TREATISE

ON THE

LOVE OF GOD

By

St. Francis de Sales

DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

Translated by

Rev. Henry Benedict Mackey, O.S.B.

Under the Direction and Patronage of His Lordship the

Right Rev. John Cuthbert Hedley, O.S.B.

BISHOP OF NEWPORT

"A truly admirable book, which has as many admirers of the sweetness of its author as it has readers. I have carefully arranged that it shall be read throughout our Society, as the universal remedy for all feeble ones, the good of slothful ones, the stimulus of love, and the ladder of those who are tending to perfection. Oh! that all would study it as it deserves! There should be no one to escape its heat."

—St. Vincent de Paul

TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC.

Rockford, Illinois 61105

Originally published in approximately 1884 by Burns & Oates, Limited, London and Benziger Brothers, New York as Volume II of the series "Library of St. Francis de Sales." This edition photographically reproduced from the Third Edition by arrangement with Burns & Oates.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 95-60646

ISBN 0-89555-526-3

Cover illustration: Portrait of St. Francis de Sales by J. J. Owens (early 20th century), based on the Turin portrait. Courtesy of De Sales Resource Center, Niagara Falls, New York.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.