TREATISE ON THE LOVE OF GOD

 BOOK I. CONTAINING A PREPARATION FOR THE WHOLE TREATISE.

 Chapter I. That for the Beauty of Human Nature God has Given the Government of All the Faculties of the Soul to the Will

 Chapter II. How the Will Variously Governs the Powers of the Soul.

 Chapter III. How the Will Governs the Sensual Appetite.

 Chapter IV. That Love Rules over All the Affections, and Passions, and Even Governs the Will, Although the Will Has Also a Dominion over It.

 Chapter V. Of the Affections of the Will.

 Chapter VI. How the Love of God Has Dominion over Other Loves. 29

 Chapter VII. Description of Love in General.

 Chapter VIII. What Kind of Affinity (Convenance) It Is Which Excites Love.

 Chapter IX. That Love Tends to Union.

 Chapter X. That the Union to Which Love Aspires Is Spiritual.

 Chapter XI. That There Are Two Portions in the Soul, and How. 45

 Chapter XII. That in These Two Portions of the Soul There Are Four Different Degrees of Reason.

 Chapter XIII. On the Difference of Loves.

 Chapter XIV. That Charity May Be Named Love.

 Chapter XV. Of The Affinity There Is between God and Man. 54

 Chapter XVI. That We Have a Natural Inclination to Love God above All Things

 Chapter XVII. That We Have not Naturally the Power to Love God above All Things.

 Chapter XVIII. That the Natural Inclination Which We Have to Love God Is not Useless.

 THE SECOND BOOK. THE HISTORY OF THE GENERATION AND HEAVENLY BIRTH OF DIVINE LOVE.

 Chapter I. That the Divine Perfections Are Only a Single But Infinite Perfection.

 Chapter II. That in God There Is But One Only Act, Which Is His Own Divinity. 66

 Chapter III. Of the Divine Providence in General.

 Chapter IV. Of the Supernatural Providence Which God Uses towards Reasonable Creatures.

 Chapter V. That Heavenly Providence Has Provided Men with a Most Abundant Redemption.

 Chapter VI. Of Certain Special Favours Exercised by the Divine Providence in the Redemption of Man.

 Chapter VII. How Admirable the Divine Providence Is in the Diversity of Graces Given to Men.

 Chapter VIII. How Much God Desires We Should Love Him.

 Chapter IX. How the Eternal Love of God Prevents Our Hearts with His Inspirations in Order That We May Love Him.

 Chapter X. How We Oftentimes Repulse the Inspiration and Refuse to Love God.

 Chapter XI. That It Is no Fault of the Divine Goodness if We Have not a Most Excellent Love.

 Chapter XII. That Divine Inspirations Leave Us in Full Liberty to Follow or Repulse Them

 Chapter XIII. Of the First Sentiments of Love Which Divine Inspirations Cause in the Soul before She Has Faith.

 Chapter XIV. Of the Sentiment of Divine Love Which Is Had by Faith.

 Chapter XV. Of the Great Sentiment of Love Which We Receive by Holy Hope.

 Chapter XVI. How Love Is Practised in Hope.

 Chapter XVII. That the Love Which Is in Hope Is Very Good, Though Imperfect. 109

 Chapter XVIII. That Love Is Exercised in Penitence, and First, That There Are Divers Sorts of Penitence. 112

 Chapter XIX. That Penitence Without Love Is Imperfect.

 Chapter XX. How the Mingling of Love and Sorrow Takes Place in Contrition. 117

 Chapter XXI. How Our Saviour's Loving Attractions Assist and Accompany Us to Faith and Charity.

 Chapter XXII. A Short Description of Charity.

 BOOK III. OF THE PROGRESS AND PERFECTION OF LOVE.

 Chapter I. That Holy Love May Be Augmented Still More and More in Every One of Us.

 Chapter II. How Easy Our Saviour Has Made the Increase of Love.

 Chapter III. How a Soul in Charity Makes Progress in It.

 Chapter IV. Of Holy Perseverance in Sacred Love. 138

 Chapter V. That the Happiness of Dying in Heavenly Charity Is a Special Gift of God. 141

 Chapter VI. That We Cannot Attain to Perfect Union with God in This Mortal Life.

