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Full text of "The exclamations of the soul to God : or, The meditations of St. Teresa after Communion"

T 



E R B -5 A_ 



THE '" ' "" ' 



E X C'L A M A T I O N S 

OF THE 

SOUL TO GO D[: 

O R T H E 

MEDITATIONS 

O F 



C <6 TSi  SI 

o 

AFTER COMMUNION. 

NEWLY TRANSLATED. 

Together with an 
INTRODUCTORY DEDICATION 

T o A 
REVEREND PRIORESS. 

BY r H E 



Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. 



LONDON; 

Printed by J P. COGHLAN, No. 37. Duke-Sire?;-, 
Grofvenor-Square ; and Sold by Meilrs. 
Pater-Noftcr Row. M,DCC,A-C. 



TO THE REVEREND MOTHER 

MARY AUGUSTINA MORE, 

PRIORESS 



OF THE 



ENGLISH CANONESSES of the ORDER 
of St. AUGUSTINE at BRUGES, 

MADAM, 

" * HE Meditations of St. Ttrefa 
" after Communion" fays the pious 
and learned Alban Butler, " are full 
" of affe&ive fentiments of humi- 
" lity, fear, love and other virtues. 
" Many finners, by reading thefe 
' Meditations, have been converted 
to God, and embraced a courfe 
a " of 




c of perfect virtue." Saints Lives, 
-vol. x. p. 376. Nov. Ed. It was this 
teflimony of the above mentioned 
venerable Author, once the Director 
of your pious Community, that firft 
turned my attention to the prefent 
little treatife. In taking it in hand 
I was prepared to meet with thoi ; 
tender fentiments of devotion . v .^nd 
thofe pure maxims of heavenly doc- 
trine, which the Church afcribes to 
our Saint in the prayer appointed 
for her feftival ; to my furprize 
however, on perufing it, I difcove- 
red that pathetic drain of eloquence, 
and that quicknefs and fublimity of 
imagination, which are to be found 
in few devotional treatifes : In Chort* 
I was convinced it deferved to be 
generally known, and that it was 
not more calculated to gratify the 

devotion 



devotion 



votion of the Pious, than to pro- 
duce the effect afcribed to it above, 
by your late refpe&ed friend, the 
converfion of finners. 

Unfortunately however, this work 
has hitherto, in our tongue, exifted 
only in the cold and obfolete lan- 
guage of Woodhead's literal tran- 
flation; and owing to fome accident, 
probably to fewer copies of it being 
taken off, the fecond Volume of his 
works of St. Tcrefa, which contains 
the prefent treatife, is extremely 
fearce. Thefe confiderations have 
induced me to undertake the pre- 
fent work ; in which, fatisfying my- 
felf with preferving the fenfe of the 
original, I have taken that liberty 
with the idiom which feemed ne- 
ceflary to point out the connexion 
of the Saint's arguments and ideas, 
a 2 and 




( iv ) 

and to render the work intelligible 
and pleafing to an Englifh reader: 
a mode of tranflation, which, where 
controverfy is out of the queftion, 
appears to me the only one that does 
juftice, at the fame time, to the Au- 
thor and the Reader. With this 
idea of tranflating, it will not be 
expe&ed I mould have thought my- 
felf under an abfolute neceffity of 
working from the original language ; 
it feemed fufficient to afcertain the 
meaning of the Saint, by verfions of 
approved judgment and fidelity. 
I therefore confulted and compared 
together .thofe of the celebrated 
D'Andilly, the careful F. Cyprian, 
and our own venerable Woodhead ; 
and finding them almoft always a- 
greeing in their fenfe of the Au- 
thor, however much they differ in 

their 



their ftyle of writing, I was perfua- 
ded I had every thing that was ne- 
ceffary for my prefent purpofe, and 
faw the inutility of procuring this 
tranflation to be compared with the 
original Spanifh, by perfons well 
flailed in that language, as I had at 
firft defigned. The beft tranflation 
of a devotional treatife in our lan- 
guage (a treatife itfelf that is not to 
be equalled in its kind) The Suffer- 
ings of Jefus, was not made from 
the original Portuguefe, but from 
the French verfion of F. Alleaume. 
So much for the prefent tranfla- 
tion : As to the reafons which have 
induced me, Madam, to put it un- 
der your patronage, they are fuch 
as, I am fenfible, I mud not men- 
tion to you, but, at the fame time, 
they are fuch as I need not mention 

to 






( vi ) 

to a-ny one elfe, who has the happi- 
nefs of being acquainted with you. 
Thus much however you will allow 
me to fay, that, in an age which 
feems to threaten a fecond grand 
defection from the Church, under 
the delufive idea of reforming er- 
rors and abufes, a work of the old 
ftamp, like this, calculated to op- 
pofe the prevailing torrent, by op- 
pofing that fpirit of irreligion from 
which it flows, naturally feeks for 
protection in a lineal defcendant of 
that illuftrious Martyr, theRefcuer, 
in his age, of his country from in- 
famy*, who endeavoured to extin- 
guifh the flames of the firft Refor- 
mation with his blood, and whofc 
Chriftian ufe of the great talents, 
with which he was entrufted, has 

proved 
* Sir Thomas More. 



