Chapter IV. Of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in detail

Article I

Of the gift of wisdom.

Wisdom is defined to be a knowledge acquired by first principles ; for " the name sapierUia, wisdom, comes from sapoTy savour ; and as it is the property of the taste to distinguish the flavour of viands, so,** says St. Isidore, " wisdom, that is, the knowledge that we have of creatures by the first principle, and of second causes by the first cause, is a sure rule for judging rightly of every thing."

The gift of wisdom is such knowledge of God, His attributes and mysteries, as is full of flavour. The understanding only conceives and penetrates. Wisdom judges and compares ; it enables us to see causes, reasons, fitnesses : it represents to us God, His greatness. His beauty, His perfections. His mysteries, as infinitely adorable and worthy of love ; and from this knowledge there results a delicious taste, which sometimes even extends to the body, and is greater or less according to the state of perfection and purity to which the soul has attained.

St. Francis was so filled with this taste of wisdom, that in pronouncing the name of God or the name of Jesus, he experienced in his mouth and on his lips a taste a thousand times sweeter &r than honey and sugar.

Thus it is to the gift of wisdom that spiritual sweet-nesses and consolations and sensible graces belong. They are the effects of this gift ; but when they are produced only in the inferior part of the soul, they may proceed from the devil, especially in such as are not perfectly purified.

There is this difference between wisdom and science, that the latter does not ordinarily produce that spiritual taste which the former communicates to the soul. The reason is, that science regards only creatures, although in reference to God ; but wisdom looks at Gk)d Himself, the knowledge of whom is full of attractions and sweetness. This also proceeds from charity, the perfection or fervour of which is the health of the soul ; for when the soul is once thoroughly healed of its infirmities and languors, and is in perfect health, it tastes God and divine things as though they were its own proper goods, without feeling the repugnances, disgusts, and difficulties, which it experienced heretofore on account of its weakness.

This taste of wisdom is sometimes so perfect that a person who is possessed of it, on hearing two propositions, the one formed by reasoning, the other inspired by God, will at once distinguish between the two, recognising that which comes from God by a certain natural relation, as it were, between itself and its object, " 'pefr qucmdomi ohjecti connaturalitatem,^^ as St. Thomas says; pretty much in the same way as one who has eaten sugar, afterwards easily distinguishes the taste of sugar from that of other sweet things, or as a sick man knows the symptoms of his disorder by his experience and sensations as well as the physician does by his knowledge.

At first, divine things are insipid, and it is with difficulty we can relish them, but in course of time they become sweet, and so full of delicious flavour, that we taste them with pleasure, even to the extent of feeling nothing but disgust for every thing else. On the other hand, the things of earth, which flatter the senses, are at first pleasant and delicious, but in the end we find only bitterness in them.

A soul which, by mortification, is thoroughly cured of its passions, and by purity of heart is established in a state of perfect health, is admitted to a wonderful knowledge of God, and discovers things so great, that it loses its power of acting through its senses. Hence proceed raptures and ecstacies, which indicate, however, by the impression which they produce in those who have them, that they are not altogether purified or accustomed to extraordinary graces ; for in proportion as a soul purifies itself, the mind becomes stronger and more capable of bearing divine operations without emotion or suspension of the senses, as in the case of our Lord and the Blessed Virgin, the Apostles, and certain other Saints, whose minds were continually occupied with the most sublime contemplations, united with wonderful interior transports, but without there being any thing apparent externally in the way of raptures and ecstasies.

As there are persons so wicked that they seem to have no taste but for evil, committing it in sheer wantonness of heart and for the mere sake of the pleasure they take in doing evil, which is the height of iniquity and the true mark of folly, according to St. Bernard ; so there are souls so good that they have no taste but for what is good, and act in all things from no other motive but that of good. Goodness is itself the attraction that leads them to do good ; and this is the peculiar efiect of wisdom, which so fills the soul with a taste for goodness and the love of virtue, that it no longer feels any thing but disgust for other objects. A taste for what is good comes, as it were, naturally to it. St. Bernard admirably sets forth this doctrine in one of his sermons on the Canticles. " Wisdom," he says, " is the love of virtue ; it is nothing else but a relish for what is good : when it enters into a soul, it overpowers the malice it finds there^ and expels the taste for evil which malice had introduced into it^ filling the soul with the savour of good which it ever brings with it. No sooner has it been admitted than it deadens the carnal feelings^ purifies the understanding, rectifies the corrupt taste of the heart, and restores to the soul perfect health, which capacitates it for relishing the savour of goodness and of wisdom itself, which of all good things is the sweetest and the most excellent.

The vice opposed to wisdom is folly, which, after its kind, is formed in the soul in the same manner as wisdom, but by contrary principles ; for wisdom refers every thing to the last end, which in morals is called the aUissvma ca/uaa, the supreme and primary cause. It is this it seeks, this it follows and relishes in all things. It judges of every thing by reference to this sovereign end. In like manner, folly takes as its end, its first principle, its cUtissima cauaay either honour, or pleasure, or some other temporal good, having a taste for nothing else, and referring every thing thereto, seeking and valuing only that, and despising every thing else.

" The fool and the wise man are opposed one to the other,*' says St. Isidore, " inasmuch as the latter is possessed of the taste and the sense of discretion, in which the former is wanting." And this is why, as St. Thomas observes, ' the one judges rightly of things that regard conduct, because he judges of them by reference to the first principle and the last end; and the other judges ill, because he does not take this sovereign cause as the rule of his sentiments and actions.' The world is full of this sort of folly, and the wise man declares that "the number of fools is without end."

In fact, the generality of mankind have a depraved taste, and they may justly be called fools, because they h2 act like fools, placing their last end, at least practically, in the creature and not in God. Each has some object to which he is attached, and to which he refers every thing, entertaining neither affection nor passion except in connexion with it ; and this is to be a fool indeed.

Would we know if we are of the number of wise men or fools, let us examine our tastes and distastes, either with respect to God and divine things, or with respect to creatures and the things of earth. Whence spring our satisfactions and our dissatisfactions ? Wherein does our heart find its repose and its contentment ?

This sort of examination is an excellent means of acquiring purity of heart. We ought to familiarise ourselves with the practice, examining our likings and dislikings frequently during the day, and trying little by little to refer them to God.

There are three sorts of wisdom condemned in Scripture, which are so many veritable follies. Terrena, earthly wisdom, when a man has no taste but for riches ; cmimalis, sensual wisdom, when he has no taste but for bodily pleasures ; diabolica, devilish wisdom, when he has no taste but for his own superiority.

There is a folly which is true wisdom before God. To love poverty, contempt, crosses, persecutions ; this is to be a fool according to the world's esteem. And yet wisdom, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, is nothing else but this same folly which has a taste only for what our Lord and the Saints delighted in. Now Jesus Christ, in every thing that He touched during His mortal life, as poverty, abjection, the cross, left a sweet odour, a delicious savour ; but few souls have their senses sufficiently purified to perceive this odour and to taste this savour, which are altogether supernatural. The Saints have " run after the odour of these ointments," like a St. Ignatius, who took delight in seeing himself made a mock of ; a St. Francis, who so passionately loved abjection, that he performed actions for the purpose of making himself ridiculous ; a St. Dominic, who was more gratified at Carcassonne, where he was generally insulted, than at Toulouse, where he was honoured by all the world.

What taste had our Lord and the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles for the glories of the world and the pleasures of life ? " My meat," said Jesus Christ, " is to do the will of Him that sent Me." The Apostles "went from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were accoimted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." " I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches," says St. Paul.

