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

Of a certaine remainder of loue which oftentimes stayes in the soule, that hath lost Charitie. CHAPTER. IX.

1. THe life of a man who languishing on his deathes bed, by little and little decaies, doth hardly deserue to be termed life, sith that, though it be life, yet is it so mingled with death, that it is hard to saie, whether it is a death as yet liuing, or a life dying. Alas! how pitifull a spe∣ctacle it is THE: but farre more lamentable is the state of a soule, which vngratfull to her Sauiour goes hourely backward, withdrawing her-selfe from God's loue, by certaine degrees of indeuo∣tion, and disloyaltie, till at length hauing quite forsaken it, she is left in the horrible obscuritie of perdition: and this loue which is in it's declining and which fades, and perisheth, is called imperfect loue, because though it be entire in the soule, yet seemes it not to be entirely; that is, it hardly keepes in the soule any longer, but is vpon the point of forsaking it. Now Charitie being separated from

the soule by sinne, there remaines oftentimes a certaine resemblance of Charitie, which doth de∣ceiue and put vs into a vaine muse; and I will tell you what it is. Charitie while it is in vs, produceth many actions of loue towards God, by the fre∣quent exercise whereof, our soule gets a habit, and custome of louing God, which is not Charitie, but onely an impression and inclination, which the multitude of actions leaues in our hearts.

2. After a long habit of preaching or saying Masse deliberatly, it happens often, that in drea∣ming we vtter and speake the same things, which we would saie in preaching or celebrating, so that custome and habit acquired by election, and ver∣tue, is in some sort, afterward practised without election, or vertue, sith the actions of such as sleepe, generally speaking, haue nothing of vertue, saue onely an apparent image, and are onely the similitudes or representations thereof. So charitie by the multitude of actes which she produceth doth imprīt in vs a certaine facilitie to loue, which she leaues in vs, euē after we are depriued of her pre¦sence. I remember when I was a young scholler that in a village neare Paris, there was a certaine well with an ECHO, which would repeate the words that we pronoūced by it, diuers times. And if some Idiote without experience, had heard this repetition of words, he would haue beleeued that there had bene some bodie in the botome of the well, who had done it. But we had euen then knowen by Philosophie, that none was in the well, to reiterate our words, but that there were onely certaine concauities, in some one whereof

our voices were assembled, ād not finding through passage, least they might altogether perish, and not imploy the force that was left them, they produced secōd voices; ād they gathering together in an other cōcauitie, produced a third, the third a fourth, ād so consequetly to the eleauenth, so that those voices heard in the well, were not now our voices, but resemblances and images of the same. And indeede there was a great difference betwixt our voices, and those: For when we made a long continuance of words, we had but some few of them rendred by the ECHO, shortning the pronunciation of syllables, which she slightly passed ouer, with tones and accents quite different from ours; nor did she begin to forme her words, till we had quite pronounced them. In fine they were not words of a liuing man, but as one would saie the words of any emptie, and vaine Rocke, which notwithstanding did so well counterfeit man's voice, whence she sprung, that a simple bodie, would haue bene misled and beguiled by her.

3. Now this is it that I would saie when holy CHARITIE meets a pliable soule, wherein she doth long reside she produceth a second loue, which is not a loue of Charitie, though it issue from Cha∣ritie, but it is a humane loue which is yet so like to Charitie, that though she leaues behind, this her picture, and likenesse which doth so represent her, that one who were ignorant would be decei∣ued therein; not vnlike to the birds on Zeuxis his painted raysins, which they deemed to be true raysins, so generally had Art imitated nature!

And yet there is a faire difference betwixt Chari∣tie, and humane loue which she doth beget in vs: for the voice of Charitie doth pronoūce, denoūce, and worke in our hearts Gods Commandments, humane loue which remaines after her, doth in∣deede pronounce the commandments, and denounceth sometimes all of them, yet doth neuer effect them all, but some few onely: Charitie doth pronounce, and put together all the sillables, that is, all the circumstances of Gods comman∣dments: humane Loue alwayes leaues out some of them: especially straightnesse, and puritie of in∣tention: and as for the tone, Charitie takes it al∣wayes at an equall hight, sweete and delightfull; humane Loue takes it still either to high in terrene things or to low in celestiall; and neuer sets vpon his worke, till Charitie haue ended hers: for so long as charitie is in the soule, she serues her selfe of this humane loue, as of her Creature, and makes vse of him to facilitate her operations; so that in that interim, the workes of this loue, as of a seruant, belong to Charitie his Mistresse. But Charitie flitting the actions of this loue are enti∣rely his owne, not hauing their estimation, and worth from Charitie; for as Eliseus his stafe, in his absence, though in the hand of his seruant Geizi, who receiued it from him, wrought no miracle, so actions done in the absence of Charitie, by the onely habit of humane loue, are of no value or mi∣rite, to eternall life, though he learned them of charitie, being but her seruant. And this comes thus to passe, because this humane loue in the ab∣sence of Charitie, hath not any supernaturall

strength, to raise the soule to the excellent action of the loue of God aboue all things.