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 some other meanes by which loue wounds the heart. CHAPTER. XIV.

1. NOthihg doth so much wound a louing heart, as to perceiue another heart woun∣ded with the loue of it. The Pellican builds her nest vpon the ground, whence serpents doe often sting her younglings. Now when this happens, the Pellican, as an excellent naturall Phisition, with the point of her beake doth woūd her poore younglings on euery side, to cause the poyson, which the Serpents sting had spred ouer all the

bodie, to depart with the blood; and to get out all the poison, she lets out all the blood and con∣sequently, permits the little troope of Pellicans, to perish in this sort; but seeing them dead she wounds her selfe, and spredding her blood ouer them, she doth reuiue them with a more new and pure life; her loue wounded them, and fourth∣with by the same loue, she wounds her selfe. Neuer doe we wound a heart with the wound of loue, but we our selues are straight wounded with the same. When the soule, sees her God wounded by loue, for her sake; she receiues from it a mortall wound. Thou hast wounded my heart, saied the heauenly Spouse to the Suna∣mite; and the Sunamite cries-out tell my well-be∣loued that I am wounded with loue. Bees neuer wound, but themselues are wounded to death. And we, seeing the Sauiour of our soules wounded by loue for vs to death, and death of the crosse, how can we but be wounded with him, yea I saie woun∣ded with a wound so much more dolorously a∣miable, as his was amiably dolorous, nor can we neuer loue him, as his loue, and death requi∣reth. There is yet another wound of loue, when the soule knowes well she loues God, and he treates her in such sort, as though he knew not she loued him; or were diffident of her loue: for then my deare, THEO: the soule is put into an extreame anguish it being insupportable vnto her, to see, or perceiue, any apparence that God distrusts in her. The poore S. PETER found his heart full of loue towards his Maister, and his Maister making shew not to know it; Peter quoth he dost thou

loue me more then these? Ah Lord saied the Apostle, thou knowest I loue thee. But Peter dost thou loue me, replied our Sauiour? My deare Maister, saied the Apostle truely I loue thee, thou knowest it. But this so cote Maister, to proue him, and as shewing a diffidence of his loue: Peeter, saied he, dost thou loue me? Ah Sauiour thou woundest this poore heart, who much afflicted cries out louingly, yet dolorously, Maister thou knowest all things, indeede thou knowest well I loue thee. Vpon a certaine day while a possessed person was exorcised, the wicked spirit being vr∣ged to tell his name. I am, quoth he, that accur∣sed creature DEPRIVED OF LOVE; and S. CATHA∣RIN, who was there present, sodenly perceiued all her bowells moued and disordered, in onely hauing heard these words, PRIVATION OF LOVE, pronounced for as the Diuels doe so hate the di∣uine loue that they quake in seeing the signe of it, hearing it named, that is, in seeing the crosse or be a rāg the name of IESVS pronoūced. So such as doe en∣tirely loue our Sauiour doe tremble with griefe ād horrour, when they see any signes, or seen by worde that doth brīg to mīd the priuatiō of this holy loue.

2. S. PETER was certaine that God who knew all, could not be ignorant how much he was loued by him: yet because the repetition of this de∣maund; Peter dost thou loue me? hath some ap∣parence of diffidence, S. PETER is much afflicted in it: Alas the poore soule that is resolued rather to die then offend her God, and yet feeles not a sparke of feruour, but contrariwise an ex∣treame coldnesse, which doth so benume and

weaken all her parts, that she frequently fals into very sensible imperfections: this soule, I saie, THEO: is all wounded; for her loue is exceeding dolourous, to see that God doth not seeme to see that she loues him, leauing her as one that apper∣taines not to him; and she apprehēds that amidst her defaults, distractions, and coldnesse, our Sa∣uiour doth strike her with this reproach: how can'st thou saie that thou loue'st me, seeing thy minde is not with me? which is as a dart of sor∣rowe through her heart; but a dart of sorrowe which proceedes from loue: for if she loued not, she would not be afflicted, with the apprehen∣sion she hath, that she loues not.

3. Sometimes loue doth wound vs in the very memorie we haue that there was a time in which we loued not our God. O how late I haue loued the auncient and new beautie, saied that Saint who for thirtie yeares was Hereticke. Life past is a horrour to his life present, who passed his life past without louing the Soueraigne Good∣nesse.

4. Sometimes loue doth wound vs, with the meere cōsideration of the multitude of those that doe contemne the loue of God; so that hereby we sownd with griefe, as he who saied, my Zeale, ô Lord, hath withered me with griefe, for that my enemyes haue not kept thy lawe. And the Great S. FRANCIS, thinking he had not bene heard, wept vpon a day, sobed, and lamented so pitiful∣ly, that an honest man ouer hearing him, ranne to his succour, as thinking some had offered to kill him, and finding him all alone, asked of him, why

dost thou crie so heard poore man? Alas, quoth he, I weepe, to thinke that our Sauiour endured so much for the loue of vs, and none thinkes of it; and hauing saied thus, he begun againe to weepe, and this good mā fell also a sobbing and weeping with him.

5. But howsoeuer this is admirable in the woundes receiued from the diuine loue, that their paine is delightfull; and all that feele it, consent to it, and would not change this paine for all the pleasures of the world. There is no paine in Loue, or if any, it is a beloued one. A Seraphin on a day holding a golden arrowe, from the heade whereof issued a little flame, he darted it into the heart of the B. Mother Teresa, and offering to drawe it out, this virgine seemed to haue her bowells drawen from her, the paine being so excessiue, that she had onely force to cast out weake and smale sighes; but yet it was a paine so amiable, that she desired neuer to be deliuered of it. Such was the arrowe that God sent into the heart of the great S. CATHARIN of Genua, in the beginning of her conuersion, whence she became another woman, dead to the world and things created, to liue onely to her Creatour. The well-beloued is a posie of bitter Myrrhe, and this posie is also the well-beloueds, who remaines dearely sea∣ted betwixt the breastes of his well-beloued, that is, the best-beloued of all the well-be∣loueds.