Spiritual torrents

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0002037^235

BY

TRANSLATED BY A. E. FORD.

Chapter I

1. Souls touched of God are impelled to seek Him. 2, 3. But in different ways, which are explained by a comparison, and reduced to three.

1. As soon as a soul is touched of God, and its return to Him is true and sincere, He gives to it, after the first cleansing effected by confession and contrition, a certain instinct to return to Him more perfectly, so that it may be [entirely] united to Him. Then it feels that it is not created for the amusements and trifles of the world, but that it has a centre and an end,*

* It is to be observed, that so far as man acknowledges the Lord and lives according to His precepts, so far he is elevated above his proprium, which elevation is out of the light of the world into the light of heaven. Man does not know that he is thus elevated above his proprium while he lives in the world, because it is not sensibly perceived by him ; but still there is such elevation, or, as it were, attraction of the interior understanding and interior will of man unto the Lord, and thence a conversion of the face of man as to his spirit unto Him. This, however, is manifested to the good man after death; for then the conversion of the face is perpetual to the Lord, and there is, as it were, an attraction unto Him as to a common centre. — A. E. 646. 2

10 SPIRITUAL TORHENTS.

whither it must endeavor to return, and out of which it can never find true repose.

2. This instinct is communicated to the soul in a very high measure, though higher with some than with others, according to the designs which God has with them ; but they ail have a loving impatience to be purified, and to take the ways and means necessary to return to their source and origin. They may be compared to rivers, which, after issuing from their sources, flow with a perpetual course into the sea. Some of these rivers you see moving majestically and slowly, and others more rapidly. But there are some rivers and torrents which run with a frightful impetuosity that nothing can check. All the burdens you might put upon them, and all the dikes you might erect to hinder their course, would serve only to redouble its violence.

3. It is thus with these souls. Some advance gently towards perfection, never arriving at the sea, or reaching it very late ; being satisfied to lose themselves in some stronger and more rapid river, which hurries them along with itself to the sea. Others, of the second kind, proceed thither more decidedly and rapidly than the first. They even carry along with them to the sea a large number of smaller streams ; but they are dull and sluggish in comparison with the last, who hurry on with so much impetuosity that they are fit for very few purposes. No one dares sail on them, or trust them with any merchandise, except in certain places and at certain times. They are mad, headlong streams, dashing themselves against rocks, creating terror by their sound, and stopping for nothing. The second, on the other hand, are more agreeable and more useful. Their majesty is pleasing to behold ; they are quite loaded with merchandise ; and all persons venture upon them without fear or danger.

It is proposed to consider, by the help of grace, these three class of persons, under the three figures above mentioned, beginning with the first, and ending aptly with the last.*

Chapter II

Of the first way, which is active and of meditation, 1 — 5. What it is, its infirmities, usages, occupations, advantages, &c, 6 — 9. Important counsel, a disregard of which is the source of almost all the disputes and difficulties which have been raised about the passive ways and of the unreasonable things laid to their charge, 10 — 12. Souls fitted for meditation: they should be led thereby to the affections. Advice touching dryness and want of power, 13, 14. Spiritual and interior reading, books and authors, are attacked without good reason, 15, 16. Advice touching directors, both good and bad, 17—19. Capacity and incapacity of souls. The simple more hopeful than great reasoners.

1. Souls of the first kind are those who, after their conversion, give themselves to meditation, or to the works themselves of charity ; they practise some outward austerities ; in a word, they endeavor by degrees to purify themselves, to remove certain striking sins,

* There are three kinds of men within the church, namely, those who are in love to the Lord, those who are in charity towards their neighbor, and those who are in the affection of truth. — A. C. 3653.

and even some venial ones of a voluntary kind. They labor* according to their little strength to advance by little and little, but do so feebly and slowly.f

2. As their source is not abundant, a drought almost exhausts them. There are even places, at such times, where they are quite dried up. They do not, indeed, cease to flow from their source ; but it is in so feeble a manner as scarcely to be perceived.^ These rivers carry no merchandise, or but little ; and if, for the public good, they must be made to do so, it is requisite for this purpose that art should make good the defects of nature, and find means to swell them, either by emptying into them some ponds, or by joining to them other rivers of the same kind, and thus increasing their waters ; whereby, by helping one another,