 Chapter VII. That the Charity of Saints in This Mortal Life Equals, Yea Sometimes Surpasses, That of the Blessed.

 Chapter VIII. Of the Incomparable Love Which the Mother of God, Our Blessed Lady, Had.

 Chapter IX. A Preparation for the Discourse on the Union of the Blessed with God.

 Chapter X. That the Preceding Desire Will Much Increase the Union of the Blessed with God.

 Chapter XI. Of the Union of the Blessed Spirits with God, in the Vision of the Divinity.

 Chapter XII. Of the Eternal Union of the Blessed Spirits with God, in the Vision of the Eternal Birth of the Son of God. 157

 Chapter XIII. Of the Union of the Blessed with God in the Vision of the Production of the Holy Ghost.

 Chapter XIV. That the Holy Light of Glory Will Serve for the Union of the Blessed Spirits with God.

 Chapter XV. That There Shall Be Different Degrees of the Union of the Blessed with God. 163

 Chapter I. That as Long as We Are in This Mortal Life We May Lose the Love of God.

 Chapter II. How the Soul Grows Cold in Holy Love.

 Chapter III. How We Forsake Divine Love for That of Creatures. 171

 Chapter IV. That Heavenly Love Is Lost in a Moment. 174

 Chapter V. That the Sole Cause of the Decay and Cooling of Charity Is in the Creature's Will. 176

 Chapter VI. That We Ought to Acknowledge All the Love We Bear to God to Be from God.

 Chapter VII. That We Must Avoid All Curiosity, and Humbly Acquiesce in God's Most Wise Providence.

 Chapter VIII. An Exhortation to the Amorous Submission Which We Owe to the Decrees of Divine Providence.

 Chapter IX. Of a Certain Remainder of Love That Oftentimes Rests in the Soul That Has Lost Holy Charity.

 Chapter X. How Dangerous This Imperfect Love Is.

 Chapter XI. A Means to Discern This Imperfect Love.

 BOOK V. OF THE TWO PRINCIPAL EXERCISES OF HOLY LOVE WHICH CONSIST IN COMPLACENCY AND BENEVOLENCE.

 Chapter I. Of the Sacred Complacency of Love and First of What It Consists.

 Chapter II. How by Holy Complacency We Are Made as Little Infants at Our Saviour's Breasts.

 Chapter III. That Holy Complacency Gives Our Heart to God, and Makes Us Feel a Perpetual Desire in Fruition.

 Chapter IV. Of the Loving Condolence by Which the Complacency of Love Is Still Better Declared. 207

 Chapter V. Of the Condolence and Complacency of Love in the Passion of Our Lord.

 Chapter VI. Of the Love of Benevolence Which We Exercise towards Our Saviour by Way of Desire.

 Chapter VII. How the Desire to Exalt and Magnify God Separates Us from Inferior Pleasures, and Makes Us Attentive to the Divine Perfections. 215

 Chapter VIII. How Holy Benevolence Produces the Praise of the Divine Well-Beloved. 217

 Chapter IX. How Benevolence Makes Us Call All Creatures to the Praise of God.

 Chapter X. How the Desire to Praise God Makes Us Aspire to Heaven.

 Chapter XI. How We Practise the Love of Benevolence in the Praises Which Our Saviour and His Mother Give to God.

 Chapter XII. Of the Sovereign Praise Which God Gives unto Himself, and How We Exercise Benevolence in It.

 BOOK VI. OF THE EXERCISES OF HOLY LOVE IN PRAYER.

 Chapter I. A Description of Mystical Theology, Which Is No Other Thing Than Prayer.

 Chapter II. Of Meditation the First Degree of Prayer or Mystical Theology.

 Chapter III. A Description of Contemplation, and of the First Difference That There Is between It and Meditation.

 Chapter IV. That Love in This Life Takes Its Origin but Not Its Excellence from the Knowledge of God.

 Chapter V. The Second Difference between Meditation and Contemplation.

 Chapter VI. That Contemplation Is Made Without Labour, Which Is the Third Difference between It and Meditation.

