St. Paul witnesseth that all outward hardships, and all pains of the flesh, and all bodily labours, are as nothing when compared with love, which purifieth and brighteneth the heart: “Bodily diligence is of little profit; but a sweet and clean heart is profitable to all things.” “Though I know,” saith he, “all the tongues of men and angels; and though I inflicted upon my body all the pains, and all the sufferings that a body could endure; and though I gave poor men all that I had; unless I had therewith love to God and to all men, in him and for him, it were all lost.” For as the holy abbot Moyses saith, “All the pain and all the hardships that we suffer in the flesh, and all the good we do — all such things are but as tools with which to cultivate the heart. If the axe did not cut, nor the spade delve, nor the ploughshare plough, who would care to have them?” In like manner, as no man loveth tools for themselves, but for the things which are done with them, so, no pain of the flesh is to be loved, unless on this account, that God may the sooner regard this with his grace, and make the heart pure and of clear sight; which none can have with an intermixture of vices, nor with earthly affection towards the things of the world — for this mixing so distorts the

eyes of the heart that it cannot know God, nor be glad at his sight. “A pure heart,” as St. Bernard saith, “doth two things, it maketh thee to do whatever thou doest, either for the love of God only, or for the good or benefit of another.” In all that thou doest, have one of these two intents, or both together, for the latter coincides with the former. Keep thy heart always thus pure, and do all that thou wilt. Have a perverse heart, and every thing is evil with thee. The apostle saith, “Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled is nothing pure.” And St. Austin, “Have charity and do whatsoever thou wilt, that is, by the will of reason.” Wherefore, my dear sisters, endeavour, above all things, to have a pure heart. What is a pure heart? I have told you before: it is that ye neither desire nor love any thing but God only, and those things, for God, that assist you to come to him. I say ye are to love them for God, and not for themselves — as food and clothing, and man or woman from whom ye receive benefits; for, as St. Austin saith, and speaketh thus to our Lord, “Lord, she loveth thee less who loveth any thing but thee, unless she love it for thee.” Pureness of heart is the love of God only. In this is the whole strength of all religious professions, and the end of all religious orders. “Love fulfilleth the law,” saith St. Paul. “All God’s commands,” as St. Gregory saith, “are rooted in love.” Love alone shall be laid in St. Michael’s balance. They who love most shall be most blessed, not they who lead the most austere life, for love outweigheth this. Love is heaven’s steward, on account of her great liberality, for she retains nothing for herself, but giveth all that she hath, and even herself, otherwise God would not esteem any of the things that were hers.

God hath deserved our love in every way. He hath done much for us, and hath promised more. A great gift attracts love, and he gave us much. He gave us the whole world in our father Adam. And all that is in the world he cast under our feet—beasts and fowls, before we had sinned. “Thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, moreover the beasts also of the field, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea,” etc. And besides, as has been already said, all that is serveth the good, to the profit of the soul: moreover, the earth, the sea, and the sun serve the evil. He did yet more: he gave us not only of his own things, but he gave us himself. So noble a gift was never given to such abject wretches. The apostle St. Paul saith, “Christ so loved his spouse that he gave for her the price of himself.” Observe carefully, my dear sisters, why we ought to love him. First, as a man that wooeth — as a king that loved a lady of a distant land, and sent before him his ambassadors to her, which were the patriarchs and the prophets of the Old Testament, with sealed letters. At last he came himself, and brought the Gospel, as letters opened, and wrote with his own blood salvation to his beloved as a love-greeting, to woo her with, and to obtain her love. To this belongs a tale, and a lesson under the cover of a similitude.

