it made at the first; for otherwise it will find itself much distracted and dry, unless it be a time when our Lord by special favour will without them give light and knowledge enough to enkindle the affection of love, by communicating the grace of contemplation.
3. By what has been said I infer, for the comfort of some persons that are desirous to use mental prayer, and yet for want of health or some other cause dare not reason nor dive to the bottom of that which is inclosed within the mysteries of our faith, that they despair not of the principle contained in this sovereign exercise; for to such God uses to grant, under the title of their necessity or infirmity, what He gives unto others under the title of many services and large meditations wherein they have been exercised. For as He is so liberal and easily contented, He asks of no man more than what, according to his portion, he can give Him, supplying that which is wanting with His divine illustrations.
Such persons, therefore, as doubt their capacity for the intellectual part of meditation, ought to be admonished that the end of all the meditations and discourses that shall be put in the six parts of this book is to attain to three notions or sorts of knowledge: — One of himself, and of his innumerable necessities and miseries of body and soul; the other of Christ Jesus our Lord, true God and man, and of His excellent virtues, especially those which were resplendent in His nativity, passion, and death; and the third of Almighty God Three and One, and of His infinite perfection and benefits, as well natural as supernatural, that proceed from Him. [1] These three sorts of knowledge go linked one with another, entering and issuing from one to another; ascending from man himself, and from Christ to God, and descending from God to Christ and to himself. And from them (says St. Thomas)
- ↑ Joan. x.