To say that our Lord, when He might have redeemed us without suffering, when He might have merited every thing which He did merit for us without djdng a death so infAmous as the death of the cross, nevertheless chose the death of the cross for our salvation, is a folly according to human reason. But that which seems folly in God is wiser than the wisdom of all mankind.

How unlike are the judgments of God to the judgments of men ! Divine wisdom is a folly in the judgment of men, and human wisdom is folly in the judgment of God. It is for us to see to which of these two judgments we will conform our own. One or the other we must take as the rule of our actions.

If we have a taste for praises and honours, so far we are fools ; and the more relish we have for being esteemed and honoured, the more foolish we are. As, on the contrary, the more love we have for humiliation and the cross, the wiser we are.

It is monstrous that even in religion there should be found persons who have no taste for any thing but what makes them of importance in the eyes of the world ; who do all their actions, for the twenty or thirty years of their religious life, only that they may attain some end which they have in view ; who scarcely feel either joy or sadness except with reference thereto, or at least are more affected hy that than hy any thing else. As for all that regards God and perfection, it is insipid to them ; they feel no. relish for it.

This is a fearful state, and worthy of being deplored with tears of blood. For of what perfection are such religious capable? And what fruit can they gather from their labours among others 1 But, oh ! what confusion will be theirs at the hour of death, when it shall be disclosed to them that, during the whole course of their life, they have neither sought nor relished any thing but show and vanity, like people of the world. Let such persons be ever so melancholy, only utter a word which gives them a hope of some advancement, however false it may be, and you will instantly see a change come over their countenance, and their heart expand with joy as at the news of some great success.

For the rest, as they have no taste for devotion^ they treat its practices as follies, the amusement of weak minds, and not only guide their conduct by these erroneous principles of an earthly and devilish wisdom, but communicate their sentiments also to others, teaching them maxims altogether contrary to those of our Lord and the Gospel, the rigour of which they try to soften by forced interpretations that fall in with the inclinations of corrupt nature; supporting themselves by other passages of Scripture ill understood, on which they build their own ruin ; as for example, " cu/ram hahe de bono nomine, be careful of your reputation ;" " corporcUis exerdtatio ad modicum valet, bodily exercise is profitable to little ;" " rationoMie ohsequium vestrum, let your service to God be a reasonable service," &c.

Now God, by an admirable disposition of His providence, ordained that St. Ignatius should be possessed of that wisdom for which he is famous throughout the world, and that even such as we have been describing should loudly proclaim it, in order that, having been also so devoted and signal a lover of poverty, contempt, and the cross, and having so strongly recommended the love of these things to his children, he might have the right one day to condemn and judge the guilty, shewing them how far they have strayed from the path of. true wisdom.

The beatitude which answers to the gift of wisdom is the seventh : " Blessed are the peace-makers;" whether because wisdom orders every thing according to Gk)d, and peace consists in this good order ; or because wisdom causes us to be no longer affected by things which would naturally disturb the mind. Use insulting language to one who possesses this gift, he is careless about it, he does not even give it a thought : as those who are fools from natural imbecility are insensible to insults, and such things as most affect other people, because they are deprived of reason and judgment ; in like manner, they who are wise with a supernatural wisdom are insensible to the ill treatment they meet with, and undisturbed by any human thing, not out of stupidity, but from a higher order of reason, which, owing to the habit they have acquired of relishing nothing but the sovereign good, causes them to have no longer any taste for temporal goods, or any sense of temporal evils.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit which answers to the gift of wisdom is that of faith ; because the soul relishing divine things cleaves more firmly to the belief of them, and the sort of experimental knowledge which it thus obtains serves it as a kind of evidence of their reality.

Article II

Of the gift of imderstcmding.

Understanding is the intimate knowledge of an object : intdligere est intus legere.

The gift of understanding is a light which the Holy Spirit bestows, in order to penetrate intimately those obscure truths which faith proposes ; and this penetration, says St. Thomas, must cause the mind to conceive a true idea and a right judgment of the last end and of every thing which has reference thereto, otherwise it would not be a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Faith contemplates three kinds of objects. 1st, God and His mysteries ; 2dly, creatures in their relations to God j 3dly, our own actions to direct them to the service of God. We are naturally very obtuse with regard to all these things, and know nothing rightly about them, except as we are illuminated by the Holy Spirit through faith, and through the other lights which He conmiunicates to us.

That which faith makes us simply believe, the gift of understanding enables us to penetrate more clearly, and in such a manner as, although the obscurity of faith still remains, appears to render evident what faith teaches ; so that he who possesses it marvels that some refuse to believe the articles of our belief, or that they can doubt of them.

They whose office it is to instruct others, preachers and directors, ought to be filled with this gift. It has been conspicuous in fathers and doctors, and it is especially necessary for rightly comprehending the sense of Holy Scripture, its allegorical figures and the ceremonies of flivine worship.

Holy Scripture is difficult to understand, because God therein speaks His own thoughts, which are infinitely removed from ours; but He tempers them in such wise that by purity of heart we are able to understand them. St. John^ for example, says in bis first epistle, " It is the last hour ;" this is repugnant to our ideaS; and we cannot comprehend how the holy Apostle could say, speaking of his own time, that it was at its last hour. It is true, however, in the mind of God.

All other spiritual books speak the language partly of grace and partly of nature. The frequent reading of Holy Scripture is a means of receiving the Holy Spirit and of being guided by His direction.

It is a great mistake to read spiritual books so much and Holy Scripture so little. St. Gregory Nazianzen, who is the only one among the Fathers whose works are free from errors which have been condemned by the Church, and St. Basil, whose doctrine is remarkable for its solidity, for eleven or twelve years read nothing but Scripture. We ought to read it even in preference to the Fathers, and so much the more, because by purity of heart we enter gradually into the various meanings which it contains ; and although we may have read it through )& hundred times, yet if we still make progress in purity of heart and persevere in the study of it, we shall penetrate its mysteries continually more and more.

Scripture, besides the four senses which the Holy Spirit directly intended, viz. the literal, which is the sense of the words taken in their proper signification ; the topological, or moral, which has respect to morals ; the aUegorical, which regards Jesus Christ and the Church militant; the anagogica which regards the Church triumphant and the state o the blessed, — Holy Scripture, I say, besides these four senses, will bear also a fifth, which is called the a^ccommodated sense, in which use is made of some sentence or some words of Scripture to express a meaning which it is plain that it was not the Holy Spirit's object to convey by the words of the sacred text. St. Bernard often takes Scripture in this sense ; and they who find much sweetness in the Word of God are extremely fond of expressions of this sort. St. Jerome possessed the gift of understanding particularly for the literal sense ; St. Gregory for the moral ; St. Ambrose and St. Augustine for the allegorical.

This gift is of use also in political matters for discovering the designs of God therein, as, for example, perceiving that the crown of France remained in the house of St. Louis in reward for his zeal in quitting his kingdom to extend that of Jesus Christ in the East.

It was told St. Louis that it was not for his interest to make peace between the princes his neighbours as he was doing ; but he, endued with that penetration which the gift of understanding bestows, knew clearly that God, who governs all things by His providence, would give j)eace to his own realm, if he succeeded in securing it in those of other princes. And in fact France enjoyed peace as by miracle during the time of the imprisonment of the holy king in Egypt and his death before Tunis.

When Louis XIII. undertook the war of Beam against the heretics, poHticians declared that it was a dangerous enterprise in the cause of foreigners. But persons who were enlightened by the gift of understanding discerned in the designs of the king the counsel of God, who would subdue the pride of heresy, and reduce rebels to lawful obedience.

