And to be still more certain, he shall further add:That although he knew that through God's justice he were to be hereafter damned eternally, and remain in this life in continual aridity, yet, notwithstanding, he would rather choose to persist in this Abnegation and Resignation, and so to serve God, than otherwise enjoy all liberty and pleasure, internal and external. If he speaks this from his heart, and really mean it, he shall, besides the aforesaid imagelessness or freedom of all created things, perceive in his soul a divine Light and Clarity, which will continually raise him up above himself into God. But if he cannot speak this from his heart, he may truly persuade himself that he doth not yet love God so purely as to be elevated out of himself, without any intermedium-sine medio-into God. For as Abnegation and Resignation produceth in the soul a nakedness and clarity, so doth this pure love raise and lift itself up into God; for such is the property of love, and especially of this pure love, which is altogether clear and unmixed.

And although this man should have said to himself all that we have here put down for a sign of pure love, and did still perceive thereby little or no clarity in his soul, he must believe himself to be yet possessed with self-love, though covertly; or at least deem that his love of God is not so pure as is here required; and therefore, he must diligently search his interior, and consider well his intention, to wit:-What he chiefly intends and aims at in his exercises, and whether his exercise be

wholly God, or rather some internal moving or gust of the sensible part, or else some image, light, or knowledge infused into some of his internal powers which he receiveth as coming from God, but dare not adore as God Himself; and whether in the mean time he rests and adheres thereunto, having no other knowledge of God; and whether he fears to lose the same, and having lost it (which often happens) is troubled and vexed, and prone to turn himself to external comforts and to creatures,—an evident sign of self-love. Besides, he shall perceive that in his conversion to God he is always picturing himself to himself, and looking on himself, and that very grossly. For although his object be somewhat divine, yet because he seeks and enjoys it for himself, and rests therein, therefore he himself becomes the object of his own thoughts. Likewise, he shall find that thereby he is not led to his own nothingness, but remains continually in himself with little or no progress. And if any one finds that he thus seeks and intends himself in God, not loving Him with pure love, he must know that as long as he continueth in this way he can never be elevated above himself, nor attain to God after this highest

1

He may be freed from all

manner, whereof we now treat. exterior creatures, and also from himself, having left himself for God; but he is not thereby gone into God, but to the gifts of God to which he adheres, and likewise unto himself; and so he cannot be carried out of himself into the hidden essence of God. This want of

pure love many a one hath, unknown to himself, although he do practise the aforesaid Abnegation and Resignation out of a good intention for God.

Such a one may be compared to a bird that is loose and free and able to flee where she lists, but remains willingly captive in the cage, because she is therein fed, and will not fly forth though the door be open to her, through a foolish fear she hath that, being forth in the air, she should not be so certain of her food. So this man, through an abnegation of all creatures, and resignation of himself to God, hath the way open to God, but he remains yet willingly captive in his senses; because therein he enjoys a sensible comfort, without which he will not live, and which he thinks he shall not find out of himself in God. Wherefore, for such a one to come to God by pure love, he must, through aridity and desolation, be forced and, as it were, be driven into a perfect conformity to God; like the aforesaid bird, who, when her meat is taken from her, is forced to leave the cage and fly into the air, and trust to her finding nourishment there.

If, however, the soul wishes to help herself to arrive yet sooner at God, she shall take into her consideration some moving reason, as the divine worthiness, of which St. Augustine saith :-' He loveth Thee, O Lord, less than is befitting Thee who loveth anything but Thee, or what is not loved for Thee. And truly, who loveth God for His gifts loveth not God, but himself.' For, as saith St. Bernard:-' all that which you

seem to love for another, you really love not, but that whither the end of the love tendeth; not that through which it tendeth.' This pure love is also commanded us in the Gospel, where He will have us to love Him with all one's soul, with all one's power.* Whereupon saith St. Gregory:It is to be diligently noted that the divine word, when it commands God to be loved, doth not only teach us with what love, but also with what measure we must love Him, when it saith, with one's whole heart.' To which perfect love ought most of all to move us, the pure love through which God gave His Son unto us, of Whom it is written, God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son :† the pure and great love of God the Son, also, Who suffered so great and grievous torments, and lastly, such an ignominious and painful death for us; for greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.‡ And again, He testifieth His love to us to be such as His heavenly Father's is to Him:-As the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you.§ And what greater purity of love can there be than that which is betwixt the heavenly Father and His Son?

Fifth Treatise.

OF THE CHOICEST MAXIMS OF MYSTICAL DIVINITY.

Whosoever shall follow this rule, peace on them and mercy. Gal. vi. 16.

MAXIMS OF MYSTICAL DIVINITY.

THE FIRST MAXIM.

That our End is Perfection and Divine Union; and that Prayer is the Way to it.

1. It is not sufficient for us, who are resolved

upon a The spi- spiritual course, to lead an ordinary good life,

ritual man

divine

must aim at which consists in the avoiding of sin and scanunion. dal, and in the punctual performance of our external duty to God and our neighbour; but our end and aim must be to attain the perfection of God's holy love, and a happy union of our souls with their first beginning, by living in abstraction, recollection, and perpetual contemplation, so far as God's holy Spirit shall enable us and our frailty can correspond.

And for

this end make use of

2. The chief means to attain this end is prayer, without which all religion is but a shadow withprayer. out a body, or a body without a soul; and all outward observances will prove but a superficial, not a real, devotion. For it is the constant doctrine of di