* That the confirmation of truth is also signified [by C( six years shall he serve"] is, because spiritual truth, which is called the truth of faith, is confirmed by labor and combat. — A. C. 8975.

f In the spiritual church -which the sons of Israel represented, there are two kinds of men, — some who are in the truths of faith, and not in correspondent good of life; and some who are in the good of charity, and in correspondent truth of faith. They who are in the good of charity, and in correspondent truth of faith, are they who constitute the very church itself, and are men of the internal church. In the internal sense of the word, these are they who are called the Sons of Israel : these are of themselves free, because they are in good, for they who are led of the Lord by good are free ; but they who are in the truth of faith, and not in correspondent good of life, are men of the external spiritual church. These are they who, in the internal sense of the word, are meant by Hebrew servants. — A. C. 8974.

$ They who love truth for the sake of truth from external or natural affections, when they hear truth, also rejoice ; but they do not think about a life according to it : nevertheless, it flows in from the internal, while they are ignorant of it. — A. C. 10, 683.

they may be made capable of carrying some small boats, not to the sea, but to some of those commanding rivers of which we shall speak hereafter.

3. These souls are usually but little engaged interiorly. They labor on the outside, and seldom get beyond meditation ; for which reason they are not fit for great things. They do not commonly carry merchandise, that is to say, they have nothing for others ; and God makes use of them, for the most part, only to convey some small boats, that is, to do some works of corporal mercy. Moreover, to derive profit from them, they must have emptied into them the ponds of sensible graces, or be united to others in the monastic life ; in which case, many, of middling endowments in grace, succeed in carrying a little boat, but not to the sea itself (which is God), into which they do not enter during this life, though they do in the next.

4. It is not meant that these souls are not sanctified by this way. There is, indeed, a large number of excellent souls commonly esteemed as very virtuous, who do not go beyond it; God giving them lights** adapted to their state, which sometimes are very beautiful, and excite the admiration of ordinary Christians. Some even of these souls, towards the end of life, receive some passive lights, proportioned to the faithfulness which they have maintained in their way ;f but,

* They who are of the external church are clearly in its externals, and obscurely in its internals ; whereas they who are of the internal church are clearly in internals, and obscurely in externals. — A. C. 8762.

f Every man, when he is regenerating, first becomes a man of the for the most part, they do not get out of themselves : all their graces and lights, being after a created manner, — I mean, proportioned to their capacity, — are distinguished, perceived, and accompanied with fervors ;* and the more these lights are distinguished, perceived, and accompanied with fervors, the more they attach themselves thereto, thinking there can be nothing greater in this life.

5. The most favored of these souls practise virtue with much generosity. They have a thousand holy inventions and a thousand practices for seeking God, and continuing in His presence. All, however, is done by their own proper efforts, aided and assisted by grace. Their own operation appears to exceed that of God, and that of God only concurs with their own.f

6. I believe that one who should endeavor to move these souls to a higher kind of prayer, would not sucexternal church, but afterwards a man of the internal church ; they who are in the internal church are in superior intelligence and wisdom to those who are of the external church, and on that account also more interiorly in heaven. — A. C. 7840.

* They think of the Lord as of another man, and not as of God; and they think of love to Him from a certain worldly love.

f The first state [of those who are reformed and become spiritual] is, that they suppose they do good, and think truth from themselves ; thus from proprium, knowing no otherwise at that time; and when it is told them that all good and all truth is from the Lord, they do not, indeed, reject it, but do not acknowledge it in heart, because they are not sensible, nor do they inwardly perceive, that any thing flows in from any other source than from themselves. Inasmuch as all who are reformed are at first in such a state, therefore they are left of the Lord in proprium; but still they are led of Him by their proprium, themselves being ignorant of it. — A. C. 2G78.

ceed ; and this for several reasons. The first is, that, as they have nothing supernatural, except in proportion to their labor, if you take their labor from them, you stop the flow of their graces ; they being like pumps, which give water only in proportion as they are worked. You will even observe in these souls a great facility in reasoning,* and in availing themselves of their faculties, an activity always vigorous and strong, a desire to be always doing something further and something new towards perfecting themselves, and in their times of dryness an anxiety to throw them off, as well as their faults. f

7. These souls are greatly tossed between high and low. At one time they do wonders, at another they languish and creep ; they do not hold an even tenor of progress. Inasmuch as the main principle of wor-

