Psalms. Division of the affections of the Will. We have done nothing by the purification of the Intellect towards grounding it in Faith, and that of the Memory in Hope—according to the sense explained in the sixth chapter of the second book —if we have not also purified the Will in the order of Charity, which is the third virtue, and by which works done in Faith are living and meritorious, and without which they are nothing worth. For as S. James saith, ‘ Faith without works is dead.’* That is, without the works of Charity Faith is dead.
And now that I have to treat of the Night and active detachment of the Will, with a view to its perfect establishment in this virtue of the Love of God, I cannot find a better authority than that contained in the Book of Deuteronomy: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with.thy whole strength.’ This is all that the spiritual man ought to do—and all that I am teaching him—that he may truly draw near unto God in the Union of the will with God in Love. Man is here bidden to employ for God all his faculties and desires, all the funetions and affections of -his soul, so that all the skill and all the strength of the soul may minister to no other end than this, as the Psalmist says: ‘I will keep my strength to Thee.’ { The strength of the soul consists in its powers, passions, and desires, all of which are governed by the Will. But when the Will directs these powers, passions, and desires to God, and turns them away from all that is not God, it then keeps the strength of the soul for God, and
* S. James ii. 20.
+ Deuter. vi. 5. t Ps. lviii. 10.
241loves Him with its whole strength. And that the soul may
be able to do this, I purpose here to show how the Will is to
be purified from all unruly affections; which are the cause why our strength is not wholly kept for God.
These affections or Passions are four in number:—Joy, Hope, Grief, and Fear. If these passions are excited only according to Reason, in the way of God, so that we feel no joy except in that which is simply for the honour and glory of our Lord God, nor hope except in Him, nor grief except in what concerns Him, nor fear but of Him only, it is clear, then, that the strength and skill of the soul are directed to, and kept for, God. For the moré the soul rejoices in aught beside Him, the less effectively will it rejoice in God, and the more it hopes in aught else, the less will it hope in God. The same applies to the other passions also.
In order to a more complete explanation of this I shall, as usual, speak of each of these passions and desires of the will separately, for the whole matter of Union with God consists in purging the will of its affections and desires, so that the vile and human will may become the Divine Will, being made one with the Will of God.
These four Passions domineer over the soul, and assail it with the more vigour, the less the will is attached to God, and the more dependent it is on created things; for it then rejoices easily in those things which do not deserve to be rejoiced in, hopes in that which is valueless, grieves over that for which perhaps it ought to rejoice, and fears where there is nothing to be afraid of.
It is from these affections, when disorderly, that all the vices and imperfections of the soul arise; and all its virtues also, when they are well governed and restrained. Let us remember that if but one of them be under the control of Reason, so will the others be also; for they are so intimately bound together, that the actual course of one is the virtual
of
In they Vice
In
242rela-
the to other; the
course of the rest, and if one of them be actually restrained, the others will be proportionately restrained also. For if the Will rejoices in anything, it will consequently hope in the same measure, and there grief and fear are virtually present; and as that joy ceases, in the same proportion cease also grief and fear and hope.
The Will with its four Passions may be said, in some sense, to be represented in the vision which Ezechiel saw of the four living creatures with one body; ‘They had faces and wings on the four sides. And the wings of one were joined to the wings of another. They turned not when they went, but every one went straight forward.’* The wings of each one of these four affections are joined to the wings of the others, and whithersoever one of them goes there also of necessity go virtually the others. When one of them goeth on the earth so do the others, and when one is lifted up, so the others also. Where hope is, there also will be joy and fear and grief; and when one has retired, the others retire also.
Remember, therefore, O thou who art spiritual, that the whole soul, with the Will and its other powers, will follow in the wake of every one of these passions; that they will be all captives to it, and that the three other passions also will live in it, afflicting the soul and preventing its flight to the liberty and repose of sweet Contemplation and Union. And so Boethius says: Wilt thou contemplate Truth in clear light? Drive away joy and hope and fear and grief.t For while these passions have dominion over thee, they will not suffer the soul to enjoy that tranquillity and peace which are necessary for the attainment of wisdom, either natural or supernatural.
* Exzech. i. 8, 9.
tT ‘Tu quoque, si vis lumine claro cernere Verum,
... Gaudia pelle, pelle timorem, spemque fugato, Ne dolor assit.’ Boet. de Cons, Phil. lib. 1. metry. vii.