ARTICLE THIRTY-FIFTH

Some persons of great piety, in describing the highest religious state, have denominated it the state of transformation. But this can be regarded as only a synonymous expression for the state of pure love.

In the transformed state of the soul, as in the state of pure love, love is its life. In this principle of love all the affections of the soul, of whatever character, have their constituting or their controlling element. There can be no love without an object of love. As the principle of love, therefore, allies the soul with another, so from that other which is God, all its power of movement proceeds. In itself it remains without preference for anything; and consequently is accessible and pliant to all the touches and guidances of grace, however slight they may be. It is like a spherical body, placed upon a level and even surface, which is moved with equal ease in any direction. The soul in this state, having no preferences of itself, has but one principle of movement, namely, that which God gives it. In this state the soul can say with the Apostle Paul, "I live; Yet not I, but Christ lives in me."