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nature, but he desired to see things which it is not lawful to see; for as if forgetting the lordship and considering only the love, he said to the God of all: "Behold, you say to me: "3You have found favor with me, and I know you above all others. "3If then I have found favor in your sight, show yourself to me, that I may see you plainly." Such great intoxication he received from the divine love, and the intoxication did not quench the thirst, but made it more intense. And the addition of the drink became an intensification of the desire, and the enjoyment increased the longing. And just as fire, the more fuel it receives, shows so much the greater energy—for this increases with the addition of the material, but is not blunted—so the love for God is kindled by the contemplation of divine things, and from there receives a more intense and warmer energy. And the more one dwells on divine things, the more one ignites the flame of love. And not only the great Moses taught us this, but also the holy bride, about whom the divine Paul says: "I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to God." For she cries out to the bridegroom in the Song of Songs: "Show me your face, and let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is beautiful." For having received love from the words about him, she is not content with the words, but also longs to hear the voice itself. And having been given wings by the accounts of his beauty, she also yearns for the vision itself, signifying her love by the praises she uttered: "Show me, she says, your face, and let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is beautiful." 31.6 Having fallen in love with this beauty, her betrother and bride-leader, I mean the divine Paul, uttered that cry of love: "Who will separate us from the love of God? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we are being killed all day long; we were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'" Then he also indicates the reason for his endurance: "For in all these things, he says, we are more than conquerors through the God who loved us." For considering who we were and what good things we have enjoyed, and how we did not love first, but having been loved, we loved in return; and though hating, we were loved, and "while we were enemies we were reconciled"; not ourselves having pleaded to obtain reconciliation, but having received the only-begotten as an ambassador; and those who had done wrong being besought by the one who was wronged; and in addition to these things, considering him who was crucified for us, the saving passions, the cessation of death, the hope of the resurrection given to us. 31.7 Considering these and such things, we overcome the sorrows that befall us, and by setting the memory of the benefits against the temporary suffering of the body, we bear the assault of troubles gladly. For weighing all the sorrows of life against our love for the master, we find them very light. And even if we were to gather together all things pleasant and seemingly delightful, the divine longing, when weighed against them, shows them to be weaker than a shadow and more perishable than spring flowers. These things he signifies clearly both through what has been said, and through what is about to be said: "For I am convinced, he says, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." For since above he had set down only the sorrows, and had examined tribulation, and distress, and persecution, and famine, and nakedness, and peril, and sword, that is, violent slaughter, he reasonably adds here also the delightful things to the painful things, life to death, intelligible things to perceptible things, the invisible powers to the visible things,

