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 wound of loue. CHAPTER. XIII.

1. All these termes of loue are drawne from a certaine resemblance, which is be∣twixt the affections of the minde and the passions of the bodie. GRIEFE, FEARE, HOPE, HATRED, and the rest of the affections of the soule, enters not into the heart, but when loue doth drawe thē after it. We doe not hate euill, but because it is contrarie to the Good which we loue. We feare future euill, because it will depriue vs, of the good we loue. Though an euill be extreame, yet doe we neuer hate it, but according to the opposition it hath to the good which is deare vnto vs. He that doth not much affect the Commonwealth, is not much troubled to see it ruin'd. He that doth not much loue God, doth also not much hate sinne. LOVE is the first, yea the Source and origine of all the Passions. And therefore it is LOVE that first en∣ters the heart; ād because it doth penetrate, ād that well nigh to the very bottome of the will, where his seate is, we saie, he wounds the heart. It is sharp-pointed, saieth the Apostle of France, and enters the heart most deeply; the other affections doe also enter, but by the meanes of loue; for it is he that pearcing the heart makes passage. The onely point of the dart woundeth, the rest of it doth but enlarge the wound and encrease paine.

2. Now if it wound, it doth consequently put vs to paine. Pomegranats by their vermillion co∣lour, by the multitude of their cornes so close set and rancked, and by their faire crownes, liuely re∣presēting, as S. GREGORIE saieth, most holy Chari∣tie all redde, by reasō of her ardour towards God, crowned with the varietie of all vertues, and who alone doth beare away the crowne of eternall re∣ward's, but the iuice of Pomegranats, which as we know is so delightfull as well to the sound, as sicke, is so compounded of sweete and soure, that one can hardly discerne, whether it delights the taste more by it's sweetish tartnesse or tarte sweete¦nesse. Verily, THEOT: Loue is in like sorte bit∣ter-sweete, and while we liue in this world, it hath neuer a sweetenesse perfectly sweete, because it is not perfect, or euer purely saciated, and satisfied: and yet it leaues not to be maruelous agreeable, to the tartnesse thereof, correcting the Lusshious∣nesse of it's sweetenesse, as the sweetenesse there∣of, sharpens the delight of it's tartenesse. But how can this be? there haue bene young men seene en∣ter into conuersation free, sound, and frolicke, who not taking care of themselues, plainely per∣ceiued lōg before they could get cleare, that loue, making vse of glaunces, gestures, words, yea of the haire of a weake and fraile creature, as of so many darts, had smote and wounded their poore hearts, so that you shall see them sorrowfull, sad, and dismaied. Why I praie you are they sorrow∣full? With out doubt, because they are wounded; and who hath wounded them? LOVE: but loue being the child of Complacence, how can it

wounde, and aggreeue? Sometimes the beloued obiect is absent, and then, my deare THEO: Loue woundes the heart by the desire which it excits, which while it cannot be saciated, it doth much torment the mind.

3. If a Bee had stung a child, it were to sweete pourpose to saie to him, ô my child, the very Bee that stung thee, is the same that makes the honie which likes thee so well; for it is true, might it re∣plie, her honie is very pleasant to my taste, but her sting is painefull: and while her sting stikes in my cheake, I shall neuer be at rest: and doe you not marke, that my face is all swollen with it? THEO: Loue is indeede a Complacence, and by consequence very delightfull, so that it leaues not in our heart the sting of desire, for when it leaues it, there is left with it a great paine: True it is this paine proceedes from loue, and therefore is an amiable, and beloued paine. Heare the painfull, yet louelie eiaculations of a royall Louer. My soule thrisleth after her strong and liuing God. Ah! when shall I come, and appeare before the face of my God? my teares haue bene bread to me night and day while it is saied vnto me, where is thy God? And the sacred Sunamite wholy pos∣sessed with dolorous loues, speaking to the daughters, Alas, saieth she, I coniure you: if you meete my beloued, tell him my griefe, because I languish with the wound of loue. Delaied hope afflicts the soule.

4. Now the painfull wounds of loue are of di∣uers sorts, 1. The first touches that loue giues our heart, are called wounds, because the heart that

was sound, entire, and it's owne before it loued, being strook with loue, begins to separate and di∣uide it selfe from it selfe, to giue it selfe to the be∣loued obiect: nor can this separation be made without paine, seeing paine is no other thing then a separation of liuing things that were vnited. 2. Desire doth incessantly sting and wound the heart in which it is lodged. 3. TAEO: speaking of hea∣uenly loue, in the practise of it, there is a kind of wound giuen by God himselfe to the soule which he will perfect: for he giues her admirable fee∣lings and incomparable touches of his soueraigne goodnesse, as pressing and soliciting her to loue him, and then she forcibly bears herselfe vp, as to soare higher, towards her diuine obiect: but light∣ing short, not being able to loue with propor∣tion to her desire: ô God she feeles a paine with∣out paragon. At the same instant that she is po∣werfully drawen, to flie towards her deare and well beloued, she is powerfully retained, and can∣not flie, as being chained to the seruile miseries of this mortall life, and out of her owne impotencie she wisheth the winge of the doue, to flie to her repose, but finds it not. So that she is roughly tormented betwixt the violencie of her desires, and her owne impotencie: ô miserable wretch that I am, saied one of those that had tried this tormēt, who will deliuer me from the bodie of this death? And then, if you marke it, THEO: it is not the desire of a thing absent that doth wound the heart; for the soule perceiues that her God is present, he had already led her into his wine celler, planted vpon her heart the banner of loue; but howbeit

though already he see her wholy his, he vrgeth her, and from time to time toucheth her with a thousand thousand darts of his loue, shewing her by new meanes, how much more louely he is, then he is beloued. And she who hath not so much force to loue, as loue to force her selfe, seeing her forces so weake in respect of the desire she hath to loue him worthily, to whose worth no force of loue can reach: alas she finds her selfe stroock with an incomparable torment: for in the same measure that she sobbs out more deeply the longings of her coueting loue, the panges of her paine are augmented.

5. This heart in loue with God, desiring infi∣nitly to loue, sees notwithstanding that it can nei∣ther loue, nor desire sufficiently. Now this vnac∣complished desire, is as a dart in the breast of a ge∣nerous spirit: yet the paine which proceedes from it is amiable, because, whosoeuer desires earnest∣ly to loue, loues also earnestly to desire. And would esteeme himselfe the most miserable man aliue, if he did not continually desire to loue, that which is so soueraignely good. Desiring to loue he receiues delight, but louing to desire, he is paied with paine.

6. Good God, THEOT: what am I going to saie? The Blessed in heauen, seeing that God is more to be beloued then they loue him, would sownd, and eternally perish with a desire to loue him more, if God's holiest will did not impose vpon theirs, the admirable repose which they en∣ioye: for they so soueraignely loue this soueraigne will, that the desire thereof doth quiet theirs and

God's contentment doth content them, being willing to be limited in their loue, euen by that will, whose Goodnesse is the obiect of their loue. If this were not, their loue would be equally de∣licious and dolourous: delicious, by the posses∣sion of so great a good; dolourous through an extreame desire of a greater loue. God therefore continually drawing arrowes, if we may saie so, out of the quiuer of his infinite beautie, wounds the hearts of his Louers, making them clearely see, that they doe not loue him nigh so much, as he is worthy to be beloued. what mortall soeuer desires not to loue the Diuine goodnesse more, loues him not enough; sufficiencie in this diuine exercise, doth not suffise him that will make a stand in it, as though it suffised him.