People commonly speak with much inconsideration on affairs of state. It would be well to speak neither for nor against without supernatural light. We may be guilty of two faults in this : one, of approving and commending certain things from passion ; the other, of condemning and blaming them rashly.

As, for example, when Catholic princes form alliances with heretics, either we favour too much the side of these heretical allies, and speak too advantageously of their successes, which gives occasion to many scruples and sixiB ; or we disapprove in our governors certain actions which are done in the interest of these same allies; which is the result of false zeal, instead of considering that God may draw hence great and good results which are hidden from us. It is better not to censure such conduct on the part of princes and their ministers in any way ; but rather to leave it to God to act, and await with patience and in silence the issue of things which His providence will know how to turn to His own glory.

The vice which is opposed to the gift of understanding is dulness in respect to spiritual things. This vice is natural ; and we increase it still more by our sins, our passions, and irregular affections. It is palpably perceptible in such persons as are in mortal sin. David was possessed of a heart excellently framed for loving God. He had imbibed an admirable knowledge and lofty ideas of God. Nevertheless, after his adultery, after his having procured the death of Urias, he was nine months without coming to his senses, and perhaps his eyes would never have been opened, had not God sent to him the prophet Nathan to represent to him his evil state.

The beatitude which answers to this gift is the sixth : " Blessed are the clean of heart." This purity, says St. Thomas, extends to all the powers of the soul, banishing thence every thing that can excite the passions and the disorderly movements of the appetite, the vicious affections of the will, the errors and false maxims of the intellect. It even regulates the imagination, in such a way that no thought comes into the mind except at its proper time and place, and lasts only so long as is neces> sary for the action to be performed. Thus St. Bernard, when about to pray, dismissed all thoughts of other occupations, and resumed them afterwards when his prayer was concluded. This is the case with souls that are truly pure. They have acquired by their purity this perfect dominion over themselves.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit which corresponds with this gift, as well as with the others which enlighten the mind, is the fruit of faith. Faith precedes gifts, and is their foundation ; but gifts, in turn, perfect faith. We must first believe, says St. Augustine, and establish ourselves firmly in that pious affection which is so necessary to faith. Then the gifts of the Holy Spirit come, and render faith more penetrating, more lively, and more perfect.

Article III

Of the gift of science.

Science is defined to be an assured knowledge acquired by reasoning ; but in God it is without reasoning, and by a simple view of objects.

The gift of science, which is a participation in the knowledge of God, is a light of the Holy Spirit which illuminates the soul to understand human things, and to form a true judgment of them in reference to God and so far as they are the objects of faith.

The gift of science assists that of understanding in discovering and comprehending obscure truths, and that of wisdom in possessing them.

Wisdom and science have something in common ; both bestow the knowledge of God and of creatures. But when we know God by means of creatures, and rise from the knowledge of second causes to the First Universal Cause, it is an act of science ; when we know human things through the experience we have of God, and judge of created beings by the knowledge we possess of the Supreme Being, it is an act of wisdom.

The discerning of spirits belongs to both one and the other ; but wisdom possesses it by the way of taste and experience, which is a more exalted mode of information ; science possesses it by simple knowledge alone. The gift of science enables us to see readily and clearly every thing that regards our own conduct and that of others.

First, what we ought to believe or not believe ; what we ought to do or not do ; the mean we ought to observe between the two extremes into which it is possible for us to fall in the exercise of virtues ; the order we ought to follow in our study of them ; how much time we must give to each in particular : but all this in the general, for as regards details, it belongs to the gift of counsel to prescribe what we ought to do under the circumstances in which we find ourselves, and on occasions when we have to determine how to act.

Secondly, the state of our soul, our interior acts, the secret movements of our heart, their qualities, their goodness, their malice, their principles, their motives, their ends and their intentions, their effects and their consequences, their merit and demerit.

Thirdly, the judgment we ought to form of creatures, and the use we ought to make of them in the interior and supernatural life ; how frail they are and vain, how short-Lived, how little capable of making us happy, how injurious and dangerous to salvation.

Fourthly, the mode of conversing and dealing with our neighbour, as respects the supernatural end of our creation. By this gift a preacher knows what he ought to say to his hearers, and what he ought to urge upon them. A director knows the state of the souls he has under liis guidance^ their spiritual needs, the remedies for their faults, the obstacles they put in the way of their perfection, the shortest and the surest road by which to conduct them safely ; how he must console or mortify them, what God is working in them, and what they ought to do on their part in order to co-operate with God and fulfil His designs. A superior knows in what way he ought to govern his inferiors.

They who have the largest share of the gift of science are the most enlightened in all knowledge of this kind. Wonderful things are disclosed to them with respect to the practice of virtues. They discover therein degrees of perfection unknown to others. They perceive at a glance whether actions are inspired by God and conformable to His designs ; let them deviate ever so little from the ways of God, they discern it at once. They remark imperfections where others cannot see them ; they are not liable to be deceived in their opinions, neither are they apt to allow themselves to be surprised by illusions with which the whole world is filled. If a scrupulous soul applies to them, they know what to say to remove its scruples. If they have to make an exhortation, whether to monks or to nuns, thoughts will occur to them suited both to the spiritual needs of the religious themselves, and to the spirit of their order. If difficulties of conscience are proposed to them, they will give an admirable solution. Ask them for th^ reason of their reply, they cannot tell you, because they know it without reasoning, by a light superior to all reason.

By this gift it was that St. Vincent Ferrer preached with that wonderful success which we read of in his life. He abandoned himself to the Holy Spirit as well in preparing his sermons as in delivering them, and every body went away deeply affected. It was easy to see that the Holy Spirit animated him, and spoke by his mouth. One day that he had to preach before a prince, he thought he must use more study and more human diligence in the preparation of his sermon. He applied himself thereto with extraordinary pains ; but neither the prince nor the audience generally were as satisfied with this studied discourse as they were with that of the next day, which he composed in his ordinary way, according to the movement of the Spirit of God. His attention was called to the difference between the two sermons. "Yesterday," said he, "it was brother Vincent that preached ; to-day it was the Holy Spirit."

Every preacher must keep himself in entire dependence on the Spirit of God. The chief preparation for the pulpit is prayer and purity of heart. Sometimes God keeps you in expectation a while in order to try you y but grow not weary of waiting for Him. Use all due diligence on your part, and for the rest put your trust in God ; He will come in the end, and will not fail to shed His light upon you. You will perceive its effects, and will sometimes see that by a single suggestion He will make you say things admirably calculated to benefit your hearers.

A religious is troubled with scruples or temptations against his vocation. The cause of his uneasiness is some secret sin of which he is neglecting to correct himself, and although God is urgent with him and offers him His grace, he continues in his evil habit, and his temptation as well as his uneasiness never ceases. By the gift of science the cause of this is discovered.

It is by the light of this gift that we know what creatures are in themselves, and what they have from God. By this light it was that St. Paul " counted all earthly things but as dung." Men do not commonly thus judge of them, because they consider in them only that which flatters the senses. Thus it is that almost all the world lets itself be beguiled by their deceitful appearance^ and every one is eager to enjoy the satisfaction which they promise. Every one wishes to taste them^ and few are they who perceive their error before they die. Most of the Saints even have at one time been deceived by them.

