CHAPTER XXII

OF THE THIRD DEGREE OF THE SPIRITUAL COMING
OF CHRIST

When the sun has risen in the heavens as high as it
can, it stands in the sign of Cancer (which means
Crab, because it cannot go further, but begins to go
back). Then come the fiercest heats of the wliole
year. And the sun draws up all the moisture, and the
earth becomes dry, and the fruits ripen quickly.
So likewise, when Christ, the Divine Sun, has risen
to the zenith of our hearts— that is, above all the
gifts and consolations and sweetness which we may



Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage 73

receive from Him — so that wc do not rest in any
savours, how great soever they be, which God may
pour into our souls ; if then, masters of ourselves,
we ever turn inwards, bj' the way which has been
shown heretofore, with humble praise and with fervent
thanksgiving, towards the \'ery source from which all
gifts flow forth according to the needs and the merits
of each creature : then Christ stands on high in the
zenith of our hearts, and lie will draw all things,
that is, all our powers, to Himself. When thus neither
savour nor consolation can overcome or hinder the
loving heart, but it would rather forgo all consolations
and all gifts, that it maj' find Him Whom it loves :
then there arises from this the third kind of inward
exercise, b}' which man is uplifted and adorned in
his sensibility and the lower part of his being.
