Sermons on the Song of Songs

Dost thou wish, my brother, to be secured against the danger of being pushed by thyself? If so, “let not the foot of pride come near” thee, and the hand of him that pushes shall have no power to move thee. For “there (viz., in pride) the workers of iniquity are fallen.” There the devil and his angels were thrown down, who, although they were not pushed from outside, were nevertheless “cast out and could not stand.” Lucifer “stood not in the truth,” because he leaned not on the Word, but trusted in his own unaided strength. And perhaps the reason why he desired to sit down was that he felt no longer able to stand. For he said, “I will sit in the mountain of the covenant.” But God decreed it otherwise, and he neither stood nor sat but fell, according to the testimony of the Lord where He tells us, “I saw Satan like lightning fall from heaven.” Therefore let not him who stands rely upon himself, but rather lean on the Word, unless he wishes to fall. The Word Himself has declared, “Without Me you can do nothing.” And so it is. We can neither rise to what is good nor stand in what is good, without His assistance. Do thou, therefore, who standest, give glory to the Word, and say, “He set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps.” He by Whose Hand thou hast been lifted up, must now hold thee erect by His power. So much in support of the proposition which I laid down, namely, that we have need to lean upon the Word in order to attain to virtue.

We have next to enquire into the truth of another statement of mine, to wit, that it is only by the Word we can be reformed unto wisdom. Now the Word is Virtue, and He is also Wisdom. Let the soul therefore borrow virtue from Virtue and wisdom from Wisdom. But let her attribute both these gifts to the one same Word exclusively. Should she act otherwise, and arrogate to herself either her wisdom or her virtue, or the two together, as if she had not received them from the Word, let her also deny that the stream comes from the fountain, the grape from the vine, and the daylight from the sun. A “faithful saying” is that which we read, “if any of you want wisdom let him ask of God, Who giveth to all men abundantly and upbraideth not: and it shall be given him.” St. James speaks here only of wisdom. But I venture to affirm that what he says of wisdom applies equally to virtue. For virtue is closely related to wisdom. Like wisdom it is a gift of God, and like wisdom also it is to be reputed one of the best and perfect gifts which “come down from the Father of lights.” And if anyone were to hold that virtue is in all respects and absolutely identical with wisdom, I should not gainsay him, provided there was question of virtue and wisdom as existing in the Word. For although they are the same in the Word, by reason of the unique and absolute simplicity of the Divine Nature, they are not reflected in the soul in the same manner; but, as if they were distinct one from the other, they give themselves to be participated by her variously, according to her manifold and various necessities. In this way, it is one thing for the soul to be guided by virtue, and quite another to be governed by wisdom; it is one thing to rule herself with power, and another to taste the delights of spiritual sweetness. It is true, no doubt, that power belongs to wisdom as well as to virtue, and that sweetness belongs to virtue as well as to wisdom. Nevertheless, if we would assign its own proper effect to each of these two, namely, virtue and wisdom, we shall say that the presence of the former is indicated by vigour of soul, whilst the latter manifests itself by placidity of mind together with a certain spiritual sweetness. I believe this is the sweetness to which the Apostle alludes where, after many exhortations appertaining to virtue, he adds what belongs to wisdom, “In sweetness, in the Holy Ghost.” Therefore to stand, to resist, to repel force with force, which are reckoned amongst the functions of virtue, are honourable actions indeed, but very laborious. There is a vast difference between defending one’s honour with labour and possessing it in peace. It is not consequently the same thing to act in accordance with the rules of virtue and to feel a delight in the practice of virtue. Wisdom enjoys that which virtue toilsomely produces; and whatever wisdom ordains, determines, and regulates, virtue executes.

“Write wisdom in the time of leisure,” counsels the Wise Man. Therefore wisdom’s time of leisure is not a time of idleness. Quite the contrary: the more at leisure she is, the more busily is she occupied with her own peculiar interests. Virtue, on the other hand, appears to best advantage when it is seen in exercise, and its splendour is proportioned to its activity. And I do not think I should be far wrong were I to define wisdom as the love of virtue. But where love is, labour cannot be, but only enjoyment. And perhaps the word “sapientia” (wisdom) is derived from the word “sapor” (flavour) because wisdom, as if it were a kind of condiment, lends a pleasing flavour to the virtue to which it is added and which of itself, without such seasoning, would be dry, so to speak, and insipid. Neither would he seem to me deserving of censure who should define wisdom to be a relish for what is good. But we have lost this spiritual relish almost from the very first appearance of our race. At the moment when the carnal appetite prevailed and the old serpent with his poison corrupted the palate of the heart, the soul began to lose her natural love of good and to experience an inclination to evil. Hence it is written, “The imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth,” namely, on account of the folly of the first woman. And so the folly (insipientia) of the woman deprived us of the relish (sapor) of good, because the foolishness of Eve was overreached by the malice of Satan. But if the serpent seemed to have conquered for a time by means of the woman, by the woman also he now laments that he has been eternally vanquished. For behold I Wisdom again took possession of the woman’s heart and body, in order that we, who had been deformed unto foolishness by the woman, might again by the woman be reformed unto wisdom. And now wisdom is for ever overcoming malice in the minds into which it enters, and, expelling the relish for evil introduced by that, substitutes the relish for virtue. For when wisdom gains admission to the soul, it reveals to her the foolishness of following the senses, it purifies the intellect, and heals and renews the palate of the heart. With her spiritual taste thus restored, she begins again to have a relish for good, and a relish for wisdom, than which there is no greater good.