We are so full of illusions and so little on our guard against the fascinations of creatures, that we deceive ourselves continually. The devil deceives us also very frequently. His device for entrapping the more advanced is to make them fall into error in their choice of the means of perfection ; and he deceives the least perfect and the tepid, by presenting difficulties to their minds in an exaggerated shape, and by displajdng before their eyes the attractions of pleasure and the false brilliancy of vain honours. The science of the Holy Spirit teaches us how to preserve ourselves from these seductions.

Happy they whom God favours with this rare gift, like Jacob, of whom the wise man says : " God imparted to him the science of the Saints." We ourselves, above all, have need of it, who, by the duty of our vocation are obliged to mix in the world. This gift of science is much more necessary to us than to solitaries and other religious, whose life is more retired and purely contemplative.

In order that intercourse with men may not be hurtful to us, in the functions which we exercise in their regard to gain them to God, we must observe that our life ought to be a mixture of action and contemplation, in such wise that the former may be animated, directed, and ordered by the latter; that among the exterior works of the active life, we may always enjoy the interior repose of the contemplative ; and that our employment may not hinder our union with God, but rather serve to bind us more closely and more lovingly to Him ; making us embrace them in Him by contemplation, and in our neighbour by action.

We shall enjoy this advantage, if we possess the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to such a degree as to be, to use a familiar expression, more than half filled with them. But meanwhile the best thing for us to do, after satisfying the requirements of obedience and charity, is to give ourselves to recollection and prayer, as also to reading and the exercises of the contemplative life.

Let us take as our model, Jesus Christ, who devoted thirty years to the contemplative life, and three or four only to that which is called mixed; and God Himself, whose life, before time began, was purely contemplative. His sole occupation being the knowing and loving of Himself. In time, indeed. He acts externally, but after such a manner, that action bears scarcely any proportion to contemplation ; and in eternity, when time is ended. He will give Himself still less to action, seeing that then He will no longer create new creatures.

To make much progress in perfection two things are necessary, one on the part of the master, the other on the part of the disciple. In the master, that he should be greatly enlightened with the gift of science, as was St. Ignatius ; in the disciple, that he should have a will perfectly subject to grace, and a great courage, like St. Francis Xavier.

It is a great misfortune to a soul towards which God has great designs, to fall into the hands of a director who is guided only by human prudence, and has more policy than unction.

An excellent means of acquiring the gift of science is to study greatly purity of heart ; to watch carefully over our own interior, to mark all its irregularities, and note its principal faults.

Such strictness will draw down the blessing of God, who will not fail in time to pour His lights into the soul, and will give it little by little the knowledge of itself, which is the most useful He can impart to us next to that of His own divine majesty.

This is the first study in the school of perfection. When we have applied ourselves to it constantly for some time, we begin to see clearly into our interior; and this we may do without difficulty, by means of the sudden lights which God conmiunicates to the soul according to its state and present dispositions. At this point it is not far from contemplation, and enjoys, as it were, some pledges of the great gifts which God is about to confer upon it, provided it be faithful in corresponding with His designs. For God lays firm the foundation before He builds the edifice ; and this foundation is the knowledge of ourselves and our own wretchedness, lest we should come afterwards to pride ourselves in the gifts of God. Now it is little to believe and know that of ourselves we are nothing and can do nothing. The most vicious beHeve and know this well enough. God would have us obtain an experimental and sensible knowledge of ourselves ; and to this end He makes us keenly feel our wretchedness.

You will sometimes see persons who say they practise prayer of simple regard,* or take the divine perfections for the subject of their meditations, and yet are * It is difficult to render into English, and, so to say, naturalise the terms of mystical theology. This will serve to account for any expressions in this as well as in subsequent volumes of the series, which may have an un-English sound: but in the absence of any authority as to the rendering of the terms in question, an endeavour has been made to employ such terminology as seemed most appropriate, and best calculated to convey the full of the grossest errors and imperfections, because they have attempted too high a flight before they have purified their heart. But tell them what you think of this, and they get angry, believing themselves already highly spiritual, and consider you but little enlightened in mystical theology; so that, after all, they must be sent back to the first elements of the spiritual life, that is to say, to keeping watch over their hearts, as at the very beginning, if they are to make any progress.

In vain do we practise so much spiritual reading, and consult so many books, in order to acquire the science of the interior life : the unction and the light which teaches come fi'om above. A pure soul will learn more in one month by the infusion of grace, than others in several years by the labour of study.

More beyond all comparison is learnt by the practice of virtues, than by all the spiritual books and all the speculations in the world. It was to convince us of this truth that our Lord gave to mankind examples of virtue, before giving lessons in them and lajdng down precepts ; " Ccspit Jesus fdcere et docere :" and David said to God, " I have had understanding above ancients, sense of the original. The following description of oraison de simple vue, here translated " prayer of simple regard," is taken from the Spiritual Conferences of Father Guillor^, S. J. C. : — ^ 1. It regards some one single truth, or holy object, by a simple contemplation of that which is before the mind, unaccompanied by any chain of reasoning. 2. The mind consequently does not, as thus engaged, perform any distinct act which multiplies it, or marks a diversity in its operations. 3. It is not to be denied, nevertheless, that certain indistinct and imperceptible acts are formed by the mind, not easily to be discerned on account of their delicate nature. 4. Generally speaking, the mind while occupied with this simple regard is not cognisant of its own acts by any conscious reflection on them ; for this would be to come out of its state of simplicity, and to destroy by this self-retrospection what we described as essentially constituting it.** because I have sought Thy commandments." In this book it was that St. Anthony studied, in order to learn the science of the Saints, and soar above the proud teaching of the philosophers. In this book it is that so many simple souls, without the study of letters, have acquired knowledge hidden from the learned of this world.

All our life long we ought to lay open our conscience to our Superior and our spiritual Father with great candour and simplicity, hiding from them none of the movements of our heart ; so as to be willing, were it possible, to put our whole interior in their hands for their inspection. By the merit of this humility we shall obtain from God the gift of discernment of spirits, for the guidance of our own conduct and for the direction of others.

The vice which is opposed to the gift of science is ignorance, or the want of that knowledge which we might and ought to have for our own guidance and that of others.

Our life is commonly spent in the three kinds of ignorance to which, as St. Lawrence Justinian observes, persons who profess the spiritual life are subject. They have been described above, in Chapter IV., ' On purity of heart.' The beatitude which answers to this gift is the third : " Blessed are they that mourn ;" for the knowledge we receive from the Holy Spirit teaches us to know our faults and the vanity of earthly things, and shews us that we ought to expect from creatures only wretchedness and mourning.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit which corresponds therewith is that of faith, inasmuch as this gift perfects the knowledge we have gained of human actions and of creatures from the light of faith.

Article IV

OftJie gift of counsel.

Counsel is an act of prudence prescribing the means to be chosen for attaining an end.

Thus the gift of counsel regards the direction of particular actions. It is a light by which the Holy Spirit shews what we ought to do in the time, place, and circumstances in which we find ourselves. What faith, wisdom, and science teach in general, the gift of counsel applies to particular cases. And it is easy to perceive its necessity, since it is not enough to know that a thing is good in itself; we have also to judge whether it is good under actual circumstances, whether it is better than something else, and more suited to the object we are aiming at : and this knowledge we acquire by the gift of counsel.

It will sometimes happen that when we are deliberating what we ought to do, one thing will appear to us, even in a supernatural light, the best and the most perfect, and perhaps it really may be so in itself. And yet if we do it, great inconveniences will ensue ; either dangers or faults, which would not have happened had we chosen something else, which, although less perfect in itself, would have been better in our particular case, because it would not have had the evil consequences involved in the other which appeared the best.

