Que nous avons une inclination naturelle d'aymer Dieu sur toutes choses
The Original Inclination to Love
God has planted a natural inclination in the human heart to love Him above all things, a capacity that would have been fully realized in the state of original justice.
If there were people who still stood in the original integrity and uprightness in which Adam found himself at his creation, even though they had no other help from God than the help he gives every creature so that it can do the actions proper to it, they would not only have the inclination to love God above all things, but they could also carry out that so just inclination by nature: for just as this divine Author and Master of nature cooperates and lends his strong hand to fire so that it rises upward, to the waters so that they flow toward the sea, and to the earth so that it sinks downward and stays there once it is there; so too, having himself planted in the human heart a special natural inclination not only to love the good in general, but to love in particular and above all things his divine goodness, which is better and more lovable than all things, the sweetness of his sovereign providence would require that he also contribute to those blessed people we have just spoken of as much help as would be needed for that inclination to be practiced and carried out.1 And this help, on the one hand, would be natural, as fitting to nature and tending toward the love of God insofar as he is Author and sovereign Master of nature; and on the other hand it would be supernatural, because it would answer not to man's bare nature, but to nature adorned, enriched, and honored with original justice, which is a supernatural quality proceeding from a very special favor of God. As for the love above all things practiced through this help, it would be called natural, since virtuous actions take their name from their objects and motives. This love we speak of would tend only toward God as He is recognized, by the light of nature alone, as the Author, Lord, and sovereign end of every creature, and therefore lovable and estimable above all things by natural inclination and propensity.
The Persistent Spark of Grace
Despite the corruption of sin, the natural inclination to love God remains within us, ready to be awakened like a partridge returning to its mother or a spark rising from ashes.
Now, although the state of our human nature is no longer endowed with the original health and uprightness the first man had at his creation, and although, on the contrary, we are greatly corrupted by sin, still it remains true that the holy inclination to love God above all things has stayed with us, as has also the natural light by which we know that his sovereign goodness is lovable above all things; and it is not possible that a person thinking attentively about God—even by natural reasoning alone—should fail to feel a certain surge of love that the secret inclination of our nature stirs in the depths of the heart, by which, at the first grasp of this first and sovereign object, the will is forestalled and feels itself stirred to take delight in him.2 Among partridges, it often happens that some steal others' eggs to hatch them—either out of an eagerness to be mothers or a dullness that keeps them from recognizing their own. And here is something strange, yet well attested: for the young partridge that has been hatched and raised under the wings of a stranger bird, at the first call it hears from its true mother—the one that laid the egg from which it came—leaves the thief-partridge, goes back to its first mother, and falls in behind her, by the kinship it has with its first origin; a kinship, though, that never showed itself, but had stayed secret, hidden, and as if asleep deep in nature until it met its object—then, suddenly stirred and as if awakened, it does its work and drives the young bird's appetite back to its first duty.3 It is the same, Theotime, with our heart: for though it is hatched, nourished, and raised amid bodily things—low and fleeting—and, so to speak, under the wings of nature, still, at the first look it casts toward God, at the first knowledge it receives of him, the natural and first inclination to love God, which had been as if dozing and imperceptible, wakes in an instant and suddenly appears like a spark rising from among the ashes; and touching our will, it gives it a surge of that supreme love due to the sovereign and first Principle of all things.4
Read the original Latin
S'il se treuvoit des hommes qui fussent en l'integrité et droiture originelle en laquelle Adam se treuva lhors de sa creation, bien que d'ailleurs ilz n'eussent aucune autre assistence de Dieu que celle qu'il donne a chasque creature affin qu'elle puisse faire les actions qui luy sont convenables, non seulement ilz auroyent l'inclination d'aymer Dieu sur toutes choses, mays aussi ilz pourroyent nzturelleent executer cette si juste inclination: car, comme ce divin Autheur et Maistre de la nature coopere et preste sa main forte au feu pour monter en haut, aux eaux pour couler vers la mer,a la terre pour descendre en bas et y demeurer quand elle y est; ainsy,ayant luy mesme planté dans le coeur de l'homme une speciale inclination naturelle, non seulement d'aymer le bien en general, mays d'aymer en particulier et sur toutes choses sa divine bonté qui est meilleure et plus aymable que toutes choses, la suavité de sa providence souveraine requeroit qu'il contribuast aussi a ces bienheureux hommes que nous venons de dire,autant de secours qu'il seroit necessaire affin que cette inclination fust prattiquee et effectuee. Et ce secours, d'un costé seroit naturel, comme convenable a la nature,et tendant a l'amour de Dieu entant qu'il est Autheur et souverain Maistre de la nature; et d'autre part il seroit surnaturel, parce qu'il correspondroit, non a la nature simple de l'homme,mais a la nature ornee,enrichie et honnoree de la justice originelle,qui est une qualité surnaturelle procedante d'une tres speciale faveur de Dieu. Mays quand a l'amour sur toutes choses qui seroit prattiquee selon ce secours, il seroit appellé naturel, d'autant que les actions vertueuses prennent leur nom de leurs objectz et motifs, et cet amour dont nous parlons tendroit seulement a Dieu, selon qu'il est reconneu Autheur, Seigneur et souveraine fin de toute creature par la seule lumiere naturelle,et par consequent aymable et estimable sur toutes choses par inclination et propension naturelle.