There was a lady who was besieged by her foes within an earthen castle, and her land all destroyed, and herself quite poor. The love of a powerful king was, however, fixed upon her with such boundless affection, that to solicit her love he sent his ambassadors, one after another, and often many together, and sent her jewels both many and fair, and supplies of victuals, and the aid of his noble army to keep her castle. She received them all as a careless creature, that was so hard-hearted that he could never get any nearer to her love. What wouldest thou more? He came himself at last and sheaved her his fair face, as one who was of all men the most beautiful to behold; and spoke most sweetly, and such pleasant words, that they might have raised the dead from death to life. And he wrought many miracles, and did many wondrous works before her eyes, and sheaved her his power, told her of his kingdom, and offered to make her queen of all that belonged to him. All this availed nothing. Was not this disdain a marvellous thing? For she was never worthy to be his scullion. But, through his goodness and gentleness, love so overmastered him that he at last said, “Lady, thou art attacked, and thy enemies are so strong that, without help of me, thou canst not by any means escape their hands, so that they may not put thee to a shameful death. I will, for the love of thee, take upon me this fight, and deliver thee from those who seek thy death, yet I know assuredly that among them I shall receive a mortal wound, and I will gladly receive it to win thy heart. Now then, I beseech thee, for the love that I shew thee, that thou love me, at least after being thus done to death, since thou wouldst not in my life-time.” This king did so in every point. He delivered her from all her enemies, and was himself grievously maltreated, and at last slain. But, by a miracle, he arose from death to life. Would not this lady be of a most perverse nature, if she did not love him, after this, above all things?

This king is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who in this manner wooed our soul, which the devils had besieged. And he, as a noble wooer, after many messengers, and many good deeds, came to prove his love, and sheaved by his knightly prowess that he was worthy of love, as knights were sometimes wont to do. He engaged in a tournament, and had, for his lady’s love, his shield everywhere pierced in battle, like a valorous knight. This shield which covered his godhead was his dear body, that was extended on the cross, broad as a shield above, in his outstretched arms, and narrow beneath, because, as men suppose, the one foot was placed upon the other foot. That this shield had no sides is to signify that his disciples, who ought to have stood by him and be his sides, all fled from him and forsook him as an alien, as the Gospel saith, “They all forsook him and fled.” This shield is given us against all temptations, as Jeremiah testifieth, “Thou shall give them a buckler of heart, thy labour.” And the Psalmist, “Thou hast crowned us as with a shield of thy good will.” This shield defends us not only from all evils, but doth yet more, it crowneth us in heaven. “O Lord,” saith David, “with the shield of thy good will.” For, willingly did he suffer all that he suffered. Isaiah saith, “He was offered because it was his own will.” But, “O Lord,” thou sagest, “why?” Could he not have delivered us with less trouble? Yes, indeed, full easily, but he would not. Wherefore? To take away from us every excuse for not loving him who redeemed us at so dear a price. Men buy for an easy price a thing for which they care little. He bought us with his heart’s blood, a dearer price there never was, that he might draw out of us our love toward him which cost him so dear.

There are three things in a shield, the wood, the leather, and the painting. So was there in this shield; the wood of the cross, the leather of God’s body, and the painting of the red blood which stained it so fully. Again, the third reason. After the death of a valiant knight, men hang up his shield high in the church, to his memory. So is this shield, that is the crucifix, set up in the church, in such a place in which it may be soonest seen, thereby to remind us of Jesus Christ’s knighthood, which he practised on the cross. His spouse beholdeth thereon how he bought her love, and let his shield be pierced, that is, let his side be opened to shew her his heart, and to shew her openly how deeply he loved her, and to draw her heart to him. Four principal kinds of love are found in this world. The first is between virtuous friends; the second is between man and woman; the third, between a woman and her child; the fourth, between body and soul. The love which Jesus Christ hath to his dear spouse surpasseth them all four, and excelleth them all. Do not men account him a good friend who layeth his pledge in Jewry to release his companion? God Almighty laid himself in Jewry for us, and gave up his precious body to release his spouse out of the hands of the Jews. Never did friend give such a surety for his own friend. There is much love often between man and woman. But, although she were married to him, she might become so depraved, and might so long be unfaithful to him with other men, that though she were willing to return to him, he would not receive her. And therefore Christ loveth more; for though the soul, his spouse, should be unfaithful to him with the fiend of hell, in mortal sin many years and days, his mercy is ever ready for her, whensoever she will come to him, and renounce the devil.