* But that the Lord is good itself, and that every thing which is of love to Him and of charity towards the neighbor is good, and that every thing which asserts and confirms this is truth, they know but very obscurely ; yea 3 they even entertain doubts herein, and admit reasonings against it ; and so long as they are in such a state, it is impossible for the light of truth from the Lord to flow in. — A. C. 2935.

f In this verse [Glen. xxi. 14] is described of what quality in the beginning is the state of those who are reformed, viz. that they are carried away into various errors ; for it is impressed on them of the Lord to think much about eternal life, thus much about the truths of faith ; but because they do this from proprium, as was said, they must needs wander hither and thither, as in doctrine so in life, catching at that as truth which was inseminated from infancy, or which is impressed upon them by others, or which is thought of by themselves, besides that they are led away by various affections which they are ignorant of. — A. C. 2679.

ship resides with them in the faculties,* when these faculties are dried up, whether from want of labor on their part, or of correspondence on the part of God, they fall into discouragement, or else overwhelm themselves with austerities, and efforts to recover, by themselves, what they have lost. They do not possess, like these other souls, a deep peace or calm in their distractions,! but, on the contrary, are always on the alert to combat them, or to complain of them. They are commonly scrupulous, and entangled in their own ways, J unless they happen to be gifted with a considerable strength of mind.

8. These souls, then, should not be led to passive prayer. This would be to ruin them beyond help, by

* The good in which he [the man of the external church] is, is not from a spiritual origin, but from a natural origin. — A. C. 8977.

T In the beginning, he [the man who is regenerating] is in a state of tranquillity ; but as he passes into new life, so also he passes into an untranquil state ; for the evils and falsities which he had before imbibed, emerge and show themselves, and disturb him, and at length to such a degree that he is immersed in temptations and vexations from the diabolical crew, who are in the continual endeavor to destroy the state of this new life. But still he has inmostly a state of peace ; for, unless this were the case, he could not engage in combat. — A.C. 3696.

^ That the spiritual are held entangled in the scientific natural, as to the truths of faith, the case is this : the spiritual have not a perception of good and truth like the celestial, but, instead thereof, they have conscience, &c. — A. C. 2831.

They who are in the affection of truth think, inquire, and debate whether a thing be true or not true, whether it be so or not so; and when they are confirmed that it is true, or that it is so, they further think, inquire, and debate what it is: thus they stick in the very threshold, and are incapable of being admitted into wisdom, until they are void of doubt. — A. C. 2718.

taking from them their means * of advancing towards God. For, if you take from a person who is obliged to travel, but who has neither boats nor coaches nor any means of progress but walking, the use of his feet, you put it out of his power to go forward ; and so, if you take from these souls their own operation,! which is their feet, they would never make any progress.

9. Here, I think, is the source of the disputes which at present take place among persons given to prayer. Those who are in the passive kind of prayer, knowing

* In this verse [Gen. xxi. 14] is described of what quality in the beginning is the state of those who are reformed, viz. that they are carried away into various errors ; for it is impressed on them of the Lord to think much about eternal life, thus much about the truths of faith ; but because they do this from proprium, as was said, they must needs wander hither and thither, as in doctrine so in life, catching at that as truth which was insemenated from infancy, or which is impressed upon them by others, or which is thought of by themselves; besides that they are led away by various affections which they are ignorant of: they are like fruits as yet unripe, whereunto form, beauty, and flavor cannot be in a moment imparted; or they are like tender shoots, which cannot in a moment put forth flower, or grow up into the ear. Nevertheless, the things which then enter, although for the most part erroneous, are yet such as may serve to promote growth; and these things afterwards, when reformation is effected, are partly separated, partly made serviceable for introducing as it were nourishments and juices into the subsequent life, partly are adapted, as far as may be, to the goods and truths afterwards implanted of the Lord, and partly serve spiritual things for ultimate plans : thus they serve as continual means for reformation, which means follow in perpetual connection and order. — A. C. 2679.

•j- Inasmuch as all who are reformed are at first in such a state, therefore they are left of the Lord in proprium ; but still they are led of Him by their proprium, themselves being ignorant of it. — A. C. 2678.

the good they derive from it, would have everybody walk in it ; others, on the contrary, who are in meditation, would confine all to their way, which would be an inexpressible loss and injury. What is to be done here ? We must take the middle course, and ascertain whether souls are fit for the one way or the other.

