Skip to the text

3. What Things Make a Man Just Both in the Active and in the Contem Plative Life. Furthermore the Third Point Is That in Which He Says " Just," for No One Is Led Back Unless He Has Been Made Just or Justified ; Since to Justify or to Make Just, Is to Lead Back. There Are However, Four Things in Which Each One May Notice for Himself Whether He Is Just, and Has Been Led Back by Christ, in the Powerof the Holy Spirit, Through the Sacraments. the First Is, If He Trust God in All Necessities Both for Time and Eternity, and He Himself Present Himself as Faithful to God in All Things Which He Pos Sesses. Secondly, If in Will and Deed He Exercise Love and Goodwill in All the Bodily as Well as Spiritual Needs of Men. Thirdly, If He Constantly Maintain Wisdom and Gentleness in All Circumstances, Whether They Come to Him from God, or from Creatures. Fourthly, If He Be of Lofty and Upright Mind, Freed and Disengaged from All Creatures ; Also in Established Love, and Glad and Joyful Expectation, Together with Sure and Certain Hope of Eternal Life. These Four Things Render a Man Just in the Active Life. But Beyond These There Are Four Other Things Which Render a Man Just in the Contemplative Life. the First Is a Free Spirit, at Tracting Itself Through Love, and with Longing or Affection Raised and Uplifted Into the Unity of God. the Second Is an Intellect Enlightened by Grace, When Considering with Admiration the Abundance of the Most Holy Trinity, and Without Astonishment Contem Plating with Attentive Gaze, Is Transformed by the Boundless Clearness, and Uplifted in the Light of Unity. the Third Is a Delight, Yielding Propension or Inclination, and a Liquefying or Outflowing Adhesion of All Powers, and Greater Riches Than Those Po\vers Themselves Are Able to Lay Hold Of, and Joys Which Embrace and Penetrate and Inundate Them. the Fourth Is an Outflowing Losing of Ones-self in the Abyss of This Object ; for No One Can Walk in Darkness, and We Lose Ourselves in That Eternal Object Which Is the Highest and Chief Blessedness. These Eight Things Now Spoken of Render a Man Just Both in the Active and the Contemplative Life. Thus Therefore the Lord Hath Led Back the Just Man

Chapter 4 of 44