But now, thou mayst ask me and say, "Thou speakest so much of love; tell
me--_What is love, and where is love. And how I shall love GOD verily.
And how that I may know that I love Him. And in what state I may most
love Him._" These are hard questions to teach, to a feeble man and
fleshly as I am. But nevertheless therefore, I shall not delay that I
shall not shew my wit, and as I think it may be. For I hope in the help
of JESUS, who is the well of love and peace and sweetness. Thy first
asking is: _What is love?_ And I answer: Love is a burning yearning
after GOD, with a wonderful delight and certainty. GOD is light and
burning. Light clarifies our reason; burning kindles our will, that we
desire naught but Him. Love is a life, joining together the loving and
the loved. For meekness makes us sweet to GOD. Purity joins us to GOD.
Love makes us one with GOD. Love is the beauty of all virtues. Love is
the thing through which GOD loves us, and we Him, and each one of us
loves others. Love is the desire of the heart, aye thinking on that it
loves; and when it has that it loves, then it joys and nothing can make
it sorry. (Love is yearning between two, with lastingness of thoughts.)
Love is a stirring of the soul for to love GOD for Himself, and all
other things for GOD; the which love, when it is ordained in GOD, it
does away all inordinate love in anything that is not good. But all
deadly sin is inordinate love for a thing that is naught: then love puts
out all deadly sin. Love is a virtue which is the rightest affection of
man's soul. Truth may be without love: but it cannot help without it.
Love is a perfection of learning, virtue of prophecy, fruit of truth,
help of sacraments, establishing of wit and knowledge; riches of pure
men; life of dying men. So, how good love is. If we suffer to be slain;
if we give all that we have, (down) to a beggar's staff; if we know as
much as men may know on earth, all this is naught but ordained sorrow
and torment. If thou wilt ask how good is he or she, ask how much he or
she loves; and that no man can tell. For I hold it folly to judge a
man's heart; that none knows save GOD. Love is a righteous turning from
all earthly things, and is joined to GOD, without departing, and kindled
with the fire of the Holy Ghost: far from defiling, far from corruption,
bound to no vice of this life. High above all fleshly lusts, aye ready
and greedy for the contemplation of GOD. In all things not overcome.
The sum of all good affections. Health of good manners; goal of the
commandments of GOD; death of sins; life of virtues. Virtue whilst
fighting lasts, crown of over-comers. Mirth[4] to holy thoughts. Without
that, no man may please GOD; with that, no man sins. For if we love GOD
in all our heart, there is nothing in us through which we serve sin.
Very love cleanses the soul, and delivers it from the pain of hell, and
from the foul service of sin, and from the ugly fellowship of the
devils; and (out) of the fiend's son, makes GOD'S son, and partner of
the heritage of heaven. We shall force ourselves to clothe us in love,
as iron or coal does in the fire, as the air does in the sun, as the
wool does in the dye. The coal so clothes itself in fire that it is
fire. The air so clothes itself in the sun that it is light. And the
wool so substantially takes the dye that it is like it. In this manner
shall a true lover of JESUS Christ do: his heart shall so burn in love,
that it shall be turned into the fire of love, and be as it were all
fire; and he shall so shine in virtues that no part of him shall be
murky in vices.
The second asking is: _Where is love?_ And the answer: love is in thine
heart, and in the will of man; not in his hand, nor in his mouth: that
is to say, not in his work, but in his soul, "For many speak good and do
good, and love not GOD: as hypocrites, who suffer great penance, and
seem holy in man's sight. But because they seek praise and honour of
men, and favour, they have lost their meed: and in the sight of GOD,
they are devil's sons, and ravishing wolves. But if a man give
alms-deed, and take him to poverty and do penance, it is a sign that he
loves GOD: but therefore loves he Him not, save when he forsakes the
world only for GOD'S love, and sets all his thought on GOD, and loves
all men as himself: and all the good deeds that he may do, he does them
with intent to please JESUS Christ, and to come to the rest of heaven.
Then he loves GOD: and that love is in his soul, and so his deeds shew
without. If thou speakest good and doest good, men suppose that thou
lovest good: therefore look well that thy thought be in God, or else
thou deceivest thyself, and deceivest men. Nothing that I do without
(outside) proves that I love GOD.
