The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16

by John Dryden

"I conjure you to be humble and patient towards all the world," says he to Father Cyprian, who preached the gospel at Meliapore; "for, believe me, nothing is to be done by haughtiness and choler, when it cannot be accomplished by modesty and mildness." He continues; "We deceive ourselves, in exacting submission and respect from men, without any other title to it than being members of our Society, and without cultivating that virtue which has acquired us so great an authority in the world; as if we rather chose to recommend ourselves by that credit and reputation, than by the practice of humility and patience, and those other virtues by which our Society has maintained its dignity and honour with mankind."

"Be mindful," writes he to Father Barzaesus, who was rector of' the college of Goa, "to read frequently the instructions which I have left with you, particularly those which concern humility; and take an especial care in considering what God has done by you, and by all the labourers of the Society, that you do not forget yourself: for my own particular, I should be glad, that all of you would seriously think how many things God leaves undone, because you are wanting to him in your fidelity; and I would rather that consideration should employ your thoughts, than those great works which it has pleased our Lord to accomplish by your ministry; for the first reflection will cover you with confusion, and make you mindful of your weakness; but, instead of that, the second will puff you up with vanity, and expose you to the danger of having thoughts of arrogance."

This well-grounded humility in Xavier, was the principle of a perfect submission to the will of God. He never undertook any thing without consulting him before-hand; and the divine decrees were his only rule. "I have made continual prayers," says he, speaking of his voyage to Macassar, "to know what heaven requires of me; for I was firmly resolved not to be wanting on my part to fulfil the will of God, whensoever it should be made known to me. May it please our Lord," said he on the same subject, "that out of his goodness we might understand what he designs by us, to the end we might entirely conform ourselves to his holy will so soon as it shall be discovered to us; for he commands us to be always in a readiness to obey him at the first signal; and it becomes us to be as strangers in this world, always prepared to follow the voice of our conductor."

"I wish," said he, in another place, "that God would declare to us his most holy will, concerning the ministries and countries where I may best employ my labours for his glory. I am ready, by his grace, to execute those things which he makes me understand to be most pleasing to him, of whatsoever nature they may be; and, undoubtedly, he has admirable means of signifying his good pleasure to us; such as are our inward sentiments and heavenly illuminations, which leave no remaining scruple concerning the place to which he has designed us, nor what we are to undertake for his service. For we are like travellers, not fixed to any country through which we pass. It is our duty to be prepared to fly from one region to another, or rather into opposite regions, where the voice of heaven shall please to call us. East and west, north and south, are all indifferent to me, provided I may have an opportunity of advancing the glory of our Lord."

He says elsewhere, "I could wish, that you had ever in your mind this meditation, that a ready and obedient will, which is entirely devoted to God's service, is a more pleasing sacrifice to the Divine Majesty, than all the pomp and glitter of our noisy actions, without the interior disposition."

Being thoroughly convinced that the perfection of the creature consists in willing nothing but the will of the Creator, he spoke incessantly of God's good pleasure, and concluded almost all his letters with his desires of knowing and fulfilling it. He sacrificed all to that principle; even his ardent wishes to die for Jesus by the hands of the barbarians: for though he breathed after martyrdom, he well understood that the tender of our life is not acceptable to God, when he requires it not; and he was more fearful of displeasing him, than desirous of being a martyr for him. So that he died satisfied, when he expired in a poor cabin of a natural death, though he was at that very time on the point of carrying the faith into the kingdom of China: And it may be therefore said, that he sacrificed not only his own glory, but even that of Jesus Christ, to the good pleasure of God Almighty.

A man so submissive to the orders of heaven, could not possibly want submission in regard of his superior, who was to him in the place of God. He had for Father Ignatius, general of the Society of Jesus, a veneration and reverence, mixed with tenderness, which surpass imagination. He himself has expressed some part of his thoughts on that subject, and we cannot read them without being edified. In one of his letters, which begins in this manner, "My only dear Father, in the bowels of Jesus Christ;" he says at the conclusion, "Father of my soul, for whom I have a most profound respect, I write this to you upon my knees, as if you were present, and that I beheld you with my eyes." It was his custom to write to him in that posture; so high was the place which Ignatius held within his heart.

"God is my witness, my dearest Father," says he in another letter, "how much I wish to behold you in this life, that I might communicate to you many matters, which cannot be remedied without your aid; for there is no distance of places which can hinder me from obeying you. I conjure you, my best Father, to have some little consideration of us who are in the Indies, and who are your children. I conjure you, I say, to send hither some holy man, whose fervour may excite our lazy faintness. I hope, for the rest, that as you know the bottom of our souls, by an illumination from heaven, you will not be wanting to supply us with the means of awakening our languishing and drowsy virtue, and of inspiring us with the love of true perfection." In another of his letters, which is thus superscribed, "To Ignatius, my holy Father in Jesus Christ," he sends him word, that the letter which he received from his holy charity, at his return from Japan, had replenished him with joy; and that particularly he was most tenderly affected with the last words of it: "I am all yours, yours even to that degree, that it is impossible for me to forget you, Ignatius." "When I had read those words," said he, "the tears came flowing into my eyes, and gushing out of them; which makes me, that I cannot forbear writing them, and recalling to my memory that sincere and holy friendship which you always had, and still have, for me; nothing doubting, but that if God has delivered me from so many dangers, it has principally proceeded from your fatherly intercessions for me." He calls himself his son in all his letters, and thus subscribes himself in one: "The least of your children, and most distant from you, Francis Xavier." But the high ideas which Francis had of Ignatius, caused him frequently to ask his advice in relation to his own conduct. "You will do a charitable work," said he, "in writing to me a letter, full of spiritual instructions, as a legacy bequeathed to one who is the least of all your children, at the farthest distance from you, and who is as it were banished from your presence, by which I may partake some part of those abundant treasures which heaven has heaped upon you. I beseech you not to be too niggardly in the accomplishment of my desires." "I conjure you," says he elsewhere, "by the tender love of Jesus Christ, to give me the method which I ought to keep, in admitting those who are to be members of our Society; and write to me at large, considering the smallness of my talent, which is well known to you; for if you give me not your assistance, the poor ability which I have in these matters, will be the occasion of my losing many opportunities for the augmentation of God's glory."

In prescribing any thing that was difficult to his inferiors, he frequently intermixed the name of Ignatius: "I pray you by our Lord, and by Ignatius, the Father of our Society. I conjure you by the obedience, and by the love which you owe to our Father Ignatius." "Remember," said he farther, "to what degree, both great and small, respect our Father Ignatius."

With these sentiments, both of affection and esteem, he depended absolutely on his superior. "If I believed," says he, writing from the Indies to Father Simon Rodriguez, "that the strength of your body were equal to the vigour of your mind, I should invite you to pass the seas, and desire your company in this new world; I mean, if our Father Ignatius should approve and counsel such a voyage: For he is our parent, it behoves us to obey him; and it is not permitted us to make one step without his order."