Chapter 11: Of the Effects of Love — Union, Zeal, Tenderness, and Languishing
The first which I shall observe, is Union, occasioned both by the love which we have to a thing, for its own sake, and likewise, for the love of ourselves, that there may be a greater mutual interest each in other. Wherever love is, it stirs up an endeavor, to carry the heart to the thing which it loves. Where the treasure is, there the heart will be. Hence, none are said to love God, but those that are some way united to him. And therefore, as God's first love to man, was in making man like himself; so his second great love, was in making himself like man. Hence, we read so often of that mystical inhabitation of Christ in his Church, of that more peculiar Union and presence with his people, of a Spiritual implantation to him by faith, of those near relations of Filiation and Fraternity, of mutual interest each in other, I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine; importing an inseparable Union of the Church to Christ. And this may be the reason of that order in Saint Paul's solemn Benediction, The Grace of Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Spirit: for, as the Grace of Christ only takes away that enmity which was between sinners and God, and is the only means of our reconciliation to him; so the Love of God is the only bond of that communion, which we have with him and his holy Spirit.
Union is of diverse sorts. One, such whereby diverse things are made simply one, either by the conversion of one into the other, or by the composition, or constitution of a third out of the things united, as of mixed bodies out of united elements, or of the whole substance out of the essential parts: Another, such whereby things united are made one after a sort, either by an accidental aggregation, as diverse stones make one heap, or by an orderly and artificial distribution, as diverse materials make one house. Or by either a natural or moral inclination and sympathy which one thing bears to another. And of this sort is that union which arises out of love, tending first to a mutual similitude and conformity in the same desires; and next to a mutual possession, fruition, and propriety, whereby the mind loving, longs to be seized of the thing which it loves, and cannot endure to be deprived of it. So Moses prayed, I beseech you show me your glory; for the vision of God is the possession of him; and so David, My soul thirsts for God, when shall I come and appear before him? And this is the foundation of all sorrow, when the soul is dispossessed of that which it loved, and wherein it rested. And this desire of possession is so great that love contents itself not with the presence, but even then puts out its endeavors into a nearer, and more real union, as if it would become really one with the thing which it loves; which is seen in embracings, kisses, in the exiliency and egress of the spirits, in the expansion of the heart, in the simplicity and naturalness of all mutual carriages, as if a present friend were not yet present enough. Which kind of expressions of love are thus elegantly described by Homer, when Eumaeus saw Telemachus safely returned home from sea.
[in non-Latin alphabet]. Eumaeus all amazed sprung to the door. The pots of wine which his hands mixed before did both fall from them: he ran on to meet, and with full welcomes his young master greet. He kissed his head, hands, eyes; and his tears kept time with his kisses, as he kissed he wept.
The like elegant description we have of the love of Penelope, when Ulysses after his return was perfectly known to her.
[in non-Latin alphabet]
She wept and ran straight on, her hands she spread and clasped about his neck, and kissed his head.
Love has in moral and divine things the same effect which fire has in natural, to congregate homogeneal, or things of the same kind, and to separate heterogeneal, or things differing: as we see in the love of God, the deeper that is, the more is the spiritual part of man collected together, and raised from the earth. And therefore in heaven, where love shall be perfect, all things shall be harmonious and homogeneal, not in regard of natural properties, but in a pure and unmixed spiritualness of affections in a perfect unity of minds and motions.
From the union of love proceeds another secret effect, namely, a resting of the mind in the thing loved. In which respect the philosopher calls knowledge the rest of the understanding. And this can only be total and perfect in the Union of the soul with God, the highest good thereof. From where some have made the threefold appetite in man, concupiscible, rational and irascible, to have their final perfection and quiet by a distinct union to the three Persons in the Trinity: for the concupiscible power is carried ad bonum to good, which they say is the attribute of the Holy Spirit; the rational ad verum, to that which is true, which is the attribute of the Son; and the irascible ad Arduum, to power, which is the attribute of the Father. But to let that pass for a spider's web (curious, but thin) certain it is that God only is that end, who can fully accomplish the perfection and terminate the desires of those creatures, whom he made after a peculiar manner to know and enjoy him. But proportionably, there arises from the Union to any other object of love, a satiating and quieting of the faculty; which, in a word, is then only, in objects of inferior order and goodness, regular, when the object is natural, and the action limited. Disproportion and enormity are the two corruptions in this particular.
