_His faith._
1. MR. _de Renty_ studied with a particular care a solid foundation in this virtue, knowing how all other virtues depend upon it, as on their root, their rule and measure. And he possessed it in so high a degree, that he was more assured of the presence of God, and the truth of the mysteries of Christianity, than of the shining of the sun. He truly lived by faith: this was the path wherein he walked, working all by the spirit thereof. He beheld things not with his bodily eyes, but with those that pierced deeper. Considering them not according to their present condition, or the order of nature; but according to their future and eternal, their relation to grace and glory; regarding nothing but as it was, or might be a means of his own or others salvation.
2. Being fortified by this faith, he was wont to say, he felt no difficulty at all, when (in his younger years) he was in a state of dryness, wholly deprived of sensible comforts. To which purpose he writes in one of his letters thus; “We seldom meet with persons addicted to prayer, that behave themselves well under inward trials. They have no patience to wait for comfort. They fret themselves, and hurry this way and that, as if by their own means they could procure it, seeking for another support than that of faith, which alone should suffice any spiritual man. For _the just should live by faith_, and on that foundation rest, in expectation of our Saviour, with patience; knowing these joys are but supplements to the littleness, and cordials for the faintings of our faith.”
3. Animated by this spirit, he relied not on any thing that came to him in an extraordinary way; resting neither on visions, miracles, revelations, nor inward motions, but solely on a pure and naked faith, to carry him to God.
4. He knew our perfection consists in nothing else, but the renewal of our soul in faith, hope, and charity: in performing to God the sacrifices of a lively faith, a perfect hope, and fervent charity. To cultivate and adorn his soul with these, was therefore his constant care; to unite it more and more intimately with God, through faith working by love, and to give himself up with all his strength to this hidden and divine life.
5. Some years before his death, he was peculiarly employed in the contemplation of the blessed Trinity. Wherefore he gave this account to his spiritual guide; *“I carry about with me ordinarily an experimental verify, and a plenitude of the presence of the Holy Trinity.” And again, “I possess the sacred Trinity with a plenitude of truth and clearness; and this in so pure and vigorous a manner, that my outward employment creates me no diversion at all.” And another time he writ thus; “Jesus Christ worketh the experience of his kingdom in my heart, and I find him there my Lord and my Master, and myself wholly his. I discover now a greater enlargement of my heart, but such as I am not able to express; only thus, it is a simple but most real sight of the Trinity, continually accompanied with praising, blessing, and offering all homage thereto.”