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He who says all, excludes nothing, and yet a man may
be wholly God's, wholly his father's, wholly his
mother's, wholly his prince's, wholly his
commonwealth's, his children's, his friends' so that
being all to each, yet he is all to all. This so
happens because the duty by which a man is all to
one, is not contrary to the duty by which a man is
all to another.
Man gives himself wholly by love, and gives
himself as much as he loves. He is therefore in a
sovereign manner given to God when he loves the
divine goodness sovereignly. And having once made
this donation of himself, he is to love nothing that
can remove his heart from God. Now never does any
love take our hearts from God, save that which is
contrary unto him.
Sara is not offended when she sees Ismael about
her dear Isaac, so long as his play does not go on to
striking and hurting the boy: and the divine goodness
is not offended by seeing in us other loves besides
his, so long as we preserve for him the reverence and
submission due to him.
In heaven, Theotimus, God will truly give himself
to us wholly, and not in part, since he is a whole
that has no parts, yet will he give himself in
different ways, and in as many different ways as
there are blessed souls. This will so happen because,
while giving himself all to all and all to each, he
will never give himself wholly either to one in
particular or to all in general.
Now we shall give ourselves to him, according to
the measure in which he gives himself to us: for we
shall see him indeed face to face, as he is in his
beauty; and shall love him heart to heart, as he is
in his goodness: yet all will not see him with an
equal clearness, nor love him with an equal
sweetness: but every one will see and love him,
according to the particular measure of glory which
the divine Providence has prepared for him.
We shall all equally have the fulness of divine
love, but still the fulnesses will be unequal in
perfection. The honey of Narbonne is sweet, and so
also is that of Paris: both of them are full of
sweetness, but the one of a better, more delicate and
richer sweetness: and though both of them are
entirely sweet, yet neither contains all sweetness.
I do homage to my sovereign prince, as also to my
immediate superior: I engage then to each of them all
my fealty, and I do not engage it to either of them
totally: for in that which I give to the sovereign, I
do not exclude that which I pay to the subaltern, and
in that of the subaltern, I do not include that of
the sovereign.
Wherefore it is no wonder that, if in heaven
(where these words, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, shall be so excellently
practised) there are great differences in love, in
this mortal life there should be many.
Theotimus, among those who love God with all their
heart not only do some love him more and some less,
but even one and the same person often exceeds
himself in this sovereign exercise of loving God
above all things.
Apelles did better one time than another,
sometimes he surpassed himself; for though commonly
he gave all his art and all his attention to painting
Alexander the Great, yet he did not always give them
so totally and entirely but that there remained other
efforts to make, in which he used not a greater art
or a greater affection but used them more actively
and perfectly. He always employed all his genius to
paint these pictures of Alexander well, because he
used it without reserve, yet sometimes he employed it
more effectively and happily. Who knows not that in
this holy love progress is possible, and that the end
of the Saints is crowned with a more perfect love
than their beginning?
Now according to the expression of the holy
Scriptures, to do a thing with all one's heart means
simply to do it with good heart and without reserve.
O Lord, says David, I have sought thee with my whole
heart. I have cried with all my heart, O Lord, hear
me,(1) and the holy Word testifies that he had truly
followed God with his whole heart; and yet,
notwithstanding this, it affirms also of Ezechias,
that after him there was none like him among all the
kings of Judah,(2) neither before nor after him, that
he was united to God and strayed not from him.
Afterwards treating of Josias it says that there was
no king before him like unto him that returned to the
Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and
with all his strength, according to all the law of
Moses, neither after him did there arise any like
him.(3)
Mark then, I pray you, Theotimus, mark how David,
Ezechias and Josias, loved God with all their hearts,
and yet not all three equally, because no one of them
had his like in this love, as the sacred text says.
All three loved him, each of them with all his heart;
yet, not one nor all together loved him totally, but
each one in his particular way; so that as all the
three were alike in this, that they gave each his
whole heart, so were they unlike in their manner of
giving it; yea, there is no doubt that David, to take
him by himself, was far different from himself in
this love; and that with his second heart which God
created pure and clean in him, and with his right
spirit which God renewed in his bowels by most holy
penitence, he sang the canticle of his love far more
melodiously than ever he had done with his first
heart and his first spirit.
All true lovers are equal in this, that all give all
their heart to God, and with all their strength, but
they are unequal in this, that they give it diversely
and in different manners, whence some give all their
heart, with all their strength, less perfectly than
others. This one gives it all by martyrdom, this, all
by virginity, this, all by poverty, this, all by
action, this, all by contemplation, this, all by the
pastoral office; and whilst all give it all by the
observance of the commandments, yet some give it with
less perfection than others.
Yea, even Jacob who was called in Daniel the holy
one of God,(4) and whom God declares himself to have
loved, protests that he had served Laban with all his
strength, and why did he serve Laban, but to obtain
Rachel, whom he loved with all his strength? He
serves Laban with all his strength, he serves God
with all his strength; he loves Rachel with all his
strength, he loves God with all his strength: yet
withal he loves not Rachel as God, nor God as Rachel;
he loves God as his God, above all things and more
than himself; he loves Rachel as his wife, above all
other women, and as himself. He loves God with an
absolutely and sovereignly supreme love; and Rachel
with a supreme nuptial love. Nor is the one love
contrary to the other, since that of Rachel does not
violate the privileges and sovereign prerogatives of
the love of God.
So that our love to God, Theotimus, takes its
worth from the eminence and excellence of the motive
for which, and according to which, we love him; in
that we love him for his sovereign infinite goodness,
as God, and because he is God.
Now one drop of this love is worth more, has more
power, and deserves more esteem, than all the other
loves that can ever enter into the hearts of men or
amongst the choirs of angels. For while this love
lives, it reigns and bears the sceptre over all the
affections, making God to be preferred in its will
before all things, indifferently, universally, and
without reserve.
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