nrn 



( vii ) 



proved, that men are not always 
wicked in proportion to the means 
they have of being fo, 

There is danger, Madam, to all 
that is rational and good, from too 
much fpeculation and refinement, 
as well as from flupid ignorance. 
Hence the Apoftle of the Gentiles 
admonifhes us, not to be more wife 
than it behoveth to be wife, but to be 
wife unto fobriciy. Rom. xii. 3. In 
fpeaking of the antient Philofophers 
he had before faid, c. i. v. 21, 22. 
that they evaporated * in their own 
thoughts. . . . and prof ejjing themf elves 
to be wife, they become fools* The 
prefent enlightened age, as it is plea- 
fed to term itfelf, has reafoned, till 
it has hardly a principle left to rea- 
fpn upon. Politicians have reform- 
ed 
* Evanuerunt. Vulg. swrxiufytTM. Gr. 




( viii ) 

ed their political conftitutions, (ill 
all the evils of anarchy have poured 
in upon them. The fafhionable Re- 
ligionifts of the day have reformed 
Chriftianity, till they have degraded 
Chrift himfelf from his throne, and 
worn down his fupernatural religion 
to a fy ftem that (lands in need of no 
Meiliah at all; and even a great 
proportion of Catholics themfelves, 
in the prefent day, are evidently 
tired of that neceffary confinement 
of thought and practice, which is 
eflential to their being enclofed in 
the one Sheep/old of the one Shepherd > 
John x. 16. and pant for every kind 
of Reformation, except that of their 
morality. 

It is now, for the firft time, the 
Evangelical Counfels themfelves, 
not the abufes of them, are got into 

difrepute 



difrepute with an infinite number 
of Catholics, who have been taught 
to confider the obfervers of them 
as a ufelefs fet of beings. We now 
behold the facred Cloifter invaded, 
not by the difciples of Calvin or 
Mahomet, but by the profefled chil- 
dren of the Church. We fee its 
peaceful inhabitants ftripped of their 
chartered rights and property, while 
the privileges of the State are ex- 
tended to Jews and Idolaters: It is 
made lawful, in Chriftian countries, 
to blafpheme the name of Chrift, 
but not to ferve him according to 
that plan which he himfelf has 
pointed out as the mod perfect, Mat* 
xix. 21. and to which fo many thou- 
fands of excellent citizens have fa- 
crificed their fortunes and their 
lives, under the guarantee of the 
mod folemn public laws. 

The prefent time is alfo marked 
by a general combination of Catbo- 
b lies 



lies for humbling their Mother 
Church, in the day of her greateft 
diftrefs, and for ilripping her of her 
prerogatives, when fhe has hardly 
any other left, than thofe flic has 
immediately received from the 
hands of her divine founder. Hence 
\ve now behold the common Father 
of the Faithful conftantly held up, 
in writing and conversation, to 
contempt and hatred, by his own 
ipiritual children, and fometimes 
even by thofe, who, like myfelf, 
have, for years, eaten his material 
bread; and this on the fcorc of the 
pretended or exaggerated faults of 
his predeceffors, ages before we our- 
felves were in being. Hence alfo 
it is now made a crime of, in the 
eftablifhed Paflors of the Church, 
to pronounce when her facred rights 
are invaded; but this queftion is 
referred for a folution to her pro- 
feffed enemies. In 



XI 

It is in this age that a general 
difpofition prevails to remove the 
land-marksfixedby our fathers, and 
that we ftudy to unlearn, in polite 
circles, the awkward leffbns we po- 
red over in the ponderous volumes 
of the Divines and Fathers. The ex- 
tent of the imderftandingis now efti- 
ated by that of the confcience. He 
who trembles to tamper with the fa- 
crcd conftitution of Religion, muft 
be contented to pafs for a bigotted 
narrow-minded man ; while the mod 
fuperficial geniufes will lay claim to 
fuperior flrength of understanding 
on the mere ftrength of their ir- 
rcligion. Hence we are told 
that Afceticai works, of the prefent 
call, are no more than the ravings 
of bigotted Myftics; and hence thofe 
great and good men, of whom the 
zuorld was not worthy, to whofe zeal 

Kd conftancy in fuffering we are 
b 2 indebted 



indebted for the facred depofit of 
the orthodox faith, inftead of Mar- 
tyrs, as we have hitherto confidered 
them, are now proved to have died 
Traitors to their country*. 

Finally 

* See an Anf