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The discreet reader has ever need to bear in mind the
intent and end which I have in this book, which is
the direction of the soul, through all its
apprehensions, natural and supernatural, without
deception or hindrance, in purity of faith, to Divine
union with God.
If he does this, he will understand that, although
with respect to apprehensions of the soul and the
doctrine that I am expounding I give not such copious
instruction neither do I particularize so much or
make so many divisions as the understanding perchance
requires, I am not being over-brief in this matter.
For with respect to all this I believe that
sufficient cautions, explanations and instructions
are given for the soul to be enabled to behave
prudently in every contingency, outward or inward, so
as to make progress.
And this is the reason why I have so briefly
dismissed the subject of prophetic apprehensions and
the other subjects allied to it; for there is so much
more to be said of each of them, according to the
differences and the ways and manners that are wont to
be observed in each, that I believe one could never
know it all perfectly. I am content that, as I
believe, the substance and the doctrine thereof have
been given, and the soul has been warned of the
caution which it behoves it to exercise in this
respect, and also concerning all other things of the
same kind that may come to pass within it.
2. I will now follow the same course with regard
to the third kind of apprehension, which, we said,
was that of supernatural locutions, which are apt to
come to the spirits of spiritual persons without the
intervention of any bodily sense. These, although
they are of many kinds, may, I believe, all be
reduced to three, namely: successive, formal and
substantial.
I describe as successive certain words and
arguments which the spirit is wont to form and
fashion when it is inwardly recollected. Formal words
are certain clear and distinct words[456] which the
spirit receives, not from itself, but from a third
person, sometimes when it is recollected and
sometimes when it is not. Substantial words are
others which also come to the spirit formally,
sometimes when it is recollected and sometimes when
it is not; these cause in the substance of the soul
that substance and virtue which they signify. All
these we shall here proceed to treat in their order. |