CHAPTER IV.

_His patience._

1. QUESTIONLESS the humble man is patient, because he knows he deserves far more than he suffers: And whoever will search into the true cause of his own impatience, will find it to be no other than pride. On the contrary, M. _de Renty_ being most humble, was by consequence most patient.

2. Persons who had lived a very long time with him, and carefully studied all his actions, never heard him complain for any thing whatever; neither for sickness, or loss, or any other occasion; but they always observed in him a constancy immovable, continually lifting up his heart to God, and offering all to him, without otherwise dwelling on what was grievous; being glad that the work of God went on, and receiving all in the spirit of sacrifice.

3. In his second journey to _Dijon_, with his lady and the Countess of _Chatres_, he was seized with a violent rheumatism, which put him into pain all over his body: and when he was obliged to take his bed, he went thither quite stooping, supported by a staff, and by a person that led him. *But notwithstanding the extremity of the pain, he made no complaint, nor uttered one word. The ladies seeing him first quite pale and wan, and in a moment all on fire, told him, “Surely he was very ill;” He answered only by a discourse on the pain endured by Jesus Christ, and the favour it was for a soul to suffer for God’s will; but in terms so full of sweetness, and with so much of love and zeal, that the company were affected with great devotion in hearing him.”

*4. When he was again asked, whether he was not in much pain, he at length answered plainly, “My pains are great even to swooning; but though I feel their extremity, yet through the grace of God, I yield not up myself to them, but to him.” He said farther, that being led into his chapel of _Citry_, and set down upon a bench by reason of his illness, the bench broke without any visible cause, and that he believed the evil spirit had broken it, in order to provoke him to impatience, making him fall untowardly; “But by the mercy of God, said he, though the pain that surprised me was sharp, I was no more moved than you see me now.”

5. Nor was it only in sickness, but in all occurrences of life, he carefully practised this virtue; so that whatsoever befel him, though it shocked his whole nature, his body, spirit, judgment, will, inclination, desires, designs, and those of the best sort, he possessed his soul in patience and tranquillity, receiving all without any alteration, without being either exalted or dejected by it.

*6. “Praying to God, says he in one of his prayers, before the holy sacrament, a poor man came to me to beg an alms. In this instant it was given me to understand, that if we were well enlightened, _we should never imagine ourselves to be hindred, by any person or thing_: because we should in all things regard the order of God, conducting all to our advantage; we should see that both inward and outward distractions are to be received with this same spirit; and that the uneasiness these little accidents give us, springs purely from our want of mortification.

“We ought indeed, as far as we can, to shun the occasions. But when they come, we must look upon them as ordered by God, and receive and bear them with all sweetness, humility and reverence: and, though they interrupt us, the order of God is not interrupted in us. And this indeed is the great secret of the spiritual life; this is paradise upon earth.

“In truth, nothing troubles us but thro’ our own fault: all the vexation which we inwardly feel, or outwardly shew, when any one crosses or hinders us from doing any thing, flows from the disorder of our too much engaged spirit. For removing of which, and the keeping our hearts in peace we must mark this well: _whoever hinders us from doing one good work, thereby gives us the means of practising another_. *A man suppose, interrupts your reading and prayer. But he gives you an occasion of exercising patience, which at this time will please God, and perfect you, more than all those employments. In them there was something of your own will; but in this you wholly renounce yourself. And the fulness of God is not, but in the emptiness of the creature.”

7. One great source of M. _de Renty_’s patience, was the high esteem he had of sufferings, which sometimes made him ready to cry out with that holy woman, “Either to die or suffer”! “I see says he, that in a manner, every thing is unprofitable in this life but to suffer. Every pleasure is a too hasty seizure of that recompence, which is not due to criminals, who sojourn in this world only to be purged. Some pleasures indeed may be sometimes necessary, in regard of our weakness, but even they are apt to hinder the soul from attaining so high a degree of perfection.”

8. “Though I dare not chuse or bring sufferings upon myself, (says he in a letter to his director) yet having always before my eyes how little I render to God for his favours, I am inflamed to suffer with our Lord. In every other thing we are receivers from God. But in this though we receive the grace to suffer, yet the suffering is that which we can in a manner give to God, and which is the best gage and proof of our love.” But he very wisely adds, “although I know this, yet I cease not to know what I am: and amidst all my inclinations and desires, I dare not to beg to suffer the least thing: Or, if I happen to do so I revoke it afterwards, as having done foolishly. I have too much experience of my weakness. I give myself only to my God for every thing he pleases. By his order I will all: With him I can do all: and that which is ordered by him is always accompanied by grace.”

9. The same spirit he earnestly recommended to all who were studious of Christian perfection. To one of whom he said, “It is a great favour to suffer; that is if you suffer in the spirit of Jesus Christ. But there are very few that do so; very few that with a perfect resignment to what God ordains concerning them; very few without some inquietude, and dwelling in their thoughts upon their pressures: few that give all events to the conduct of God, to employ themselves entirely in his praise, and to give way by their acquiescence and submission, for him to exercise all his rights and power ever them.”

