The necessity of freedom from all desires, however slight, for the Divine union.

Ir seems reasonable here for the reader to ask, whether it be necessary to mortify completely every desire, small and great, before perfection can be reached, or whether it will be enough to have mortified some of them, overlooking others—at least those which seem of less moment—because it isa matter most difficult to attain to such pureness and detachment, as to have no affection for anything remaining in the will.

To this I reply: in the first place, it is true that all the desires are not equally hurtful, neither do they perplex the soul in the same degree. I am speaking of those which are voluntary: for the natural desires, when we do not consent to them, and when they do not pass beyond the first movements, do but slightly or not at all stand in the way of union. By natural and first movements I mean all those in which the natural will had no share, either before or after they arose: for to banish and mortify these completely is, in this life, impossible. The hindrance which these create is not such as to prevent the Divine union, though they may not be wholly mortified; they may remain in our nature, and yet the soul in its spiritual part may be most free from

them. For it will sometimes happen that the soul enjoys

the profound union of quiet in the will, while these remain in the sensual portion of man’s nature, but having no communication with the spiritual portion occupied in prayer. But all the other voluntary desires, whether mortal sins, which are the most grievous, or of venial sins, which are less

so, or imperfections only, which are still less so, must be.

banished away, and the soul which would attain to perfect union must be delivered from them all, however slight they

may be. The reason is this: the estate of Divine union consists in the total transformation of the will into the will Of God, in such a way that every movement of the will shall be always the movement of the will of God only. This is the reason why, in this state, two wills are said to be one—

my will and God’s will—so that the will of God is also that

of the soul. But if the soul then cleaves to any imperfection, contrary to the will of God, His will is not done, for

the soul wills that which God wills not. It is clear, therefore, that, if the soul is to be united in love and will with

God, every desire of the will must first of all be cast away,

however slight it may be; that is, we must not deliberately

and knowingly assent with the will to any imperfection, and

we must have such power over it, and such liberty, as to

reject every such desire the moment we are aware of it. I say knowingly, for without deliberation and a clear perception of what we are doing, or because it is not wholly in our power, we may easily give way to imperfections and venial sins, and to those natural desires of which I have just spoken. It is of such sins as these, not so entirely voluntary, that it is written: ‘A just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again.’ * But as to those voluntary and perfectly deliberate desires, how slight soever their objects may be, any one of them, not OVETCOME, is sufficient to prevent this union. I am speaking of the unmortified habit thereof, because certain acts occasionally have not so much power, for the habit of them is not settled; still we must get rid of them, for they, too, proceed from habitual imperfection. Some habits of voluntary imperfections, so far as they are never perfectly overcome, impede not only the Divine union but our progress towards perfection. These habitual imperfections are, for instance, much

* Proy, xxiv. 16.

talking, certain attachments, which we never resolve to break through—such as to individuals, to a book or a cell, to a particular food, to certain society, the satisfaction of one’s taste, science, news, and such things. Everyone of these imperfections, if the soul is attached and habituated to them, results in such serious injuries to our growth and progress in perfection. Yea, even if we fall daily into many other imperfections greater than these, provided they are not the result of the habitual indulgence of any evil inclination, we should not be so much hindered in our spiritual course as we are by this selfish attachment of the soul to particular objects; for while the soul entertains it, it is useless to hope that we can ever attain to perfection, even though the object of our attachment be but of the slightest importance possible.

Does it make any difference whether a bird be held by a slender thread or by a rope, while the bird is bound and cannot fly till the cord that holds it is broken? It is true that a slender thread is more easily broken, still, notwithstanding, if it is not broken the bird cannot fly. This is the state of a soul with particular attachments: it never can attain to the liberty of the Divine union, whatever virtues it may possess. Desires and attachments affect the ‘soul as the remora is said to affect a ship; that is but a little fish, yet when it adheres to the vessel it effectually prevents its progress.

