THE PRACTICE
OF
CHRISTIAN AND RELIGIOUS PERFECTION.
THE FIRST TREATISE.
ON THE ESTEEM AND AFFECTION WE OUGHT TO HAVE FOR WHATEVER RELATES TO OUR SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT ; AND ON MANY OTHER THINGS CONDUCIVE TO IT.
CHAPTER I.
The great Value we ought to set on Spiritual Things.
"I wished for a right understanding of things," says the Wise Man, " and God gave it me, I called upon him, and he filled me with the Spirit of Wisdom, which I preferred before sceptres and crowns, and believed that riches and precious stones deserved not to be compared thereunto ; for all the gold and silver upon earth is nothing but a little sand and clay, in comparison of wisdom." (Wis. vii. 7.) The true wisdom which all of us ought to desire is Christian perfection. Now, this consists in uniting ourselves to God by love, according to these words of St. Paul, — a Above all things I recommend charity unto you, which is the bond of perfection, whereby we are united to God." (Colos. iii. 14.) We ought, therefore, set as great value on perfection, and on everything conducive to its attainment, as Solomon says he set on wisdom ; and we ought to believe with St. Paul, — " That if we gain Jesus Christ it is enough ; for all the rest is nothing but dirt and ordure." (Phil. iii. 8.) This is the best means we have of attaining perfection. For the degree to which this esteem ascends in our hearts will be the measure of our own spiritual advancement in particular, and of that of religion in general. The reason is, because we desire nothing but according to the estimation we hold it in. For our will being a blind faculty that pursues nothing, but what the un-