All this he saith himself by Jeremiah, “If a man put away his wife and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord.” He still saith all the day, “Thou who hast done so wickedly, turn thee and come again, welcome shalt thou be to me.” “He even runneth to meet her returning,” and immediately throweth his arms about her neck. What greater mercy can there be? Yet here is a more joyful wonder. Though his spouse were polluted with so many deadly sins, as soon as she cometh to him again, he maketh her again a virgin. “For,” as St. Austin saith, “so great a difference is there between God’s communion with the soul, and man’s with woman, that man’s communion maketh of a maiden a wife, and God maketh of a wife a maiden.” “He hath given me again,” saith Job, “all that I had before.” These two things, good works and true faith, are maidenhood in the soul. Now, concerning the third kind of love: If a child had a disease of such a nature, that a bath of blood were required for him before he could be healed, that mother must love him greatly who would make this bath for him with her own blood. Our Lord did this for us who were so sick with sin, and so defiled with it, that nothing could heal us or cleanse us but his blood only; for so he would have it; his love made us a bath thereof; blessed may he be for ever! He prepared three baths for his dear spouse, in which to wash herself so white and so fair that she might be worthy of his pure embraces. The first bath is baptism; the second is tears, inward and outward, after the nature of the first bath, if she defile herself with sin; the third bath is the blood of Jesus Christ, that sanctifieth both the other two, as St. John saith in the Apocalypse, “Who loved us and washed us in his own blood;” that is, he loved us more than any mother doth her child. He saith this himself by Isaiah, “Can a mother forget her child? and though she do, I can never forget thee:” and he then telleth the reason why, “I have painted thee,” saith he, “in my hands.” He did so with red blood upon the cross. A man ties a knot upon his belt, that he may be reminded of any thing; but our Lord, that he might never forget us, made a mark of piercing in both his hands. Now concerning the fourth love. The soul loveth the body very greatly, and that is easily seen in their separation; for dear friends are sorry when they must separate. But our Lord, of his own accord, separated his soul from his body, that he might join our body and soul together, world without end, in the blessedness of heaven. Thus, behold how the love of Jesus Christ toward his dear spouse, that is, holy church, or the pure soul, surpasseth and excelleth the four greatest loves that are found on earth! With all this love he still wooeth her in this manner.

Thy love, saith our Lord, is either to be altogether freely given, or it is to be sold, or it is to be stolen and taken by force. If it is to be given, where couldst thou bestow it better than upon me? Am not I the fairest thing? Am not I the richest king? Am not I of the noblest birth? Am not I the wisest of the wealthy? Am not I the most courteous of men? Am not I the most liberal of men? For it is commonly said of a liberal man that he cannot withhold anything — that he hath his hands, as mine are, perforated. Am not I of all things the sweetest and most gentle? Thus, thou mayest find in me all the reasons for which love ought to be given, especially if thou lowest chaste purity; for no one can love me except she retain that. If thy love is not to be given, but thou wilt by all means that it be bought, do say how. Either with other love, or with somewhat else? Love is rightly sold for love; and so love ought to be sold, and for nothing else. If thy love is thus to be sold, I have bought it with love that surpasseth all other love. For, of the four principal kinds of love I havemanifested toward thee the chiefest of them all. And if thou sagest that thou wilt not set so light a value upon it, but thou wilt have yet more, name what it shall be. Set a price upon thy love. Thou shalt not say so much that I will not give thee for thy love much more. Wouldest thou have castles and kingdoms? Wouldest thou govern the whole world? I will do better for thee. In addition to all this, I will make thee queen of heaven. Thou shalt be sevenfold brighter than the sun; no disease shall harm thee; nothing shall vex thee; no joy shall be wanting to thee; all thy will shall be done in heaven and in earth; yea, and even in hell. Heart shall never think of such great felicity, that I will not give more for thy love, immeasurably and infinitely more — all the wealth of Crcesus — and the fair beauty of Absalom, who, as often as his hair was polled the clippings were sold—the hair that was cut off — for two hundred shekels of silver; the swiftness of Asahel, who strove in speed with a hart; the strength of Samson, who slew a thousand of his enemies at one time, and alone, without a companion; Cæsar’s liberality; Alexander’s renown; the dignity of Moses. Would not a man, for one of these, give all that he possessed? And all these things together, compared with my offer, are not worth a needle. And, if thou art so obstinately self-willed and void of understanding, that thou, without losing anϋ thing, refusest such gain, with every kind of felicity, Lo! I hold here a sharp sword over thy head, to divide life and soul, and to plunge both into the fire of hell, to be there the devil’s paramour, disgracefully and sorrowfully, world without end. Now answer me, and defend thyself against me if thou canst, or grant me thy love, which I so earnestly desire, not for my own, but for thy own great behoof.