 Chapter VII. Of the Loving Recollection of the Soul in Contemplation. 251

 Chapter VIII. Of the Repose of a Soul Recollected in Her Well-Beloved.

 Chapter IX. How This Sacred Repose Is Practised. 257

 Chapter X. Of Various Degrees of This Repose, and How It Is to Be Preserved. 259

 Chapter XI. A Continuation of the Discourse Touching the Various Degrees of Holy Quiet, and of an Excellent Abnegation of Self Which Is Sometimes Prac

 Chapter XII. Of the Outflowing (escoulement) or Liquefaction of the Soul in God 265

 Chapter XIII. Of the Wound of Love.

 Chapter XIV. Of Some Other Means by Which Holy Love Wounds the Heart. 272

 Chapter XV. Of the Affectionate Languishing of the Heart Wounded with Love.

 BOOK VII. OF THE UNION OF THE SOUL WITH HER GOD, WHICH IS PERFECTED IN PRAYER.

 Chapter I. How Love Effects the Union of the Soul with God in Prayer.

 Chapter II. Of the Various Degrees of the Holy Union Which Is Made in Prayer. 286

 Chapter III. Of the Sovereign Degree of Union by Suspension and Ravishment.

 Chapter IV. Of Rapture, and of the First Species of It. 294

 Chapter V. Of the Second Species of Rapture.

 Chapter VII. How Love Is the Life of the Soul, and Continuation of the Discourse on the Ecstatic Life.

 Chapter VIII. An Admirable Exhortation of S. Paul to the Ecstatic and Superhuman Life. 304

 Chapter IX. Of the Supreme Effect of Affective Love, Which Is the Death of the Lovers and First, of Such As Died in Love. 307

 Chapter X. Of Those Who Died by and for Divine Love.

 Chapter XI. How Some of the Heavenly Lovers Died Also of Love.

 Chapter XII. Marvellous History of the Death of a Gentleman Who Died of Love on Mount Olivet.

 Chapter XIII. That the Most Sacred Virgin Mother of God Died of Love for Her Son.

 Chapter XIV. That the Glorious Virgin Died by and Extremely Sweet and Tranquil Death.

 BOOK VIII. OF THE LOVE OF CONFORMITY, BY WHICH WE UNITE OUR WILL TO THE WILL OF GOD, SIGNIFIED UNTO US BY HIS COMMANDMENTS, COUNSELS AND INSPIRATIONS.

 Chapter I. Of the Love of Conformity Proceeding from Sacred Complacency.

 Chapter III. How We Are to Conform Ourselves to That Divine Will Which Is Called the Signified Will.

 Chapter IV. Of the Conformity of Our Will to the Will Which God Has to Save Us. 332

 Chapter V. Of the Conformity of Our Will to That Will of God's Which Is Signified to Us by His Commandments.

 Chapter VI. Of the Conformity of Our Will to That Will of God Which Is Signified unto Us by His Counsels. 337

 Chapter VIII. That the Contempt of the Evangelical Counsels Is a Great Sin.

 Chapter IX. A Continuation of the Preceding Discourse. How Every One, While Bound to Love, Is Not Bound to Practise, All the Evangelical Counsels, and

 Chapter X. How We Are to Conform Ourselves to God's Will Signfied unto Us by Inspirations, and First, of the Variety of the Means by Which God Inspire

 Chapter XI. Of the Union of Our Will with God's in the Inspirations Which Are Given for the Extraordinary Practice of Virtues and of Perseverance in

 Chapter XII. Of the Union of Man's Will with God's in Those Inspirations Which Are Contrary to Ordinary Laws and of Peace and Tranquility of Heart, S

 Chapter XIII. Third Mark of Inspiration, Which Is Holy Obedience to the Church and Superiors. 359

 Chapter XIV. A Short Method to Know God's Will. 362

 Chapter I. Of the Union of Our Will to That Divine Will Which Is Called the Will of Good-Pleasure.

 Chapter II. That the Union of Our Will with the Good-Pleasure of God Takes Place Principally in Tribulations.

 Chapter III. Of the Union of Our Will to the Divine Good-Pleasure in Spiritual Afflictions, by Resignation. 371

 Chapter IV. Of the Union of Our Will to the Good-Pleasure of God by Indifference. 373

 Chapter V. That Holy Indifference Extends to All Things.