Thus the safest guidance is that which the Holy Spirit gives us through the gift of counsel, and we ought not to follow any other. First, because in following it we are certain to be walking in the way of God and His divine providence ; secondly, because it is the means of never going astray, the Holy Spirit being the infallible rule as well of our actions as of our knowledge ; thirdly, because this dependence on the guidance of the Holy Spirit makes us live in great peace, free from disquietude and care, like the children of a prince, who have no anxiety about their table, or their retinue, or any thing else that concerns their maintenance, trusting for all this to the care of the prince their father.

The Holy Spirit communicates this gift more or less, according as we are faithful in corresponding therewith. He who has but little of it, if only he makes good use of the little that he has, may be sure of receiving more, until he is replenished therewith according to the measure of his capacity; that is to say, until he has as much as he needs in order to fulfil the designs of God and to discharge worthily the duties of his office and his vocation. For it is rightly held, that a person is full of the Spirit of Gk>d when He so dwells in him as to enable him to perform all the duties of his state.

For ourselves, who are called to an Apostolical order, wherein we ought to combine together action and contemplation, we may without presumption aspire to the highest degree of excellence in both the contemplative and the active life. For it is no presumption to aspire to the perfection of one's state and to the accomplishment of the designs of God to the full extent of one's vocation.

To this end we have need of the gift of counsel in an excellent degree, because we are so much engaged in action : and if this gift of the Holy Spirit be wanting to us, we shall do nothing without committing many faults, and our whole conduct will be purely human. We shall act only from a principle of natural sagacity, or an acquired prudence. We shall but follow the devices of our own mind, which are for the most part greatly opposed to the Spirit of God.

In the morning we ought to beg the assistance of the Holy Spirit for all the actions of the day, humbly acknowledging our ignorance and weakness, and protesting that we will follow His guidance with a full and entire submission of mind and heart.

Then at the beginning of every action we ought again to ask the light of the Holy Spirit to perform it well, and when concluded, beg pardon for the faults we may have committed while engaged in it. By this means we keep ourselves all the day long in a state of dependence upon God, who alone knows the particular circumstances in which we are to be placed, and therefore can guide us more surely on all occasions by His counsel than by all other lights, whether of faith or the other gifts, which are not so applicable to individual cases.

Purity of heart is an excellent means of obtaining the gifb of counsel, as well as the other gifts already treated of.

A person of good sound judgment, who should study constantly purity of heart, would acquire a supernatural prudence and a divine skill in conducting all sorts of affairs, would receive an abundance of infused light and knowledge for the guidance of souls, and discover a thousand holy contrivances for the execution of enterprises which concern the glory of God. In these things, human prudence, with all its foresight and address, commits many blunders, and is often altogether unsuccessful. It was by purity of heart, and by a faithful reliance on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier acquired that rare gift of prudence for which they have been admired.

It is in prayer especially that directors of souls and superiors ought to seek that light which is to guide them in the duties of their office. It is an error to suppose that the most learned are the best fitted for offices and the direction of souls, and that they are the most successful therein.

Natural talents, human science, and prudence profit but little in the matter of spiritual direction, in comparison with the supernatural lights communicated by the Holy Spirit, whose gifts are above reason.

The persons best fitted to guide others, and to give counsel in what concerns the things of God, are those who, possessed of a pure conscience and a soul free from passion and detached frt)m every interest, and sufficiently provided with science and natural talents, although they may not possess them in any eminent degree, are closely united to Gk)d by prayer, and yield a humble submission to the movements of the Holy Spirit. This was the opinion of St. Ignatius ; and it was on this account that he appointed to the rectorship of the Roman College Father Sebastian Romano, who, though not one of those who were most remarkable in the Company for human talents, was a man filled with the Spirit of God.

Superiors in subordinate situations have great need of the gift of counsel on particular occasions when the practice of obedience is concerned ; for an inferior who has no subjects to govern has not the same difficulties in the exercise of obedience, as an inferior who is also superior over others, like a rector, a provincial, or an assistant. The latter, for example, finds himself sometimes embarrassed and in danger of being too compliant, even to the violation of the duties of his office, unless he is enlightened by the guidance of the Holy Spirit ; for he may fall into different extremes, as letting the, provinces have all their own way, or yielding to the wishes of individuals, who have prejudiced the Father General, and gained him over to their views. Thus being bound on the one side to obey, and on the other to discharge the duties of his office, he is in danger either of being too submissive for or against his office^ or, again, of falling into the other extreme of not being obedient enough. In such circunistances they who govern themselves by the gifts of the Holy Spirit cannot go astray ; but our misfortune is, that we have so little practical knowledge of those excellent gifts, which are the guiding principles of the Saints, because we do not apply ourselves in earnest to the study of perfection.

They who are learned must be on their special guard against a certain spirit of self-sufficiency and confidence in their own lights, and attachment to their own views.

They who would govern either a state or any other body, ecclesiastical, religious, or civil, by the light of the Holy Spirit, will not always succeed to the mind of those who are guided only by human prudence.

The latter will often condemn them, because their own view does not extend beyond the limits of reason and good sense, which are the sole principles by which they are guided ; they discern nothing at all in the direction of the Holy Spirit, which is infinitely exalted above all human reasonings and all mere views of policy.

The government of superiors, or rather the government of God by superiors, being supernatural, it is not possible but that the faults that are committed therein must be great, and attended with grievous consequences.

Superiors must not only be endued with zeal to punish the faults of which inferiors are guilty, they must also be possessed of charity, to prevent, by salutary warnings, the faults they might commit ; it is even fitting sometimes that they should content themselves with a secret and paternal reprimand, without any other punishment, so as by kindness to oblige one who has fallen into some error to correct himself, and thus prevent those other faults which the asperity of punishment might lead him to commit.

Good superiors consider themgelves possessed of power and authority only to do good to their subjects and lighten their burdens, not to injure and inflict mortifications upon them.

A maxim of great importance to good government, and one that is strongly recommended to us in our last general congregation, is to avoid a multiplicity of useless regulations, which serve only to burden inferiors, and make the yoke of religion heavier, when we should strive to render it easier. Let it be sufficient to enforce the strict observance of the rules and ordinances already existing.

The failings of Saints consist in neglecting to follow certain lights of the Holy Spirit, or in omitting certain points of perfection ; as, for example, if on occasion of having several supernatural lights on the same matter, out of weariness of mind or from want of consideration, they should follow the least exalted.

When we see that there is nothing wrong in doing or saying this or that ; that we are not led to it by any natural inclination or affection, by any motive of complaisance, by the example of others, or by any habit or custom; and moreover that we are disposed to follow any other course the Holy Spirit might inspire, that we are equally ready to determine for or against, according as the Holy Spirit moves us, — wherever these three circumstances concur, we may generally act with safety, and there is no danger in going forward.

We may notice in several places of Scripture admirable instances of the gift of counsel ; as in the silence of our Lord before Herod, and in the answers He made to save the woman taken in adultery, and to confound those who demanded of Him if it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar ; in the judgment of Solomon ; in the enterprise of Judith to deliver the people of God from the army of Holofernes ; in the conduct of Daniel to justify Susanna from the calumny of the two elders ; in that of St. Paul when he set the Pharisees against the Sadducees, and when he appealed from the tribunal of Festus to that of Caesar.

The vice that is opposed to the gift of counsel is precipitation, when we act with too much haste, and without having considered every thing well beforehand ; when we follow the impulse of our natural activity, and do not give ourselves time to consult the Holy Spirit.