How sad it is to see certain souls, like vessels richly freighted, full of good works, of spiritual exercises, virtues and gifts of God, which, because they have not the courage to break with certain tastes, attachments, or affections—these aré all one—never reach the haven of perfect union. And yet it would cost them but a single vigorous flight to break the thread of their attachment or to shake off the remora of desire. It is a matter of deep regret, when God has given

them strength to burst other and stronger bonds — those of vanity and sins — merely because they will not detach themselves from trifles, which God has left for them to break away from for love of Him, and which are no more than a single thread — that they should for this neglect their own advancement and the attainment of so great a blessing. And what is still more deplorable, because of such attachments, not only do they not advance, but, so far as perfection is concerned, they fall back, losing in some measure what they had already gained with so much labour. For it is well known that on the spiritual road not to ‘go on overcoming self is to go backwards, and not to increase our gain is to lose.

This is what our Lord would teach us when He says, ‘ He that gathereth not with me scattereth.* He who will neglect to repair the vessel that is but slightly cracked, will at last lose all the liquor it may hold; for ‘he that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little:’ f and ‘of one spark cometh a great fire.’{ One imperfection is enough to beget another, and this other, others again. We shall never see a soul, negligent in overcoming a single desire, which has not also many other desires arising out of the weakness and imperfection from which the first proceeds. There have been many persons who, by the grace of God, had made great progress in detachment and freedom, and yet because they gave way, under the pretence of some good— as of society and friendship —to petty attachments, have thereby lost the spirit and sweetness of God, holy solitude, and cheerfulness, and have injured the integrity of their spiritual exercises, so as to be unable to stop before all was gone. All this has befallen them because they did not root out the principle of pleasure and of the sensual desires, keeping themselves in solitude for God.

* S. Matt. xii. 30. + Eccles, xix. 1. } Ibid. xi. 34.

We must ever walk on this road so as to reach the end; that is, in the constant repression of our desires, and not in their indulgence: and if we do not perfectly repress them we shall never perfectly reach the end. As wood can never be transformed into fire if but one degree of heat necessary for that end be wanting, so the soul that has but one imperfection can never be perfectly transformed in God, as I shall hereafter explain when speaking of the Night of Faith. The soul has but one will; and if this will be occupied or embarrassed, it is not free, perfect, solitary, and pure, as it ought to be for this Divine transformation. This truth is foreshadowed in the Book of Judges, where we read that an angel of the Lord came to the children of Israel and told them that, because they had not destroyed the inhabitants of the land, but had made a league with some of them, those, therefore, would be left among them as their enemies, and an occasion to them of their fall and destruction: ‘ Wherefore I would not destroy them from before your face, that you may have enemies, and their gods may be your ruin.’*

God is just in thus dealing with those souls whom He has led forth out of the Egypt of this world, for whom he has slain the giants of their sins, and whose enemies he has destroyed, which are the occasions of sin which they meet with in the world, and all this for the sole purpose of their entrance into the promised land of the Divine union. He is just, I say, in thus dealing with them, when he sees them form friendships, and become confederate with the heathen, which are their imperfections; when they do not mortify themselves wholly, but are negligent and slothful in their lives: for this, then, He becomes angry with them, and suffers them to fall through their desires from bad to worse.

This truth is also shadowed forth in the command of God

* Judges ii, 3.

to Josue when the children of Israel were about to enter into the land of promise. The city of Jericho was to be utterly destroyed and all that was within, man and woman, young and old, together with the cattle; and the people were not to take, nor even to touch any of the spoil thereof.* He, therefore, that will enter into the Divine union must put to death all that lives in his soul, whether small or great, many or few; he must abstain from all desire thereof, and be completely detached therefrom, as if neither existed for the other.

S. Paul, also writing to the Corinthians, says the same thing: ‘This therefore I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that they also who have wives be as if they had none, and they that weep, as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as if they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not, and they that use this world as if they used it not.’ The apostle teaches here that we must be detached in spirit from the world if we would walk so as to attain unto God.