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φύσιν, ἐπεθύμησε δὲ ἰδεῖν ἃ μὴ θέμις ἰδεῖν· ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐπιλαθόμενος τῆς δεσποτείας καὶ τὸ φίλτρον λογιζόμενος μόνον, ἔφη πρὸς τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεόν· "Ἰδού, σὺ λέγεις μοι· "3Εὗρες χάριν παρ' ἐμοί, καὶ οἶδά σε παρὰ πάντας. "3Εἰ τοίνυν εὗρον χάριν ἐναντίον σου, ἐμφά νισόν μοι σαυτόν· γνωστῶς ἴδω σε." Τοσαύτην ἀπὸ τῆς θείας ἀγάπης ἐδέξατο μέθην, καὶ ἡ μέθη τὸ δίψος οὐκ ἔσβεσεν, ἀλλὰ σφοδρότερον ἀπειργάσατο. Καὶ ἡ προσθήκη τῆς πόσεως ἐπίτασις ἐγένετο τῆς ἐφέσεως, καὶ τὴν ὄρεξιν ηὔξησεν ἡ ἀπόλαυσις. Καὶ καθάπερ τὸ πῦρ, ὅσῳ πλείονα τροφὴν ὑποδέχεται, τοσούτῳ μείζονα τὴν ἐνέργειαν δείκ νυσιν-αὔξεται γὰρ αὕτη τῇ προσθήκῃ τῆς ὕλης, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀμβλύνεται-, οὕτως ἡ περὶ τὸν θεὸν ἀγάπη τῇ θεωρίᾳ τῶν θείων πυρσεύεται, καὶ σφοδροτέραν ἐκεῖθεν καὶ θερμο τέραν τὴν ἐνέργειαν ὑποδέχεται. Καὶ ὅσῳ ἄν τις πλέον τοῖς θείοις ἐνδιατρίψῃ, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ἐξάπτει τῆς ἀγάπης τὴν φλόγα. Καὶ τοῦτο ἡμᾶς οὐ μόνον ὁ μέγας ἐδίδαξε Μωϋσῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ ἁγία νύμφη, περὶ ἧς ὁ θεσπέσιος λέγει Παῦλος· "Ἡρμοσάμην ὑμᾶς ἑνὶ ἀνδρὶ παρθένον ἁγνὴν παραστῆσαι τῷ θεῷ." Αὕτη γὰρ ἐν τῷ Ἄσματι τῶν ᾀσμάτων πρὸς τὸν νυμφίον βοᾷ· "∆εῖξόν μοι τὴν ὄψιν σου, καὶ ἀκούτισόν με τῆς φωνῆς σου, ὅτι ἡ φωνή σου ἡδεῖα, καὶ ἡ ὄψις σου ὡραῖα." Ἐκ γὰρ τῶν περὶ αὐτοῦ λόγων δεξαμένη τὸν ἔρωτα, οὐκ ἀρκεῖται τοῖς λόγοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῆς ἐπακοῦσαι ποθεῖ τῆς φωνῆς. Καὶ πτερωθεῖσα τοῖς περὶ τῆς ὥρας αὐτοῦ διηγήμασι, καὶ αὐτῆς ἐφίεται τῆς θεωρίας, ταῖς εἰρημέναις εὐφημίαις τὸ φίλτρον σημαίνουσα· "∆εῖξόν μοι, φησί, τὴν ὄψιν σου, καὶ ἀκούτισόν με τῆς φωνῆς σου, ὅτι ἡ φωνή σου ἡδεῖα, καὶ ἡ ὄψις σου ὡραῖα." 31.6 Τούτου τοῦ κάλλους καὶ ὁ ταύτης προμνήστωρ καὶ νυμφοστόλος ἐρασθείς, ὁ θεσπέσιος φημὶ Παῦλος, τὴν ἐρωτικὴν ἐκείνην ἀφῆκε φωνήν· "Τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ θεοῦ; θλῖψις, ἢ στενοχωρία, ἢ διωγμός, ἢ λιμός, ἢ γυμνότης, ἢ κίνδυνος, ἢ μάχαιρα; καθὼς γέγραπται ὅτι Ἕνεκά σου θανατούμεθα ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν, ἐλογίσθημεν ὡς πρόβατα σφαγῆς." Εἶτα καὶ τῆς καρτερίας ὑποδείκνυσι τὴν αἰτίαν· "Ἐν τούτοις γάρ, φησί, πᾶσι ὑπερνικῶμεν διὰ τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς θεοῦ." Σκοπού μενοι γὰρ τίνες ὄντες τίνων ἀπηλαύσαμεν ἀγαθῶν, καὶ ὡς οὐχ ἡμεῖς ἠγαπήσαμεν πρότεροι, ἀλλ' ἀγαπηθέντες ἀντηγα πήσαμεν· καὶ μισοῦντες ἠγαπήθημεν, καὶ "ἐχθροὶ ὄντες κατηλλάγημεν"· οὐκ αὐτοὶ τυχεῖν τῶν διαλλαγῶν ἱκετεύ σαντες, ἀλλὰ τὸν μονογενῆ δεξάμενοι πρεσβευτήν· καὶ οἱ ἠδικηκότες ὑπὸ τοῦ ἠδικημένου παρακληθέντες· καὶ πρὸς τούτοις λογιζόμενοι τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν σταυρώμενον, τὰ σωτήρια πάθη, τοῦ θανάτου τὴν παῦλαν, τὴν δοθεῖσαν ἡμῖν τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐλπίδα. 31.7 Ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα σκοπούμενοι τῶν προσπιπτόντων ἡμῖν περιγινόμεθα σκυθρωπῶν, καὶ τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν τὴν μνήμην παρατιθέντες τῇ προσκαίρῳ κακοπαθείᾳ τοῦ σώμα τος, φέρομεν ἀσπασίως τὴν τῶν ἀνιαρῶν προσβολήν. Ἀντιταλαντεύοντες γὰρ τῷ περὶ τὸν δεσπότην φίλτρῳ πάντα τοῦ βίου τὰ λυπηρά, κοῦφα λίαν εὑρίσκομεν. Κἂν τὰ τερπνὰ δὲ ἅπαντα καὶ θυμήρη δοκοῦντα κατὰ ταὐτὸν συναγάγωμεν, ἀντισταθμώμενος ὁ θεῖος πόθος σκιᾶς ἀδρα νέστερα καὶ εἰαρινῶν ἀνθέων εὐφθαρτότερα δείκνυσι. Ταῦτα καὶ διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων, καὶ διὰ τῶν λεχθησομένων σημαίνει σαφῶς· "Πέπεισμαι γάρ, φησίν, ὅτι οὔτε θάνατος, οὔτε ζωή, οὔτε ἄγγελοι, οὔτε ἀρχαί, οὔτε δυνάμεις, οὔτε ἐνεστῶτα, οὔτε μέλλοντα, οὔτε ὕψωμα, οὔτε βάθος, οὔτε τις κτίσις ἑτέρα δυνήσεται ἡμᾶς χωρίσαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ θεοῦ, τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν." Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἄνω τὰ σκυθρωπὰ μόνα τεθεικώς, παρεξήτασε θλῖψιν, καὶ στενοχωρίαν, καὶ διωγμόν, καὶ λιμόν, καὶ γυμνότητα, καὶ κίνδυνον, καὶ μάχαιραν, τουτέστι τὴν βιαίαν σφαγήν, εἰκότως ἐνταῦθα καὶ τὰ θυμήρη προστίθησι τοῖς ἀλγεινοῖς, τῷ θανάτῳ τὴν ζωήν, τὰ νοητὰ τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς, τοῖς ὁρω μένοις τὰς ἀοράτους δυνάμεις,