which He reveals, awakens the acts and affections of the soul, which, with the divine grace, dispose to the perfect purification of the heart
2. And although this excellence is found in all the meditations of the mysteries of our faith, yet it is most notably resplendent in those which appertain to the purgative way, whose principal end is to move the will to acts and exercises, with which perfect purity is obtained, and the trenches are dug for the edifice and building up of virtues.
3. These are reduced to three classes.
i. The first comprehends the acts of knowledge of ourselves with contempt of ourselves, wherein (as St. Bernard says)[1] true humility consists. And it is of two sorts;— one is proper to the just that never sinned, and proceeds from the knowledge of the nothing that we have of our own growth; and this is principally obtained by the meditations that will be put in the sixth part The other is proper to sinners, and proceeds from the knowledge of the sins and miseries into which we have fallen; and this is obtained by the meditations of this first part, whose acts are to despise ourselves, to hold ourselves worthy to be despised by all men, and as much as lieth in us to desire it, and take means to procure it, exercising some humiliations, and accepting those that happen to us in such a manner as we shall practise in the meditations themselves.
ii. The second class comprehends those acts which dispose to our justification, that is to say, fear of God's justice, hope of His divine mercy, perfect sorrow for our sins, strict examination of conscience, humble and entire confession of offences, and satisfaction with works of penance to revenge upon ourselves the injuries that we have done against Almighty God, and other such like.
iii. The third class comprehends those acts which aid
- ↑ Tractat. de decern gradibus humilitatia et serm. 86 in Cantic.
