'No one can love God consciously in his heart unless he
has first feared Him with all his heart. Through the action of fear the
soul is purified and, as it were, made malleable and so it becomes
awakened to the action of love. No one, however, can come to fear God
completely in the way described, unless he first transcends all worldly
cares; for when the intellect reaches a state of deep stillness and
detachment, then the fear of God begins to trouble it, purifying it with
full perception from all gross and cloddish density, and thereby
bringing it to a great love for God's goodness. . . Fear and love are
found together only in the righteous who achieve virtue through the
energy of the Holy Spirit in them. For this reason Holy Scripture says
in one place: "O fear the Lord, all you who are His saints," (Ps. 34:9)
and in another: "O love the Lord, all you who are His saints." (Ps.
31:23) From this we see clearly that the righteous, who are still in the
process of being purified, are characterized both by fear and by a
moderate measure of love; perfect love, on the other hand, is found only
in those who have already been purified and in whom there is no longer
any thought of fear, but rather a constant burning and binding of the
soul to God through the energy of the Holy Spirit. As it is written, "My
soul is bound to Thee: Thy right hand has upheld me." (Ps. 63:8. LXX)'
