CHAPTER XIX.

Begins the explanation of the ten degrees of the mystic ladder according to St. Bernard and St. Thomas.
The steps of the ladder of love, by which the soul,
ascending from one to another, rises upwards to God,
we say are ten. The first degree of love makes the soul
languish to its great profit. On this the bride is
speaking when she says, ‘ I adjure you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that
I languish with love.’t This languishing is not unto
* [S. Thom, de dilectione Dei et Proximi, cap. xxvii. Ut dicit Bernardus, magna res est amor, sed sunt in eo gradus, Loquendo ergo aliquantulum magio moraliter quam realiter decern amoris gradus dis- tinguere possumus, per quos contingit a statu viae ad statum patriae scandere ordinate, quos gradus cognosces per actus.]
t Cant. v. 8.
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death, but to the glory of God ; for the soul faints away as to sin and all things whatsoever that are not God, for God’s sake, as the Psalmist testifies, saying : ‘ My spirit hath fainted away '* from all things after Thy salvation ; as he says in another place : c My soul hath fainted after Thy salvation. ’+
2. As a sick man loses the desire for, and the taste of all food, and the colour vanishes from his face, so the soul in this degree of love loses all pleasure in earthly things, and all desire of them, and, like one in love, changes its colour. The soul does not fall into this languishing state if the vehement heat descends not into it from above, which is the mystic fever, according to the words of the Psalmist, 4 Voluntary rain shalt Thou separate, O God, to thine inheritance, and it was weakened, but Thou hast perfected it/J This languishing and fainting away as to all things — it is the first and earliest step to God — I have already explained, § when I spoke of that annihilation to which the soul is brought when it begins to stand upon the ladder of contemplative purgation, when it finds no comfort, pleasure, nor support anywhere. In consequence of which it begins immediately to climb the other steps of the ladder.
3. On the second step the soul is unremitting in its search after God. Thus the bride speaks of her seeking Him in her bed by night — she had fainted away when on
* Ps. cxlii. 7. f Ps* cxviii. 81. J Ps. lxvii. 10. § Bk. 1 ch. xL
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the first step of the ladder — and had not found Him, says : ‘ I will rise ; I will seek Him whom my soul loveth/* This is now the unceasing occupation of the soul, ‘ Seek ye the Lord, seek His face evermore/ 1 is the counsel of the Psalmist, and never rest until He be found ; like the bride who, when she had questioned the watchmen, passed on in her search, + and left them. Mary Magdalene did not remain even with the angels at the sepulchre § So anxious is the soul now that it seeks the Beloved in all things ; all its thoughts, words, and works are referred to Him; in eating, sleeping, and waking, all its anxieties are about Him, as I have already described it when speaking of the anxieties of love.li As love becomes strong, regaining health, it commences the ascent to the third step by a new purga- tion in the night— as I shall hereafter explainlT — and which issues in the effects that follow.
4 . The third step of the ladder of love renders the soul active and fervent, so that it faints not. Of this step the royal prophet said, 1 Blessed is the man that feareth our Lord, he shall delight exceedingly in His commandments/** If then, fear, being the fruit of love, produces this delight, what will be the effect of love itself ? On this step the soul looks on great things as little, on many as few, its long service as short, by
* Cant. iii. 1, 2. f Ps - civ * 4 - + Cant. iii. 4. § St: John xx. 14.
|| Bk. 2 ch. xi. § 7. Spirit. Cant, stanza xiii. ** Ps. cxi. 1.
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reason of the fire of love which is burning. It is with the soul as it was with Jacob, who c served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed but a few days, because of the greatness of his love/* If the love of a created being did so much in Jacob, what will the love of the Creator Himself do, when it shall have taken possession of the soul on the third step of the ladder ?
5. Here the soul, because of the great love it has for God, is in great pain and suffering because of the scantiness of its service ; if it could lawfully die for Him a thousand times it would be comforted. It looks upon itself therefore as unprofitable in all it does, and on its life as worthless. Another most wonderful effect is that it looks upon itself as being in truth the very worst of all, because its love continues to show it what is due to God ; and then, because as it labours much in the service of God and sees how faulty and imperfect are its works, it is ashamed and distressed, seeing that the service it renders to God Who is so high, is so exceedingly mean. On this third step the soul is very far from giving way to vainglory or presumption, or from condemning others. These anxious effects and other of the same kind are wrought in the soul when on the third step of the ladder, and so the soul acquires strength and courage to ascend to the fourth.
6. When the soul is on the fourth step of the ladder
* Gen. xxix. 20.
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of love, it falls into a state of suffering, but without weariness, on account of the Beloved ; for, as St. Augustine saith, love makes all that is grievous and heavy to be light as nothing.* It was on this step that the bride stood when longing for the last, she said : ‘ Put me as a seal upon Thy heart, as a seal upon Thy arm ; for love * — that is, the acts and operations of love — ‘ is strong as death ; jealousy is hard as hell.t
7. The spirit is now so strong, and has so subdued the flesh, and makes so little of it, that it is as regard- less of it as a tree is of one of its leaves. It seeks not for consolation or sweetness either in God or elsewhere, neither does it pray for God's gifts through any motive of self-interest, or its own satisfaction. For all it cares for now is how it shall please God, and serve Him in some measure in return for His goodness, and for the graces it has received, and this at any and every cost.
8. It is now saying with heart and mind, my God and my Lord, how many there are who seek their own comfort and joy in Thee and who pray for gifts and graces, but those who strive to please Thee, who offer Thee that which costs them something, and who cast their own interests aside, are very few ; it is not Thy will to show mercy that fails, O my God ! but it is we
* Serin. LXX. de Verb. Evan. Matth. Opp. tom. v. p. 383. Lib. de Vidnitate, Cap. 21, Tom. vi. p. 384. Ed. Ben.
t Cant. viii. 6.
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who fail in using Thy mercies in Thy service, so as to bind Thee to show us Thy mercy continually.
9. This degree of love is exceedingly high, for now
as the soul, earnest in its love, always follows after God in the spirit of suffering for His sake, God frequently and, as it were, continually gives it joy, visiting it sweetly in spirit, for the boundless love of Christ, the Word, cannot look on the sufferings of the souls that love without coming to their relief. He has promised this by the mouth of the prophet Jeremias, saying, ‘I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth . . . when
thou followedst me in the desert/* which in its spiritual sense is that detachment of the soul from all created things, not resting upon them nor at ease among them. On this fourth step of the ladder the soul is so inflamed with love, and so set on fire with the desire after God, that it ascends upwards to the fifth, which is the next.
10. On the fifth step of the ladder the soul longs after God, and desires Him with impatience. So great is the eagerness of the soul on this step to embrace, and be united to, the Beloved, that all delay, how slight soever, seems to it long, tedious, and oppressive, and it is ever thinking that it has found its love ; but when it sees that its desires are disappointed — which is almost continually the case — it faints away through its longing, as the Psalmist says, speaking of this step : ( My soul
* Jerem. ii. 2.
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longeth and fainteth for the courts of our Lord/* On this step the soul must either obtain its desires or die, as Rachel, because of her great longing for children said to Jacob, her husband, ‘ Give me children, other- wise I shall die/t The soul is now nourished by love, for as was its hunger so is its abundance, and so it ascends to the sixth step, the effects of which are as follows.