ON LOVING GOD

by St. Bernard of Clairvaux



CONTENTS

Dedication

I Why we should love God, and the measure of that love

II How much God deserves love from man in recognition of His gifts, both 
material and spiritual; and how these gifts should be cherished without 
neglect of the Giver

III What greater incentives Christians have, more than the heathen, to love 
God

IV Of those who find comfort in the recollection of God, or are fittest for 
His love

V Of the Christian's debt of love, how great it is

VI A brief summary

VII Of love toward God not without reward; and how the hunger of man's 
heart cannot be satisfied with earthly things

VIII Of the first degree of love, wherein man loves God for self's sake	

IX Of the second and third degrees of love

X Of the fourth degree of love, wherein man does not even love self, save 
for God's sake

XI Of the attainment of this perfection of love only at the resurrection	50

XII Of love: out of a letter to the Carthusians

XIII Of the law of self-will and desire, of slaves and hirelings	

XIV Of the law of the love of sons

XV Of the four degrees of love, and of the blessed state of the heavenly 
fatherland



DEDICATION

To the illustrious Lord Haimeric, Cardinal Deacon of the Roman Church, and 
Chancellor: Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, wisheth long life in the 
Lord and death in the Lord.

Hitherto you have been wont to seek prayers from me, not the solving of 
problems; although I count myself sufficient for neither. My profession 
shows that, if not my conversation; and to speak truth, I lack the 
diligence and the ability that are most essential. Yet I am glad that you 
turn again for spiritual counsel, instead of busying yourself about carnal 
matters: I only wish you had gone to some one better equipped than I am. 
Still, learned and simple give the same excuse and one can hardly tell 
whether it comes from modesty or from ignorance, unless obedience to the 
task assigned shall reveal. So, take from my poverty what I can give you, 
lest I should seem to play the philosopher, by reason of my silence. Only, 
I do not promise to answer other questions you may raise. This one, as to 
loving God, I will deal with as He shall teach me; for it is sweetest, it 
can be handled most safely, and it will be most profitable. Keep the others 
for wiser men.



CHAPTER I. WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD AND THE MEASURE OF THAT LOVE

You want me to tell you why God is to be loved and how much. I answer, the 
reason for loving God is God Himself; and the measure of love due to Him is 
immeasurable love. Is this plain? Doubtless, to a thoughtful man; but I am 
debtor to the unwise also. A word to the wise is sufficient; but I must 
consider simple folk too. Therefore I set myself joyfully to explain more 
in detail what is meant above.

We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is 
more reasonable, nothing more profitable. When one asks, Why should I love 
God? he may mean, What is lovely in God? or What shall I gain by loving 
God? In either case, the same sufficient cause of love exists, namely, God 
Himself.

And first, of His title to our love. Could any title be greater than this, 
that He gave Himself for us unworthy wretches? And being God, what better 
gift could He offer than Himself? Hence, if one seeks for God's claim upon 
our love here is the chiefest: Because He first loved us (I John 4.19).

Ought He not to be loved in return, when we think who loved, whom He loved, 
and how much He loved? For who is He that loved? The same of whom every 
spirit testifies: 'Thou art my God: my goods are nothing unto Thee' (Ps. 
16.2, Vulg.). And is not His love that wonderful charity which 'seeketh not 
her own'?

(I Cor.13.5). But for whom was such unutterable love made manifest? The 
apostle tells us: 'When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the 
death of His Son' (Rom. 5.10). So it was God who loved us, loved us freely, 
and loved us while yet we were enemies. And how great was this love of His? 
St John answers: 'God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life' (John 3.16). St Paul adds: 'He spared not His own Son, 
but delivered Him up for us all' (Rom. 8.32); and the son says of Himself, 
'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his 
friends' (John 15.13).

This is the claim which God the holy, the supreme, the omnipotent, has upon 
men, defiled and base and weak. Some one may urge that this is true of 
mankind, but not of angels. True, since for angels it was not needful. He 
who succored men in their time of need, preserved angels from such need; 
and even as His love for sinful men wrought wondrously in them so that they 
should not remain sinful, so that same love which in equal measure He 
poured out upon angels kept them altogether free from sin.



CHAPTER II. ON LOVING GOD HOW MUCH GOD DESERVES LOVE FROM MAN IN 
RECOGNITION OF HIS GIFTS, BOTH MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL: AND HOW THESE GIFTS 
SHOULD BE CHERISHED WITHOUT NEGLECT OF THE GIVER

Those who admit the truth of what I have said know, I am sure, why we are 
bound to love God. But if unbelievers will not grant it, their ingratitude 
is at once confounded by His innumerable benefits, lavished on our race, 
and plainly discerned by the senses. Who is it that gives food to all 
flesh, light to every eye, air to all that breathe? It would be foolish to 
begin a catalogue, since I have just called them innumerable: but I name, 
as notable instances, food, sunlight and air; not because they are God's 
best gifts, but because they are essential to bodily life. Man must seek in 
his own higher nature for the highest gifts; and these are dignity, wisdom 
and virtue. By dignity I mean free-will, whereby he not only excels all 
other earthly creatures, but has dominion over them. Wisdom is the power 
whereby he recognizes this dignity, and perceives also that it is no 
accomplishment of his own. And virtue impels man to seek eagerly for Him 
who is man's Source, and to lay fast hold on Him when He has been found.

Now, these three best gifts have each a twofold character. Dignity appears 
not only as the prerogative of human nature, but also as the cause of that 
fear and dread of man which is upon every beast of the earth. Wisdom 
perceives this distinction, but owns that though in us, it is, like all 
good qualities, not of us. And lastly, virtue moves us to search eagerly 
for an Author, and, when we have found Him, teaches us to cling to Him yet 
more eagerly. Consider too that dignity without wisdom is nothing worth; 
and wisdom is harmful without virtue, as this argument following shows: 
There is no glory in having a gift without knowing it. But to know only 
that you have it, without knowing that it is not of yourself that you have 
it, means self-glorying, but no true glory in God. And so the apostle says 
to men in such cases, 'What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if 
thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received 
it? (I Cor. 4.7). He asks, Why dost thou glory? but goes on, as if thou 
hadst not received it, showing that the guilt is not in glorying over a 
possession, but in glorying as though it had not been received. And rightly 
such glorying is called vain-glory, since it has not the solid foundation 
of truth. The apostle shows how to discern the true glory from the false, 
when he says, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, that is, in the 
Truth, since our Lord is Truth (I Cor. 1.31; John 14.6).

We must know, then, what we are, and that it is not of ourselves that we 
are what we are. Unless we know this thoroughly, either we shall not glory 
at all, or our glorying will be vain. Finally, it is written, 'If thou know 
not, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock' (Cant. 1.8). And this 
is right. For man, being in honor, if he know not his own honor, may fitly 
be compared, because of such ignorance, to the beasts that perish. Not 
knowing himself as the creature that is distinguished from the irrational 
brutes by the possession of reason, he commences to be confounded with them 
because, ignorant of his own true glory which is within, he is led captive 
by his curiosity, and concerns himself with external, sensual things. So he 
is made to resemble the lower orders by not knowing that he has been more 
highly endowed than they.

We must be on our guard against this ignorance. We must not rank ourselves 
too low; and with still greater care we must see that we do not think of 
ourselves more highly than we ought to think, as happens when we foolishly 
impute to ourselves whatever good may be in us. But far more than either of 
these kinds of ignorance, we must hate and shun that presumption which 
would lead us to glory in goods not our own, knowing that they are not of 
ourselves but of God, and yet not fearing to rob God of the honor due unto 
Him. For mere ignorance, as in the first instance, does not glory at all; 
and mere wisdom, as in the second, while it has a kind of glory, yet does 
not glory in the Lord. In the third evil case, however, man sins not in 
ignorance but deliberately, usurping the glory which belongs to God. And 
this arrogance is a more grievous and deadly fault than the ignorance of 
the second, since it contemns God, while the other knows Him not. Ignorance 
is brutal, arrogance is devilish. Pride only, the chief of all iniquities, 
can make us treat gifts as if they were rightful attributes of our nature, 
and, while receiving benefits, rob our Benefactor of His due glory.

