The intellectual part of man can be in some degree united to God; but
the soul loses itself in God, only by the loss of the will and by love.
This loss of the will is the true ecstasy, which is a permanent state,
and is effected without any violence to nature. When love is the
controlling exercise, the will follows, and the soul is reduced to
unity; as in the natural exercise of love, the stronger the love, the
greater the submission of the soul to the object beloved. Sacred love
does not bind parts, but draws it fully, until it is absorbed wholly in
this divine oneness.
The mind may tend towards its divine object, with ardor, but the will
not concurring, causes dissonance and swooning, or impetuous
transports. I call this momentary ecstasy; it cannot long endure
without separating the soul from the body.
The difference between these two states is, as that of water, retained
in the air by a machine, and of a river, running naturally into the
sea, as ordered by the grand Architect of the universe. Love, which
carries the will in its train, changes the whole man; this is the
divine, the true ecstasy. This is what is called transformation, and
loss of the soul in God. It is certain, however, that the creature
always remains a being distinct from God.