 Chapter VI. Of the Practice of Loving Indifference, in Things Belonging to the Service of God.

 Chapter VII. Of the Indifference Which We Are to Have As to Our Advancement in Virtues.

 Chapter VIII. How We Are to Unite Our Will with God's in the Permission of Sins.

 Chapter IX. How the Purity of Indifference is to Be Practised in the Actions of Sacred Love. 388

 Chapter X. Means to Discover When We Change in the Matter of This Holy Love. 390

 Chapter XI. Of the Perplexity of a Heart Which Loves Without Knowing Whether It Pleases the Beloved.

 Chapter XII. How the Soul amidst These Interior Anguishes Knows Not the Love She Bears to God: and of the Most Lovefull Death of the Will. 395

 Chapter XIII. How the Will Being Dead to Itself Lives Entirely in God's Will. 398

 Chapter XIV. An Explanation of What Has Been Said Touching the Decease of Our Will.

 Chapter XV. Of the Most Excellent Exercise We Can Make in the Interior and Exterior Troubles of This Life, After Attaining the Indifference and Death

 Chapter XVI. Of the Perfect Stripping of the Soul Which Is United to God's Will.

 BOOK X. OF THE COMMANDMENT OF LOVING GOD ABOVE ALL THINGS.

 Chapter I. Of the Sweetness of the Commandment Which God Has Given Us of Loving Him Above All Things.

 Chapter II. That This Divine Commandment of Love Tends to Heaven, Yet Is Given to the Faithful in This World.

 Chapter III. How, While the Whole Heart Is Employed in Sacred Love, Yet One May Love God in Various Ways, and Also Many Other Things Together with Him

 Chapter IV. Of Two Degrees of Perfection with Which This Commandment May Be Kept in This Mortal Life.

 Chapter V. Of Two Other Degrees of Greater Perfection, by Which We May Love God Above All Things.

 Chapter VI. That the Love of God Above All Things Is Common to All Lovers.

 Chapter VII. Explanation of the Preceding Chapter.

 EXPLANATION OF THE PRECEDING CHAPTER.

 Chapter VIII. A Memorable History to Make Clearly Understood in What the Force and Excellence of Holy Love Consist. 430

 Chapter XI. How Holy Charity Produces the Love of Our Neighbour. 440

 Chapter XIII. How God Is Jealous of Us.

 Chapter XV. Advice for the Direction of Holy Zeal.

 Chapter XVI. That the Example of Certain Saints Who Seem to Have Exercised Their Zeal with Anger, Makes Nothing against the Doctrine of the Preceding

 THAT THE EXAMPLE OF CERTAIN SAINTS WHO SEEM TO HAVE EXERCISED THEIR ZEAL WITH ANGER, MAKES NOTHING AGAINST THE DOCTRINE OF THE PRECEDING CHAPTER.

 Chapter XVII. How Our Lord Practised All the Most Excellent Acts of Love.

 BOOK XI. OF THE SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY WHICH SACRED LOVE HOLDS OVER ALL THE VIRTUES, ACTIONS AND PERFECTIONS OF THE SOUL.

 Chapter I. How Agreeable All Virtues Are to God.

 Chapter II. That Divine Love Makes the Virtues Immeasurably More Agreeable to God than They Are of Their Own Nature.

 Chapter III. That There Are Some Virtues Which Divine Love Raises to a Higher Degree of Excellence than Others.

 Chapter V. How Love Spreads Its Excellence Over the Other Virtues, Perfecting Their Particular Excellence. 475

 Chapter VI. Of the Excellent Value Which Sacred Love Gives to the Actions Which Issue from Itself and to Those Which Proceed from the Other Virtues. 4

 Chapter VII. That Perfect Virtues Are Never One without the Other.

 Chapter VIII. How Charity Comprehends All the Virtues.

 Chapter IX. That the Virtues Have Their Perfection from Divine Love. 489

 Chapter X. A Digression upon the Imperfection of the Virtues of the Pagans.

 Chapter XI. How Human Actions Are Without Worth When They Are Done without Divine Love.

