Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed. And our God is a consuming fire. It is the nature of God, so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire, which demands like purity in our worship. He will have purity. Such as they were, they did well to be afraid .
Fear is nobler than sensuality.
Fear is better than no God, better than a god made with hands . . . Therefore a thousand stages, each in itself all but valueless, are of inestimable worth as the necessary and connected graduations of an infinite progress. A condition which of declension would indicate a devil, may of growth indicate a saint. As much as they fear will come upon them, possibly far more . . . For that which cannot be shaken shall remain.