10. The experienced director may know this by their unwillingness to continue in a state of repose and to give themselves up to be led by the Spirit of God, by a swarm of faults and failings into which they fall, almost without seeing or knowing them ;? or, in case they are persons of a human discretion and prudence, by a certain dexterity in covering up their faults from themselves and others, by an attachment to their feelings, and by a large number of faults which cannot here be enumerated, but which the experienced director will know.f

Must they, then, be left all their life in reasoning 1 I believe, that, if they are happy enough to find them a skilful director, he will not fail to advance them much beyond this. A vast number of souls, who believe themselves fit only for meditation, would reach

* Besides that they [in the first state of reformation] are led away by various affections which they are ignorant of. — A. C. 2679.

f They who do not suffer themselves to be regenerated, but only to be reformed, do not act from affection, but from obedience. If they seem to themselves to act from the heart and from a free principle, it is for the sake of somewhat of self-glory, which makes it to be so apperceived; nor do they act truth for the sake of truth, nor good for the sake of good, but for the sake of the delight arising from that glory : thus neither do they exercise charity towards the neighbor for the sake of the neighbor, but that they may be seen and that they may be recompensed. — A. C. 8987.

the highest degree of perfection, if they only found an accomplished director. So far would a director who is in grace be from injuring, that he would help them vastly, making them walk according to the whole extent of the Divine will towards them ; so that they should neither run before grace, nor be slack to follow it, but should second and correspond to it. A director of ordinary endowments in grace, on the contrary, checks the progress of souls, hinders them from advancing, and appropriates them to himself.

11. The experienced director, then, will incline these souls to deal less in reasonings, and more in affections ; he will strip them gradually of their reasoning habits,*' substituting good affections! in place of them ; and if he sees them growing by degrees in simplicity, and finding more delight in affection than in reasoning, the latter drying up by little and little, it is a sign that there is something to be done in these souls, on behalf of spiritual life.

12. It is to be observed, however, that if the habit of reasoning should cease from weakness in the person, and these souls should feel themselves inclined, not to love, but only to be inactive from stupidity and mental indolence, they should be led to active exercise. If they cannot do it by the understanding, they should

* There are spirits who are disposed to reason on all subjects, having no perception of what is good and true ; nay, the more they reason, the less perception they have. — A. C. 1385.

f The rational is not born from sciences and knowledges, but of the affection of sciences and knowledges ; as may appear solely from this, that no one can possibly become rational, unless some delight or affection of sciences and knowledges influence him. — A. C. 1895.

at least by affection and the will. For souls who begin to experience spiritual dryness by grace are not more imperfect, the more they experience of it :* on the contrary, they have an instinct to pursue themselves, in order to combat themselves, and to pursue the light in order to find it again and follow it. They must, then, be assisted, and be led, not to strip themselves, but to fill the will rather than the understanding. They should not be led to seek states of repose, but to run with all their strength, according to their little ability, until it shall please God to relieve their labor of walking by some conveyance, or rather, according to my original comparison, until these feeble little streams find the river or the great estuary, which receives them into its bosom, and carries them into the sea.

13. I know not why there is such an outcry against spiritual books, and the persons who write and speak of interior ways. I maintain that they can do no harm, except to some who choose to be ruined for their own pleasure, to whom' not only these things are hurtful, but every thing besides, being like spiders who change flowers into poison. To humble souls desirous of perfection, they cannot be prejudicial, seeing it is impossible that they should understand and make use

* As to what further regards desolation, it is on account of appetite ; for goods and truths are received according to appetite, and the desires which are from appetite, when they are obtained, constitute what is satisfactory and happy: wherefore, in the other life, they who are in desolation are frequently refreshed, and enjoy their desires. By such vicissitudes all are perfected. — A.C. 6110.

of them, if the gift therefor is not imparted to them ; for, what books soever they may read, they cannot imagine to themselves states which, inasmuch as they are supernatural, are not to be apprehended by the imagination, but only by experience.* Moreover, even if one should be willing to deceive himself, and to make use of terms he had met with in reading, the skilful director, by the questions he would put, would quickly detect the deception. Besides which, the state of a soul in any given degree implies all the consequences of that state, and perfection advances step by step with interior progress.!