 Chapter XII. How Holy Love Returning into the Soul, Brings Back to Life All the Works Which Sin Had Destroyed.

 Chapter XIII. How We Are to Reduce All the Exercise of Virtues, and All Our Actions to Holy Love.

 Chapter XIV. The Practice of What Has Been Said in the Preceding Chapter.

 THE PRACTICE OF WHAT HAS BEEN SAID IN THE PRECEDING CHAPTER.

 Chapter XV. How Charity Contains in It the Gifts of the Holy Ghost. 509

 Chapter XVI. Of the Loving Fear of Spouses a Continuation of the Same Subject.

 Chapter XVII. How Servile Fear Remains Together with Holy Love. 514

 Chapter XVIII. How Love Makes Use of Natural, Servile and Mercenary Fear.

 Chapter XIX. How Sacred Love Contains the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost, together with the Eight Beatitudes of the Gospel.

 Chapter XX. How Divine Love Makes Use of All the Passions and Affections of the Soul, and Reduces Them to Its Obedience.

 BOOK XII. CONTAINING CERTAIN COUNSELS FOR THE PROGRESS OF THE SOUL IN HOLY LOVE.

 Chapter I. That Our Progress in Holy Love Does Not Depend on Our Natural Temperament.

 Chapter II. That We Are to Have a Continual Desire to Love.

 Chapter III. That to Have the Desire of Sacred Love We Are to Cut Off All Other Desires.

 Chapter IV. That Our Lawful Occupations Do Not Hinder Us from Practicising Divine Love. 538

 Chapter V. A Very Sweet Example on This Subject.

 Chapter VI. That We Are to Employ in the Practice of Divine Love All the Occasions That Present Themselves.

 Chapter VII. That We Must Take Pains to Do Our Actions Very Perfectly. 542

 Chapter VIII. A General Means for Applying Our Works to God's Service. 543

 Chapter IX. Of Certain Other Means by Which We May Apply Our Works More Particularly to the Love of God.

 Chapter X. An Exhortation to the Sacrifice Which We Are to Make to God of Our Free-Will.

 Chapter XI. The Motives We Have of Holy Love.

 Chapter XII. A Most Useful Method of Employing These Motives.

 Chapter XIII. That Mount Calvary Is the Academy of Love. 554

Chapter VI. Of the Excellent Value Which Sacred Love Gives to the Actions Which Issue from Itself and to Those Which Proceed from the Other Virtues. 478

OF THE EXCELLENT VALUE WHICH SACRED LOVE GIVES TO THE ACTIONS WHICH ISSUE FROM ITSELF AND TO THOSE WHICH PROCEED FROM THE OTHER VIRTUES.

But you will say to me, what is this value, I pray you, which holy love gives to our actions? Oh! Theotimus, verily I should not have the assurance to say it, if the Holy Ghost himself had not declared it in most express terms by the great Apostle S. Paul, who speaks thus: What is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.[1] For God's sake, let us ponder these words. Our tribulations, which are so light that they pass in a moment, work for us the solid and stable weight of glory. I beseech you, behold these wonders! Tribulation produces glory, lightness gives weight, and moments work eternity. But what is it that can give such power to these fleeting moments and light tribulations? Red purple, or fine crimson violet is a most precious and royal cloth, yet not by reason of the wool but of the colour. The works of good Christians are of such worth that heaven is given us for them; but, Theotimus, it is not because they proceed from us and are the wool of our hearts, but because they are dyed with the blood of the Son of God,—I mean because our Saviour sanctifies our works by the merits of his blood. The vine-sprig, united and joined to the stock, brings forth fruit not by its own power but in virtue of the stock. Now we are united by charity unto our Redeemer as members to their head, and hence it is that our fruits and good works, drawing their worth from him, merit life everlasting. Aaron's rod was dry, and incapable by itself of bringing forth fruit; but as soon as the name of that great high priest was written upon it, in one night it brought out its leaves, its flowers and its fruits.[1] We of ourselves are withered branches, unprofitable, fruitless, not sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also hath made us fit 479ministers,[1] and able to do his will, and therefore as soon as by holy love the name of our Saviour, the great bishop of our souls, is engraven in our hearts, we begin to bear delicious fruits unto life everlasting. And as seeds which of themselves would only bring forth insipid melons, would bring forth sugared and musked ones, if they were steeped in sugared or mucked water; so our souls, which of themselves are not able to produce one single good thought towards God's service, being steeped in sacred love by the Holy Ghost who dwells within us, produce sacred actions, which tend towards and carry us to immortal glory. Our works as proceeding from ourselves are but frail reeds; but these reeds become golden by charity, and with the same we measure the heavenly Jerusalem, which is given us by that measure:[1] for as well to men as to angels, glory is distributed according to charity and its actions. So that the measure used by men and that used by angels is the same,[1] and God has rendered and will render to every man according to his works,[1] as all the divine Scripture teaches us, assuring us of the felicity and eternal joys of heaven in reward of the labours and good works which we have performed on earth.