Lo! thus doth our Lord woo: and is not she too hard-hearted that such a wooer cannot turn her love to him, and especially if she reflect upon these three things: what he is, and what she is, and how great is the love of one so exalted as he is toward one so low as she is. Wherefore, the Psalmist saith, “There is no one who may withdraw herself so that she may not love him.” The true sun in the morning tide ascended up on the high cross for the purpose of diffusing the warm rays of his love over all; so earnestly solicitous was he, and is to this day, to kindle his love in the heart of his beloved; and he saith in the Gospel, “I came,” saith he, “to bring fire into the earth, that is, burning love into earthly hearts, and

what else do I desire but that it blaze?” Lukewarm love is loathsome to him, as he saith by St. John in the Apocalypse: “I would,” saith he to his beloved, “that thou wert, in my love, either altogether cold, or hot withal; but because thou art as if lukewarm, between the two, neither cold nor hot, thou makest me to loathe, and I will vomit thee out, except thou become hotter.”

My dear sisters, ye have now heard how, and for what reason, God is greatly to be loved. To kindle this love in you rightly, gather wood for that purpose, with the poor woman of Sarepta, the town the name whereof signifieth kindling. “Lord,” saith she to Elijah the holy prophet, “behold I am gathering two sticks.” These two sticks betoken that one stick which stood upright, and that other also of the precious cross, which went athwart it. With these two sticks ye ought to kindle the fire of love within your hearts. Look often upon them. Think whether ye ought not joyfully to love the King of Glory, who so stretches out his arms toward you, and bows down his head as if to offer you a kiss. Of a truth I say unto you that if the true Elijah, which is God Almighty, find you diligently gathering those two sticks, he will make his abode with you, and multiply in you his precious grace; as Elijah did to the poor woman whom he found gathering two sticks at Sarepta, who supplied her with food, and became her guest.

Greek fire is made of the blood of a red man, and it is said that nothing can quench it but urine, and sand, and vinegar. This Greek fire is the love of our Lord, and ye shall make it of the blood of a red man, which is, Jesus Christ reddened with his own blood on the cross. And he was ruddy also naturally, as it is believed. This blood, shed for you on the painful two sticks, shall make you Sareptians; that is, inflame you with this Greek fire, that, as Solomon saith, no waters, which are worldly temptations, nor tribulations, neither internal nor external, can quench this love. Now, then, nothing remains, but to keep yourselves cautiously from every thing that quenches it, namely urine, and sand, and vinegar. Urine is stench of sin. On sand nothing good groweth, and it betokeneth idleness; and idleness cooleth and quencheth this fire. Be always active and alive to good works, and this will warm you and kindle this fire in opposition to the flame of sin. For, as one nail driveth out another, so doth the flame of the love of God drive the fire of foul desire out of the heart. The third thing is vinegar, that is, a heart sour with malice and hatred. Understand this saying: when the malicious Jews offered our Lord this sour present on the cross, then said he that sorrowful word,” It is finished!” “Never till now,” said he, “were my sufferings complete;” not through the vinegar, but through their hateful malice, which that vinegar betokeneth, which they made him drink. And this is as if a man who had laboured long, and, after his painful toil, had been at last disappointed of his hire. Thus, our Lord, more than two-and-thirty years, toiled for their love, and for all his painful labour desired nothing but love as hire; yet, at the end of his life, which was, as it were, in the evening, when men pay workmen their day’s hire, behold how they paid him! instead of balm of sweet honey-love, vinegar of sour malice, and gall of bitter hatred. “Oh,” said our Lord then, “it is finished!” All my toil on earth, and all my pain on the cross, does not at all grieve nor distress me in comparison of this — that for this I have done all that I have done. This vinegar that ye offer me, this sour requital, completeth my sufferings. This vinegar of a sour heart and of bitter thanks, more than all other things, quencheth Greek fire, that is, the love of our Lord; and she who beareth it in her breast toward man or toward woman is the Jew’s mate. She is still offering to God this vinegar, and completing, for her part, his sufferings on the cross. Men cast Greek fire upon their foemen, and thus conquer them; and ye should do the same when God raiseth up any war against you from any enemy. Solomon teacheth you how ye ought to throw it, “If thy foe is hungry, give him food; and if he is athirst, give him to drink;” which meaneth that if, after having done thee harm, he is hungry or thirsty, give him the food of thy prayers that God may have mercy upon him; and give him the drink of tears. Weep for his sins. Thus thou shalt, saith Solomon, heap on his head burning coals: that is to say, thus thou shalt enkindle his heart that he shall love thee; for, in Holy Scripture, by head we are to understand heart. In this manner will God say, in the day of judgment, “Why lovedst thou that man or that woman? “ “Lord, because they loved me.” “Yea,” he will say, “thou didst pay what thou owedst: in this case I have not much to repay thee.” But, if thou canst answer and say, “Lord, I loved them for thy sake;” he owes thee that love, because it was given to him, and he will repay it thee.

