The Science of the Spiritual Life (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1876 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. PRINCIPLES OF THE ILLUMINATIVE WAY. ARTICLE I. GENERAL RULES. After we have ceased to have an affection to evil we must take care to have an affection to good, to which we shall not cleave long unless it gives us pleasure. For as the will does not love what is good unless the intellect teach how.great it is, it is necessary to cultivate the intellect with a singular care, in order that it may distinguish the false good from true and the small from the great, and not allow the imagination to obtrude into the will as a guide in the way to true blessedness. The true way is that which is illuminated by the light of reason, the light of faith, and those special lights whereby God often calls the devout soul to Himself. Let us follow this out. He who follows reason and not impulse is a man; he who follows faith is a Christian; he who follows the lights belonging to his vocation is a saint. And of this Christ speaks (St. John viii. 12), He that followeth me walketh not in darkness. From this principle are drawn the rules which follow. i.--First rule. NOT TO ACT FROM IMPULSE. 1. Prudence forbids it. For what is it to act from impulse? It is to do without consideration, not what is right, but what pleases; to act at the command of passion. Now he who acts thus loses much time in doing ill, which he will regret when too late, or in doing nothing, which is doing things useless and trifling, like children of a hundred years old, or in doing what does not concern him, such as things which do not belong to his office or state, with perpetual levity and inconstancy, always doing and never accomplishing. Order, and a good order, remedies this evil. It is good to give a fixed time daily to the body, and not too much; a fixed time to the soul, and not too...