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Although many of these evils and benefits that I am
describing in treating of these kinds of joy are
common to all, yet, because they follow directly from
joy and detachment from joy (although comprised under
any one of these six divisions which I am treating),
therefore I speak under each heading of some evils
and benefits which are also found under another,
since these, as I say, are connected with that joy
which belongs to them all.
But my principal intent is to speak of the
particular evils and benefits which come to the soul,
with respect to each thing, through its rejoicing or
not rejoicing in it. These I call particular evils,
because they are primarily and immediately caused by
one particular kind of rejoicing, and are not, save
in a secondary and mediate sense, caused by another.
The evil of spiritual lukewarmness, for example, is
caused directly by any and every kind of joy, and
this evil is therefore common to all these six kinds;
but fornication is a particular evil, which is the
direct result only of joy in the good things of
nature of which we are speaking.
2. The spiritual and bodily evils, then, which
directly and effectively come to the soul when it
sets its rejoicing on the good things of nature are
reduced to six principal evils.
The first is vainglory, presumption, pride and
disesteem of our neighbour; for a man cannot cast
eyes of esteem on one thing without taking them from
the rest. From this follows, at the least, a real
disesteem for everything else; for naturally, by
setting our esteem on one thing, we withdraw our
heart from all things else and set it upon the thing
esteemed; and from this real contempt it is very easy
to fall into an intentional and voluntary contempt
for all these other things, in particular or in
general, not only in the heart, but also in speech,
when we say that such a thing or such a person is not
like such another.
The second evil is the moving of the senses to
complacency and sensual delight and lust.
The third evil comes from falling into adulation
and vain praise, wherein is deception and vanity, as
Isaias says in these words: 'My people, he that
praises thee deceives thee.'[587] And the reason is
that, although we sometimes speak the truth when we
praise grace and beauty, yet it will be a marvel if
there is not some evil enwrapped therein or if the
person praised is not plunged into vain complacency
and rejoicing, or his imperfect intentions and
affections are not directed thereto.
The fourth evil is of a general kind: it is a
serious[588] blunting of the reason and the spiritual
sense, such as is effected by rejoicing in temporal
good things. In one way, indeed, it is much worse.
For as the good things of nature are more closely
connected with man than are temporal good things, the
joy which they give leaves an impression and effect
and trace upon the senses more readily and more
effectively, and deadens them more completely.
And thus reason and judgment are not free, but are
clouded with that affection of joy which is very
closely connected with them; and from this arises the
fifth evil, which is distraction of the mind by
created things.
And hence arise and follow lukewarmness and
weakness of spirit, which is the sixth evil, and is
likewise of a general kind; this is apt to reach such
a pitch that a man may find the things of God very
tedious and troublesome, and at last even come to
abhor them. In this rejoicing purity of spirit is
invariably lost -- at least, in its essence. For, if
any spirituality is discerned, it will be of such a
gross and sensual kind as to be hardly spiritual or
interior or recollected at all, since it will consist
rather in pleasure of sense than in strength of
spirit. Since, then, the spirituality of the soul is
of so low and weak a character at that time as not to
quench the habit of this rejoicing (for this habit
alone suffices to destroy pure spirituality, even
when the soul is not consenting to the acts of
rejoicing), the soul must be living, so to say, in
the weakness of sense rather than in the strength of
the spirit.
Otherwise, it will be seen in the perfection and
fortitude which the soul will have when the occasion
demands it. Although I do not deny that many virtues
may exist together with serious imperfections, no
pure or delectable inward spirituality can exist
while these joys are not quenched; for the flesh
reigns within, warring against the spirit, and,
although the spirit may be unconscious of the evil,
yet at the least it causes it secret distraction.
3. Returning now to speak of that second evil,
which contains within itself innumerable other evils,
it is impossible to describe with the pen or to
express in words the lengths to which it can go, but
this is not unknown or secret, nor is the extent of
the misery that arises from the setting of our
rejoicing on natural beauty and graces.
For every day we hear of its causing numerous
deaths, the loss by many of their honour, the
commission of many insults, the dissipation of much
wealth, numerous cases of emulation and strife, of
adultery, rape and fornication, and of the fall of
many holy men, comparable in number to that third
part of the stars of Heaven which was swept down by
the tail of the serpent on earth.[589] The fine gold
has lost its brilliance and lustre and is become
mire; and the notable and noble men of Sion, who were
clothed in finest gold, are counted as earthen
pitchers that are broken and have become
potsherds.[590] How far does the poison of this evil
not penetrate?
4. And who drinks not, either little or much, from
this golden chalice of the Babylonian woman of the
Apocalypse?[591] She seats herself on that great
beast, that had seven heads and ten crowns,
signifying that there is scarce any man, whether high
or low, saint or sinner, who comes not to drink of
her wine, to some extent enslaving his heart thereby,
for, as is said of her in that place, all the kings
of the earth have become drunken with the wine of her
prostitution.
And she seizes upon all estates of men, even upon
the highest and noblest estate -- the service of the
sanctuary and the Divine priesthood -- setting her
abominable cup, as Daniel says, in the holy
place,[592] and leaving scarcely a single strong man
without making him to drink, either little or much,
from the wine of this chalice, which is vain
rejoicing. For this reason it is said that all the
kings of the earth have become drunken with this
wine, for very few will be found, however holy they
may have been, that have not been to some extent
stupefied and bewildered by this draught of the joy
and pleasure of natural graces and beauty.
5. This phrase 'have become drunken' should be
noted. For, however little a man may drink of the
wine of this rejoicing, it at once takes hold upon
the heart, and stupefies it and works the evil of
darkening the reason, as does wine to those who have
been corrupted by it. So that, if some antidote be
not at once taken against this poison, whereby it may
be quickly expelled, the life of the soul is
endangered.
Its spiritual weakness will increase, bringing it
to such a pass that it will be like Samson, when his
eyes were put out and the hair of his first strength
was cut off, and like Samson it will see itself
grinding in the mills, a captive among its
enemies;[593] and afterwards, peradventure, it will
die the second death among its enemies, even as did
he, since the drinking of this rejoicing will produce
in them spiritually all those evils that were
produced in him physically, and does in fact produce
them in many persons to this day. Let his enemies
come and say to him afterwards, to his great
confusion: Art thou he that broke the knotted cords,
that tore asunder the lions, slew the thousand
Philistines, broke down the gates and freed himself
from all his enemies?
6. Let us conclude, then, by giving the
instruction necessary to counteract this poison. And
let it be this: As soon as thy heart feels moved by
this vain joy in the good things of nature, let it
remember how vain a thing it is to rejoice in aught
save the service of God, how perilous and how
pernicious.
Let it consider how great an evil it was for the
angels to rejoice and take pleasure in their natural
endowments and beauty, since it was this that plunged
them into the depths of shame.[594] Let them think,
too, how many evils come to men daily through this
same vanity, and let them therefore resolve in good
time to employ the remedy which the poet commends to
those who begin to grow affectioned to such things.
'Make haste now,' he says, 'and use the remedy at
the beginning; for when evil things have had time to
grow in the heart, remedy and medicine come late.'
Look not upon the wine, as the Wise Man says, when
its colour is red and when it shines in the glass; it
enters pleasantly and bites like a viper and sheds
abroad poison like a basilisk.[595] |