Chapter VI.

The Seat Of God In The Soul.

Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women?—Cant. 6:1.

Though our “beloved” is always with us, yet he never discovers himself but when the heart is quiet and composed, and all the senses are collected in God. When nothing earthly appears in the understanding, but all its animal and worldly wisdom is swallowed up in faith; then the divine light arises, darting light and glory through the benighted soul. This is 391 that darkness which is the habitation of God; that night, in which the will rests in union with the will of God; and in which the memory forgets all the impressions of the creatures. Then, in a moment, the divine light strikes the understanding, heavenly desires inflame the will, and eternal joys possess and fill the memory; yet neither the understanding, the will, nor the memory, can comprehend or retain the transcendent joys with which they are visited of God. For this perception is not lodged in the faculties of the soul, but lies hid in the very centre of it. Yea, it may sometimes be awakened through the Word, and break forth in words, so that we may cry out with St. Augustine's mother Monica, “Let us fly away, let us fly away to the eternal joy.”

2. From this fountain spring all the unutterable groanings of holy souls. This was the sweetness that St. Paul tasted, when he uttered these words, “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (Rom. 8:38): meaning that love of God to us, which he had tasted in his own soul. Thus St. Augustine witnesses of himself, “that he sometimes felt such exalted joy in his inward soul, that if it were but lasting, it could be nothing else but eternal life.” This is that divine pleasure which would fill our souls, and draw them to itself: and by these foretastes we know what eternal life is; that it is a state in which our souls shall be fully satisfied with heavenly joy and sweetness. Hence the devout soul says, “I am sick of love.” Cant. 5:8. That is: “This is the height of my wishes, this is what I long and sigh after: that I may find my beloved, and be satisfied with his love, and recover my heavenly nobility, which consists in union with Christ; that I may nevermore delight in any worldly or transitory things, much less in sins, or sinful pleasures.”

3. This nobility of the soul is but little known to the men of this world, even those that are accounted wise and learned: and they that have written volumes about the soul and its faculties, have never come to the fundamental point. For Christ is the true strength of the soul, its understanding, will, and memory; that is, light in its understanding; pleasure in its will; and joy in its memory. So Christ is the true sanctification, glory, and ornament of the soul; so that a man, for the love of Christ, which he experiences in himself, does not desire to sin. Thus we are told, “Whoso abideth in him, sinneth not. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin.” 1 John 3:6, 9. Yea, from this love of Christ arises often joy so great as to make crosses and afflictions not only tolerable, but even desirable for Christ's sake (Acts 5:41); so that the cross is turned into joy, which is continually springing up from its eternal fountain in the centre of the soul. There God has sanctified a place for himself, and made it so peculiarly his own, that neither angel, nor man, nor any other creature, can enter there. Here it is that God delights to dwell, and he suffers no other being to dwell with him. God's delight is to dwell in a pure soul. So he tells us, “My delights are with the sons of men.” Prov. 8:31. But what this happiness is, or how great this delight is, no man knows but he who has experienced it; nor can even he explain it fully in words.