*10. One that was in great pain he encouraged thus: “Many are called Christians, but few have a Christian spirit. Many look up to heaven in their prayers, but in their lives they are children of nature, looking only upon the earth. If they do lift up their eyes to heaven, it is only to complain; to pray God to condescend to their desires, not to shew their acceptance of his. Or perhaps they will give some small things to God; but not those on which they have fixed their affection. If he separates them from them, it is a dismembring which he must make, and to which they cannot consent. As though the life of Christians were not a life of sacrifice, a continual imitation of a crucified Saviour.

*“God, who knows our wretchedness, takes from us for our good, the cause of our evil, a parent, a child, a husband, that he may by another evil, affliction, draw us to himself, and make us see that all these ties to whatsoever it be that separates us from him, are so many obstacles to our real happiness: and such obstacles that we shall one day own in the face of all the creation, the greatest mercy he ever did us was, to free us from them. But we must beware not to count this mercy a chance or misfortune; for this would be to turn the remedy into poison.

“Let us enter into the holy disposition which was in Christ, to suffer willingly for the glory of God, and our salvation. Is it not strange, that though the way he past through to glory, was ignominy, pain, and the cross, yet they who call themselves his followers, desire and expect another way for themselves to walk in? It is a shame for a ♦Christian to pass his days more at ease than Jesus Christ did. Let us therefore go after him, and suffer with him. Blessed be sickness, the loss of honour, riches, goods of the nearest things, and the separation from all creatures, which hold us bowed towards the earth, if it set us straight, and make us lift up our eyes to heaven, and enter into the designs of God over us. Blessed be the plague, the war the famine, all the scourges of God, which produce in us these effects of grace and salvation!

♦ “Chirstian” replaced with “Christian”

11. The greatest exercise of patience he ever had was that which was given to him by his mother. She had claimed a large share of what his father had bequeathed to him; who with great submission and respect gave her all that he believed her due, over and above. But she demanded still more. Being advised by council, it could not be given without wrong to his children; he ♦referred the whole business to arbitrators, and agreed that his mother should choose them all. The day being come for their giving sentence, his mother was in one chamber of the house, and her son, with his lady and a friend in an other, where his employment was, to pray to God for such an issue as might be for his glory, and the procurement of peace. When the award was brought, although it was not advantageous to him, and there was a large penalty on whomsoever did not stand to it, he heard it with perfect calmness, and immediately signed it without objection or dispute.

♦ “refered” replaced with “referred”

12. Believing now that his mother was fully satisfied, he was no sooner returned home, than he caused _Te Deum_ to be sung, beginning it himself, in thanksgiving for this happy conclusion. But God, to refine and purify him the more, permitted the cross to continue upon him. For his mother, not satisfied yet, found means to appeal from the award, without incurring the penalty.

Her son did all that was possible for him to alter her design; after earnest prayer, and extraordinary fasting, he went to her, cast himself on his knees before her, and with the utmost reverence, humility and submission, begged of her over and over, with abundance of tears, “that she would please to take him and his family to herself; and after that she might dispose as she pleased of all the goods his father had left him.” But neither would she consent to this, but persisted in her resolution, of suing him at the parliament of _Dijon_. This he might have prevented, and never stirred out of _Paris_, but in respect to her, he declined it, and determined to go to _Dijon_.

13. Being come thither, he found all mens minds fully prejudiced against him, which he gladly endured, that he might be partaker of the reproach, and honour the abasement of the Son of God. And when a person of piety acquainted him with the strange reports which were spread abroad concerning him, he with admirable calmness raised his heart to God, and humbled himself before him. She asked, Whether it was true that injurious papers had been put in against his mother? He answered, “No; he had seen all the writings, and found them drawn with the respect due to a parent.” *She asked further, “If he was not much afflicted at her harsh manner of proceeding against him?” He said, “No; because I so much adore the order of God over me, that I cannot be afflicted at that which he permits to befal me. I am a great sinner, and therefore not only my mother, but all the word have just cause to take part against me.”

14. She adds in a memorial, that many ways were proposed for adjusting the difference; but that it was the greatest difficulty in the world to bring his mother to join in any: that in the midst of these delays, she said to M. _de Renty_, “Sir, I shall willingly say the _Te Deum_, when once your business is ended.” And that one day when they believed it would be wholly concluded, he came to her with a chearful countenance, and said, “It is now time to say the _Te Deum_, since you had the goodness to promise it. And may I be so bold as to desire to say it with you? O what a great and wise God have we! Who knows well, how to do all things, as they ought and when they ought, not according to our precipitation, but his order, which is our sanctification!” Hereupon he said the _Te Deum_, with a spirit so elevated to God, as gave sufficient evidence of his being wholly filled with him. And when afterwards all was broken off, without hopes of making up again, he said, *“It is well; though nothing be done, it was very fit to return thanks to God, for doing his own will, and not that of a sinner, unworthy to be heard or regarded.”

15. There passed many other things at _Dijon_, and since at _Paris_, during these differences, even to the death of his mother. But I doubt not, he who is now in the place of perfect charity, approves of my passing over in silence the failings of her, to whom all his life he bore so much love and respect.