The evils of the Will’s rejoicing in Natural Goods.

THOUGH many of these evils and benefits, which I describe Goods under these several divisions of Joy, be common to all kinds of joy, nevertheless, because they flow directly from joy and the rejection of it—though comprised under any one of these divisions—I speak under each head of some evils and benefits, which are also found under another, because connected with that joy which is common to all. But my chief object is to speak of those particular evils and benefits which rejoicing, or not rejoicing, in all things, ministers unto the soul. I call them particular evils, because they flow primarily and immediately from one particular kind of rejoicing, and only secondarily and mediately from another. For instance, the evil of tepidity flows directly from all and every kind of

joy, and is therefore common to the six kinds in general;

* Ps. ci. 27, + Eccles. ii, 2.

but that of sensuality is a particular evil, which flows directly only from joy in the natural goods of which I am speaking.

The spiritual and corporal evils, then, which directly and effectually flow from rejoicing in Natural Goods, are, in number, six principal evils.

The first is vain glory, presumption, pride, and disesteem of our neighbour; for no man can entertain an excessive esteem of one thing without wanting in respect for some other thing. The result is, at least, that we disesteem and despise all else; because naturally, by esteeming one thing we withdraw our heart from all besides, and fix it upon that. It is most easy to glide from this real contempt into an intentional and deliberate despising of others; in particular or in general, not in thoughts only, but in words as well, to the extent of saying that such a person is not like such an one.

The second evil is complacency and sensual delight.

The third evil is flattery and empty praise, wherein there is delusion and vanity, as the Prophet saith, ‘O my people, they that call thee blessed deceive thee.’* For, even if we speak truly when we praise the grace and beauty of another, it will be strange if some evil be not involved, either in causing him to fall into vain complacency and joy, or in ministering food to his imperfect affections and intentions.

The fourth evil is a general one: it dulls the reason and the spiritual sense, as the joy of temporal goods does, and in a certain way even more. For, as natural goods are more intimately connected with man than temporal goods are, the

~ joy which they minister makes a quicker and deeper impression upon the senses, and more effectually blunts them. Reason and judgment are no longer free, but overshadowed by the cloud of this joy which is so inherent in us; and hence,

* Is, iii. 12, 82

1,

for

2. flesh.

3.

+

of

The fifth evil is the dissipation of the mind by created things.

Then the sixth is spiritual sloth and tepidity, which grow into weariness and sadness in Divine things, so that in the end we come to hate them. Pure spirituality is inevitably lost in this joy, at least in principle; for if any spirituality exist, it will be exceedingly sensual and gross, not interior, nor recollected—consisting in sensible delight rather than in the strength of the spirit. If we are in mind so mean and weak as not to destroy the habit of this joy—an imperfect habit of it even is sufficient to sully the purity of our spirituality, without consenting to the acts which this joy suggests—we are living in the weakness of sense rather than in the power of the spirit. This will become manifest in the matter of perfection and fortitude when the occasion shall arise, though I do not deny that many virtues may coexist with great imperfections, but no pure or healthy interior spirituality can coexist with these unchecked rejoicings; for here the flesh almost reigns, which wars against the spirit, and though we may be unconscious of the evil, yet, at least, secret distractions are the result.:

I now return to the second evil, which involves innumerable others. No pen can describe, no words can express, the nature and extent of the misery that results from rejoicing in natural grace and beauty. These are daily occasions of murders, of honour lost, of insults, of extravagant dissipation, emulations, contentions, adultery and violence, of the ruin of Saints, comparable in number to the third part of the stars of heaven, swept down to the earth by the tail of the dragon.* ‘Howis the gold become dim, the finest colour is changed, the stones of the sanctuary are scattered in the top of every street. The noble sons of Sion, and they that were clothed in the best gold, how are they esteemed as

* Apoe. xii. 4,

earthen vessels, the work of the potter’s hands!’?* Is any condition secure against the poison of this evil? Who has

’ not drunk, be it much or little, of the golden cup of the

Babylonian woman, that sitteth on the ‘scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns?’* Neither high nor low, neither saint nor sinner lives, to whom she has not given her cup to drink from, suborning the heart in some thing; for all the kings of the earth have drunk of the wine of her fornication. She seizes upon all conditions of men, the highest and the noblest, the sacred Priesthood itself, and puts the cup of her abominations in the holy place: ‘There shall be in the Temple the abomination of desolation.’f Even one spiritually strong scarcely escapes the wine of this cup, which is empty rejoicing. This is the reason why it is said that all the kings of the earth have drunk of it; for there are very few, however holy

they may be, who have not drunk and been corrupted, in.

some measure, by the cups of joy which the pleasure of natural grace and beauty supply. Observe, too, that the word is ‘drunk,’ for if we drink of the wine of this joy, it seizes on the heart and deadens it, obscuring the Reason, as in men drunk with wine. And if no antidote be taken at once, and the poison expelled, the life of the soul is in danger.

Spiritual weakness having grown upon us, this poison will

drag us down to such depths of evil that we shall grind in the mill like Samson, t deprived of sight, with the hair of our first strength cut off, captives in the hands of our enemies; and afterwards, perhaps, die the second death, as he did the first: the draughts of this joy producing spiritually in us what they did corporally in him, and in many unto this day. In the end our enemies will surround us and say to our great

* Lam, iv. 1, 2. t Dan. ix. 27. t+ Apoe. xvii. 3. § Judges xvi. 21.

confusion, Art thou he who broke the cords, tore the lions,

killed the Philistines, carried away the gates, and set thyself

free from the hands of thine enemies?

Let me now conclude with the requisite instruction for this poison. If you feel your heart moved by the vain joy of Natural Goods, remember how great vanity it is to rejoice in anything but in the service of God, how dangerous it is and ruinous. Remember the punishment of the angels who rejoiced in their beauty and endowments; they fell deformed into the abyss below. And how great are the evils which vanity brings daily upon men! Resolve, therefore, in time to take the remedy, according to the proverb, Resist the evil in its beginnings; remedies are too late, when the disease has grown; for when the evil has grown in the heart, the remedy is too late: ‘Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass. It goeth in pleasantly; but in the end it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.’ *