity of simple persons to comprehend spiritual matters. But the Oracles of Truth affirm the contrary: "The Lord loveth those "who walk simply." (Prov. xii. 22. vulg.) And where can be the danger of walking in "the only true way," which is JESUS CHRIST? of giving up ourselves to him, fixing our eye continually on him, placing all our confidence in his grace, and tending with all the strength of our soul to his pure Love?

The simple ones, so far from being incapable of this perfection, are by their docility, innocency, and humility, peculiarly adapted and qualified for its attainment; . and as they are not accustomed to reasoning, they are less employed in speculations, less tenacious of their own opinions. Even from their want of learning, they submit more freely to the teachings of the Divine Spirit; whereas others, who are blinded by self sufficiency and enslaved by prejudice, give great resistance to the operations of Grace.

We are told in Scripture," that unto the simple, "GOD giveth the understanding of his law;" (Psal. cxviii. 130. vulgate.) and we are also assured, that Gop loveth to communicate with them: "The LORD careth

for the Simple; I was reduced to extremity and he "saved me." (Psal. cxiv. 6. vulgate.) To warn Spiritual Fathers against preventing the little ones from coming to CHRIST, he himself said to his Apostles, "Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is

"the

"the kingdom of Heaven." (Matt. xix. 14.) It was the endeavour of the Apostles to prevent children from going to our LORD, which occasioned this gracious charge. Man frequently applies a remedy to the outward body, whilst the disease lies at the heart.

The cause of our being so unsuccesful in reforming mankind, especially those of the lower class, is our beginning with external matters; all our labours in this field, do but produce such fruit as endures not: but if the key of the interior be first given, the exterior would be naturally and easily reformed. To teach man to seek GOD in his heart, to think of him, to return to him whenever he finds he has wandered from him, and to do and to suffer all things with a single eye to please him, is the natural and ready process; it is leading the soul to the very source of Grace, wherein is to be found all that is necessary for sanctification.

I, therefore, conjure you all, O ye who have the care of souls, to put them at once into this way, which is JESUS CHRIST; nay, it is he himself that conjures you, by the precious blood he hath shed for those entrusted to you," to speak to the heart of Jerusalem." (Isa. xl. 2. vulgate.) O ye Dispensers of his Graces, ye Preachers of his Word, ye Ministers of his Sacraments, establish his kingdom!—and that it may indeed be established, make him Ruler over the hearts of his subjects! for as it is the heart alone that can oppose his Sovereignity, it is by the subjection of the heart that his sovereignty is most highly exalted: "Give glory to the holiness of "GOD, and he shall become your sanctification." (Isa. viii. 13. vulgate.) Compose catechisms particularly to teach prayers by reasoning nor by method, for the simple are incapable thereof; but to teach the prayer of the heart, not of the understanding; the prayer of God's Spirit, not of man's invention.

Alas! by wanting them to pray in elaborate forms, and to be curiously critical therein, you create their chief obstacles. The children have beenled astray from the best of Fathers, by your endeavouring to teach them too refined, too polished a language. Go then, ye poor children, to your heavenly Father, speak to him in your natural language; and though it it be ever so rude and. barbarous in the opinion of men, it is not so to him. A Father

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A Father is much better pleased with an address which love and respect in the child throws into disorder, because he knows it proceeds from the heart, than by a formal and barren harangue, though ever so elaborate in the composition. The simple and undisguised emotions of filial love are infinitely more expressive than all language, and all reasoning.

By forming instructions how to love by rule and method The ESSENTIAL LOVE, men have in a great measure estranged themselves from him. O how unnecessary is it to teach an art of loving! The language of Love, though natural to the lover, is nonsense and barbarism to him that loveth not. The best way to learn the love of GOD, is to LOVE HIM. The ignorant and simple, because they proceed with more cordiality and simplicity, often become most perfect therein. The Spirit of GOD needs none of our arrangements and methods; when it pleaseth him, he turns shepherds into Prophets: and, so far from excluding any from the Temple of Prayer, he throws wide the gates, that all may enter; while Wisdom cries aloud in the highways, "Whoso is simple let him turn in hither;" (Prov. ix. 4.) and to the Fools she saith, "Come eat of my bread, "and drink of the wine which I have mingled." (Prov. ix. 5.) And doth not JESUS CHRIST himself thank his Father, for having "hid the secrets of his kingdom " from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto "Babes?" (Matt. xi. 25.)

