The spiritual guide which disintangles the soul, and brings it by the inward way, to the getting of perfect contemplation, and the rich treasure of internal peace. / Written by Dr. Michael de Molinos, priest : with a short treatise concerning daily communion, by the same author. Translated from the Italian copy, printed at Venice, 1685.

CHAP. XVI. The great difference between External and Internal Penances.

117. KNow that the Mortifications and Pe∣nances which some one undertakes of himself, are light (although they may be the most rigorous, which hitherto have been done) in comparison of those he takes from another's hands: because in the first, he himself enters and his own will, which abate the grief, the more voluntary it is, whilst at last he doth but that which he is willing: but in the second, all that is indured, is painful; and the way also painful, in which it is indured, that is to say, by the will of another.

118. This is that which Christ our Lord told St. Peter, (St. John 21.18.) When thou wast young and a beginner in vertue, thou girdedst and mortifiedst thy self; but when thou goest

to greater Schools and shall be a proficient in vertue, another shall gird and mortifie thee•• and then if thou wilt follow me perfectly, alto∣gether denying thy self, thou must leave that cross of thine, and take up mine, that is, be con∣tented that another crucifie thee.

119. There must be no difference made be∣tween these and those, between thy Father and thy Son, thy Friend and thy Brother; these must be the first to mortifie thee, or to rise up against thee, whether with reason or without reason, thinking the vertue of thy Soul, cheat, hypocrisie or imprudence, and putting stumbling-blocks in the way of thy holy Exercises. This and much more will befall thee if thou wilt heartily serve the Lord and make thy self pure from his hand.

120. Hold it for certain, that however good those Mortifications and External Penances be, which thou shalt undertake of thine own self, thou wilt never by those only purchase perfe∣ction: for although they tame the Body, yet they purifie not the Soul, nor purge the internal Passions, which do really hinder perfect Con∣templation and the Divine Union.

121. 'Tis very easie to mortifie the Body by means of the Spirit; but not the Spirit by means of the Body. True it is, that in Internal Mor∣tification, and that of the Spirit, it much con∣cerns you, for conquering your Passions and rooting up your own Judgment and Self-love, to labour even to death, without any manner of sparing your self, although the Soul be in the

highest state: and therefore the principal dili∣gence ought to be in Internal Mortification; because Corporal and External Mortification is not enough, though it be good and holy.

122. Though a man should receive the pu∣nishments of all men together, and do the roughest Penances that ever have been done in God's Church, yet if he do not deny himself and mortifie himself with interior mortification, he will be far from arriving at perfection.

123. A good proof of this truth is that which befel Saint Henry Suson, to whom, after 20 years of rigorous Hair-cloth, Discipline, and Absti∣nence fo great, that even to read 'em is enough to make ones hair stand on end, God com∣municated light by means of an Extasie, by which he arrived at the knowledge that he had not yet begun, and it was in such a man∣ner, as that, till the Lord mortified him with temptations and great persecutions, he never could arrive at perfection, (his Life, chap. 23.) Hence thou wilt clearly know the great diffe∣rence that there is between External and In∣ternal Penances, and Internal and External Mor∣tification.