The spiritual and temporal benefits of self-denial in the Joy of Sensible things.

things. MARVELLOUS benefits result from self-denial in the joy which

sensible goods supply; some are spiritual and some temporal. 1. The soul, by refraining from joy in sensible objects,

recovers itself from the distractions into which it falls through the excessive indulgence of the senses, and recollects itself in God. Spirituality and the acquired virtues are «preserved and increased.

2. The second spirituai benefit of not rejoicing in Sensible Goods is great; and we may say, of a truth, that the sensual becomes spiritual, the animal rational, that man leads an angelical life, that the temporal and the human become heavenly and Divine. As the man who seeks for pleasure in sensual things, and founds all his joy upon them, ought not, and deserves not, to be called by any other name than this, namely, sensual and animal; so the man whose joy is beyond them, deserves the name of spiritual and heavenly. This is most evidently true, for as the energies of the senses, and the power of sensuality, resist, as the Apostle saith, the energy and power of the spirit, ‘ the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;’ * so when they diminish and fail, those of the spirit grow and increase; that which impeded their growth having been taken away. Thus the spirit made perfect—the higher portion of the soul, and that to which the communications of God are made— merits those appellations, because it is made perfect by the spiritual and heavenly gifts and graces of God. We have the authority of S. Paul for this; he calls the sensual man—the man who wastes the energy of his will upon objects of sense—the animal man, andthe other, whose will is fixed on God, the spiritual man: ‘The animal man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God. But the spiritual man judgeth all things.’ t The soul receives in this self-denial an admirable benefit; a disposition meet to receive the gifts and spiritual graces of God.

3. The third benefit is the great increase of the joys and

* Galat. v. 17. + 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15, Animalis autem homo non percipit.

pleasures of the Will in this life; for, as our Saviour saith: * They shall receive an hundredfold.’ If thou wilt deny thyself one joy, our Lord will reward thee a hundredfold, spiritually and temporally, in this world; and for one joy indulged in sensible goods thou shalt have a hundred sorrows and afflictions. As to the eye, now purged from all joy in

seeing, the soul receives joy, directed to God, in all that is’

seen, whether human or Divine. As to the ear, purged from all joy in hearing, the soul receives joy a hundredfold, and that most spiritual, directed to God in all that is heard, whether human or Divine. The same observation applies to the other senses. For as all that-our first parents said and did in the state of innocence in Paradise furnished them with means of sweeter contemplation, because their sensual nature was subject unto Reason, so he also whose senses are subject to the spirit and purged from all sensible objects, in their first motions, elicits delight of sweet knowledge and Contemplation of God.

To the pure, therefore, high things and low are profitable, and minister to his greater purity; while both the one and the other are occasions of greater evil to the impure, by reason of his impurity. But he who does not repress the satisfaction of his appetites will never enjoy the ordinary tranquillity of rejoicing in God, through the instrumentality of His creatures. All the functions and powers of his senses, who no longer lives after the flesh, are directed to Divine Contemplation. For, as it is a philosophical truth, that the life of every creature is in harmony with its constitution, so also is it beyond all contradiction clear, that he who is spiritually minded—his animal life being mortified—must be wholly tending towards God, for all his actions and affections are those of the spiritual life. Such an one, therefore, pure

s 8S, Matt. xix, 29,

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in heart, finds in all things that knowledge of God which is delicious, sweet, chaste, pure, spiritual, joyous, and loving. From these considerations I come to this conclusion, that, until we shall have so habituated our senses to this purgation from sensible joy, so as to have obtained the benefit of which I have spoken, namely, that instant movement upwards to God, we still need to deny ourselves in all joy, that we may wean our soul from the life of sense. I am afraid, that when not thoroughly spiritualised, we may gratify and invigorate the senses rather than the spirit, under the influence of sensible things; the powers of sense still ruling over us in our conduct, whereby sensuality is increased, maintained, and nourished. The words of our Saviour are: ‘ That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’* Lay this to heart, for it is the truth. Let him who has not mortified his senses in sensible things not presume to avail himself of the energy and functions of sense therein, thinking that they will help him to become spiritual; for the strength of the soul will increase the more, if we cast these things aside, rather by the quenching of joyand desire, than by any employment of them that we can make.

It is not necessary for me to speak now of the goods of Glory attainable in the life to come. For beside that the bodily gifts of Mobility and Clarity, in Glory, will be much grander than in those who. have not denied themselves in this joy, there will be an increase of essential glory, corresponding

to their love of God, for whom they have left all things: because

every momentary and fleeting joy, which we now deny, will work in us eternally an infinite weight of glory: ‘ that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.’f

I do not refer here to the other benefits, moral, temporal

* §. John iii. 6.: + 2 Cor. iv. 17.

and spiritual, the fruits of this Night of Joy, for they are all those already described, and in a higher order, because these joys are more intimately related to our nature, and, therefore, he who denies himself in them acquires a more interior purity.