_The soul seeks God in faith not by the reasonings of the mind and
labored efforts, but by the drawings of love; to which inclinations God
responds, and instructs the soul, which co-operates actively. God then
puts the soul in a passive state, where he accomplishes all, causing
great progress, first by way of enjoyment, then by privation, and
finally by pure Love._
What do we understand by the Interior way? It is to seek the kingdom
of God within us. Luke 17, 21. We find this kingdom only where God
has placed it, _within the soul_. It becomes necessary, then, to
withdraw the eyes of the soul from external landmarks and observations,
which man, in the pride of reason, has located around it, and rest the
eye in faith, on the Word of the Lord,--"_Seek and ye shall find_."
This seeking, involves an interior activity of the soul; a desire, a
determination, and searching after what is hidden.
When the soul has thus earnestly sought the kingdom of God within, this
kingdom is developed little by little. Interior recollection becomes
less difficult, and the presence of God more perceptible and agreeable.
Formerly it was supposed, that the presence of God was only the thought
of God, and that it was necessary to force the mind--to concentrate the
thoughts with violence to find God. This is true in some sense, but,
as the soul cannot long endure this tension, and as the kingdom of God
is not found in the external vestments of the soul, but in its depths,
this labor is of little avail. So little progress is made, the soul
becomes discouraged, and the evil one, who fears nothing so much as the
reign of God in the soul, makes an effort to draw the soul to
externalities.
In order to accomplish this object, he takes two methods, either by
excessive labors, persuading the soul that this is the way to find God,
and thus choking the internal process of the interior life, or, by this
tension of the mind, of which I have spoken. Neither of these methods
open in the soul, the interior way.
You reply, how, then, is this life accomplished? I answer, God, seeing
the heart of him who seeks him within, draws near to him, and teaches
him a just moderation in all things; and, by this retrenchment of all
excess in externals, the soul begins to perceive the peaceful kingdom.
It realizes within itself a guide, who provides for its necessities,
according to divine laws, who takes away the burdens that sin imposes;
a guide who does not foster corrupt nature, nor forbid innocent
pleasures.
When the soul begins to perceive this kingdom, and that the King
himself is manifested in some degree, it thus communes, (and we may
call this the second step), O, my Beloved, I have sought thee with all
the strength of my heart, in the place where thou hast taught me to
seek thee, and I have there found thee! Days and nights have I passed
in seeking thee. All the desires of my heart go after thee. But now I
have found thee. I pray thee to reign as Sovereign, to establish thine
empire in my soul. I will do thy will alone. I will resign to thee
all the right I have to myself; all that thou, by thy goodness, hast
given to me.
At this stage of progress, the soul ceases from self. Its work is to
regard, lovingly, the operation of God, without a desire either to
advance it, or place any obstacle in the way of its progress. The soul
has been active, in the first stage, to destroy, with all its power,
that which might hinder the kingdom of God within; and this was a great
effort; for habit had rendered interior recollection very difficult,
and the powers of the soul did not easily reunite themselves in one
centre.
Now the soul seeks no longer to combat the obstacles, which hindered
its return within, but lets God combat and act in the soul. Saying, it
is time O, Lord, that thou shouldst take possession of thy kingdom! Do
so, I pray thee, exclusively. I desire, on my part, only to observe
thine operation.
This commencement of the reign of God, and of the passive way, is very
highly relished by the soul. The soul passes days, and even years,
separated from creature enjoyments without weariness. It advances very
much more by this way, in little time, than by all the efforts of many
years. It is not without faults and imperfections, but divine love
diminishes them little by little, or does not permit the soul to become
disturbed by them, lest it become discouraged and its love hindered.
This state is called passive love. The soul sees no cause to fear; it
supposes that all the work is done, and that it has only to pass into
eternity, and to enjoy this good Sovereign, who already gives himself
to the soul in so much fulness.
But in the onward progress of the soul, it becomes no longer doubtful,
whether the soul is to remain in the passive enjoyment of God and his
communications. The soul begins to feel a drawing, to let God not only
be all things in the soul, but there to reign separate from the soul's
enjoyment of his gifts. The soul now experiences what is called, by
the author of the Imitation of Christ, _the exile of the heart_. It
hears a voice in the depth of the soul, or, rather, has an impression,
that God reigns there alone. This exile is at first very painful, for
it is important to notice, that, from the commencement of seeking God
in the depth of the soul to the possession of him, there are many
trials, temptations, sorrows. _Every successive state is marked by a
purifying process_. Persons often mistake, and take the first
purification for the last. When God reigns alone in the soul, separate
from the action of self, and self is destroyed, it is beyond any
previous state.
When the soul has ceased from its own selfish operations, and the man
of sin is exterminated, its defects become more apparent, because God
wishes it to comprehend what it is by itself, and what it would be
without him. The soul is thus afflicted, believing it has lost the
virtues, acquired with so much care, and seems to have faults that it
had not before perceived. It says, with the spouse in the Canticles,
"I have washed my feet, how shall I sully them?" You do not perceive,
O, soul beloved, that you do not sully them in going to "open to the
spouse," and that if you contract some slight impurity, he will remove
it so perfectly, that you will become more beautiful. In the mean
time, it is not the desire of the spouse to become beautiful in her own
eyes, but to see only the beauty of her Lover. When the soul is
faithful in this state, and really desires to die to itself, she is
pleased only with the beauty of her Beloved, and says his beauty shall
be my beauty. But it is necessary to advance beyond this, for, after
being despoiled of her beauty, it would be a selfishness much greater
to appropriate to herself, the beauty of her Beloved. His beauty must
remain untarnished, unappropriated by her; she must leave him all, and
remain in her nothing, for the nothing is her proper place. This is
Perfect Love, which regards God alone.