The desires torment the soul. Proofs and illustrations.

, The second positive evil which the desires inflict is a certain torment and affliction of soul, so that he who suffers therefrom is like one in torture, bound with chains, finding no rest until released. ‘The cords of my sins,’ that is, my desires, saith the Psalmist, ‘have encompassed me.”* As a man who lies naked amid thorns and briars, so is the soul in the

power of its desires; for they pierce, torture, and tear it painfully, as it is written, ‘They surrounded me like bees, and they burned like fire among thorns.’t ~ The desires, which are as thorns, increase the fire of affliction and trouble. As the husbandman, greedy of the harvest, goads the oxen at the plough, so concupiscence goads the soul harnessed to its desires, till it shall obtain its will. Such was the desire of Dalila to know the secret of the strength of Samson; she ‘pressed him—giving him no time to rest,’ so that ‘his soul fainted away, and was wearied even unto death.’t

The desire tortures the soul in proportion to its intensity, so that the pain equals the desires, and the more numerous the desires the greater the pain: for the words which the apostle heard are fulfilled even in this life.

* Ps. exyiii. 61, T. exvii. 12, { Judg. xvi. 16.

‘As much as she hath glorified herself, and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her.”* As he is tormented who falls into the hands of his enemies, so is the soul carried away by its desires. This truth is foreshadowed in the history of Samson, who was once so strong and free, the judge of Israel. But when he had fallen into the hands of his enemies, they robbed him of his great strength, plucked out his eyes, imprisoned him in a mill, and ‘made him grind,’ torturing and afflicting him. So is it with the soul, whose enemies, its own desires, live and triumph: their first act is to weaken and blind the soul, then to torment it, imprisoning it in the mill of concupiscence, and the cords that bind it are its own® desires themselves.

God, therefore, compassionating those who, with so much toil and cost, go about to satisfy the hunger and thirst of their desires in created things, thus speaks to them by the mouth of His prophet: ‘All you that thirst’ and desire ‘come to the waters, and you that have no money,’ self-will, ‘make haste, buy and eat, come, buy wine and milk,’ peace and spiritual sweetness, ‘without money’ of self-will, and ‘without price,’ without that labour which your desires demand. ‘Why do you spend money’ of selfwill ‘ for that which is not bread,’ that is, the Spirit of -God, and the ‘labour’ of your desires ‘for that which doth not satisfy you?’ *¢ Hearken diligently unto Me and eat that which is good,’ and which you desire, ‘and your soul shall be delighted in fatness.’f We attain to this fatness when we abandon all created satisfactions, for pain and sorrow flow from the creature, and refreshment from the Spirit of God.

‘Come to Me,’ saith our Lord, ‘all you that labour and

* Apoc, xviii. 7. T Is. lv. 1, 2.

are burdened, and I will refresh you.* All you who are tormented and afflicted, labouring beneath the burden of anxiety and desire, cast it aside, by coming unto Me, and I will refresh you; and your souls shall find that rest of which your desires rob you, for they ‘as a heavy burden are become heavy upon Me.’f