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 a hundred times the double of that which is left or endured for His cause, beside great pledges of the last reward that is to be given in the life everlasting. I might saymany things of this sovereign virtue which I omit, because this book is written for those that desire to exercise it on account of the great estimation in which they hold it. And in the prologues and introductions to every one of the six parts of this book, something will be spoken to discover the excellence of this sovereign exercise, and the good that proceeds of the same.

The matter of mental prayer in which the three faculties of the soul (especially the understanding) are to exercise their acts, is all that which God has revealed in the divine Scripture, especially the principal mysteries of our faith, which are most expressed and recommended in it.

These mysteries may be reduced in general to three orders, accommodated to the different states of those that meditate, among whom some are sinners that desire to get out of their sins, or beginners that desire to mortify the vices and passions of their former life; and these walk in the way which we call the purgative way, whose end is to purify the soul of all these vices, and to obtain cleanness of heart. Others pass more forward, and become proficients in virtue, and these walk in that way which we call the illuminative way, of which the end is to enlighten the soul with the splendour and brightness of many verities and virtues, and to obtain great augmentation and increase of it. Others are already perfect and very much exercised, and these walk in that way which we call unitive, of which the