Wherefore to dignity and wisdom we must add virtue, the proper fruit of 
them both. Virtue seeks and finds Him who is the Author and Giver of all 
good, and who must be in all things glorified; otherwise, one who knows 
what is right yet fails to perform it, will be beaten with many stripes 
(Luke 12.47). Why? you may ask. Because he has failed to put his knowledge 
to good effect, but rather has imagined mischief upon his bed (PS. 36.4); 
like a wicked servant, he has turned aside to seize the glory which, his 
own knowledge assured him, belonged only to his good Lord and Master. It is 
plain, therefore, that dignity without wisdom is useless and that wisdom 
without virtue is accursed. But when one possesses virtue, then wisdom and 
dignity are not dangerous but blessed. Such a man calls on God and lauds 
Him, confessing from a full heart, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but 
unto Thy name give glory' (PS. 115.1). Which is to say, 'O Lord, we claim 
no knowledge, no distinction for ourselves; all is Thine, since from Thee 
all things do come.'

But we have digressed too far in the wish to prove that even those who know 
not Christ are sufficiently admonished by the natural law, and by their own 
endowments of soul and body, to love God for God's own sake. To sum up: 
what infidel does not know that he has received light, air, food--all 
things necessary for his own body's life--from Him alone who giveth food to 
all flesh (Ps. 136.25), who maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the 
good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt. 5.45). Who is 
so impious as to attribute the peculiar eminence of humanity to any other 
except to Him who saith, in Genesis, 'Let us make man in Our image, after 
Our likeness'? (Gen. 1.26). Who else could be the Bestower of wisdom, but 
He that teacheth man knowledge? (Ps. 94.10). Who else could bestow virtue 
except the Lord of virtue? Therefore even the infidel who knows not Christ 
but does at least know himself, is bound to love God for God's own sake. He 
is unpardonable if he does not love the Lord his God with all his heart, 
and with all his soul, and with all his mind; for his own innate justice 
and common sense cry out from within that he is bound wholly to love God, 
from whom he has received all things. But it is hard nay rather, 
impossible, for a man by his own strength or in the power of free-will to 
render all things to God from whom they came, without rather turning them 
aside, each to his own account, even as it is written, 'For all seek their 
own' (Phil. 2.21); and again, 'The imagination of man's heart is evil from 
his youth' (Gen. 8.21 ).



CHAPTER III. WHAT GREATER INCENTIVES CHRISTIANS HAVE, MORE THAN THE 
HEATHEN, TO LOVE GOD 

The faithful know how much need they have of Jesus and Him crucified; but 
though they wonder and rejoice at the ineffable love made manifest in Him, 
they are not daunted at having no more than their own poor souls to give in 
return for such great and condescending charity. They love all the more, 
because they know themselves to be loved so exceedingly; but to whom little 
is given the same loveth little (Luke 7.47). Neither Jew nor pagan feels 
the pangs of love as doth the Church, which saith, 'Stay me with flagons, 
comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love' (Cant. 2.5). She beholds 
King Solomon, with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of 
his espousals; she sees the Sole-begotten of the Father bearing the heavy 
burden of His Cross; she sees the Lord of all power and might bruised and 
spat upon, the Author of life and glory transfixed with nails, smitten by 
the lance, overwhelmed with mockery, and at last laying down His precious 
life for His friends. Contemplating this the sword of love pierces through 
her own soul also and she cried aloud, 'Stay me with flagons, comfort me 
with apples; for I am sick of love.' The fruits which the Spouse gathers 
from the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden of her Beloved, are 
pomegranates (Cant. 4.13), borrowing their taste from the Bread of heaven. 
and their color from the Blood of Christ. She sees death dying and its 
author overthrown: she beholds captivity led captive from hell to earth, 
from earth to heaven, so 'that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth' (Phil. 
2.10). The earth under the ancient curse brought forth thorns and thistles; 
but now the Church beholds it laughing with flowers and restored by the 
grace of a new benediction. Mindful of the verse, 'My heart danceth for 
joy, and in my song will I praise Him', she refreshes herself with the 
fruits of His Passion which she gathers from the Tree of the Cross, and 
with the flowers of His Resurrection whose fragrance invites the frequent 
visits of her Spouse.

Then it is that He exclaims, 'Behold thou art fair, My beloved, yea 
pleasant: also our bed is green' (Cant. 1. 16). She shows her desire for 
His coming and whence she hopes to obtain it; not because of her own merits 
but because of the flowers of that field which God hath blessed. Christ who 
willed to be conceived and brought up in Nazareth, that is, the town of 
branches, delights in such blossoms. Pleased by such heavenly fragrance the 
bridegroom rejoices to revisit the heart's chamber when He finds it adorned 
with fruits and decked with flowers--that is, meditating on the mystery of 
His Passion or on the glory of His Resurrection.

The tokens of the Passion we recognize as the fruitage of the ages of the 
past, appearing in the fullness of time during the reign of sin and death 
(Gal. 4.4). But it is the glory of the Resurrection, in the new springtime 
of regenerating grace, that the fresh flowers of the later age come forth, 
whose fruit shall be given without measure at the general resurrection, 
when time shall be no more. And so it is written, 'The winter is past the 
rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth' (Cant. 2.11 f); 
signifying that summer has come back with Him who dissolves icy death into 
the spring of a new life and says, 'Behold, I make all things new (Rev. 
21.5). His Body sown in the grave has blossomed in the Resurrection (I Cor. 
15.42); and in like manner our valleys and fields which were barren or 
frozen, as if dead, glow with reviving life and warmth.

The Father of Christ who makes all things new, is well pleased with the 
freshness of those flowers and fruits, and the beauty of the field which 
breathes forth such heavenly fragrance; and He says in benediction, 'See. 
the smell of My Son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed' 
(Gen. 27.27). Blessed to overflowing, indeed, since of His fullness have 
all we received (John 1 16). But the Bride may come when she pleases and 
gather flowers and fruits therewith to adorn the inmost recesses of her 
conscience; that the Bridegroom when He cometh may find the chamber of her 
heart redolent with perfume.

So it behoves us, if we would have Christ for a frequent guest, to fill our 
hearts with faithful meditations on the mercy He showed in dying for us, 
and on His mighty power in rising again from the dead. To this David 
testified when he sang, 'God spake once, and twice I have also heard the 
same; that power belongeth unto God; and that Thou, Lord, art merciful (Ps. 
62.11f). And surely there is proof enough and to spare in that Christ died 
for our sins and rose again for our justification, and ascended into heaven 
that He might protect us from on high, and sent the Holy Spirit for our 
comfort. Hereafter He will come again for the consummation of our bliss. In 
His Death He displayed His mercy, in His Resurrection His power; both 
combine to manifest His glory.

The Bride desires to be stayed with flagons and comforted with apples, 
because she knows how easily the warmth of love can languish and grow cold; 
but such helps are only until she has entered into the bride chamber. There 
she will receive His long-desired caresses even as she sighs, 'His left 
hand is under my head and His right hand doth embrace me' (Cant. 2.6). Then 
she will perceive how far the embrace of the right hand excels all 
sweetness, and that the left hand with which He at first caressed her 
cannot be compared to it. She will understand what she has heard: 'It is 
the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing' (John 6.63). She 
will prove what she hath read: 'My memorial is sweeter than honey, and mine 
inheritance than the honey-comb' (Ecclus. 24.20). What is written 
elsewhere, 'The memorial of Thine abundant kindness shall be showed' (Ps. 
145.7), refers doubtless to those of whom the Psalmist had said just 
before: 'One generation shall praise Thy works unto another and declare Thy 
power' (Ps. 145.4). Among us on the earth there is His memory; but in the 
Kingdom of heaven His very Presence. That Presence is the joy of those who 
have already attained to beatitude; the memory is the comfort of us who are 
still wayfarers, journeying towards the Fatherland.