This defect, as well as the others which are opposed to the gifts of which we have already spoken, viz. folly, dulness, ignorance, are sins when they proceed from our neglecting to dispose ourselves to receive the lights of the Holy Spirit ; when we do not take sufficient time to ask His counsel before acting, and in acting hurry forward in such a way as to incapacitate ourselves for receiving His assistance, or when we let ourselves be carried away and blinded by the impetuosity of some passion.

Eagerness is greatly opposed to the gift of counsel. The saintly Bishop of Geneva often combats this defect in his writings. We ought to avoid it most carefully, because it fills the mind with darkness, introducing trouble, vexation, and impatience into the heart, nourishing self-love, and making us lean upon ourselves ; instead of which, the gift of counsel, by enlightening the mind, pours into the heart an unction and a peace wholly opposed to eagerness and its effects.

Kashness, again, is very adverse to this gift. It is a want of attention to the lights and counsels of reason and grace, because we trust too much in ourselves. We are very subject to this vice, especially if we are defective in prudence and maturity of spirit, if we accustom ourselves to childish conduct, and entertain too good an opinion of ourselves. i2 Slowness is a fault which is also opposed to the gift of counsel. We ought to employ mature deliberation ; but when once our resolution is taken in accordance with the light of the Holy Spirit, we ought to proceed promptly to its execution by the movement of the same Spirit, because if we delay, circumstances change, and opportunities are lost.

The beatitude which answers to the gift of counsel is the fifth : " Blessed are the merciful ; for they shall obtain mercy." And the reason St. Augustine gives for this is, that God does not fail to aid with His light those who charitably assist others in their need. " Est cmtem justum consilium, ut qui se a potentiori adjuva/ri mdtf adjuvet injvrmiorem in quo est potentior. Itaque heati misericordes, quia ipsorv/m miserahitwr Deus. It is a sound reconmiendation to one who is desirous of being assisted by another more powerful than himself, to assist his weaker brother in that wherein he is stronger than he. Therefore blessed are the merciful, because God will have mercy on them."

We cannot specify any fruit of the Holy Spirit which answers immediately to the gift of counsel, because it is a practical knowledge, which has no other fruit, properly speaking, than the operation which it directs and in which it terminates. However, as this gift specially directs works of mercy, we may say that the fruits of goodness and benignity answer in a manner thereto.

Article V

Of the gift of piety.

Piety is that tender and loving disposition of the heart which leads us to honour and serve our relations and friends.

The gift of piety is an habitual disposition which the Holy Spirit communicates to the soul to excite it to a filial affection towards God.

Religion and piety both lead us to the worship and service of God ; but religion considers Him as Creator, and piety as a Father : and in this the latter is more excellent than the former.

Piety has a wide scope in the exercise of Christian justice j it reaches not only to God, but also to every thing relating to Him ; as Holy Scripture, which contains His word ; the blessed, who possess Him in glory ; the suffering souls in purgatory, and those still living on the earth.

The gift of piety, says St Augustine, communicates to those who possess it a loving reverence for Holy Scripture, whether they are able to enter into its meaning or not.

It gives us the spirit of a child towards our superiors, the spirit of a father towards our inferiors, the spirit of a brother towards our equals, bowels of compassion for those who are in necessity and trouble, and a tender disposition to succour them.

This gift is found in the superior part of the soul, and also in the inferior : in the superior, communicating to it an unction and a spiritual suavity, whose source is in the gifts of wisdom and understanding ; in the inferior, exciting therein emotions of sensible sweetness and devotion. From this fountain flow the tears of Saints and devout persons. This is the principle of that sweet attraction which draws them to Gx)d, and of that alacrity which makes them run in the way of His service. It is this that makes them afiSict themselves with the afflicted, weep with them that weep, rejoice with them that are glad of heart, bear without irritation the weaknesses of the infirm and the faults of the imperfect, and make themselves all to alL It should be well understood that to make ourselves all things to all men, as did the Apostle, is not, for example, to break silence with those who break it, for we must always adhere to the practice of virtue and the observance of rules. But it is to be grave and collected with those who are so ; quick and fervent with those who are of a quick and fervent spirit ; lively with those who are of a lively humour, without overstepping, however, the bounds of propriety : for instance, when acting with alacrity, doing so after the manner of those perfect persons whose disposition is naturally quick and ardent, and practising virtue with discretion and condescension, according to the humour and taste of those with whom we have to do, as far as virtue itself will allow.

Some disapprove of certain devotions grounded on theological opinions which they do not themselves hold, although others do. They are wrong ; for in the matter of devotion every probable opinion is sufficient to form a principle and foundation for it : consequently such criticism is unjust.

Of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that of piety seems to be the portion of the French. They possess it more strikingly than any other nation. Cardinal Bellarmine, when he came into France, was charmed with the devotion which he every where observed ; and he said afterwards that Italians scarcely seemed to him like Catholics when he compared them in piety with the French.

The vice that is opposed to the gift of piety is hardness of heart, which springs out of an ill-regulated love of ourselves ; for this love makes us naturally sensible only to our own interests, so that nothing affects us except in reference to ourselves. We behold the of-fences done against God without tears, and the miseries of OUT neighbour without compassion ; we are unwilling to incommode ourselves to oblige others ; we cannot put up with their faults ; we inveigh against them on the slightest ground, and harbour in our hearts feelings of bitterness and resentment, hatred and antipathy, against them.

On the other hand, the more charity or love of God a soul possesses, the more sensitive it is to the interests of God and those of its neighbour.

This hardness is worst in the great ones of the world, in rich misers and voluptuaries, and in those who never soften their hearts by exercises of piety and familiarity with spiritual things.

It is also often to be found amongst men of learning who do not join devotion to knowledge, and who, to disguise this fault from themselves, call it strength of mind ; but the truly learned have been the most pious, as a St. Augustine, a St. Bonaventure, a St. Bernard ; and of the Company, a Laynez, a Suarez, a Bellarmine, and a Lessius.

A soul which cannot weep for its sins, at least with tears of the heart, is full either of impiety or of impurity, one or the other, as is generally the case with those whose heart is hardened.

It is a great misfortune when natural and acquired talents are more esteemed in religion than pi«ty. You will sometimes see religious, and perhaps superiors, who will loudly declare that they attach much more value to a practical active mind than to all those pretty devotions, which, say they, are all very well for women, but are unbecoming in a strong mind, meaning by strength of mind that hardness of heart which is so opposed to the spirit of piety. They ought to bear in mind that devotion is an act of religion, or a fruit of religion and of charity, and consequently that it is to be preferred to all moral virtues, religion following immediately in I order of dignity the theological virtues.

When a grave Father, respectable both for his age and the offices he has filled in religion, declares in the presence of the younger brothers that he sets high value on great talents and situations of distinction, or prefers such as excel in ability and knowledge to such as are inferior therein, although they possess greats virtue and piety, grievous injury is done to these poor young people. It is to infuse a poison into their hearts, from the effects of which they will perhaps never recover. A single such word said in confidence to another is enough ( to destroy him.

The harm that has been done to religious orders by those who have been the first to introduce a high esteem for talents and employments of distinction is incalculable. It is a draught of poisoned milk presented to young children ; such language to youths just coming out from their noviciate, staining their souls with a hue which nothing ever effaces.

The beatitude which answers to the gift of piety is the second : " Blessed are the meek j" and the reason is, that meekness, clearing away all obstacles to acts of piety, assists it in its exercise.

The fruits of the Holy Spirit which answer to this gift are those of goodness and benignity.

