QUIETISM
84G
QUIETISM
Via ah Sapientiam i st Vi \
UNIVERSALIS.
1'l'RGATlVA.
ILLIH.NAT.VA.
L.MT1VA.
Q endii Summum
Bouuni
Verum
I'nuin
hominis
Natnralis
Spiritnalia
Deiformis
quoad
Cur,,, is
Animara
Spiritnm
C'lljtlS
Sanitas
Scieutia
Sanclitas
eel i ■
Sensns
Ratiouis
Mentis
es Dei
Bonitate
Bapientia
Potentate
1111 naturam
Hnmauam
Angelicam
Diviuam:
praeparatur
Jejunio
Vi^-iliis
Oratioue
viveudo
juste
pie
erga
seipsnru
proximum
Dfiim.
latur
Mortirlcatione
Contemplatione
Adhsesione
menibrorum
Carnia
Veritatis
Virtntis
pet ( ihristi
Paseionem
Resurrectiouera
Asi ensioiu m :
Qui solus est
\ ia
Veritas
Vita
In lnmiue
Naturae
Gratia
Gli rise
Cujns
Abluimur
jnstiflcamur
Eanctificnmnr
In sacrnmento
Baptismatis
C cense
Unctionie
per rnlcin in
Patreru
1- 1 .iiim
Spiritnm S.
nttestautibns
Aqua
Sangnine
Spii iiu
atque 3° conservator
Fide
Spe
< baritate
in schola
Pceniteutia;
Si ientise
( lonci
discipulornm
iucipientium
proficientium
perfect urum
state
puerili
juvenili
virili
ill ii classis
iuferior
media
superior
el gradoe
imaginationis
cognitionis
amoris
-' iilum
pedum
mauus
(ii is
miui6terio
Augelico
I berubico
Seraphico:
4° reparaturque
separatione
sublimatione
conjuuctione
corporis
puri al> impuro
lucidi ali opaco
Solidi cum soluto
cum temperamento
aqneo
aereo
igneo
el sic ascendimus
e ten a
per paradisnm
in caelum
et ingredimnr in vitnm
Corporis
A n in.it
Spiritns seteniam
faitb, the firsl intention of resignation, prevails to con- stitute the whole an act of worship. "One may perse- vere in prayer though the imagination be carried about with various and involuntary thoughts." These arc nol i" be actively resisted, but merely neglected. 5. The \ iolenl and painful suggestions of impatience, pride, gluttony, luxury, rage blasphemy, cursing, despair, and an infinite number of others, are God's means lor puri- fying those whom he calls. The soul ought not to be disquieted on accouul of them.
An example oi pure quietism may be quoted in illus- tration of these principles: "Gregory Lopez having for the -pare of three wars continued that ejaculation, Thy will be done in time and in eternity, repealing it as often as he breathed, God Almighty discovered to Iiim thai infinite treasure of the pure and continued act of faith and love, with silence and resignation; so thai he came to say that, during the thirty-six years he lived afterwards, he always continued in his inward man thai pure act of love, without ever uttering the leasl petition, ejaculation, or anything that was sensible or sprung from nature" I Spb itual Guidi | trarisl. 1699 |, p. 75).
Molinos is charged by Romanisi writers with teach- ing antinomianism. I he charge does not appear to
he well G led, but thai his teaching regarding evil
thoughts is most dangerous there can be no doubt. At the same time, the truth of which it is a perversion is very discernible.
Molinos proceeds to his doctrine of self-annihilation whal he calls infused contemplation. The means whereby the soul ascends to infused contempla- tion are two the pleasure and the desire of it. The 3ti ps "i n are three satiety when the soul is filled with God; intoxication, an excess of mind and elevation of soul arising from satiety of divine love ; security, when ' so drenched with love that ii loses all fear. 1 w illingly go to hdl if ii knew such to be the will of God. Six other steps I here are lire, union, el- evation, illumination, pleasure, and repose. Bui there are many other steps besides, as ecstasies, raptures. meltings, deliquiums, glee, kisses, embraces, exalta- n, transformation, espousing, and matrimony; " which. M ■• I omil to c \plain. to give no
occasion to sp& ulal ion. Madame Guyon, however, docs explain: " The essentia] union is the spiritual marriage, where there is a communication of substance, when God soul for his spouse, unites it to himself, nol personally, nor by anj act or means, bul immediately
reducing all to a unity. The soul ought not. nor can, any more make any distinction between God and itself. God is the soul, and the soul is God ' (i des < 'ant.).
Molinos passes through annihilation to the same re- sult of deification. The soul that would be perfecl parses, with the divine aid, into the state of nothing- ness: from the spiritual death the true and perfecl an- nihilation derives its original: insomuch that when the soul is once dead to its will and understanding, it is properly said to have arrived at the perfecl and happy state of annihilation, which is the last disposition for transformation and union. The soul no longer lives in itself, because God lives in it. The soul being in that manner the nothing, the Lord will be the whole in the
soul.
Quietism aims at an entire abstraction from all ex- ternals, and seeks to pul the spirit of man inl and immediate union with the very nature of the God- head. In in this there inevitably results, instead of the
Christian doctrine ol the communion of saints, the doc- trine oi a pantheistic identification of the crt ature with the Creator, and an ultimate absorption of the soul into
the sui-Mai.ee of God. The Quietists call it indeed a vulgar error to say that in the prayer of r< st the facul- ties operate not. and the soul is idle and inactive: but they assert at the same time that the soul operates nei- ther by means of the memory nor by the intellect, nor by ratiocination, bul by simple apprehension (Molinos, Spii-iiual Guide, i. 12). Whal an active apprehension