the odour of" His sweetest " ointments." [1] And the glorious Evangelist St. John, as one well experienced in this inward conversation with Almighty God, was wont to say, "Odor tuus, Domine, excitavit in nobis concupiscentias eternas [2] " Thy odour, O Lord, has raised in us eternal desires and affections." Odour he calls a very spiritual sensibility of eternal things which we see not and yet believe and hope to obtain, from which proceed fervent acts of hope, with enkindled desires to aspire after them, and great animosity and courage to use all possible means to obtain them with a great alacrity, which the Apostle St. Paul calls "rejoicing in hope." [3] For as hounds by the scent follow the chase with great swiftness and pleasure, not staying till they come to the place where (if they can) they lay hold of it; — so souls that in prayer receive this scent and odour of the divinity of God our Lord and of His most sacred humanity, of His charity and bounty and His other virtues, run with great fervour and diligence in the pursuit of those eternal things which they have scented, not staying till they possess them in such manner as they may in this life, with hope to possess them entirely in the other. Of which we have some token in such persons as God calls to a religious life, and gives them any sense and odour of the sweetness, security, and sanctity that they shall find in it, for which they tread under foot a thousand difficulties, and rest not till they obtain what they desire. And for this very cause, (says St. Paul,) that the just " are the good odour of Christ" [4] our Lord; because their notable examples comfort and move us to follow them and to imitate Christ, from whom they principally proceed.
iv. The fourth manner of God our Lord's communicating himself is by a spiritual taste, communicating to the soul such fervour and sweetness in spiritual things that those of