ARTICLE VI, Of the gift offortituds.

Fortitude is a virtue which strengthens us against fear and dread of the difficulties, dangers, and toils which present themselves in the execution of our imdertakings.

This the gift of fortitude admirably effects ; for it is an habitual disposition which the Holy Spirit communicates to the soul and to the body both to do and to suffer extraordinary things ; to undertake the most arduous actions ; to expose themselves to the most formidable dangers ; to imdergo the most toilsome labours ; to endure the most grievous pains, and that with constancy and heroism.

This gift is exceedingly necessary on certain occasions, when we feel ourselves assailed with pressing temptations, to resist which we must resolve to lose our goods, our honour, or our life. It is then that the Holy Spirit powerfully assists with His counsel and strength a faithful soul, which, distrusting itself and convinced of its own weakness and nothingness, implores His succour and places all its confidence in Him.

On Auch occasions ordinary graces are not sufficieat, — there is need of extraordinary lights and aids ; and therefore it is that the prophet joins together the gift of counsel and that of fortitude ; the one to enlighten the mind, and the other to fortify the heart.

We have much need of this gift in the Company, on account of the difficulty of certain employments which obedience may oblige us to undertake ; as when we are sent on foreign missions ; when we are left very long in the arduous duties of the classes, or are detained in a place which we feel to disagree with our health ; and when some calumny or persecution is excited against us in discharging Our functions of zeal and charity.

The opportunity of making a noble death is so pre- <aou8, that no wise man ought to lose it when it offers.

"We ought to be convinced that by this single act of Christian generosity, we may gain as much merit in the sight of God as we should during the remainder of our life, were it further prolonged ; just as when any one, on entering religion, bestows at once all his goods upon the poor^ his merit is as great as if^ remaining in the world, he gave them away in abundant alms at different times. And how know we what our life would be afterwards, and in what state we should die another time ? What would Origen and Tertullian be now, if, before their fall, they had had an opportunity of dying for Jesus Christ, and had fSaithfully embraced it ?

Now there are three ways of dying nobly : first, to die in the service of those who are stricken with a pestilential disease ; secondly, to die on a foreign mission, whether by the hand of imbelievers, or through excessive labour, or some accident incurred in the exercise of zeal j thirdly, to give our life for our flock, as prelates, pastors, and superiors may do.

It is impossible to say what graces the virtue of those amongst us who thus expose their lives draws down upon all the other members of the Company.

The gift of fortitude as respects the body renders those on whom God bestows it capable of performing deeds requiring miraculous strength, as David, Samson, and certain others of the Old Testament. We find in the lives of the Saints that some, like St. Dominic Loricatus, St. Catherine of Sienna, Father Gonzalez Silveira, have had this gift to enable them to practise prodigious mortifications beyond their natural strength.

But the gift of fortitude is chiefly bestowed to strengthen the mind, from which it banishes all human fears, imparting to the will and to the appetite a divine firmness which renders the soul intrepid.

It was by this spirit of fortitude that our Lord, in His Agony in the garden, overcame the dread of His Passion and death, and rising from prayer all on fire with zeal, said to His disciples, "Arise, let us go : behold, he is at hand that will betray Me." ' It is this spirit that has made Saints fear no danger when it was question of executing the designs of God and promoting His glory. A St. John Chrysostom feared nothing but sin. The Empress Eudoxia sent persons to sound him, in order to discover what it was that he most dreaded, intending afterwards to avail herself of this discovery to bring him by intimidation to the point she desired. But they found that the holy Bishop dreaded neither chains nor exile nor death ; all that he feared was to offend God.

St. Francis Xavier, animated with this spirit, braved whole armies of unbelieving foes, tempests, shipwrecks, death, as was wonderfully displayed in his voyage to Japan, which he made in a wretched little vessel belonging to a pirate, an idolater and a worshipper of the devil, who appeared to him more than once to terrify him, threatening him that he should feel the effects of his vengeance ; but the Saint laughed his threats to scorn, all his confidence being fixed on God. In one of his letters he writes that "the surest remedy in such circumstances is to fear nothing, putting our trust in God j" and that "the greatest evil that can befal us is to be afraid of the enemies of God when we are maintaining His cause."

We must be courageous, then, and fearless in the service of God, that we may advance in perfection and become capable of doing great things. Without the gift of fortitude no notable progress can be made in the spiritual life. Mortification and prayer, which are its principal exercises, demand a generous determination to overcome all the difficulties to be encountered in the way of the Spirit, which is so opposed to our natural inclinations. St. Theresa said that " a soul which has entered upon the practice of prayer with a firm resolution never to abandon it, has already performed half the journey."

The Martyrs hold the first rank amongst the heroes of Christianity, because fortitude is much more conspicuous in suffering than in action. In action nature finds relief, and has, as it were, the dominion ; but suffering is entirely opposed to nature, and is therefore more difficult and more heroic.

It is to the holy Martyrs that the Church owes its propagation through the whole world, and the subjection of the Roman empire to the faith. We place the palm-branch in their hand to mark their fortitude and their victory.

Some attribute to this gift the power with which God sometimes endues the words of Saints in persuading minds and touching hearts ; but they are mistaken : this is another special gift, which is called gratia sermonis, the ' grace of speech j' a free gift which is bestowed not for the advantage of those who receive it, but for the good of others. The evangelical labourers who have this grace, although they at times deliver very simple and rude discourses, do not fail to produce marvellous impressions on souls, as was the case with the Apostles, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Ignatius, and St. Francis Xavier.

The vice opposed to the gift of fortitude is timidity or human fear, and a certain natural cowardice which proceeds from the love of our own superiority and a fondness for our own comforts, which hamper us in our undertakings, and make us fly the sight of abjection and suffering.

Nothing is more prejudicial in the spiritual life than the fears which the devil excites by a thousand human respects, which ought to be generously resisted. It is this which has caused the downfall of many great persons, and which cast down, if we may so express ourselves, even pillars of the Church, as the famous Osius, Bishop of Cordova, who, after presiding as Papal legate at the Council of Nice, after defending the faith so long and with so much zeal against the Arians, after winning so many glorious victories over these heretics, the sworn enemies of the Son of Gk)d, in the end overcome by fear, consented to sign the condemnation of St. Athanasius. Words cannot tell the harm which human respect does us.

A religious is resolved to speak of spiritual things, to observe the rule of silence, or some other rule, to practise some act of mortification ; and yet if he falls in with such and such persons, he has not the courage to perform his good resolution, although he well knows he will afterwards keenly regret having failed therein. On the one side is our rule and the cause of God, and on the other the gratification of this or that person and the fear of displeasing him. We weigh these two considerations, and the latter prevails. What infidelity ! what cowardice ! And this is what we do every day. Nothing more surely marks our want of virtue, and the dominion that human respect exercises over jis. This is why God leaves us to ourselves and withdraws His graces, and we then fall insensibly into miserable faults.

As the gift of counsel accompanies that of fortitude and directs it, leading us to undertake great things, so also human prudence and timidity keep each other company, mutually supporting one another, and suggesting reasons in self-justification.

They who are guided only by human prudence are timid beyond measure. This fault is very common in superiors, and makes them, through fear of committing mistakes, fail of doing half the good they might do.

