way so far has been to cause the soul to pass, from its complexity,
Providence take their place - the crosses which God provides according to our stage. These are not chosen by the soul; but the soul, under the interior guidance of God, receives what He chooses.
CHAPTER 4. THE FOURTH STAGE: NAKED FAITH. 17. The fourth stage is naked faith; here we have nothing but inward and outward desolation; for the one always follows the other. 18. Every stage has its beginning, progress, and consummation. 19. All that has hitherto been granted and gained with so much labour, is here gradually taken away. 20. This stage is the longest, and only ends with total death, if the soul be willing to be so desolated as to die wholly to self. For an infinite number of souls never pass the first stages, and in very few of those who reach this stage is the work completed. 21. This desolation takes place in some with violence, and although they suffer more distress than others, yet they have less reason to complain, for the very severity of their affliction is a sort of consolation. There are others who experience only a feebleness and a kind of disgust for everything, which has the appearance of being a failure in duty and unwillingness to obey. 22. We are first deprived of our voluntary works, and become unable to do what we did in the earlier stages; as this increases, we begin to feel a general inability to do anything, which, instead of diminishing, increases day by day. As this weakness and inability increases, we reach a place where we say: "For what I do is not what I want; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." (Rom. 7:15.) 23. After being deprived of everything, both inward and outward, which is not essential, work then begins on what is essential; and as the virtuous life of a Christian, which we regarded with so much complacency, disappears, we are deprived of interior comfort and support. As this support becomes weaker, the more we feel its loss. It is to be noted, however, that there is no loss except to our own consciousness, as it is still there, but without activity. If it were not hidden, the death and loss of self could not happen. But it retires within, and shuts itself up so closely that the soul is not aware of its presence. 24. Do you ask why this course is pursued? The whole object of the way so far has been to cause the soul to pass, from its complexity, to clarity without complexity; from that clarity to a clear loss of feeling; then to the cloud of of unknowing, which is a much less