A third effect, which I shall observe of love, is stay, and immoration of the mind upon the object loved, and a diverting of it from all others: as we observed in Eumaeus, when he saw Telemachus, he threw away the business which he was about before: And the woman of Samaria, being transported with the love of Christ, left her pitcher, which she had brought to the well, that she might go and call others to his doctrine: And Mary left the thoughts of entertaining Christ at the table, out of an extraordinary desire to entertain him in her heart. And this effect the poet has excellently expressed in Dido; who having shown before a marvelous princely wisdom and sedulity, in fortifying her new kingdom, and viewing the works herself, (as he had before described) as soon as she was once transported by the love of Aeneas, then all stood still on a sudden.
Non capta assurgunt turres, non arma juventus Exercet; portusve, aut propugnacula bello Tuta parant; pendent opera interrupta — The towers long since begun, rose up no more, And arms did rust, which ere a while brave youth wore. No ports, no sconces, no defense went on, But all their works hung broken, and half done.
Thus, as Plutarch has observed, the images of things in the fancies of other men are like words written in water, which suddenly vanish; but the impressions which love makes, are as it were, written with a hot iron, which leaves fixed and abiding prints in the memory.
Love and knowledge have mutual sharpening and causality each on other: for as knowledge does generate love, so love does nourish and exercise knowledge. The reason of this is that inseparable union, which is in all things between the truth and good of them: for it being the property of truth to unite and apply goodness (nothing being apprehended as good, unless that goodness be apprehended as true) the more appetite enjoys of this, the deeper inquiry does it make, and the more complete union does it seek with that: the heart and the treasure can seldom be severed; the eagles will always resort to the body; David's love gave length and perpetuity to his meditation, even all the day.
And herein, I think, may consist another proportion between the strength of love and death; for as in death nature does collect and draw in those spirits, which before lay scattered in the outward parts, to guard and arm the heart in its greatest conflict; uniting all those languishing forces which are left, to testify the natural love which each living creature bears to its own conservation: so does love draw and unite those spirits which minister either to the fancy or appetite, to serve only for the nourishing of that affection, and for gazing upon that treasure to which the heart is wholly attracted. Which spirits, being of a limited power and influence, do therefore with the same force, whereby they carry the mind to the consideration of one thing, withdraw it from all other that are different; no determined power of the soul being able to impart a sufficient activity to diverse independent operations, when the force of it is exhausted by one so strong; and there being a sympathy, and as it were, a league between the faculties of the soul, all covenanting not to obscure or hinder the predominant impressions of one another. And therefore as in Rome when a dictator was created, all other authority was for that time suspended; so when any strong love has taken possession of the soul, it gives a supersedeas and stop to all other employments. It is therefore prescribed as a remedy against inordinate love.
— Pabula Amoris Absterrere sibi, atque alio convertere mentem.
To draw away the fuel from this fire, And turn the mind upon some new desire.
For love is Otiosorum Negotium, as Diogenes spoke, the business oftentimes of men that want employments.
Another effect of love is jealousy or zeal. Whereby is not meant that suspicious, inquisitive, quick-sighted quality of finding out the blemishes, and discovering the imperfections of one another (for it is the property of true love to think no evil) but only a provident and solicitous fear, lest some or other evil should either disturb the peace, or violate the purity of what we love: like that of Job toward his sons; and of the Apostle toward his Corinthians, I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: so Penelope in the Poet was jealous of the safety of Ulysses.
In thought I saw the fierce Trojans rush toward you, And at great Hector's name I always grew pale. How oft my dear Ulysses did I see In my sad thoughts proud Trojans rush on you, And when great Hector's name but touched my ears My cheeks drew paleness from my paler fears.
Zeal is a compounded affection, or a mixture of love and anger; so that it ever puts forth itself to remove anything which is contrary to the thing we love; as we see in Christ, whose zeal or holy anger whipped away the buyers and sellers out of the temple. In which respect it is said that the zeal of God's house did consume him. As water when it boils (from which metaphor the word zeal is borrowed) does in the boiling consume, or as the candle wastes itself with burning. In which respect likewise it is said, that much water cannot quench love. It is like lime, the more water you cast upon it, the hotter it grows. And therefore the sin of Laodicea, which was contrary to zeal, is compared to lukewarm water, which does not boil, and so cannot work out the scum or corruption which is in it.
