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 the commiseration and Complacence of loue in our Sauiours Passion. CHAPTER. V.

1. VVHen I see my Sauiour vpon the moūt Oliuet, with his soule, sad euen to

death; O Lord I••SVS, saie I, who could haue borne these sorrowes of death, in the soule of life, if not loue, who mouing commiseration drew thereby our miseries into thy soueraigne heart. Now a deuote soule, seeing this abisse of sorrow and distresse in this Diuine louer, how can she be without a holily louing griefe? But considering on the other side, that none of these her well-be∣loued's afflictions proceede from any imperfectiō, or want of force, but from the greatnesse of his most deare loue she cannot but melt with a holily dolorous loue: so that she cries out, I am blacke with griefe by compassion, but I am faire with loue, by Complacence; the anguishes of my well-beloued, haue changed my hew; for how can a faithfull louer see him so tormented, whom she loues more then her life, without becomming ap∣palled, withered and dried vp with griefe? No∣mades tents, perpetually exposed to the outrage of weather and warrs are almost still beaten, and couered with dust, and I open to sorrows, which by commiseration I receiue, from the excessiue suffrances of my diuine Sauiour, I am quite coue∣red with anguishe, and split with griefe: but be∣cause his griefes whom I loue, proceede from his loue, as much as they afflict me by compassion, they delight me by Complacence: For how must not a faithfull louer needes haue an extreme cōtēt to see her selfe so much beloued of her heauenly Spouse! And hence the beautie of loue appears in the foulenesse of griefe. And though I weare mourning weedes for the Passion and death of my King, deformed and blacked with griefe, yet am

I not without an incomparable delight, to be∣hold the excesse of his loue, amidst the panges of his sorrowes. And the tents of SALOMON bro∣dered, and wrought with an incomparable diuer∣sitie of worke, was neuer so goodlie, as I am con∣tent, and consequently, sweete, amiable, and a∣greeable, in the varietie of the essaies of loue, which I feele amongst these griefes. Loue doth e∣qualize the louers: ah! I see this deare louer, who is a burning fire, in a thornie bush of griefe; and euen so I, I am wholy inflamed with loue amōgst the thornie thickets of sorrow; I am a Lillie enui∣roned with thornes; doe not onely looke vpon the horrours of my pinching griefes, but behold the agreeable beautie of my loues. Alas this Diuine well-beloued louer doth suffer insupportable griefes, this it is that toucheth my heart, and makes me sound with anguish: but he takes plea∣sure in suffering, he loues his torments, and dies with ioye, to die with griefe for me: wherefore as I greeue in his griefe, so am I rauished with ioye in his loue; I doe not onely sorrow with him, but glorie in him.

2. It was this loue THEO: that drew the Stig∣mats vpon the louing Seraphicall S. FRANCIS; and vpon the louing Angelicall S. CATHERINE of Scienna, the vrgent wounds of her Sauiour; the louing Complacence, hauing sharpened the point of the dolourous compassion, as honnie make the bitternesse of Wormewoode more pearcing and sensible: as cōtrariwise, the daintie smell of Roses is refined by the neighberhoode of Garlike, which is planted neare the Rose-trees: for so the louing

Complacence, which we haue taken in the loue of our Sauiour makes the compassion which we haue of his dolours more forcible; as also passing from the compassion of sorrowes, to the complacence of loues, we take a more ardent, and high content. Then the griefe of loue, and the loue of griefe is practised; then the amourous compassion, and do∣lourous complacence, as another ESAV and IACOB, striuing who should striue more, puts the soule into incredible conuultions and agonies, and as it were an extasie amourously dolorous, and dolou∣rously amourous. And according to this, the great soules of S. FRANCIS, and S. CATHERINE, felt in∣comparable loues: in their dolours, and match∣lesse dolours in their loues, when they were stig∣matized, perceiuing loue ioyfull to endure for a friend, which our Sauiour exercised in the highest degree vpō the tree of the Crosse. Thus is the pre∣cious vnion of our soule with God made, which as a mysticall Beniamin is a child of griefe ād loue to∣gether.

3. It cannot be expressed, THEO: how much our Sauiour desires to enter into our soules by way of this dolourous Complacence. Alas, saieth, he, open me the dore, my deare sister, my friend, my doue, my all-faire, for my head is all to be∣dewed, and my heires with the dropes of the night. What is this dewe, what are these dropes of the night, but the paines, and torments of his Passion? Pearles, (as we haue many times saied) are no other thing then dewie dropes, which the nights freshnesse shewers downe vpon the face of the sea, receiued in the shelles of Oysters, or mother-pearles.

Ah! would the diuine louer of the soule saie, I am! oden with the paines, and sweat of my passion, which almost all passed either in the dark∣nesse of the night, or in the night of darknesse, which the eclipsed sunne caused at the hight of the day. Open then thy heart towards me, as the mo∣ther-pearle doth hers towards heauen, and I will poure downe vpon thee, the dewe of my passion, which shall turne into pearles of consolation.