CHAPTER IV. OF THOSE WHO FIND COMFORT IN THE RECOLLECTION OF GOD, OR ARE 
FITTEST FOR HIS LOVE 

But it will be well to note what class of people takes comfort in the 
thought of God. Surely not that perverse and crooked generation to whom it 
was said, 'Woe unto you that are rich; for ye have received your 
consolation' (Luke 6.24). Rather, those who can say with truth, 'My soul 
refuseth comfort' (Ps. 77.2). For it is meet that those who are not 
satisfied by the present should be sustained by the thought of the future, 
and that the contemplation of eternal happiness should solace those who 
scorn to drink from the river of transitory joys. That is the generation of 
them that seek the Lord, even of them that seek, not their own, but the 
face of the God of Jacob. To them that long for the presence of the living 
God, the thought of Him is sweetest itself: but there is no satiety, rather 
an ever-increasing appetite, even as the Scripture bears witness, 'they 
that eat me shall yet be hungry' (Ecclus. 24.21); and if the one an-hungred 
spake, 'When I awake up after Thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it.' 
Yea, blessed even now are they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, for they, and they only, shall be filled. Woe to you, wicked 
and perverse generation; woe to you, foolish and abandoned people, who hate 
Christ's memory, and dread His second Advent! Well may you fear, who will 
not now seek deliverance from the snare of the hunter; because 'they that 
will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts' (I Tim. 6.9). In that day we shall not escape the dreadful 
sentence of condemnation, 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire' (Matt. 25.41). O dreadful sentence indeed, O hard saying! How much 
harder to bear than that other saying which we repeat daily in church, in 
memory of the Passion: 'Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath 
eternal life' (John 6.54). That signifies, whoso honors My death and after 
My example mortifies his members which are upon the earth (Col. 3.5) shall 
have eternal life, even as the apostle says, 'If we suffer, we shall also 
reign with Him' (II Tim. 2.12). And yet many even today recoil from these 
words and go away, saying by their action if not with their lips, 'This is 
a hard saying; who can hear it?' (John 6.60). 'A generation that set not 
their heart aright, and whose spirit cleaveth not steadfastly unto God' 
(Ps. 78.8), but chooseth rather to trust in uncertain riches, it is 
disturbed at the very name of the Cross, and counts the memory of the 
Passion intolerable. How can such sustain the burden of that fearful 
sentence, 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for 
the devil and his angels'? 'On whomsoever that stone shall fall it will 
grind him to powder' (Luke 20.18); but 'the generation of the faithful 
shall be blessed' (Ps. 112.2), since, like the apostle, they labor that 
whether present or absent they may be accepted of the Lord (II Cor. 5.9). 
At the last day they too shall hear the Judge pronounce their award, 'Come, 
ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world' (Matt. 25.34).

In that day those who set not their hearts aright will feel, too late, how 
easy is Christ's yoke, to which they would not bend their necks and how 
light His burden, in comparison with the pains they must then endure. O 
wretched slaves of Mammon, you cannot glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ while you trust in treasures laid up on earth: you cannot taste and 
see how gracious the Lord is, while you are hungering for gold. If you have 
not rejoiced at the thought of His coming, that day will be indeed a day of 
wrath to you.

But the believing soul longs and faints for God; she rests sweetly in the 
contemplation of Him. She glories in the reproach of the Cross, until the 
glory of His face shall be revealed. Like the Bride, the dove of Christ, 
that is covered with silver wings (Ps. 68.13), white with innocence and 
purity, she reposes in the thought of Thine abundant kindness, Lord Jesus; 
and above all she longs for that day when in the joyful splendor of Thy 
saints, gleaming with the radiance of the Beatific Vision, her feathers 
shall be like gold, resplendent with the joy of Thy countenance.

Rightly then may she exult, 'His left hand is under my head and His right 
hand doth embrace me.' The left hand signifies the memory of that matchless 
love, which moved Him to lay down His life for His friends; and the right 
hand is the Beatific Vision which He hath promised to His own, and the 
delight they have in His presence. The Psalmist sings rapturously, 'At Thy 
right hand there is pleasure for evermore' (Ps. 16.11): so we are warranted 
in explaining the right hand as that divine and deifying joy of His 
presence.

Rightly too is that wondrous and ever-memorable love symbolized as His left 
hand, upon which the Bride rests her head until iniquity be done away: for 
He sustains the purpose of her mind, lest it should be turned aside to 
earthly, carnal desires. For the flesh wars against the spirit: 'The 
corruptible body presseth down the soul and the earthly tabernacle weigheth 
down the mind that museth upon many things' (Wisdom 9.15). What could 
result from the contemplation of compassion so marvelous and so undeserved, 
favor so free and so well attested, kindness so unexpected, clemency so 
unconquerable, grace so amazing except that the soul should withdraw from 
all sinful affections, reject all that is inconsistent with God's love, and 
yield herself wholly to heavenly things? No wonder is it that the Bride, 
moved by the perfume of these unctions, runs swiftly, all on fire with 
love, yet reckons herself as loving all too little in return for the 
Bridegroom's love. And rightly, since it is no great matter that a little 
dust should be all consumed with love of that Majesty which loved her first 
and which revealed itself as wholly bent on saving her. For 'God so loved 
the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish but have everlasting life' (John 3.16). This sets 
forth the Father's love. But 'He hath poured out His soul unto death,' was 
written of the Son (Isa. 53.12). And of the Holy Spirit it is said, 'The 
Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name, He 
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, 
whatsoever I have said unto you' (John 14.26). It is plain, therefore, that 
God loves us, and loves us with all His heart; for the Holy Trinity 
altogether loves us, if we may venture so to speak of the infinite and 
incomprehensible Godhead who is essentially one.



CHAPTER V. OF THE CHRISTIANS DEBT OF LOVE, HOW GREAT IT IS 

From the contemplation of what has been said, we see plainly that God is to 
be loved, and that He has a just claim upon our love. But the infidel does 
not acknowledge the Son of God, and so he can know neither the Father nor 
the Holy Spirit; for he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the 
Father which sent Him, nor the Spirit whom He hath sent (John 5.23). He 
knows less of God than we; no wonder that he loves God less. This much he 
understands at least--that he owes all he is to his Creator. But how will 
it be with me? For I know that my God is not merely the bounteous Bestower 
of my life, the generous Provider for all my needs, the pitiful Consoler of 
all my sorrows, the wise Guide of my course: but that He is far more than 
all that. He saves me with an abundant deliverance: He is my eternal 
Preserver, the portion of my inheritance, my glory. Even so it is written, 
'With Him is plenteous redemption' (Ps. 130.7); and again, 'He entered in 
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us' (Heb. 
9.12). Of His salvation it is written, 'He forsaketh not His that be godly; 
but they are preserved for ever' (Ps. 37.28); and of His bounty, 'Good 
measure, pressed down and shaken together, and running over, shall men give 
into your bosom' (Luke 6.38); and in another place, 'Eye hath not seen nor 
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, those things which 
God hath prepared for them that love Him' (I Cor. 2.9). He will glorify us, 
even as the apostle beareth witness, saying, 'We look for the Savior, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned 
like unto His glorious body' (Phil. 3.20f); and again, 'I reckon that the 
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the 
glory which shall be revealed in us' (Rom. 8.18); and once more, 'Our light 
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are 
seen, but at the things which are not seen (II Cor. 4.17f).

