There we find the daily stood. All that we possessed vanishes, we regard it not; there is nothing that any more belongs to us; we have lost all; we are lost ourselves. There is an inexpressible something that says within us, as the spouse in the canticles, "Let me hear thy voice, for thy voice is sweet." Speak O my love, and let none dare to speak but thee. Be silent, O my soul, and speak O thou my love. I say we then know all things without knowing any thing. Not that we have the presumption to believe that we possess in ourselves all truth. No, no, quite the contrary, we are sensible that we see nothing, can do nothing, and are nothing. We feel it, I say, and are transported at the sense of it. But in thus giving up all without reserve, we find, from time to time, in the immensity of God, and in the course of his providence, all that we stand in need of. bread of truth, as well as every thing else without providing for it. Then it is that the unction teacheth us all truths, by taking from us all our own wisdom, all our own glory, all our own interest, and all our self will, by making us content with our own impotence, and willing to be under every creature, ready to yield to the meanest worm of the earth, ready to confess our most secret transgressions, before all men, fearing nothing in our faults but our infidelity in confessing them, fearing neither the punishment nor shame of them. In this state I say, the spirit teaches us all truth: for all truth is eminently comprised in this sacrifice of love, where the soul strips itself of all, to give all to God. This is the manna which has the taste of all meats, without having the taste of any in particular. . CHAP. X. On the advantages of the Cross. WE find it difficult to be convinced of the mercy of God in loading those he loves with crosses. Why, say they, should he delight in our sufferings? Cannot he make us good without making us miserable? Yes, without doubt, God could do so, for nothing is impossible with him. He holds in his Almighty hands the hearts of the children of men, and turneth them as he pleaseth. But God who has power to save us without the cross, has not willed it so: in like manner as he has willed that men should arrive at maturity by degrees, and first pass through all the distresses and weaknesses of childhood, rather than be born in the full strength of riper years. In this he is the master, our part is to be silent and adore his profound wisdom, although we do not comprehend it. This much we clearly see, that we cannot become truly good, but in proportion as we become humble, disinterested and detached from self, so as to render all to God without any return to ourselves, The operation of grace which detaches us from ourselves, and tears us from self love, must, without a miracle of grace, be painful. God does not in the operations of his grace, any more than in those of nature, daily work miracles. It would be as great a miracle in grace to see a person full of himself, become in a moment dead to all self interest and sensibility, as to see the child that went to bed last night, rise this morn ing as tall and strong as a man of thirty. God conceals his operations in the course of grace as well as nature, under an insensible succession of events, and by this means keeps us in the obscurity of faith. He not only accomplishes his work by degrees, but by means the most simple and suitable for its success; that the means appearing suitable to the end, human wisdom may attribute the success to second causes, and so the finger of God be less observed, otherwise all that God effects, would be evidently a perpetual miracle, which would destroy that faith in which he would have us live. This state of faith is not only necessary for the good, whose reason it obliges them to sacrifice in a life full of darkness; but also to blind those who, by their presumption, deserve to be suffered to blind themselves. These seeing the works of God, do not comprehend them; they perceive nothing but what is natural in them; they are deprived of the true knowledge, because arrogant wisdom is unworthy of discovering the mysteries of God. It is then to preserve us in this obscurity of faith, with regard to the operation of grace, that God renders it tedious and painful. He makes use of the inconstancy and ingratitude of the creatures, and the disgusts and disappointments we experience, in prosperity, to detach us from ourselves and that deceitful prosperity. He prevents our being proud of ourselves by the experience of our weakness and corruption, which is manifest from our numberless relapses. All this appears natural, and it is this succession of means, apparently natural, that renders us lukewarm. We desire to be instantaneously consumed by the flames of pure love; but this sudden destruction would cost us scarcely any thing: it is the excess of our self love that makes us eager to become thus perfect in a moment and at so cheap a rate. What is it makes us rebel against the continuance of crosses? It is an attachment to ourselves, and it is this attachment which God would destroy. For while we thus hold to ourselves, the work of God can never be completed. Of what then can we complain? Our evil is that we are attached to the creatures, and still more to ourselves. God prepares a succession of events which by degrees detach us from the creatures, and in the end from ourselves. This operation is painful; but it is our corruption which renders it necessary, and occasions all the pain that we suffer. If our flesh was sound, the surgeon would make no incision in it: he only cuts in proportion to the depth of the wound, and so far as the flesh is corrupted. If the operation is painful to us, it is because of the extremity of our disorder. Is it cruelty in the surgeon to cut to the quick? no, quite the reverse, it is affection, it is judgment; he would thus treat his only son. God deals with us after the same manner. He never wounds us, but, as I may say, in spite of himself. His fatherly heart does not seek to vex us: but he cuts 'us to the quick in order to heal the ulcer in our hearts. He must tear from us what we love too much, what we love with an irregular and faulty love, what we love so as to be prejudicial to the love of him. consequence of this treatment? And what is the He makes us cry like children when a knife is taken from them with which they were playing, and with which they might have killed themselves. We weep and discourage ourselves, we cry aloud and are ready to murmur against God, as children that are vexed with their mothers. But God suffers us to cry and saves us. Even when he appears to overwhelm us, it is for our advantage, and to prevent the injury we would do to ourselves. What we lament would have made us lament eternally. . What we esteemed lost, was really lost when we imagined we possessed it. God has secured it, that he may speedily restore it to us in an approaching eternity. Nothing happens in this world but according to the will of God. It is he who does all, governs all, and gives to every thing all that it hath. He counts the hairs of our head, the leaves of each tree, the grains of sand on the shore, and the drops of water that compose the depths of the ocean. In the creation of the universe, his wisdom measured and weighed the smallest atom. It is he that each moment produces and renews the breath of life which animates us; it is he who numbers our days, and holds in his omnipotent hands the keys of the grave, to open or to shut it. What strikes us most, is as nothing in the sight of God: a little more or a little less of life, is a difference which disappears in the presence of his eternity. Of what importance is it whether this weak vessel, this body of clay, should be reduced to ashes a little sooner or a little later? O how contracted are our views of things! We are alarmed to see a person die in the flower of his youth. We cry out what a dreadful loss is this! But to whom is the loss? What does he lose that dies? A few years of vanity and illusion, to be spent in danger of eternal death. God takes him away from the midst of his iniquities, and hastens to snatch him from this corrupted world, and his own weakness. What do they lose who most loved him? They lose the poison of a worldly felicity, they are deprived of a perpetual intoxication, they lose the forgetfulness of God and themselves into |