For a wicked man might do as much penance in body, as much waking and
fasting as I do. How may I then ween that I love, or hold myself better,
on account of that which any man may do? Certainly, my heart, whether it
loves my GOD or not, wots no one but GOD, for nought that they may see
me do. Wherefore, love is in will verily, not in work, but in a sign of
love. For he that says he loves GOD, and will not do what is in him to
shew love, tell him that he lies. Love will not be idle, it is working
some good evermore. If it cease working, wit thou that it cools and goes
away.
The third asking is: _How shall I verily love GOD_? I answer; Very love
is to love Him with all thy might, stalwartly: in all thine heart,
wisely: in all thy soul, devoutly and sweetly. Stalwartly can no man
love Him save he be stalwart. He is stalwart, who is meek; for all
ghostly strength comes of meekness;--on whom rests the Holy Ghost? in a
meek soul. Meekness governs us and keeps us in all our temptations, so
that they overcome us not. But the devil deceives many that are meek,
through tribulations, and reproofs, and back-bitings*. But if thou beest
wroth for any anguish of this world, or for any word that men say of
thee, or for aught that men say to thee, thou art not meek, nor mayst
thou love GOD stalwartly. For love is stalwart as death, which slays
every living thing on earth, and hard as hell that spares not them that
are dead. And he who loves GOD perfectly grieves Him not, whatever shame
or anguish he may suffer; but he has delight and covets that he might be
worthy for to suffer torment and pain for Christ's love: and he has joy
that men reprove him and speak ill of him. Like a dead man, what so men
do or say, he answers not. Right-so, whoso loves GOD perfectly, they are
not stirred for any word that man may say. For he or she cannot love,
that cannot suffer pain or anger for their friend's love. For whoso
loves, they have no pain. Proud men or women love not stalwartly, for
they are so weak, and they fall at every stirring of the wind that is
temptation. They seek a higher place than Christ; for they will have
their will done, whether it be with right or with wrong: and Christ
wills that nothing but well be done, and without harm to other men. But
who is verily meek, they will not have their will in this world, but
that they may have it in the other fully. In nothing may men sooner
overcome the devil than in Meekness, which he much hates. For he may
wake, and fast and suffer pain more than any other creature may: but
meekness and love may he not have. Also, it behoves thee to love GOD
wisely, and that thou canst not do save thou beest wise. Thou art wise,
when thou art poor without desire of this world, and despisest thyself
for love of Christ: and expendest all thy wit and all thy might in His
service. For some who seem wise are most fools, for all their wisdom
they spill in covetousness and care about the world. If thou sawest a
man have precious stones wherewith he might buy a kingdom, if he gave
them for an apple, as a child will do, rightly mightest thou say that he
was not wise but a great fool. Just so, if we will, we have precious
stones: Poverty and penance and ghostly travail, with the which we may
buy the kingdom of heaven. For, if thou lovest poverty and despisest
riches and delights of this world, and holdest thyself vile and poor,
and thinkest thou hast naught of thyself save sin: for this poverty,
thou shalt have riches without end. And if thou hast _sorrow for thy
sins_, and because thou art so long in exile out of thy country, and
forsakest the solace of this life: thou shalt have for this sorrow the
joy of heaven. And if thou beest _in travail_, and punishest thy body
reasonably and wisely, by wakings, fastings, and in prayers and
meditations, and sufferest heat and cold, hunger and thirst, privation
and anguish for the love of JESUS Christ; for this travail thou shalt
come to rest that lasts aye, and sit on a settle of joy with angels. But
some there are who love not wisely, like children who love an apple,
more than a castle. So do many; they give the joy of heaven for a little
delight of their flesh, that is not worth a plum. Now canst thou see,
that whoso will love wisely, it behoves him to love lasting things,
lastingly; and passing things, passingly; so that his heart be settled
and fastened on nothing but GOD. And if thou wilt love JESUS verily,
thou shalt not only love Him stalwartly and wisely, but also _devoutly
and sweetly_. Sweet love is when thy body is chaste and thy thought
clean. Devout love is; when thou offerest thy prayers and thy thoughts
to GOD with ghostly joy, and burning heart in the heat of the Holy
Ghost; so that men think that thy soul is as it were drunken for
delight and solace of the sweetness of JESUS; and thy heart conceivest
so much of GOD'S help that men think thou mayst never be departed from
Him: and then thou comest into such rest and peace in soul, and quiet,
without thoughts of vanity, (or) of vices, as if thou wert in silence
and sleep, and set in Noe's ship, so that nothing may hinder thee from
devotion and sweet love. For thou hast gotten His love: all thy life,
until death come, in joy and comfort: and thou art verily Christ's
lover: and he rests in peace whose place is made in peace.