It is not meant to deny that there are souls advanced in prayer, who will have faults apparently greater than those of ordinary souls ; but these faults are not alike either as to nature or as to quality.

14. The second reason for saying that these books cannot do hurt, is, because they enjoin so many deaths, so many separations from the world, so many things to be conquered and destroyed, that the soul would never have strength enough for the undertaking, if its interior were not in a true state. And even if it should undertake the task, it would derive from the very practices recommended only the result which meditation yields, which is only a laboring at the destruction of self. The whole difference is, that the

* But whereas it is not known from any internal sensation or perception what good is, therefore also such things cannot come to be known; for what a man is ignorant of, this he does not understand, notwithstanding its being presented to him. — A. C. 5365.

| Perfection increases towards interior things. — A. C. Index.

soul would not act by a divine, but only by a virtuous principle, — a thing which, the experienced director would soon discover.

15. For this reason a soul should never undertake to lead itself in the ways of religion, nor be afraid of having a director too much enlightened. To seek any other than such an one would be to deceive one's self, and, from mere cowardice, to limit the Spirit of God by limiting the perfection it bestows to this or that particular.

What I conclude from this is, that the most spiritual director should always be chosen. Such an one will be useful, in whatever degree the person may be ; and God will grant to you, ye who hope for nothing supernatural, by this man, so dear to Him, what He would not grant to you by yourselves.

16. But as for those directors who appropriate souls to themselves, who would fain conduct them in their own way, and not in God's ; who would put limits to His graces, and fix barriers to hinder them from advancing, — as for these directors, I say, who know but one way, and who would fain make all the world walk in it, the mischief they do to souls is remediless, because they keep them fixed, all their lives, to certain things which prevent God from communicating Himself to them without bounds.

What an account will they not have to render for these souls 1 If they have not light enough to conduct them, why do they not suffer them to go to masters more advanced ? They should have charity enough to advise it themselves. We should do in the spiritual life, it seems to me, as we do in schools. Scholars are not kept always in the same class ; they are transferred to higher ones, and the teachers of the Sixth form and the Fifth do not intermeddle with the teaching of Philosophy. O human sciences ! ye are of so little account, and yet so much care is taken of you ! O mystical and divine science ! thou art so great and so necessary, and yet thou art neglected, limited, constrained, and tortured ! Oh, shall there never be a school of prayer ! Alas ! by seeking to make a study of it, men have spoiled all. They have endeavored to give rules and measures to the Spirit of God, which is without measure.

17. There is no soul which is not capable of prayer, and which cannot and ought not to apply itself thereto. The coarsest and dullest persons are capable of it. I know this from experience. Certain persons applied to me, who had an almost invincible incapacity for prayer, who were unwilling to give themselves thereto, and who, after having done so for a time, wished to throw it up entirely ; but, as they had great confidence in me, I obliged them, by a gentle violence, to continue in spite of their repugnance and the little advantage they thought themselves reaping ; for they believed themselves quite unfit for it. These persons, after persevering for several years, reached a high degree of infused prayer. They have confessed to me, of their own accord, that, if I had not been firm, they should have given all up, and have been lost. Now, if these souls had fallen in with some directors, they would have told them without hesitation, that their having passed four and five years in praying, without being able either to meditate or to be warmed with the love of God, or becoming more perfect, was a sign that God did not call them to this kind of prayer. Poor, impotent souls ! you are more fit than others to answer the designs of God ; and, if you are faithful, you will succeed better than those high reasoners who rather make a study of prayer than pray.

18. I say yet further, that the poor souls who appear so impotent and incapable, are very well adapted to contemplation, provided they do not grow weary of knocking at the door, and of waiting with humble patience until it is opened to them. These great reasoners,* these understandings so fertile that they cannot remain a moment in silence before God, who appear to have an admirable facility, and a perpetual stream of words, who know so well how to give an account of their prayer and of all its parts, who can always pray as they like and with the same methods, who expatiate at will on all the subjects they take up, who are so well pleased with themselves and their own lights, who refine on the preparations and methods of prayer, will never in the least advance in it, and after ten or twenty years of such practice will be still the same. O my God ! will men undertake to teach others how to testify love to love itself ? Alas ! when even a wretched creature is to be loved, do we set about it