Or,bien que l'estat de nostre nature humaine ne soit pas maintenant doüé de la santé et droitture originelle que le premier homme avoit en sa creation, et qu'au contraire nous soyons grandement depravés par le peché,si est ce toutefois que la sainte inclination d'aymer Dieu sur toutes choses nous est demeuree, comme aussi la lumiere naturelle par laquelle nous connoissons que sa souveraine bonté est aymable sur toutes choses; et n'est pas possible qu'un homme pensant attentivement en Dieu, voire mesme par le seul discours naturel,ne ressente un certain eslan d'amour que la secrette inclination de nostre nature suscite au fond du coeur, par lequel, a la premiere apprehension de ce premier et souverain object,la volonté est prevenüe et se sent excitee a se complaire en iceluy.
Entre les perdrix il arrive souvent que les unes desrobbent les oeufs des autres affin de les couver, soit pour l'avidité qu'elles ont d'estre meres,soit pour leur stupidité qui leur fait mesconnoistre leurs oeufs propres. Et voicy chose estrange, mais neanmoins bien tesmoignee, car le perdreau qui aura esté esclos et nourri sous les aysles d'une perdrix estrangere, au premier reclam qu'il oyt de sa vraye mere qui avoit pondu l'oeuf duquel il est procedé, il quitte la perdrix larronnesse, se rend a sa premiere mere et se met a sa suite, par la correspondance qu'il a avec sa premiere origine; correspondance toutefois qui ne paroissoit point, ains fut demeuree secrette, cachee et comme dormante au fond de la nature, jusques a la rencontre de son object, que soudain excitee, et comme reveilllee, elle fait son coup, et pousse l'appetit du perdreau a son premier devoir. Il en est de mesme, Theotime, de nostre coeur; car quoy qu'il soit couvé, nourri et eslevé emmi les choses corporelles, basses et transitoires,et, mar maniere de dire, sous les aysles de la nature, neanmoins, au premier regard qu'il jette en Dieu, a la premiere connoissance qu'il en reçoit, la naturelle et premiere inclination d'aymer Dieu, qui estoit comme assoupie et imperceptible, se resveille en un instant, et a l'improuveu paroist, comme une estincelle qui sort d'entre les cendres, laquelle touchant nostre volonté, luy donne un eslan de l'amour supreme deu au souverain et premier Principe de toutes choses.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reading nzturelleent is taken as naturellement (by nature); lhors as lors (at the time of).
- 2 ↩Early modern prevenüe/prévenir here means the will is anticipated or moved ahead of full deliberation by the natural inclination, not moral 'prevention' in the modern sense.
- 3 ↩French *correspondance* here means an innate affinity or kinship with one's true origin, not mere social correspondence; rendered as "kinship" to keep the natural-bond sense.
- 4 ↩Source reading *mar maniere de dire* treated as a likely typo/corruption of *par manière de dire* ("so to speak"); translated on that corrected sense.
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