Urine, which, as I said before, quencheth Greek fire, is stinking carnal love that quencheth spiritual love, which Greek fire betokeneth. What flesh on earth was so sweet and so holy as that of Jesus Christ? And yet, he said himself to his dear disciples, “Unless I depart from you, the Holy Ghost, which is mine and my Father’s love, cannot come to you; but, when I am gone from you, I will send him unto you.” Since Jesus Christ’s own disciples, while they loved him in the flesh, being nigh him, did not possess the sweetness of the Holy Ghost, and could not have both together —judge yourselves, is not he or she mad who loveth too much her own flesh, or any man carnally, so that she desire too fondly to see him, or to speak with him? Let her never wonder though she have not the consolation of the Holy Spirit. Let every one choose now between earthly and heavenly comfort, to which of the two she will keep; for she must relinquish one of them, because in the mingling of these two she can never have pureness of heart; which is, as we said before, the goodness and the strength of all professions, and of every religious order. Love maketh her sincere, and peaceful, and pure. Love bath the superiority over all other things, for all the things that she toucheth she turns to her, and. maketh them all her own. “Whatsoever place your foot shall tread upon,” that is to say, the foot of love, “shall be yours.” Many a man would buy at a great price a thing of such a nature that whatever he touched with it became his own. And, said I not before, that merely by loving the good that is in another man —with the touching of thy love — thou makest, without other labour, his good thy own good, as St. Gregory sheweth? Consider now, how much good the envious lose. Extend thy love to Jesus Christ, and thou hast gained him. Touch him with as much love as thou, sometimes, hast for some man, and he is thine, to do all that thou desirest. But who loveth a thing, and yet parteth with it for less than it is worth? Is not God incomparably better than all that is in the world? Charity — that is the love of a thing which is dear and precious. He hath little love to God, and feels not how precious he is, who, for any worldly love, bartereth his love; because nothing can love rightly but he alone. So exceedingly doth he delight in love that he maketh her his equal, and I dare to say still more — he maketh her his master, and doth whatever she commands, as if he must needs do it.

Can I prove this? Yes, indeed I can, from his own words. For thus he speaketh to Moses, the man who loved him most, in the Book of Numbers; “I have pardoned according to thy word;” he saith not “according to thy prayers.” “I had intended,” said he to Moses, “to wreak my anger upon this people, but thou sagest that I must not: be it according to thy word.” It is said that live bindeth. In truth, live so bindeth our Lord that he can do nothing but by the permission of love. Now, I prove it, for it seems wonderful: “Lord, there is none that riseth up and taketh hold of thee.” Isaiah. “Lord, wilt thou smite?” saith Isaiah, “ah! thou well mayest; for there is none that may hold thee.” As if he said, “If any one lived thee truly, he might hold thee, and hinder thee from smiting.” In Genesis, to Lot, “Make haste, etc., for I cannot do anything till thou go out from thence:” that is, when our Lord would have destroyed Sodom, wherein Lot his friend dwelt, our Lord said, “Hasten thee away out, for while thou art among them, nothing can be done to them.” Was not this being bound with live? What wouldest thou more? Love is his chamberlain, his counsellor, and his bride, from whom he can conceal nothing, but telleth her all his thoughts. In Genesis, “Can I,” said our Lord, “hide from Abraham the thing that I purpose to do?” No, said he, in no wise. Doth not he know how to live rightly who thus speaketh and thus doth to all men who in their hearts believe and love him? As the joy which he is preparing for them is not to be compared to all worldly joys, so is it not to be described by all worldly tongues. Isaiah, “Neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” Concerning those joys ye have something written in another place, my dear sisters. This live is the rule which regulates the heart. “I will praise thee with uprightness of heart:” that is, in the regulation of my heart. The reproach of the wicked is, that they are “a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.” This rule is the lady or mistress. All the others serve her, and for her sake alone they ought to be lived. I make little account of them provided this be worthily kept.

Ye have them briefly, however, in the eighth part.

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