'What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?' (Ps. 
116.12). Reason and natural justice alike move me to give up myself wholly 
to loving Him to whom I owe all that I have and am. But faith shows me that 
I should love Him far more than I love myself, as I come to realize that He 
hath given me not my own life only, but even Himself. Yet, before the time 
of full revelation had come, before the Word was made flesh, died on the 
Cross, came forth from the grave, and returned to His Father; before God 
had shown us how much He loved us by all this plenitude of grace, the 
commandment had been uttered, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thine heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might' (Deut. 6.5), 
that is, with all thy being, all thy knowledge, all thy powers. And it was 
not unjust for God to claim this from His own work and gifts. Why should 
not the creature love his Creator, who gave him the power to love? Why 
should he not love Him with all his being, since it is by His gift alone 
that he can do anything that is good? It was God's creative grace that out 
of nothingness raised us to the dignity of manhood; and from this appears 
our duty to love Him, and the justice of His claim to that love. But how 
infinitely is the benefit increased when we bethink ourselves of His 
fulfillment of the promise, 'thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast: how 
excellent is Thy mercy, O Lord! ' (Ps. 36.6f.). For we, who 'turned our 
glory into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay' (Ps. 106.20), by our 
evil deeds debased ourselves so that we might be compared unto the beasts 
that perish. I owe all that I am to Him who made me: but how can I pay my 
debt to Him who redeemed me, and in such wondrous wise? Creation was not so 
vast a work as redemption; for it is written of man and of all things that 
were made, 'He spake the word, and they were made' (Ps. 148.5). But to 
redeem that creation which sprang into being at His word, how much He 
spake, what wonders He wrought, what hardships He endured, what shames He 
suffered! Therefore what reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the 
benefits which He hath done unto me? In the first creation He gave me 
myself; but in His new creation He gave me Himself, and by that gift 
restored to me the self that I had lost. Created first and then restored, I 
owe Him myself twice over in return for myself. But what have I to offer 
Him for the gift of Himself? Could I multiply myself a thousand-fold and 
then give Him all, what would that be in comparison with God?



CHAPTER VI. A BRIEF SUMMARY 

Admit that God deserves to be loved very much, yea, boundlessly, because He 
loved us first, He infinite and we nothing, loved us, miserable sinners, 
with a love so great and so free. This is why I said at the beginning that 
the measure of our love to God is to love immeasurably. For since our love 
is toward God, who is infinite and immeasurable, how can we bound or limit 
the love we owe Him? Besides, our love is not a gift but a debt. And since 
it is the Godhead who loves us, Himself boundless, eternal, supreme love, 
of whose greatness there is no end, yea, and His wisdom is infinite, whose 
peace passeth all understanding; since it is He who loves us, I say, can we 
think of repaying Him grudgingly? 'I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. 
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, 
in whom I will trust' (Ps. 18.1f). He is all that I need, all that I long 
for. My God and my help, I will love Thee for Thy great goodness; not so 
much as I might, surely, but as much as I can. I cannot love Thee as Thou 
deservest to be loved, for I cannot love Thee more than my own feebleness 
permits. I will love Thee more when Thou deemest me worthy to receive 
greater capacity for loving; yet never so perfectly as Thou hast deserved 
of me. 'Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy 
book all my members were written' (PS. 139.16). Yet Thou recordest in that 
book all who do what they can, even though they cannot do what they ought. 
Surely I have said enough to show how God should be loved and why. But who 
has felt, who can know, who express, how much we should love him.



CHAPTER VII OF LOVE TOWARD GOD NOT WITHOUT REWARD: AND HOW THE HUNGER OF 
MAN'S HEART CANNOT BE SATISFIED WITH EARTHLY THINGS 

And now let us consider what profit we shall have from loving God. Even 
though our knowledge of this is imperfect, still that is better than to 
ignore it altogether. I have already said (when it was a question of 
wherefore and in what manner God should be loved) that there was a double 
reason constraining us: His right and our advantage. Having written as best 
I can, though unworthily, of God's right to be loved. I have still to treat 
of the recompense which that love brings. For although God would be loved 
without respect of reward, yet He wills not to leave love unrewarded. True 
charity cannot be left destitute, even though she is unselfish and seeketh 
not her own (I Cor. 13.5). Love is an affection of the soul, not a 
contract: it cannot rise from a mere agreement, nor is it so to be gained. 
It is spontaneous in its origin and impulse; and true love is its own 
satisfaction. It has its reward; but that reward is the object beloved. For 
whatever you seem to love, if it is on account of something else, what you 
do really love is that something else, not the apparent object of desire. 
St Paul did not preach the Gospel that he might earn his bread; he ate that 
he might be strengthened for his ministry. What he loved was not bread, but 
the Gospel. True love does not demand a reward, but it deserves one. Surely 
no one offers to pay for love; yet some recompense is due to one who loves, 
and if his love endures he will doubtless receive it.

On a lower plane of action, it is the reluctant, not the eager, whom we 
urge by promises of reward. Who would think of paying a man to do what he 
was yearning to do already? For instance no one would hire a hungry man to 
eat, or a thirsty man to drink, or a mother to nurse her own child. Who 
would think of bribing a farmer to dress his own vineyard, or to dig about 
his orchard, or to rebuild his house? So, all the more, one who loves God 
truly asks no other recompense than God Himself; for if he should demand 
anything else it would be the prize that he loved and not God.

It is natural for a man to desire what he reckons better than that which he 
has already, and be satisfied with nothing which lacks that special quality 
which he misses. Thus, if it is for her beauty that he loves his wife, he 
will cast longing eyes after a fairer woman. If he is clad in a rich 
garment, he will covet a costlier one; and no matter how rich he may be he 
will envy a man richer than himself. Do we not see people every day, 
endowed with vast estates, who keep on joining field to field, dreaming of 
wider boundaries for their lands? Those who dwell in palaces are ever 
adding house to house, continually building up and tearing down, remodeling 
and changing. Men in high places are driven by insatiable ambition to 
clutch at still greater prizes. And nowhere is there any final 
satisfaction, because nothing there can be defined as absolutely the best 
or highest. But it is natural that nothing should content a man's desires 
but the very best, as he reckons it. Is it not, then, mad folly always to 
be craving for things which can never quiet our longings, much less satisfy 
them? No matter how many such things one has, he is always lusting after 
what he has not; never at peace, he sighs for new possessions. 
Discontented, he spends himself in fruitless toil, and finds only weariness 
in the evanescent and unreal pleasures of the world. In his greediness, he 
counts all that he has clutched as nothing in comparison with what is 
beyond his grasp, and loses all pleasure in his actual possessions by 
longing after what he has not, yet covets. No man can ever hope to own all 
things. Even the little one does possess is got only with toil and is held 
in fear; since each is certain to lose what he hath when God's day, 
appointed though unrevealed. shall come. But the perverted will struggles 
towards the ultimate good by devious ways, yearning after satisfaction, yet 
led astray by vanity and deceived by wickedness. Ah, if you wish to attain 
to the consummation of all desire, so that nothing unfulfilled will be 
left, why weary yourself with fruitless efforts, running hither and 
thither, only to die long before the goal is reached?

It is so that these impious ones wander in a circle, longing after 
something to gratify their yearnings, yet madly rejecting that which alone 
can bring them to their desired end, not by exhaustion but by attainment. 
They wear themselves out in vain travail, without reaching their blessed 
consummation, because they delight in creatures, not in the Creator. They 
want to traverse creation, trying all things one by one, rather than think 
of coming to Him who is Lord of all. And if their utmost longing were 
realized, so that they should have all the world for their own, yet without 
possessing Him who is the Author of all being, then the same law of their 
desires would make them contemn what they had and restlessly seek Him whom 
they still lacked, that is, God Himself. Rest is in Him alone. Man knows no 
peace in the world; but he has no disturbance when he is with God. And so 
the soul says with confidence, 'Whom have I in heaven but Thee; and there 
is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. God is the strength 
of my heart, and my portion for ever. It is good for me to hold me fast by 
God, to put my trust in the Lord God' (Ps. 73.25ff). Even by this way one 
would eventually come to God, if only he might have time to test all lesser 
goods in turn.

But life is too short, strength too feeble, and competitors too many, for 
that course to be practicable. One could never reach the end, though he 
were to weary himself with the long effort and fruitless toil of testing 
everything that might seem desirable. It would be far easier and better to 
make the assay in imagination rather than in experiment. For the mind is 
swifter in operation and keener in discrimination than the bodily senses, 
to this very purpose that it may go before the sensuous affections so that 
they may cleave to nothing which the mind has found worthless. And so it is 
written, 'Prove all things: hold fast that which is good' (I Thess. 5.21). 
Which is to say that right judgment should prepare the way for the heart. 
Otherwise we may not ascend into the hill of the Lord nor rise up in His 
holy place (Ps. 24.3). We should have no profit in possessing a rational 
mind if we were to follow the impulse of the senses, like brute beasts, 
with no regard at all to reason. Those whom reason does not guide in their 
course may indeed run, but not in the appointed race-track, neglecting the 
apostolic counsel, 'So run that ye may obtain'. For how could they obtain 
the prize who put that last of all in their endeavor and run round after 
everything else first?

