Preface

THERE are two sorts of unions of the soul with God in this world: the first by grace, which is made in Baptism, or by means of Penance; the second by devotion, and this is made by means of spiritual exercises. The one makes us innocent and the other spiritual. Solomon, considering himself to have given sufficient instruction on the first sort of union in his other books, only teaches the second in the Canticles, in which he supposes the spouse, that is, the devout soul, to be already married to her Divine Beloved, and repre sents their holy and chaste married loves, practised by mental prayer, which is simply the consideration of God and Divine things.

Under this name of consideration are comprised four different acts of the understanding; viz. thought, study, meditation, and contemplation.^ We think of things without aim or intention, we study them to become more learned, we meditate on them in order to love them, and we contemplate them to enjoy them. Some will look at a portrait simply in order to see the colours and lines, without other aim; others in order to learn and imitate the art; others in order to love the person represented, as princes do their spouses,

• See Treatise on the Love of God, vi. f Tr. 1.

xv whom very often they only see in a picture; others because they already love the person repre sented, and take pleasure in regarding his or her portrait. The first of these acts is without aim, the second profits the understanding, the third and fourth profit the will, the one inflaming it, the other delighting it. These two last form the mystical subject of the Canticles, but between them we may rightly place petition (la demande), and then the three correspond to the theological virtues.

Meditation is founded on faith, considering what we believe in order to love it; petition on hope, asking what we hope for in order to obtain it; contemplation on chanty, contemplating what we love in order to rejoice in it.

Still, the subject of this book does not take in petition, nor the two affective considerations alone, nor even devotion, which devotion is neither meditation nor contemplation, but their effect: for it is nothing but a general virtue contrary to spiritual slothfulness, making us prompt in the service of God: in such sort that where faith is we are by devotion made more prompt to believe; where hope is we are made more prompt to desire what God promises, and by charity to love what God com mands, by temperance to abstain, by fortitude to endure; and so of the rest: devotion adds to the particular promptitudes which habits give, a general and common one, produced by meditation and contemplation, as a pilgrim becomes more heartened by taking food.

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Solomon's end in this book is devotion, but his subject is mental prayer, taking the word for meditation and contemplation, not for thought, nor for study, nor for petition, nor for devotion, nor even for the consolation and pleasure which is had in prayer, and which, not being always had therein, is distinguished from it; yea, it often happens that this pleasure, while absent from the prayer of the good, is found in that of great sinners: but our pilgrim, if in good plight, after having taken his refreshment, whether with or without relish, returns ever with more promptness to his journey.

Now, if mental prayer is distinguished from spiritual pleasure, as the cause from the effect, still more is it distinguished from spiritual joyfulness, which is produced by the multitude of delights. The courtier who has received from his prince many favours, acquires a habit by which he serves him not only with promptness, but with joy: so we ought always to serve God promptly, but we only serve Him with joy when we have many spiritual delights springing from mental prayer. The pilgrim will be more disposed for his journey if he has eaten; but if he has eaten with relish and appetite, he will be not only disposed but at the same time blithe and joyous.

We have also to say that possibility, facility, promptness, and joy fulness in an action are different things. To bring to life again a dead child is not within the ability of the mother;

xv to cure him when he is extremely ill is a possible thing but cot an easy one; to apply the cautery to his wound by order of the doctor is a thing possible and easy to be done, but not with promptness; on the contrary, it is done with reluctance and dread: the washing of his clothes is done easily, possibly, promptly, but not joyously; while to receive him and welcome him into her arms after he is cured is done possibly, easily, promptly, and joyously.

So the sinner has not of himself the possibility of serving God with merit; as soon as he is in grace he has the possibility together with reluctance and difficulty; having persevered, he serves Him easily; after he has become devout, he serves Him promptly; if he is a contemplative, he serves Him joyously; grace giving the possibility, charity the facility, mental prayer the promptness and devotion, the multitude of de lights joyousness.

Above all these acts are ecstasy and rapture: for when in prayer, meditating and contemplating, man so attaches himself to the object that he goes out of himself, loses the use of his senses, and remains absorbed and drawn out of himself; this estrangement of the understanding is called rapture on the part of the object which rapts the soul, and on the part of the power which is absorbed and swallowed up is called ecstasy, the furthest effect of mental prayer here below.

In a word, mental prayer is the subject of the Canticles; but it is necessary to know the above-preface xvii mentioned things for the proper understanding of the terms, even when they only seem to be literal: though it is very rarely they are literal, and it is very hard to recognise these in the Canticles; whereas, on the contrary, the mystical terms are there in abundance, and in great variety. For example we never find devotion, relish, joyfulness, rapture, ecstasy, and such like things, but at every step, sleep, dreams, inebriation, languishing, fainting, and the like. Even the nature and attributes of God or of the soul are not named therein, but instead of all this, eyes, ears, teeth, lips, necks, garments, gardens, ointments, and a thousand like things; which have caused confusion in the explanations, by reason of the liberty which each commentator has taken to bring these words to his sense; and, which is worse, by reason of the insupportable licence which the same commentator has taken of understanding in one same page the same word in different manners and for different things.

But we have undertaken nothing except in imitation of the best authors, or without apparent agreement between the signifying term and the thing signified: and having once given a signification to a term, we have never changed it afterwards. Kisses will always signify spiritual consolations; embraces, union with God; sweet-tasting meats, spiritual relish; languishings and fain tings, happiness and joys; sleeps and ine brieties, raptures and ecstasies. In the spouse, b xv when exterior power is treated of, the neck will signify strength to execute; when interior power, it will signify the irascible part, and will never change its meaning. In the Beloved, the head will signify charity. The scene of the Canticles, Jerusalem, will ever be the militant Church; the Beloved will always be God, either uncreated or incarnate; the spouse, the soul; the choir of women, worldly conversations.

In fine, mental prayer is the mystic subject of the Canticles: but what things would Solomon, or rather the Holy Spirit, say of it? He would show us by how many degrees a soul being in mental prayer can rise to the higher consideration of God, and with what remedies it can strengthen itself against many obstacles: whence this division may be made.

There are five principal obstacles in prayer, five principal remedies, and five degrees of it: but the sixth scene represents a soul which having overcome all the obstacles has no longer need of remedies; and to each of the five other scenes is given or laid down an obstacle, a remedy, and a degree.

In the first, the remembrance of past pleasures of the senses is the obstacle, the remedy is the desire of spiritual things, and the asking them from God. The first degree is to consider God in corporeal things.

In the second, the obstacle is the distraction of the imaginative part by phantasies and sensible appearances; the remedy is attention to inspirapreface xix tions; the degree, the considering God in spiritual things.

In the third, the obstacle is human praises; the remedy is to relish Divine; the degree is the consideration which the soul makes of God in itself.

In the fourth, the obstacle is the fatigue of the body and the sensible part; the remedy is spiritual conferences and conversations; the degree is to meditate on God, not in Himself, but in His humanity.

In the fifth, the obstacle is human respects; the remedy is solitude; the degree, the consideration of God in Himself and as God.