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Love is the life of our heart, and as the weights
give movement to all the movable parts of a clock, so
love gives to the soul all the movements it has.
All our affections follow our love, and according
to it we desire, we rejoice, we hope, we despair, we
fear, we take heart, we hate, we avoid things, we
grieve, we get angry, we triumph. Do not we see that
men who have given up their heart as a prey to the
base and abject love of women have no desires but
according to this love, take no pleasure but in it,
neither hope nor despair but on this account, neither
dread nor undertake anything but for it, are neither
disgusted nor fly from anything save what diverts
them from it, are only troubled at what deprives them
of it, are never angry but from jealousy, never glory
but in this infamy.
The like may be said of those who love riches or
are ambitious of honours; for they become slaves to
that which they love, and have neither heart in their
breasts, nor soul in their hearts, nor affections in
their souls, save only for that.
When therefore divine love reigns in our hearts,
it royally brings to its empire all the other loves
of the will, and consequently all its affections,
because they naturally follow love; this done, it
tames sensual love, and bringing it to obedience,
brings also after it all the sensual passions. For,
in a word, this sacred love is the sovereign water,
of which our Saviour said: He that shall drink of the
water that I will give him, shall not thirst for
ever.(1)
No truly, Theotimus, he that has love in any
abundance, he shall neither have desire, fear, hope,
courage, nor joy but for God, and all his movements
shall be at rest in this one celestial love.
Divine love and self-love are in our hearts as
Jacob and Esau in the womb of Rebecca: they have a
very great antipathy and opposition to one another,
and continually struggle in the heart; whence the
poor soul cries out: Alas! wretched that I am, who
will deliver me from the body of this death, that the
sole love of my God may peaceably reign in me?
However, we must take courage, putting our trust
in our Saviour's word, who, commanding us to fight,
by his command promises victory to his love; and he
seems to say to the soul that which he caused to be
said to Rebecca: Two nations are in thy womb, and two
people shall be divided out of thy womb, and one
people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall
serve the younger.(2) For as Rebecca had only two
children in her womb, but because two peoples were to
descend from these was said to have two nations in
her womb, so the soul having two loves in her heart,
has consequently two great troops of motions,
affections and passions; and as the two children of
Rebecca by the contrariety of their movements made
her suffer great convulsions and pains, so the two
loves of our soul cause great travails to our heart.
And as it was said of her two children that the
elder should serve the younger, so has it been
ordained that of these two loves of our heart the
sensual shall serve the spiritual, that is, selflove
shall serve the love of God.
But when was it that the elder of those peoples
which were in Rebecca's womb served the younger?
Surely it was only when David overcame the Idumeans
in war, and Solomon ruled over them in peace. Oh!
when therefore shall it be that sensual love shall
serve Divine love? It shall then be, Theotimus, when
armed love, having become zeal, shall by
mortification subject our passions; and far better
then, when in heaven above, beatified love shall
possess our whole soul in peace.
Now the method by which Divine love is to subject the
sensual appetite is like to that which Jacob used
when, for a good presage and beginning of what was
afterwards to come to pass, he at the birth of Esau
held him by the foot, as it were to seize Esau's
right, supplant him and keep him down, or, as it
were, to keep him tied up after the manner of a bird
of prey, such as Esau was, being a hunter and a
terrible man.
For so holy love perceiving some passion or
natural affection rising in us, must presently take
it by the foot and bring it to its service. But what
is meant by taking by the foot? To bind and reduce it
to the service of God. Do you not see how Moses
transformed the serpent into a rod, simply taking it
by the tail? Even so, when we give a good end to our
passions they turn into virtues.
But what method are we then to observe in order to
bring our affections and passions into the service of
Divine love. The Methodic physicians have always this
aphorism in their mouths, - that contraries are cured
by their contraries; the Spagyrists have another
famous sentence opposed to this - that likes are
cured by their likes.
Howsoever it be, we know that two things make the
light of the stars disappear, - the obscurity of the
mists of night, and the light of the sun which is
stronger than theirs; and in like manner we fight
against passions, either by opposing to them contrary
passions, or by opposing stronger affections of their
own kind.
If some vain hope present itself unto me, my way
of resistance may be to oppose to it this just
discouragement: O foolish man! upon what foundation
do you build this hope? Do you not see that this
great man in whom you trust is as near to his grave
as thyself? Do you not know the instability, weakness
and imbecillity of the spirit of man? Today this
heart from which you expect something is thine,
tomorrow another will carry it away for himself: on
what then is this hope grounded?
I can also resist this hope by opposing to it a
more solid one. Hope in God, O my soul! for it is he
who delivers thy feet out of the snare; no man ever
hoped in him, and was confounded: fix thy designs
upon eternal and imperishable things.
In like manner one may combat the desire of riches
and temporal delights, either by the contempt they
merit or by the desire of immortal ones; and by this
means sensual and earthly love will be destroyed by
heavenly love, either as fire is extinguished by
water on account of the contrary qualities of water,
or as it is extinguished by fire from heaven, on
account of the stronger and overpowering qualities of
this.
Our Saviour makes use of both these methods in his
spiritual cures. He cures his disciples of worldly
fear by imprinting in their hearts a higher fear:
Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able
to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can
destroy both soul and body into hell.(3) When he
would another time cure them of a lower joy, he
assigned them a nobler one: Rejoice not, said he, in
this, that spirits are subject unto you: but rejoice
in this, that your names are written in heaven:(4)
and he himself casts out joy by grief: Woe to you
that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep.(5)
Thus does Divine love supplant and bring into
subjection the affections and passions, turning them
from the end to which self-love would sway them, and
applying them to its spiritual intentions. And as the
rainbow touching the herb aspalathus deprives it of
its own smell and gives it another far more
excellent, so sacred love touching our passions takes
from them their earthly end, and bestows a heavenly
one in its place.
The appetite for food is made very spiritual if
before gratifying it we give it the motive of love: -
Ah! no, Lord! it is not to content this wretched
stomach, nor to allay this appetite that I go to
table, but according to thy Providence to sustain
this body which thou hast given me subject to this
misery: yes, Lord! because it hath so pleased thee.
If I hope for a friend's assistance can I not say: O
Lord, thou hast so appointed our life, that we should
have to take help, comfort and consolation from one
another; and because so it pleases thee, I will use
this or that man whose friendship thou hast given me
to this end.
Is there some just occasion for fear? It is thy
will, O Lord, that I should fear, in order that I may
use fit means to avoid this trouble; I will do so, O
Lord, since such is thy good pleasure. If the fear be
excessive: Ah! O God, my eternal Father! what is it
that thy children, or the chickens which live under
thy wings can fear? so then, I will take the means
necessary to avoid the evil which I fear, but that
done, - Lord, I am thine, save thou me, if it be thy
pleasure, and what may befall me I will accept,
because such will be thy good pleasure. O holy and
sacred alchemy! O heavenly projection-powder! by
which all the metals of our passions, affections and
actions are converted into the most pure gold of
heavenly love.
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