02.10. Of the fourth degree of love

10. Of the fourth degree of love

Howblessedis he who reaches the fourth degree oflove, wherein oneloveshimself only inGod! Thyrighteousnessstandeth like thestrongmountains, OGod. Suchloveas this is God’shill, in the which it pleaseth Him to dwell. “Who shall ascend into thehillof theLord?” “O that I hadwingslike adove; for then would Ifleeaway and be atrest.” “AtSalemis Histabernacle; and His dwelling inSion.” “Woe is me, that I amconstrainedto dwell with Mesech!” (Psalms 24:3; Psalms 55:6; Psalms 76:2; Psalms 120:5). When shall thisfleshandblood, this earthenvesselwhich is my soul’stabernacle, attain thereto? When shall mysoul, rapt withdivineloveand altogether self- forgetting, yea, become like a brokenvessel, yearn wholly forGod, and, joined unto theLord, be one spirit with Him? When shall she exclaim, “Myfleshand myheartfaileth; butGodis thestrengthof myheartand my portion for ever” (Psalms 73:26).

I would count him blessed and holy to whom such rapture has been vouchsafed in this mortal life, for even an instant to lose thyself, as if thou wert emptied and lost and swallowed up in God, is no human love; it is celestial. But if sometimes a poor mortal feels that heavenly joy for a rapturous moment, then this wretched life envies his happiness, the malice of daily trifles disturbs him, this body of death weighs him down, the needs of the flesh are imperative, the weakness of corruption fails him, and above all brotherly love calls him back to duty. Alas! that voice summons him to re-enter his own round of existence; and he must ever cry out lamentably, “O Lord, I am oppressed: undertake for me” (Isaiah 38:14); and again, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).

Seeing that the Scripture saith, God has made all for His own glory (Isaiah 43:7), surely His creatures ought to conform themselves, as much as they can, to His will. In Him should all our affections center, so that in all things we should seek only to do His will, not to please ourselves. And real happiness will come, not in gratifying our desires or in gaining transient pleasures, but in accomplishing God’s will for us: even as we pray every day: “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). O chaste and holy love! O sweet and gracious affection! O pure and cleansed purpose, thoroughly washed and purged from any admixture of selfishness, and sweetened by contact with the divine will! To reach this state is to become godlike. As a drop of water poured into wine loses itself, and takes the color and savor of wine; or as a bar of iron, heated red-hot, becomes like fire itself, forgetting its own nature; or as the air, radiant with sunbeams, seems not so much to be illuminated as to be light itself; so in the saints all human affections melt away by some unspeakable transmutation into the will of God. For how could God be all in all, if anything merely human remained in man? The substance will endure, but in another beauty, a higher power, a greater glory. When will that be? Who will see, who possess it? “When shall I come to appear before the presence of God?” (Psalms 42:2). “My heart hath talked of Thee, Seek ye My face:

Thy face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalms 27:8).

Lord, thinkest Thou that I even I shall see Thy holytemple? In thislife, I think, we cannot fully and perfectly obey thatprecept, “Thou shaltlovetheLordthyGodwith all thyheart, and with all thysoul, and with all thystrength, and with all thy mind” (Luke 10:27). For here theheartmust take thought for the body; and thesoulmust energize theflesh; and thestrengthmustguarditself from impairment. And by God’sfavor, mustseekto increase. It is thereforeimpossibleto offer up all our being toGod, to yearn altogether for His face, so long as we must accommodate our purposes and aspirations to these fragile,sicklybodies of ours. Wherefore thesoulmayhopeto possess the fourth degree oflove, or rather to bepossessedby it, only when it has beenclothedupon with thatspiritualandimmortalbody, which will beperfect,peaceful,lovely, and in everything wholly subjected to the spirit. And to this degree no human effort can attain: it is in God’spowerto give it to whom He wills. Then thesoulwill easily reach that highest stage, because nolustsof thefleshwill retard its eagerentranceinto thejoyof itsLord, and notroubleswill disturb itspeace. May we not think that the holy martyrsenjoyedthisgrace, in some degree at least, before they laid down their victorious bodies? Surely that was immeasurablestrengthoflovewhich enraptured theirsouls, enabling them tolaughat fleshlytormentsand to yield their lives gladly. But even though the frightfulpaincould notdestroytheirpeaceofmind, it must have impaired somewhat itsperfection.