A treatise of the loue of God. Written in french by B. Francis de Sales Bishope and Prince of Geneua, translated into English by Miles Car priest of the English Colledge of Doway

How loue is practised in hope. CHAPTER. XVI.

1. MAns vnderstanding being conueniently applied to the consideratiō of that which faith representeth touching it's soueraigne good, presently vpon it, the will conceiues an extreame, delight in this diuine obiect which then being ab∣sent, begets an ardent desire of it's presence, whēce the soule holily cries out, let him kisse me with a kisse of his mouth.

To God it is I doe aspire God is all my hearts desire.

And as the vnhoodded Hawke hauing got her pray at view, doth sodainely lanch her selfe vpon the winge, and being held in her leash strugles vpon the hand with extreame ardout; so faith ha∣uing drawen the vaile of ignorance, and made vs see our soueraigne good, of which neuerthelesse we cannot yet be possessed, retained by the con∣dition of this mortall life; alas THEO: we then de∣sire it in such sort, that

The long time chased Hart In panting flight oppress't Doth not the floods so much desire; As our poore hearts distress't To thee ô Lord aspire. Our sicklie hearts bring out Desires that still augment, And crie alas, when shall it be, O God of Hostes omnipotent, That we thy face shall set?

This desire is iust, THEO: for who would not de∣sire so desirable a good? But this desire would be vnprofitable, yea would be a continuall torment to our heart, if we had not assurāce that we should at length satiate it, he, who, because he was de∣laied in the possession of this happinesse, protested that his teares were his ordinarie bread night and day, so long as his God was absent, and his ene∣mies demanded where is thy God, Alas what would he haue done, if he had not had some hope one day to enioye this good after which he sighed. The Diuine spouse, wailes and pines with loue, be∣cause she doth not readily find out the well-be∣loued she searcheth for. The loue of the well-be∣loued had bred in her a desire: that desire begot an ardour to pursue it: and that ardour, caused in her a languishment, which had consumed, and annihilated her poore heart, vnlesse she had hoped at length to meete with that she pursued: So then

least the vnrest, and dolourous langour which the essaies of coueting loue causeth in our soules, might make vs quaile in courage or carrie vs to dispare, the same souueraigne good, which moues in vs so vehement a desire, doth also giue vs assurance, that we may with ease obtaine it, by a thousand thousand promisses which he giues vs therof in his holy word and by his inspirations, alwayes prouided, that we will imploy the meanes he hath prepared for vs, and which he offers vs to this effect.

2. Now these diuine promises and assurances, by a particular miracle encrease the cause of our disquiete, and according to that augmentation, they ruinate and destroy the effects; yea verily THEO. for the assurance which GOD giues vs, that Paradice is for vs, doth infinitly fortifie the desire we haue to enioye it, and yet doth weaken, yea al∣together distroy the trouble and disquiet which this desire brought vnto vs, so that our hearts, by the promises which the diuine goodnesse hath made vs, remaine quieted, and this quiete is the roote of the most holy vertue, which we call hope. For the will assured by faith, that she hath power to enioye the soueraigne good, vsing the meanes appointed, makes two great acts of vertue; by the one, she expects from God the fruition of his soueraigne goodnesse, by the other, she aspires to that holy fruition.

3. And indeede THEO: betwixt hoping and as∣piring, there is but this difference, that we hope for things which we expect by an others assistance, and we aspire vnto those things which we thinke

to atchiue of our selues, by our owne endeuours: and for so much as we attaine the fruition of our soueraigne good, which is GOD, by his fauour, grace and mercy; and that notwithstanding the saied mercy will haue vs cooperate with his fa∣uours, by contributing the weaknesse of our con∣sent, to the strength of her grace; our hope is thence in some sort mixed with aspiration, so that we doe not altogether hope without aspiring, nor doe we euer aspire without altogeither hopeing, in which, hope keeps the principall place, as being founded vpon heauenly grace: without which like as we cannot euen so much as thinke of our soue∣raigne good in such sort as we ought to arriue there; so can we neuer without hope in a compe∣tent manner aspire to the obtaining of it.

4. Our aspiration then is a young shoot of hope, as is our cooperation of grace, and as those that would hope without aspiring, would be re∣iected as degenerous and negligent, so those that should aspire without hopeing would be rash, in∣solent, and presumptious: but when hope is se∣conded with aspiration, and that hopeing we as∣pire, and aspiring we hope, then deare THEO: hope by aspiration becomes a couragious desine, and aspiration is changed by hope into an humble pretention while we hope and aspire as GOD shall inspire vs. Howbeit as well the one as the other is caused by the coueting loue, tending, to our soueraigne good, which by how much more sure∣ly it is hoped for, by so much it is more affected: yea hope is no other thing then a complacence of loue, which we take in the expectation and pre∣tention

of our soueraigne good. All that is there is loue TH. As soone as faith had showe me my soue∣raigne good I loued it, which because it was ab∣sent, I desired it, and hauing vnderstood that he would bestow himselfe vpon me, I loued and desi∣red him yet more ardently; ād indeede his bountie is so much more to be beloued, ād desired, by how much it is more prone to cōmunicate it selfe. Now by this progresse loue turned his desire into hope, pretention and expectation, so that hope is a pre∣tending and attending loue, and because the soue∣raigne good which hope expects, is God, whom also she doth not expect but from God himselfe, to whom and by whom she doth hope and aspire, this holy vertue of hope bounded on euery side by God, is by consequence a diuine or Theologicall vertue.