Chapter VII.

Of The Dignity Of The Soul; Of True Repentance; And, Of Divine Mercy.

My house is the house of prayer.—Luke 19:46; Matt. 21:13; Isa. 56:7.

The dignity of the soul consists in this, that it is the habitation and temple of God, in which he takes more delight than in the whole compass of heaven and earth. So the believing soul has more of the divine presence than heaven, than all the temples made with hands, yea, than all the creatures in the world. For God communicates his whole treasures of love to such a soul; he rejoices and delights in it; yea, through all creatures he seeks to make the soul of man happy and glorious. Wherefore, as God shows so much love, and takes so much pleasure in the soul of man, he may more properly be said to dwell in it than in any material buildings, yea, than in heaven itself. Here he displays all the wonders of his providence and love; yea, for this very end has he created it with nobler faculties than he has given to the rest of his creatures, that it might be capable of these exalted communications of the divine grace. And if God should bestow upon the soul anything less than himself, she would reject it as being too little. Now St. Paul tells us, “God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.” Eph. 1:4. Let this then be our labor, this our highest endeavor, to be really what we have been from the beginning of the world. And as the soul ought to be the spouse of the Son of God, it follows that it is beloved by God above other creatures. It was this love that brought the blessed Jesus down from heaven to be united to the beloved soul which the Father had betrothed to him from all eternity, and to bring it back to the great original from which it at first proceeded.

2. Now as God has discovered this transcendent love to the soul, it follows that the soul ought to rest in God alone, and not to waste its love on any creature, at which it knows that God will be offended. So great is the loveliness, so great the beauty that is in God, that if the soul could take ever so remote, ever so obscure a view of it, she would not be separated from him to gain the whole world. The soul, then, which is so beloved of God, should be ashamed to fix its love upon any creature which is offensive to God. She ought to be heartily ashamed and afflicted if she has not preferred God before all creatures, proposed his glory in all things, and loved him above all things; this is the true contrition which is acceptable to God. The whole creation naturally loves God more than itself, and spends itself in the execution of his commands; but the miserable sinner loves himself better than his God. If thy sorrow, therefore, proceed merely from a sense of thy own loss, and not of thy sins and offences against God, thy contrition is not true, thy sorrow is not acceptable before God. Though there were no heaven to reward thee, nor hell to punish thee, yet thou oughtest to be grieved that thou hast offended and provoked thy God. For the love 393 of God is very heaven, and his anger is hell. But if thou hast in thy heart that contrition which is here described, and true faith in Christ, thy sins shall freely be forgiven thee. For it is more agreeable to him to forgive sins, than to punish them: not to mention, that as he is our Father, and we are his children, he is obliged in justice to show mercy to us. For if he be our Father, it follows that he has a fatherly affection towards us, which will upon all occasions rejoice and triumph against the severity of his justice. To this fatherly affection of God, let us perfectly resign ourselves. Whosoever rests in this, will be well pleased both with the justice and the mercy of God. For he that truly loves God, will bear patiently all the determinations of His will, either towards himself or towards any other creature. Let his will be thine; remember the saying of one of old: “I would rather be in hell with God, than in heaven without him.”