A magnificent reward, and one that savours of the Master's greatness whom we serve. He indeed, Theotimus, if so he had pleased, might most justly have exacted our obedience and service without proposing unto us any salary or hire at all, because we are his by a thousand most legitimate titles, and because we can do nothing of worth save what is in him, by him, for him, and from him. Yet his goodness has not disposed thus, but, in consideration of his Son, our Saviour, has willed to treat with us at a set price, receiving us for hire, and engaging himself by promise to pay us, according to our works, eternal wages. Nor is it that our service can either be necessary or profitable unto him, for when we shall have accomplished all his commands, we are yet to avow with most humble truth or most true humility that indeed we are most unprofitable servants, and utterly useless to our Master, who by reason of his essential 480superabundance of riches can have no profit by us; but, converting all our works to our own advantage and good, he ordains that we shall serve him with as little profit to him as there is much to us, who by such small labours gain such great rewards.

He was not bound to pay us for our service if he had not given his promise to do so. But do not think, Theotimus, that he would so manifest his goodness in this promise as to forget to glorify his wisdom; yea, on the contrary, he most exactly observed the rules of equity, mingling seemliness (bienseance), with liberality in an admirable manner; for though our works are indeed very small and in no wise comparable with glory by their matter, yet in regard to their quality they are very proportionate thereunto, by reason of the Holy Ghost, who, by charity dwelling in our hearts, works in us with so exquisite an art, that the same works which are wholly ours are still more wholly his, since he produces them in us as we again produce them in him, he does them for us as we do them for him, he operates them with us as we co-operate with him.

Now the Holy Ghost dwells in us if we be living members of Jesus Christ, who therefore said unto his disciples: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit;[1] and this, Theotimus, is because he that abides in him is made partaker of his divine Spirit, which is in the midst of man's heart as a fountain of living water springing up unto life everlasting.[1] So the holy oil which was poured upon our Saviour as upon the head of the Church militant and triumphant, spreads itself over the society of the Blessed, who as the sacred beard of this heavenly Master are continually attached to his glorious face, and runs down upon the company of the faithful, who as garments are joined and united by love to his Divine Majesty; and both companies, as being composed of brethren of the same family, have reason to cry out: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity: like the precious ointment on the head, that ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, which ran down to the skirt of his garments.[1]

Our works, therefore, as a little grain of mustard-seed, are in 481no sort comparable in greatness to the tree of glory which they produce, yet they have the vigour and virtue to produce it, because they proceed from the Holy Spirit, who by an admirable infusion of his grace into our hearts makes our works his, and yet withal leaves them our own, since we are members of a head of which he is the Spirit, and ingrafted in a tree whereof he is the divine sap. And as he thus acts in our works, and we after a certain manner operate or co-operate in his action, he leaves us for our part all the merit and profit of our services and good works, and we again leave him all the honour and praise thereof, acknowledging that the commencement, the progress, and the end of all the good we do depends on his mercy, by which he has come unto us and prevented us, has come into us and assisted us, has come with us and conducted us, finishing what he had begun. But, O God! Theotimus, how merciful is his goodness to us in thus distributing his bounty! We give him the glory of our praise, forsooth! and he gives us the glory of possessing him. In fine, by these light and passing labours we obtain goods which endure for all eternity. Amen.