A thousand apprehensions hinder us every moment, and prevent our advancing in the way of God, and doing a vast amount of good, which we should do, if we followed the light of the gift of counsel, and possessed the courage which springs from the gift of fortitude : but there is too much in us of human views, and every thing alarms us. We fear lest an employment which obedience would impose upon us should not succeed, land this fear makes us refuse it. "We are apprehensive of ruining our health, and this apprehension makes us limit ourselves to some little easy office, without the possibility of zeal or obedience stirring us up to undertake any thing more. We are afraid of incommoding ourselves, and this makes us shrink from corporal penances, or leads us to spare ourselves too much in the practice of them. It is impossible to say how many omissions fear makes us be guilty of. There are but very few who do for God and their neighbour all that they might do. We ought to imitate the Saints in fearing nothing but sin, like St. John Chrysostom ; in braving risks, like St. Francis Xavier ; in desiring insults and persecutions, like St. Ignatius.

The beatitude which answers to the gift of fortitude is the fourth : " Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice j" because one who is animated by the strength of the Holy Spirit has an insatiable desire of doing and suffering great things.

The fruits which answer to this gift are longanimity and patience : the first enabling us not to grow tired or weary in undertaking or doing good ; the second, not to grow tired or weary in suffering evil.

Article VII

Of the gift ofthefea/r of God.

The gift of the fear of God is an habitual disposition which the Holy Spirit communicates to the soul to maintain it in a state of reverence before the majesty of God; and of dependence upon and submission to His will, causing it to fly from every thing that can displease Him.

This gift is the foimdation and basis of all others, because the first step in the way of God is the avoidance of evil, which appertains to this gift. It is through fear that we attain to the sublime gift of wisdom. We begin to taste God when we begin to fear Him, and wisdom in its turn perfects fear. It is the taste of God which renders the fear of God loving, pure, and detached from all self-interest.

The effects of this gift are to impart to the soul, first, a continual reserve, a holy trembhng, a profound self-annihilation before God ; secondly, an extreme horror of the least offences against Him, and a constant resolution to avoid all occasions of displeasing Him j thirdly, a humble confession when we have fallen into any fault ; fourthly, a watchful care in binding the irregular inclinations of the appetite, and frequent self-observation, in order to investigate the state of our interior, and see what is passing within contrary to perfect fidelity in the service of God.

It is a great delusion to think, as some do, that after making a general confession it is not necessary to be as scrupulous for the future to avoid the slightest sins, the smallest imperfections, the least irregularities of the heart, its incipient movements. They who act thus in their own case, through a secret despair of attaining a higher perfection, generally inspire others with similar sentiments, and use the same latitude in regard to the souls under their guidance ; which is a great error. We ought to cultivate such delicacy of conscience, and to be so strict with ourselves, as not to pass over the slightest fault, but combat and suppress the least disorders of the heart. God is worthy of being served with this perfect fidelity ; to this end He offers us His grace, and we ought to co-operate therewith.

Never shall we attain to perfect inward purity until we so watch over all the movements of our heart and all our thoughts, that scarcely any thing escapes us of which we may not be able to render account to God, and which does not tend to His glory j so that in the space of eight days, for example, we should perform very few exterior actions or interior acts of which grace is not the principle ; and if any exceptions occur, they should be owing simply to surprise, and last but for a few moments, oar will being so closely united to God that it represses them the instant it perceives them.

It is seldom that we achieve a complete victory over our disorderly movements ; scarcely ever do we so perfectly overcome any single one but there escapes something, or there remains something, either through want of attention, or for lack of a sufficiently vigorous resistance. Thus one of the greatest graces which God bestows upon us in this life, and which we ought most to beg of Him, is to be so watchful over our heart as that the least irregular movement shall not secretly arise in it without our perceiving it and immediately correcting it ; for every day we are betrayed into a multitude of such which escape our observation.

As soon as we perceive we have committed a sin, we ought instantly to repent of it and make an act of contrition, for fear such sin should hinder subsequent graces ; and this assuredly will be the result, if we fail in doing penance for it.

Some have no need of making a particular examination, because they no sooner commit the least fault than they are immediately reproved for it and made aware of it ; for they walk always in the light of the Holy Spirit, who is their guide. Such persons are rare, and they make a particular examination, so to say, out of every thing.

The spirit of fear may be carried to excess, and then it is prejudicial to the soul, and hinders those communications and effects which divine love would operate in it, if it were not thus shut up and chilled with fear.

The vice opposed to the gift of fear is a spirit of pride, independence, and license, which makes men unwilling to do any thing but follow their own inclinations, and unable to endure any subjection, so that they sin without scruple, and make no account of slight faults, appear before God with little awe, commit many irreverences in His presence, despise His inspirations, neglect the occasions that offer themselves of practising virtue, and live in a state of laxity and tepidity.

It is said that an idle thought, a careless word, an action performed without direct intention, is a small matter. This would be true, were we in a state purely natural ; but supposing that we are raised, as indeed we are, to a supernatural state, which has been purchased for us by the precious blood of the Son of God ; supposing that on each moment of our life an eternity depends, and that the least of our actions merits the possession or the deprivation of a glory which, being eternal in its duration, is, in a manner, infinite, — it must needs be confessed that every day, by our negligence and by our cowardice, we incur losses inconceivable for want of an abiding conversion of the heart to God. Let us be convinced, once for all, that the exterior actions to which we devote all our attention are nothing but the body, and that the intention and the interior constitute the soul.

The path of tepidity is dangerous beyond measure ; we hardly know what takes place in it. Let us remember all our life long, that God endures for a time the , sins we commit without scruple. But if we persist in them, it comes to pass, through the deserved chastisement of Divine justice, either that we fall into manifest mortal sin, or become involved in some distressing affair, or find our character aspersed by some calumny for which we have given no occasion, but which God permits, in order to correct some other fault which we have allowed to pass unheeded.

St. Ephrem,* in his youth, being cast into prison for some supposed crime, made complaint to God, and representing to Him his innocence, seemed to reproach Providence for having neglected him. An angel appeared to him, and thus addressed him : " Do you remember the wrong you did on such a day to a poor peasant by pelting his cow to death with stones ? What penance have you done, or what satisfaction have you made 1 God will deliver you from prison, but it will not be till after fifteen days. And besides, you are not the only one thus dealt with by God. Such and such persons, who are confined here with you, are innocent of the crimes laid to their charge ; but they have committed others of which human justice is ignorant, but which Divine justice would punish. The judges will condemn them for crimes of which they have been falsely accused ; and God will permit them to be executed, in punishment for secret transgressions known but to Him alone."

The judgments of God are terrible : having called us to a higher perfection, and having long waited for us, when He sees that we continue to resist Him, He * The Life of St. Ephrem desenres to be read at length, and as he himself relates it. Raderus also gives the narrative in his book entitled Viridarium Sanctorum, withholds from us the graces He had prepared for us, He deprives us of those He had given us, and sometimes He takes us out of this life by a premature death, lest we should end by falling into still greater evil. This it is that often happens to religious who live in tepidity and negligence.

The beatitude which answers to the gift of fear is the first : " Blessed are the poor in spirit ;" for that nudity of spirit which includes the putting off all affection for temporal goods and honours is a necessary consequence of the perfect fear of God, the very spirit which leads us to submit ourselves entirely to God, and to esteem nothing great but Him alone, causing us to despise every thing else, and permitting no self-exaltation, either in ourselves by seeking to assert our own superiority, or above others, by seeking temporal riches and comforts.

The fruits of the Holy Spirit appertaining to this gift are those of modesty, temperance, and chastity. The first, because nothing more conduces to modesty than that loving reverence towards God which the spirit of filial fear inspires ; the other two, because in retrenching or moderating the use of the comforts of life and the pleasures of the senses, they contribute together with the gift of fear to restrain concupiscence.