But as for the righteous man, it is not so with him. He remembers the 
condemnation pronounced on the multitude who wander after vanity, who 
travel the broad way that leads to death (Matt. 7.13); and he chooses the 
King's highway, turning aside neither to the right hand nor to the left 
(Num. 20.17), even as the prophet saith, 'The way of the just is 
uprightness (Isa. 26.7). Warned by wholesome counsel he shuns the perilous 
road, and heeds the direction that shortens the search, forbidding 
covetousness and commanding that he sell all that he hath and give to the 
poor (Matt. 19.2 1). Blessed, truly, are the poor, for theirs is the 
Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5.3). They which run in a race, run all, but 
distinction is made among the racers. 'The Lord knoweth the way of the 
righteous: and the way of the ungodly shall perish' (Ps. 1.6). 'A small 
thing that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly' 
(Ps. 37.16). Even as the Preacher saith, and the fool discovereth, 'He that 
loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver' (Eccles. 5.10). But 
Christ saith, 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, for they shall be filled' (Matt. 5.6). Righteousness is the 
natural and essential food of the soul, which can no more be satisfied by 
earthly treasures than the hunger of the body can be satisfied by air. If 
you should see a starving man standing with mouth open to the wind, 
inhaling draughts of air as if in hope of gratifying his hunger, you would 
think him lunatic. But it is no less foolish to imagine that the soul can 
be satisfied with worldly things which only inflate it without feeding it. 
What have spiritual gifts to do with carnal appetites, or carnal with 
spiritual? Praise the Lord, O my soul: who satisfieth thy mouth with good 
things (Ps. 103.1ff). He bestows bounty immeasurable; He provokes thee to 
good, He preserves thee in goodness; He prevents, He sustains, He fills 
thee. He moves thee to longing, and it is He for whom thou longest.

I have said already that the motive for loving God is God Himself. And I 
spoke truly, for He is as well the efficient cause as the final object of 
our love. He gives the occasion for love, He creates the affection, He 
brings the desire to good effect. He is such that love to Him is a natural 
due; and so hope in Him is natural, since our present love would be vain 
did we not hope to love Him perfectly some day. Our love is prepared and 
rewarded by His. He loves us first, out of His great tenderness; then we 
are bound to repay Him with love; and we are permitted to cherish exultant 
hopes in Him. 'He is rich unto all that call upon Him' (Rom. 10.12), yet He 
has no gift for them better than Himself. He gives Himself as prize and 
reward: He is the refreshment of holy soul, the ransom of those in 
captivity. 'The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him' (Lam. 3.25). What 
will He be then to those who gain His presence? But here is a paradox, that 
no one can seek the Lord who has not already found Him. It is Thy will, O 
God, to be found that Thou mayest be sought, to be sought that Thou mayest 
the more truly be found. But though Thou canst be sought and found, Thou 
canst not be forestalled. For if we say, 'Early shall my prayer come before 
Thee' (Ps. 88.13), yet doubtless all prayer would be lukewarm unless it was 
animated by Thine inspiration.

We have spoken of the consummation of love towards God: now to consider 
whence such love begins.



CHAPTER VIII. OF THE FIRST DEGREE OF LOVE: WHEREIN MAN LOVES GOD FOR SELF'S 
SAKE 

Love is one of the four natural affections, which it is needless to name 
since everyone knows them. And because love is natural, it is only right to 
love the Author of nature first of all. Hence comes the first and great 
commandment, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' But nature is so frail and 
weak that necessity compels her to love herself first; and this is carnal 
love, wherewith man loves himself first and selfishly, as it is written, 
'That was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural; and 
afterward that which is spiritual' (I Cor. 15.46). This is not as the 
precept ordains but as nature directs: 'No man ever yet hated his own 
flesh' (Eph. 5.29). But if, as is likely, this same love should grow 
excessive and, refusing to be contained within the restraining banks of 
necessity, should overflow into the fields of voluptuousness, then a 
command checks the flood, as if by a dike: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself'. And this is right: for he who shares our nature should share our 
love, itself the fruit of nature. Wherefore if a man find it a burden, I 
will not say only to relieve his brother's needs, but to minister to his 
brother's pleasures, let him mortify those same affections in himself, lest 
he become a transgressor. He may cherish himself as tenderly as he chooses, 
if only he remembers to show the same indulgence to his neighbor. This is 
the curb of temperance imposed on thee, O man, by the law of life and 
conscience, lest thou shouldest follow thine own lusts to destruction, or 
become enslaved by those passions which are the enemies of thy true 
welfare. Far better divide thine enjoyments with thy neighbor than with 
these enemies. And if, after the counsel of the son of Sirach, thou goest 
not after thy desires but refrainest thyself from thine appetites (Ecclus. 
18.30); if according to the apostolic precept having food and raiment thou 
art therewith content (I Tim. 6.8), then thou wilt find it easy to abstain 
from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, and to divide with thy 
neighbors what thou hast refused to thine own desires. That is a temperate 
and righteous love which practices self-denial in order to minister to a 
brother's necessity. So our selfish love grows truly social, when it 
includes our neighbors in its circle.

But if thou art reduced to want by such benevolence, what then? What 
indeed, except to pray with all confidence unto Him who giveth to all men 
liberally and upbraideth not (James 1.5), who openeth His hand and filleth 
all things living with plenteousness (Ps. 145.16). For doubtless He that 
giveth to most men more than they need will not fail thee as to the 
necessaries of life, even as He hath promised: 'Seek ye the Kingdom of God, 
and all those things shall be added unto you' (Luke 12.31). God freely 
promises all things needful to those who deny themselves for love of their 
neighbors; and to bear the yoke of modesty and sobriety, rather than to let 
sin reign in our mortal body (Rom. 6.12), that is indeed to seek the 
Kingdom of God and to implore His aid against the tyranny of sin. It is 
surely justice to share our natural gifts with those who share our nature.

But if we are to love our neighbors as we ought, we must have regard to God 
also: for it is only in God that we can pay that debt of love aright. Now a 
man cannot love his neighbor in God, except he love God Himself; wherefore 
we must love God first, in order to love our neighbors in Him. This too, 
like all good things, is the Lord's doing, that we should love Him, for He 
hath endowed us with the possibility of love. He who created nature 
sustains it; nature is so constituted that its Maker is its protector for 
ever. Without Him nature could not have begun to be; without Him it could 
not subsist at all. That we might not be ignorant of this, or vainly 
attribute to ourselves the beneficence of our Creator, God has determined 
in the depths of His wise counsel that we should be subject to 
tribulations. So when man's strength fails and God comes to his aid, it is 
meet and right that man, rescued by God's hand, should glorify Him, as it 
is written, 'Call upon Me in the time of trouble; so will I hear thee, and 
thou shalt praise Me' (Ps. 50.15). In such wise man, animal and carnal by 
nature, and loving only himself, begins to love God by reason of that very 
self-love; since he learns that in God he can accomplish all things that 
are good, and that without God he can do nothing.