The fourth asking was: _how thou mightest know that thou wast in love
and charity_. I answer: that no man wots on earth that they are in
charity; save it be through any privilege or special grace that GOD has
given to any man or woman: that all others may not take example by. Holy
men and women trow that they have truth and hope and charity: and in
that do as well as they may, and hope certainly that they shall be safe;
they wot it not so quickly; for if they wish, their merit were the less.
And Solomon says it is so with righteous men and wise men, and that
their works are in GOD'S hand. And nevertheless, a man wots not whether
he be worthy hatred or love; but all is reserved uncertain for another
world. Nevertheless, if any had grace that he might win to the third
degree of love, which is called _Singular_, he should know that he was
in love. But in such manner were the knowing, that he might never bear
himself the higher, nor be in less care to love GOD; but so much the
more that he is secure of love, will he be busy to love Him and dread
Him, Who has made him so, and done that goodness to Him; and he that is
so high, he will not hold himself worthier than the sinfullest man that
goes on earth. Also seven experiments are there, that a man be in
charity. The first is; when all covetousness of earthly things is
quenched in him. For whereso covetousness is, is no love of Christ.
Then, if he have no covetousness, sign is that he has love. The second
is, burning yearning for heaven. For when men have felt aught of that
savour, the more they love, the more they covet: and he that has not
felt, he desires not. Therefore, when anyone is given so much, till he
love thereof (so) that he can find no joy in his life: token has he that
he is in charity. The third is; if his tongue be changed, that was wont
to speak of earth; now speaks of GOD, and of the life that lasts aye.
The fourth is: exercise of ghostly profit. As if any man or woman give
themselves entirely to GOD'S services, and meddle with no earthly
business. The fifth is: when the thing that is hard of itself seems
light for to do; the which love makes. For as Austin says: "Love it is
which brings the far thing near-to-hand, and the impossible to the
openly possible." The sixth is: hardness of thought to suffer all
anguish and hurt that comes--without this, all the other suffices not.
For whatso befalls him shall not make a righteous man sorry. For he who
is righteous, hates naught but sin; he loves naught but GOD, before GOD:
he dreads naught but to anger GOD. The seventh is: delectability in
soul, when he is in tribulation, and makes praise to GOD in the anger
that he suffers. And this shews well that he loves GOD, when no sorrow
can bring him down. For many love GOD while they are at ease; and in
adversity they grumble, and fall into so great sorriness, that scarcely
may any man comfort them: and so slander they GOD, striving and fighting
against His judgments. And that is caitiff praise that any wealth of the
world makes: but that praise is of great price that no violence of
sorrow can do away.
The fifth asking was: _In what state men may most love GOD?_ I answer,
in such state as it be that men are in most rest of body and soul, and
least occupied with any needs or business of this world. For the thought
of the love of JESUS Christ, and of the joy that lasts aye, seeks
outward rest, so that it be not hindered by comers and goers, and
occupation of worldly things; and it seeks within great silence from the
annoyances of desires, and of vanities, and of earthly thoughts. And
especially, all who love contemplative life they seek rest in body and
soul. For a great Doctor says: "They are GOD'S throne who dwell still in
one place, and are not running about, but in sweetness of Christ's love
are fixed." And I have loved for to sit: for no penance, nor fantasy,
nor that I wished men to talk of me, nor for no such thing: but only
because I knew that I loved GOD more, and longer lasted within the
comfort of love: than going, or standing, or kneeling. For sitting am I
in most rest, and my heart most upward. But therefore, peradventure, it
is not best that another should sit, as I did and will do to my death,
save he were disposed in his soul, as I was.