Book I, Chapter XV

Explanation of the last lines,

‘O HAPPY lot! forth unobserved I went, my house being now at rest. This is a metaphor derived from the miserable condition of slavery. He who is delivered therefrom, pronounces his own a happy lot when none of his jailers hinder his release. The soul, because of original sin, is truly a prisoner in this mortal body, in the power of natural passions and desires, and therefore counts it a happy lot when it has gone forth unobserved from this slavery and subjection, that is, unimpeded and unembarrassed by all its desires. To effect this, it was advantageous for the soul to have departed in the dark night, in the denial of every pleasure, and in the mortification of every desire.

2. “My house being now at rest,’ that is, the sensual part of the soul, the house of the desires being now at rest, because those desires are overcome and lulled to sleep. For until the desires be lulled to sleep by the mortification of sensuality, and sensuality itself be mortified in them, so that it shall be contrary to the spirit no more, the soul cannot go forth in perfect liberty to the fruition ot the union with the Beloved.