CHAPTER IX. OF THE SECOND AND THIRD DEGREES OF LOVE 

So then in the beginning man loves God, not for God's sake, but for his 
own. It is something for him to know how little he can do by himself and 
how much by God's help, and in that knowledge to order himself rightly 
towards God, his sure support. But when tribulations, recurring again and 
again, constrain him to turn to God for unfailing help, would not even a 
heart as hard as iron, as cold as marble, be softened by the goodness of 
such a Savior, so that he would love God not altogether selfishly, but 
because He is God? Let frequent troubles drive us to frequent 
supplications; and surely, tasting, we must see how gracious the Lord is 
(Ps. 34.8). Thereupon His goodness once realized draws us to love Him 
unselfishly, yet more than our own needs impel us to love Him selfishly: 
even as the Samaritans told the woman who announced that it was Christ who 
was at the well: 'Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have 
heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the savior of 
the world' (John 4.42). We likewise bear the same witness to our own 
fleshly nature, saying, 'No longer do we love God because of our necessity, 
but because we have tasted and seen how gracious the Lord is'. Our temporal 
wants have a speech of their own, proclaiming the benefits they have 
received from God's favor. Once this is recognized it will not be hard to 
fulfill the commandment touching love to our neighbors; for whosoever loves 
God aright loves all God's creatures. Such love is pure, and finds no 
burden in the precept bidding us purify our souls, in obeying the truth 
through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren (I Peter 1.22). 
Loving as he ought, he counts that command only just. Such love is 
thankworthy, since it is spontaneous; pure, since it is shown not in word 
nor tongue, but in deed and truth (I John 3.18); just, since it repays what 
it has received. Whoso loves in this fashion, loves even as he is loved, 
and seeks no more his own but the things which are Christ's, even as Jesus 
sought not His own welfare, but ours, or rather ourselves. Such was the 
psalmist's love when he sang: 'O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is 
gracious' (PS. 118.1). Whosoever praises God for His essential goodness, 
and not merely because of the benefits He has bestowed, does really love 
God for God's sake, and not selfishly. The psalmist was not speaking of 
such love when he said: 'So long as thou doest well unto thyself, men will 
speak good of thee'(Ps. 49.18). The third degree of love, we have now seen, 
is to love God on His own account, solely because He is God.



CHAPTER X. OF THE FOURTH DEGREE OF LOVE: WHEREIN MAN DOES NOT EVEN LOVE 
SELF SAVE FOR GOD S SAKE 

How blessed is he who reaches the fourth degree of love, wherein one loves 
himself only in God! Thy righteousness standeth like the strong mountains, 
O God. Such love as this is God's hill, in the which it pleaseth Him to 
dwell. 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?' 'O that I had wings 
like a dove; for then would I flee away and be at rest.' 'At Salem is His 
tabernacle; and His dwelling in Sion.' 'Woe is me, that I am constrained to 
dwell with Mesech! ' (Ps. 24.3; 55.6; 76.2; 120.5). When shall this flesh 
and blood, this earthen vessel which is my soul's tabernacle, attain 
thereto? When shall my soul, rapt with divine love and altogether self-
forgetting, yea, become like a broken vessel, yearn wholly for God, and, 
joined unto the Lord, be one spirit with Him? When shall she exclaim, 'My 
flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart and my 
portion for ever' (Ps. 73.26).I would count him blessed and holy to whom 
such rapture has been vouchsafed in this mortal life, for even an instant 
to lose thyself, as if thou wert emptied and lost and swallowed up in God, 
is no human love; it is celestial. But if sometimes a poor mortal feels 
that heavenly joy for a rapturous moment, then this wretched life envies 
his happiness, the malice of daily trifles disturbs him, this body of death 
weighs him down, the needs of the flesh are imperative, the weakness of 
corruption fails him, and above all brotherly love calls him back to duty. 
Alas! that voice summons him to re-enter his own round of existence; and he 
must ever cry out lamentably, 'O Lord, I am oppressed: undertake for me' 
(Isa. 38.14); and again, 'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death?' (Rom. 7.24).

Seeing that the Scripture saith, God has made all for His own glory (Isa. 
43.7), surely His creatures ought to conform themselves, as much as they 
can, to His will. In Him should all our affections center, so that in all 
things we should seek only to do His will, not to please ourselves. And 
real happiness will come, not in gratifying our desires or in gaining 
transient pleasures, but in accomplishing God's will for us: even as we 
pray every day: 'Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven' (Matt. 
6.10). O chaste and holy love! O sweet and gracious affection! O pure and 
cleansed purpose, thoroughly washed and purged from any admixture of 
selfishness, and sweetened by contact with the divine will! To reach this 
state is to become godlike. As a drop of water poured into wine loses 
itself, and takes the color and savor of wine; or as a bar of iron, heated 
red-hot, becomes like fire itself, forgetting its own nature; or as the 
air, radiant with sun-beams, seems not so much to be illuminated as to be 
light itself; so in the saints all human affections melt away by some 
unspeakable transmutation into the will of God. For how could God be all in 
all, if anything merely human remained in man? The substance will endure, 
but in another beauty, a higher power, a greater glory. When will that be? 
Who will see, who possess it? 'When shall I come to appear before the 
presence of God?' (Ps. 42.2). 'My heart hath talked of Thee, Seek ye My 
face: Thy face, Lord, will I seek' (Ps. 27.8). Lord, thinkest Thou that I 
even I shall see Thy holy temple?

In this life, I think, we cannot fully and perfectly obey that precept, 
'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind' (Luke 10.27). For 
here the heart must take thought for the body; and the soul must energize 
the flesh; and the strength must guard itself from impairment. And by God's 
favor, must seek to increase. It is therefore impossible to offer up all 
our being to God, to yearn altogether for His face, so long as we must 
accommodate our purposes and aspirations to these fragile, sickly bodies of 
ours. Wherefore the soul may hope to possess the fourth degree of love, or 
rather to be possessed by it, only when it has been clothed upon with that 
spiritual and immortal body, which will be perfect, peaceful, lovely, and 
in everything wholly subjected to the spirit. And to this degree no human 
effort can attain: it is in God's power to give it to whom He wills. Then 
the soul will easily reach that highest stage, because no lusts of the 
flesh will retard its eager entrance into the joy of its Lord, and no 
troubles will disturb its peace. May we not think that the holy martyrs 
enjoyed this grace, in some degree at least, before they laid down their 
victorious bodies? Surely that was immeasurable strength of love which 
enraptured their souls, enabling them to laugh at fleshly torments and to 
yield their lives gladly. But even though the frightful pain could not 
destroy their peace of mind, it must have impaired somewhat its perfection.



CHAPTER XI. OF THE ATTAINMENT OF THIS PERFECTION OF LOVE ONLY AT THE 
RESURRECTION 

What of the souls already released from their bodies? We believe that they 
are overwhelmed in that vast sea of eternal light and of luminous eternity. 
But no one denies that they still hope and desire to receive their bodies 
again: whence it is plain that they are not yet wholly transformed, and 
that something of self remains yet unsurrendered. Not until death is 
swallowed up in victory, and perennial light overflows the uttermost bounds 
of darkness, not until celestial glory clothes our bodies, can our souls be 
freed entirely from self and give themselves up to God. For until then 
souls are bound to bodies, if not by a vital connection of sense, still by 
natural affection; so that without their bodies they cannot attain to their 
perfect consummation, nor would they if they could. And although there is 
no defect in the soul itself before the restoration of its body, since it 
has already attained to the highest state of which it is by itself capable, 
yet the spirit would not yearn for reunion with the flesh if without the 
flesh it could be consummated.

And finally, 'Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His 
saints' (Ps. 116.15). But if their death is precious, what must such a life 
as theirs be! No wonder that the body shall seem to add fresh glory to the 
spirit; for though it is weak and mortal, it has availed not a little for 
mutual help. How truly he spake who said, 'All things work together for 
good to them that love God' (Rom. 8.28). The body is a help to the soul 
that loves God, even when it is ill, even when it is dead, and all the more 
when it is raised again from the dead: for illness is an aid to penitence; 
death is the gate of rest; and the resurrection will bring consummation. 
So, rightly, the soul would not be perfected without the body, since she 
recognizes that in every condition it has been needful to her good.

The flesh then is a good and faithful comrade for a good soul: since even 
when it is a burden it assists; when the help ceases, the burden ceases 
too; and when once more the assistance begins, there is no longer a burden. 
The first state is toilsome, but fruitful; the second is idle, but not 
monotonous: the third is glorious. Hear how the Bridegroom in Canticles 
bids us to this threefold progress: 'Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink 
abundantly, O beloved' (Cant. 5.1). He offers food to those who are 
laboring with bodily toil; then He calls the resting souls whose bodies are 
laid aside, to drink; and finally He urges those who have resumed their 
bodies to drink abundantly. Surely those He styles 'beloved' must overflow 
with charity; and that is the difference between them and the others, whom 
He calls not 'beloved' but 'friends'. Those who yet groan in the body are 
dear to Him, according to the love that they have; those released from the 
bonds of flesh are dearer because they have become readier and abler to 
love than hitherto. But beyond either of these classes are those whom He 
calls 'beloved': for they have received the second garment, that is, their 
glorified bodies, so that now nothing of self remains to hinder or disturb 
them, and they yield themselves eagerly and entirely to loving God. This 
cannot be so with the others; for the first have the weight of the body to 
bear, and the second desires the body again with something of selfish 
expectation.

