THE FIRST PART
OF THE
MEDITATIONS ON SINS
AND ON THE
LAST ENDS OF MAN;
WITH FORMS OF PRAYER APPROPRIATED TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE PURGATIVE WAY, TO PURIFY THEMSELVES OF THEIR VICES.
THE INTRODUCTION ON PURITY OF SOUL, WHICH IS THE END OF THE MEDITATIONS OF THE PURGATIVE WAY.
1. Among those excellences which the frequent use of meditation and mental prayer comprehends, the first that opens the way for many others is to purify (as St Bernard says) [1] the fountain itself from whence it springs. And as it springs from two fountains, the one superior, which is God, with His inspirations, and the other inferior, which is the soul, with her facuities, its excellence consists in cleansing this second fountain in the virtue of the first, purifying the memory of culpable oblivions, the understanding of errors, the will of depraved desires, the appetites of their unbridled passions, the senses of their superfluities, the flesh of her sensual cherishings, and the soul of her vicious customs; upon which the Apostle St Peter said that God purifies hearts by faith, [2] not because faith alone is sufficient for this, but because faith, quickened with the profound consideration of the verities and mysteries
