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By inspirations I mean all drawings, feelings, interior
reproaches, lights and intuitions, with which God moves us,
preventing our hearts by His Fatherly love and care, and
awakening, exciting, urging, and attracting them to goodness, to
Heavenly love, to good resolutions, in short, to whatever tends to
our eternal welfare. This it is of which we read in the Canticles,
when the Bridegroom knocks at the door, awakens His beloved, calls
upon her, seeks her, bids her eat of His honey, gather the fruit
and flowers of His garden, and let Him hear her voice, which is
sweet to Him. (1)Let me make use of an illustration of my
meaning. In contracting a marriage, the bride must be a party to
three separate acts: first, the bridegroom is proposed to her;
secondly, she entertains the proposal; and thirdly, she gives her
consent.
Just so when God intends to perform some act of love in us, by
us, and with us; He first suggests it by His inspiration;
secondly, we receive that inspiration; and thirdly, we consent to
it: for, like as we fall into sin by three steps, temptation,
delectation, and consent, so there are three steps whereby we
ascend to virtue; inspiration, as opposed to temptation;
delectation in God's inspiration, as opposed to that of
temptation; and consent to the one instead of to the other.
Were God's inspirations to last all our lives, we should be
nowise more acceptable to Him, unless we took pleasure therein; on
the contrary, we should rather offend Him as did the Israelites,
of whom He says that they "grieved Him for forty years long,
refusing to hear His pleadings, so that at last" I "sware in My
wrath that they should not enter into My rest." (2) And (to recur
to my first illustration) one who has long been devoted to his
lady-love, would feel greatly injured if, after all, she would not
consent to the alliance he seeks.
The delight we take in God's inspirations is an important step
gained towards His Glory, and we begin at once to please Him
thereby; for although such delectation is not the same thing as a
full consent, it shows a strong tendency thereto; and if it is a
good and profitable sign when we take pleasure in hearing God's
Word, which is, so to say, an external inspiration, still more is
it good and acceptable in His Sight when we take delight in His
interior inspirations.
Such is the delight of which the Bride says, "My soul melted
within me when my Beloved spake." (3) And so, too, the earthly
lover is well satisfied when he sees that his lady-love finds
pleasure in his attentions.
But, after all, consent only perfects the good action; for if
we are inspired of God, and take pleasure in that inspiration, and
yet, nevertheless, refuse our consent to His inspiration, we are
acting a very contemptuous, offensive part towards Him. We read of
the Bride, that although the voice of her Beloved touched her
heart, she made trivial excuses, and delayed opening the door to
Him, and so He withdrew Himself and "was gone." (4) And the
earthly lover, who had long sought a lady, and seemed acceptable
to her, would have the more ground for complaint if at last he was
spurned and dismissed, than if he had never been favourably
received.
Do you, my daughter, resolve to accept whatever inspirations
God may vouchsafe you, heartily; and when they offer themselves,
receive them as the ambassadors of your Heavenly King, seeking
alliance with you. Hearken gently to their propositions, foster
the love with which you are inspired, and cherish the holy Guest.
Give your consent, and let it be a full, loving, stedfast consent
to His holy inspirations; for, so doing, God will reckon your
affection as a favour, although truly we can confer none upon Him.
But, before consenting to inspirations which have respect to
important or extraordinary things, guard against self-deception,
by consulting your spiritual guide, and let him examine whether
the inspiration be real or no; and that the rather, because when
the enemy sees a soul ready to hearken to inspirations, he is wont
to set false delusions in the way to deceive it,--a snare you will
not fall into so long as you humbly obey your guide.
Consent once given, you must carefully seek to produce the
intended results, and carry out the inspiration, the crown of true
virtue; for to give consent, without producing the result thereof,
were like planting a vine without meaning it to bear fruit. All
this will be greatly promoted by careful attention to your morning
exercises, and the spiritual retirement already mentioned, because
therein you learn to carry general principles to a special
application.
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