At first then the faithful soul eats her bread, but alas! in the sweat of 
her face. Dwelling in the flesh, she walks as yet by faith, which must work 
through love. As faith without words is dead, so work itself is food for 
her; even as our Lord saith, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent 
Me' (John 4.34). When the flesh is laid aside, she eats no more the bread 
of carefulness, but is allowed to drink deeply of the wine of love, as if 
after a repast. But the wine is not yet unmingled; even as the Bridegroom 
saith in another place, 'I have drunk My wine with My milk' (Cant. 5.1). 
For the soul mixes with the wine of God's love the milk of natural 
affection, that is, the desire for her body and its glorification. She 
glows with the wine of holy love which she has drunk; but she is not yet 
all on fire, for she has tempered the potency of that wine with milk. The 
unmingled wine would enrapture the soul and make her wholly unconscious of 
self; but here is no such transport for she is still desirous of her body. 
When that desire is appeased, when the one lack is supplied, what should 
hinder her then from yielding herself utterly to God, losing her own 
likeness and being made like unto Him? At last she attains to that chalice 
of the heavenly wisdom, of which it is written, 'My cup shall be full.' Now 
indeed she is refreshed with the abundance of the house of God, where all 
selfish, carking care is done away, and where, for ever safe, she drinks 
the fruit of the vine, new and pure, with Christ in the Kingdom of His 
Father (Matt. 26.29).

It is Wisdom who spreads this threefold supper where all the repast is 
love; Wisdom who feeds the toilers, who gives drink to those who rest, who 
floods with rapture those that reign with Christ. Even as at an earthly 
banquet custom and nature serve meat first and then wine, so here. Before 
death, while we are still in mortal flesh, we eat the labors of our hands, 
we swallow with an effort the food so gained; but after death, we shall 
begin eagerly to drink in the spiritual life and finally, reunited to our 
bodies, and rejoicing in fullness of delight, we shall be refreshed with 
immortality. This is what the Bridegroom means when He saith: 'Eat, O 
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.' Eat before death; begin 
to drink after death; drink abundantly after the resurrection. Rightly are 
they called beloved who have drunk abundantly of love; rightly do they 
drink abundantly who are worthy to be brought to the marriage supper of the 
Lamb, eating and drinking at His table in His Kingdom (Rev. 19.9; Luke 
22.30). At that supper, He shall present to Himself a glorious Church, not 
having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing (Eph. 5.27). Then truly shall He 
refresh His beloved; then He shall give them drink of His pleasures, as out 
of the river (Ps. 36.8). While the Bridegroom clasps the Bride in tender, 
pure embrace, then the rivers of the flood thereof shall make glad the city 
of God (PS. 46.4). And this refers to the Son of God Himself, who will come 
forth and serve them, even as He hath promised; so that in that day the 
righteous shall be glad and rejoice before God: they shall also be merry 
and joyful (Ps. 68.3). Here indeed is appeasement without weariness: here 
never-quenched thirst for knowledge, without distress; here eternal and 
infinite desire which knows no want; here, finally, is that sober 
inebriation which comes not from drinking new wine but from enjoying God 
(Acts 2.13). The fourth degree of love is attained for ever when we love 
God only and supremely, when we do not even love ourselves except for God's 
sake; so that He Himself is the reward of them that love Him, the 
everlasting reward of an everlasting love.



CHAPTER XII. OF LOVE: OUT OF A LETTER TO THE CARTHUSIANS 

I remember writing a letter to the holy Carthusian brethren, wherein I 
discussed these degrees of love, and spoke of charity in other words, 
although not in another sense, than here. It may be well to repeat a 
portion of that letter, since it is easier to copy than to dictate anew.

To love our neighbor's welfare as much as our own: that is true and sincere 
charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith 
unfeigned (I Tim. 1.5). Whosoever loves his own prosperity only is proved 
thereby not to love good for its own sake, since he loves it on his own 
account. And so he cannot sing with the psalmist, 'O give thanks unto the 
Lord, for He is gracious' (Ps. 118.1). Such a man would praise God, not 
because He is goodness, but because He has been good to him: he could take 
to himself the reproach of the same writer, 'So long as Thou doest well 
unto him, he will speak good of Thee' (Ps. 49.18, Vulg.). One praises God 
because He is mighty, another because He is gracious, yet another solely 
because He is essential goodness. The first is a slave and fears for 
himself; the second is greedy, desiring further benefits; but the third is 
a son who honors his Father. He who fears, he who profits, are both 
concerned about self-interest. Only in the son is that charity which 
seeketh not her own (I Cor. 13.5). Wherefore I take this saying, 'The law 
of the Lord is an undefiled law, converting the soul' (Ps. 19.7) to be of 
charity; because charity alone is able to turn the soul away from love of 
self and of the world to pure love of God. Neither fear nor self-interest 
can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even the 
conduct, but never the object of supreme desire. Sometimes a slave may do 
God's work; but because he does not toil voluntarily, he remains in 
bondage. So a mercenary may serve God, but because he puts a price on his 
service, he is enchained by his own greediness. For where there is self-
interest there is isolation; and such isolation is like the dark corner of 
a room where dust and rust befoul. Fear is the motive which constrains the 
slave; greed binds the selfish man, by which he is tempted when he is drawn 
away by his own lust and enticed (James 1.14). But neither fear nor self-
interest is undefiled, nor can they convert the soul. Only charity can 
convert the soul freeing it from unworthy motives.

Next, I call it undefined because it never keeps back anything of its own 
for itself. When a man boasts of nothing as his very own, surely all that 
he has is God's; and what is God's cannot be unclean. The undefiled law of 
the Lord is that love which bids men seek not their own, but every man 
another's wealth. It is called the law of the Lord as much because He lives 
in accordance with it as because no man has it except by gift from Him. Nor 
is it improper to say that even God lives by law, when that law is the law 
of love. For what preserves the glorious and ineffable Unity of the blessed 
Trinity, except love? Charity, the law of the Lord, joins the Three Persons 
into the unity of the Godhead and unites the holy Trinity in the bond of 
peace. Do not suppose me to imply that charity exists as an accidental 
quality of Deity; for whatever could be conceived of as wanting in the 
divine Nature is not God. No, it is the very substance of the Godhead; and 
my assertion is neither novel nor extraordinary, since St John says, 'God 
is love' (I John 4.8). One may therefore say with truth that love is at 
once God and the gift of God, essential love imparting the quality of love. 
Where the word refers to the Giver, it is the name of His very being; where 
the gift is meant, it is the name of a quality. Love is the eternal law 
whereby the universe was created and is ruled. Since all things are ordered 
in measure and number and weight, and nothing is left outside the realm of 
law, that universal law cannot itself be without a law, which is itself. So 
love though it did not create itself, does surely govern itself by its own 
decree.