CHAP. XXIV.

OF THE MOST CERTAIN METHOD TO ATTAIN DIVINE UNION.

IT is impossible to attain Divine Union, solely by the activity of meditation, or by the meltings of the affections, or even by highest degree of luminous and distinctly-comprehended prayer. There are many reasons for this, the chief of which are as follow:

First, According to Scripture "no man shall "see GOD and live.” (Exod. xxxiii. 20.) Now all the exercises of discursive prayer, and even of active contem plation, while esteemed as the summit and end of the passive, and not merely as a preparative to it, are still

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u living

"living exercises, by which we cannot see GOD;" that is to say, be united with him: for all that is of man's own power or exertion, must first die, be it ever so noble, ever so exalted.

St. John relates, "That there was a great silence in heaven." (Rev. viii. 1.) Now heaven represents the fund and centre of the soul, wherein, ere the Majesty of GOD appears all must be hushed to silence. All the efforts, nay, the very existence of Self, or Propriety, must be destroyed; because nothing is opposite to God, but propriety; and all the malignity of man is in this propriety, as in the power of its evil nature; insomuch, that the purity of a soul encreases, in proportion as it loses this self-hood; till at length, that which had been a fault, while the soul lived in propriety, and acted from Self, becomes no longer such, from the purity and innocence that she hath acquired, by departing from that propriety, or self-hood, which caused the dissimilitude between her and GOD.

Secondly, To unite two things so opposite, as the impurity of the creature and the purity of God, the simplicity of GoD and the multiplicity of man, much more is requisite than the impotent efforts of the creature: no less than a singular and efficacious operation of the Almighty can ever accomplish this; for things must be reduced to some similarity, before they can blend and become one. Can the impurity of dross be united with the purity of gold? What then does GOD do? He sends his own Wisdom before him, as the last fire shall be sent upon the earth, to destroy by its activity all that is impure therein; and as nothing can resist the power of that fire, in like manner this Wisdom dissolves and destroys all the impurities of the creature, and disposes it for Divine Union.

This impurity so opposite to Union, consists in PROPRIETY and ACTIVITY.

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Propriety, or Self, is the source and fountain of all that defilement and corruption, which can never be allied to Essential Purity; the rays of the sun may glance, indeed, upon filth and mire, but can never be united with them. Activity obstructs Union; for GOD being an Infinite Stillness, the soul, in order to be united to him, must participate of his stillness, else the contra

riety between stillness and activity would prevent assimulation.

Therefore, the soul can never arrive to Divine Union but by the repose or stillness of her will; nor can she ever become One with Gop, but by being re-established in the purity of her first creation, that is, in this central repose. GOD purifies the soul by his Wisdom, as refiners do metals in the furnace, Gold cannot be puri-, fied but by fire, which gradually separates from it and consumes all that is earthly and hetrogenous; it must be melted and dissolved, and all impure mixtures taken away, by casting it again and again into the furnace : thus it is refined from all internal corruption, and even exalted to a state incapable of farther purification, The Goldsmith now no longer discovers any adultrate mixture; its purity is perfect, its simplicity complete. The fire no longer touches it; and were it to remain an age in the furnace, its purity would not be increased, Lor its substance diminished, Then it is fit for the most exquisite workmanship; and if, thereafter, this gold seems obscured or defiled, it is no more than accidental defilement, contracted by its contiguity to some impure body; but this is only superficial, and widely different from its former impurity, which was hidden in the very centre and ground of its nature, and as it were identified with it. Those, however, who are ignorant of this process, and its blessed effects, would be apt to despise, and reject the vessel of pure gold, sullied by some external pollution; and prefer an impure and gross metal, that appeared superficially bright and polished. Farther, the Goldsmith never mingles together the pure and the impure gold, lest the dross of the one should corrupt the other: before they can be united they must be equally refined: he, therefore, plunges the impure metal into the furnace, till all its dross is purged away, and it becomes fully prepared for incorporation and union with the pure gold.

This is what St. Paul means, when he declares, that "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is”. (Cor. iii. 13.) he adds, " If any man's work be burnt, "he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, "yet so as by fire." (15. verse.) He here intimates, thạt there are a species of works so degraded by impure mixtures, that though the mercy of GoD accepts them, yet

they

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