still distinguished by the same reverence for the word of God. Many years afterwards, writing to a young man newly converted, this devoted servant of God, uses the following remarkable expressions, "God has various methods of drawing souls to himself. Yet I think you have cause to be particularly thankful, that your heart when it was first touched, was awakened by the words of Christ himself in the Gospel. For surely no means of conversion, can be more apostolic, than that which is effected by the word of God. This is the great means of conversion, which God himself has appointed. By the sole distribution and dispersion of the Scriptures it is, that God has converted, and still does convert, both Jews and pagans. The Scriptures are the grand instrument, by which God originally founded his church, and by which he still continually reforms, maintains, and augments it."*

* St. Cyran's Letters, vol. ii. p. 366.

Besides the perusal of the Scripture, which he urged upon all his disciples, he was also well versed himself in the writings of the Fathers, and entertained a high reverence for them. Nevertheless he always preserved inviolate, the wide distance which ought to separate every human composition from the supreme veneration due to Divine revelation. The first, indeed, were frequently the objects of his studies; but the latter alone continually formed the sole subject of his prayers and meditations. He often observed, "that the Holy Scriptures had been penned by the direct ray of the Holy Spirit; the works of the Fathers (excellent as they were) only by the refler ray emanating therefrom." Amongst all the books of Holy Writ, those on which he most constantly meditated, were those of the New Testament, but more especially the four Gospels. For he often said, that St. Paul had drawn all his principles, and even his ideas, from the Gospels; and that if that were attentively perused; the germ

of all the apostolical writings might be discovered there."*

M. de St. Cyran used to recommend it to his disciples, daily to study the Scriptures on their knees. "Jesus Christ him

self," said he, “ has written nothing; shewing us thereby, that the sublimity of Godliness, can only be worthily represented by the living actions of his mortal life; of which the evangelists have traced us a faithful picture. The Gospels, therefore, may be said, to be a monument as eternal as the Eucharist. The one of which is destined to shew forth our Lord's death for all, and the other his life for all, even until the day of his coming."t

The profound erudition for which they were afterwards so celebrated, they never pursued as an ultimate object. It was a means to something better, not an end.

* Besogne, vol. iii. pp. 352, 353.

+ St. Cyran's Letters, vol. ii. p. 373.-The passages included in quotations are TRANSLATIONS.

VOL. I.

To renew the heart by a thorough conversion from all creatures to the Creator; to enlighten the spiritual understanding by the study, not of human opinions, but of revealed truth; these were the two grand objects of M. de St. Cyran and of his friend. These were their motives in studying the works of men whose reputation for sanctity the church has so long acknowledged. These ends too they thought mutually assisted each other. All that knowledge of religious truth which is really spiritually discerned, must kindle divine love in the heart; and whenever divine love is kindled in the heart, the spiritual understanding will be opened to the perception of divine truth. The word of God never separates genuine spiritual light from genuine spiritual heat. Hence perhaps, it was, that they adopted their favorite motto, "Unde ardet unde lucet." They only wished to be shining lights, from the heat by which they were burning lights.

Perhaps it was the conformity of their minds, as well as a similar degree of growth

in grace, which led them to view the writings of the Fathers in the same light. However this may be, at that period it was they mutually adopted that system afterwards so celebrated under the name of Jansenism. With which of them it originated would be difficult to decide. By the world it was ascribed to Jansenius, because it was first made public by his commentary on St. Austin.

By M. de St. Cyran and his friend, this system was not considered as their own, but as the fundamental doctrine of the Christian church. They imagined themselves amongst the small number who faithfully adhered to St. Augustin, in the midst of a corrupt and degenerate age.

The object of this little work is not controversial. Even were it so, it would not be possible to give an accurate delineation of this celebrated system in the short compass of a note. Will the following compendious definition be accepted? It is cursory, and far from accurate. Yet it will probably present a sufficiently clear view of