And from hence it is that love makes weak things strong, and turns cowardice into valor and meekness into anger, and shame into boldness, and will not conceive anything too hard to undertake. The fearful hen, which has nothing but flight to defend herself from the dog, or the serpent, will venture with courage against the strongest creatures to defend her little chickens. Thus zeal and love of God made Moses forget his meekness; and his anger was so strong that it broke the tables of the law, and made the people drink the idol which they had made. And this is wittily expressed by Seneca, that Magnus dolor iratus amor est, a great grief is nothing else but love displeased, and made angry. It transports nature beyond its bounds or abilities, puts such a force and vigor into it, as that it will adventure on any difficulties; as Mary Magdalen would in the strength of her love undertake to carry away the dead body of Christ (as she conceived of him) not considering the weight of that, or her own weakness. It has a constraining virtue in it, and makes a man do that which is beyond his power; as the Corinthians, when they were poor in estate, were yet rich in liberality. It makes a man impatient to be unacquainted with the estate of an absent friend, whom we therefore suspect not sufficiently guarded from danger, because destitute of the help which our presence might afford him. In one word, it makes the wounds and stains of the thing loved to redound to the grief and trouble of him that loves it. He that is not jealous for the credit, security, and honor of what he pretends affection to, loves nothing but himself in those pretenses.
Another effect of love is condescension to things below us, that we may please or profit those whom we love. It teaches a man to deny his own judgment, and to do that which a looker on might perhaps esteem weakness [reconstructed: or] indecency; out of a fervent desire to express affection to the thing beloved. Thus David's great love to the Ark of God's presence did transport him to leaping and dancing, and other such familiar expressions of joy (for which Michal out of pride despised him in her heart) and was contented by that, which she esteemed baseness, to honor God: herein expressing the love of him to mankind, who was both his Lord and his Son; who emptied, and humbled, and denied himself for our sakes, not considering his own worthiness, but our want; nor what was honorable for him to do, but what was necessary for us to be done. Quicquid Deo indignum, mihi expedit, whatever was unworthy of him, was expedient for us. Thus parents out of love to their children do lisp, and play, and fit their speeches and dalliances to the age and infirmities of their children. Therefore Themistocles being found playing and riding on a reed with his little boy, desired his friend not to censure him for it, till he himself was a father of children.
The last effect which I shall observe of this passion is that which we call liquefaction or languor, a melting, as it were, of the heart to receive the more easy impressions from the thing which it loves, and a decay of the spirits, by reason of that intensive fixing of them thereon, and of the painful and lingering expectation of the heart to enjoy it. Love is of all other the inmost and most visceral affection. And therefore called by the Apostle, bowels of love. And we read of the yearning of Joseph's bowels over Benjamin his mother's son, and of the true mother over her child. Incaluerunt viscera, they felt a fervour and agitation of their bowels, which the more vehement it is, does work the more sudden and sensible decay and languishing of spirits. So Amnon out of wanton and incestuous love is said to grow lean from day to day, and to have been sick with vexation for his sister Tamar.
And in spiritual love we find the like expression of the Spouse; Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love: wine to exhilarate, apples to refresh those spirits, which were, as it were, melted away, and wasted by an extreme out-let of love. And for this reason the object of our love is said to overcome us, and to burn the heart, as with coals of juniper; and the like expressions of wounding and burning the poet uses.
— Est mollis [reconstructed: flamma] medullas Interea & [reconstructed: tacitum] vivit sub pectore vulnus.
A welcome soft flame in her bones did rest, And a close wound lived in her bleeding breast.
Now the cause of this languor, which love works, is in sensitive objects, an earnest desire to enjoy them; in spiritual objects, an earnest desire to increase them. In the former, want kindles love, but fruition works weariness and satiety: in the other fruition increases love, and makes us the more greedy for those things which when we wanted, we did not desire. In earthly things the desire at a distance promises much pleasure, but taste and experience disappoints expectation. In heavenly things, eating and drinking does renew the appetite, and the greater the experience, the stronger the desire: as the more acquaintance Moses had with God, the more he did desire to see his glory. And so much may suffice for the first of the passions, love, which is the fountain and foundation of all the rest.