CHAPTER XIII. OF THE LAW OF SELF-WILL AND DESIRE, OF SLAVES AND HIRELINGS 

Furthermore, the slave and the hireling have a law, not from the Lord, but 
of their own contriving; the one does not love God, the other loves 
something else more than God. They have a law of their own, not of God, I 
say; yet it is subject to the law of the Lord. For though they can make 
laws for themselves, they cannot supplant the changeless order of the 
eternal law. Each man is a law unto himself, when he sets up his will 
against the universal law, perversely striving to rival his Creator, to be 
wholly independent, making his will his only law. What a heavy and 
burdensome yoke upon all the sons of Adam, bowing down our necks, so that 
our life draweth nigh unto hell. 'O wretched man that I am! Who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death?' (Rom. 7.24). I am weighed down, I 
am almost overwhelmed, so that 'If the Lord had not helped me, it had not 
failed but my soul had been put to silence' (Ps. 94.17). Job was groaning 
under this load when he lamented: 'Why hast Thou set me as a mark against 
Thee, so that I am a burden to myself?' (Job 7.20). He was a burden to 
himself through the law which was of his own devising: yet he could not 
escape God's law, for he was set as a mark against God. The eternal law of 
righteousness ordains that he who will not submit to God's sweet rule shall 
suffer the bitter tyranny of self: but he who wears the easy yoke and light 
burden of love (Matt. 11.30) Will escape the intolerable weight of his own 
self-will. Wondrously and justly does that eternal law retain rebels in 
subjection, so that they are unable to escape. They are subject to God's 
power, yet deprived of happiness with Him, unable to dwell with God in 
light and rest and glory everlasting. O Lord my God, 'why dost Thou not 
pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity?' (Job 7.21). Then 
freed from the weight of my own will, I can breathe easily under the light 
burden of love. I shall not be coerced by fear, nor allured by mercenary 
desires; for I shall be led by the Spirit of God, that free Spirit whereby 
Thy sons are led, which beareth witness with my spirit that I am among the 
children of God (Rom. 8.16). So shall I be under that law which is Thine; 
and as Thou art, so shall I be in the world. Whosoever do what the apostle 
bids, 'Owe no man anything, but to love one another' (Rom. 13.8), are 
doubtless even in this life conformed to God's likeness: they are neither 
slaves nor hirelings but sons.



CHAPTER XIV. OF THE LAW OF THE LOVE OF SONS 

Now the children have their law, even though it is written, 'The law is not 
made for a righteous man' (I Tim. 1.9). For it must be remembered that 
there is one law having to do with the spirit of servitude, given to fear, 
and another with the spirit of liberty, given in tenderness. The children 
are not constrained by the first, yet they could not exist without the 
second: even as St Paul writes, 'Ye have not received the spirit of bondage 
again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 
Abba, Father' (Rom. 8.15). And again to show that that same righteous man 
was not under the law, he says: 'To them that are under the law, I became 
as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them 
that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but 
under the law to Christ)' (I Cor. 9.20f). So it is rightly said, not that 
the righteous do not have a law, but, 'The law is not made for a righteous 
man', that is, it is not imposed on rebels but freely given to those 
willingly obedient, by Him whose goodness established it. Wherefore the 
Lord saith meekly: 'Take My yoke upon you', which may be paraphrased thus: 
'I do not force it on you, if you are reluctant; but if you will you may 
bear it. Otherwise it will be weariness, not rest, that you shall find for 
your souls.'

Love is a good and pleasant law; it is not only easy to bear, but it makes 
the laws of slaves and hirelings tolerable; not destroying but completing 
them; as the Lord saith: 'I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill' 
(Matt. 5.17). It tempers the fear of the slave, it regulates the desires of 
the hireling, it mitigates the severity of each. Love is never without 
fear, but it is godly fear. Love is never without desire, but it is lawful 
desire. So love perfects the law of service by infusing devotion; it 
perfects the law of wages by restraining covetousness. Devotion mixed with 
fear does not destroy it, but purges it. Then the burden of fear which was 
intolerable while it was only servile, becomes tolerable; and the fear 
itself remains ever pure and filial. For though we read: 'Perfect love 
casteth out fear' (I John 4.18), we understand by that the suffering which 
is never absent from servile fear, the cause being put for the effect, as 
often elsewhere. So, too, self-interest is restrained within due bounds 
when love supervenes; for then it rejects evil things altogether, prefers 
better things to those merely good, and cares for the good only on account 
of the better. In like manner, by God's grace, it will come about that man 
will love his body and all things pertaining to his body, for the sake of 
his soul. He will love his soul for God's sake; and he will love God for 
Himself alone.




CHAPTER XV. OF THE FOUR DEGREES OF LOVE, AND OF THE BLESSED STATE OF THE 
HEAVENLY FATHERLAND 

Nevertheless, since we are carnal and are born of the lust of the flesh, it 
must be that our desire and our love shall have its beginning in the flesh. 
But rightly guided by the grace of God through these degrees, it will have 
its consummation in the spirit: for that was not first which is spiritual 
but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual (I Cor. 
15.46). And we must bear the image of the earthy first, before we can bear 
the image of the heavenly. At first, man loves himself for his own sake. 
That is the flesh, which can appreciate nothing beyond itself. Next, he 
perceives that he cannot exist by himself, and so begins by faith to seek 
after God, and to love Him as something necessary to his own welfare. That 
is the second degree, to love God, not for God's sake, but selfishly. But 
when he has learned to worship God and to seek Him aright, meditating on 
God, reading God's Word, praying and obeying His commandments, he comes 
gradually to know what God is, and finds Him altogether lovely. So, having 
tasted and seen how gracious the Lord is (PS. 34.8), he advances to the 
third degree, when he loves God, not merely as his benefactor but as God. 
Surely he must remain long in this state; and I know not whether it would 
be possible to make further progress in this life to that fourth degree and 
perfect condition wherein man loves himself solely for God's sake. Let any 
who have attained so far bear record; I confess it seems beyond my powers. 
Doubtless it will be reached when the good and faithful servant shall have 
entered into the joy of his Lord (Matt. 25.21), and been satisfied with the 
plenteousness of God's house (Ps. 36.8). For then in wondrous wise he will 
forget himself and as if delivered from self, he will grow wholly God's. 
Joined unto the Lord, he will then be one spirit with Him (I Cor. 6.17). 
This was what the prophet meant, I think, when he said: ' I will go forth 
in the strength of the Lord God: and will make mention of Thy righteousness 
only' (PS. 71.16). Surely he knew that when he should go forth in the 
spiritual strength of the Lord, he would have been freed from the 
infirmities of the flesh, and would have nothing carnal to think of, but 
would be wholly filled in his spirit with the righteousness of the Lord.

In that day the members of Christ can say of themselves what St Paul 
testified concerning their Head: 'Yea, though we have known Christ after 
the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more' (II Cor. 5.16). None 
shall thereafter know himself after the flesh; for 'flesh and blood cannot 
inherit the Kingdom of God' (I Cor. 15.50). Not that there will be no true 
substance of the flesh, but all carnal needs will be taken away, and the 
love of the flesh will be swallowed up in the love of the spirit, so that 
our weak human affections will be made divinely strong. Then the net of 
charity which as it is drawn through the great and wide sea doth not cease 
to gather every kind of fish, will be drawn to the shore; and the bad will 
be cast away, while only the good will be kept (Matt. 13.48). In this life 
the net of all-including love gathers every kind of fish into its wide 
folds, becoming all things to all men, sharing adversity or prosperity, 
rejoicing with them that do rejoice, and weeping with them that weep (Rom. 
12.15). But when the net is drawn to shore, whatever causes pain will be 
rejected, like the bad fish, while only what is pleasant and joyous will be 
kept. Do you not recall how St Paul said: 'Who is weak and I am not weak? 
Who is offended and I burn not?' And yet weakness and offense were far from 
him. So too he bewailed many which had sinned already and had not repented, 
though he was neither the sinner nor the penitent. But there is a city made 
glad by the rivers of the flood of grace (Ps. 46.4), and whose gates the 
Lord loveth more than all the dwellings of Jacob (Ps. 87.2). In it is no 
place for lamentation over those condemned to everlasting fire, prepared 
for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25.41). In these earthly dwellings, 
though men may rejoice, yet they have still other battles to fight, other 
mortal perils to undergo. But in the heavenly Fatherland no sorrow nor 
sadness can enter: as it is written, 'The habitation of all rejoicing ones 
is in Thee' (Ps. 87. 7, Vulg.); and again, 'Everlasting joy shall be unto 
them' (Isa. 61.7). Nor could they recall things piteous, for then they will 
make mention of God's righteousness only. Accordingly, there will be no 
need for the exercise of compassion, for no misery will be there to inspire 
pity.