Sermons on the Song of Songs

Whenever, therefore, my brethren, you are conscious of entertaining such thoughts in your souls, do not mistake them for your own reflections, but acknowledge them to be the interior speech of Him Who declares by the mouth of His Prophet, “I (am He) That speak justice.” For there is, in some respects, the closest resemblance between the thoughts of our mind and the words of Truth speaking within us. Hence, it is no easy matter for a man to distinguish the words which his heart utters from those which it simply hears, unless he prudently attends to the teaching of Christ, where He tells us in the Gospel that “from the heart come forth evil thoughts,” and where He says, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” and, “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.” And the Apostle similarly asserts “not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” It is, of course, only the sufficiency to think anything good that he refuses to admit in us. The evil, therefore, that we revolve in our minds is our own thought; the good is the secret word of God. Our hearts speak the former, they only listen to the latter. “I will hear,” says the Psalmist, “what the Lord God will speak in me, for He will speak peace unto His people.” Consequently, it is God Who speaks peace, piety, and justice in us. Of ourselves we cannot think of such things, we do but hear them. On the other hand, murders, uncleannesses, thefts, blasphemies, and such like come forth from the heart. These are not heard by it, but spoken. For “the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” And therefore “hath the wicked provoked God, for he hath said in his heart, He will not require it.” But there is something besides, which is indeed felt by the heart, and yet is not a word uttered by the heart. For it does not come forth from the heart as our own thought. Neither is it the same as that other word, which, as I said, is spoken by Truth to the heart, viz., the word of the Word, since this word is evil. But it is inspired by the opposing powers, as one of the things sent “by evil angels” (Immissiones per angelos malos—Ps. 127:4). So we read that the demon put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, as an evil word, to betray the Lord.

But who is there that watches so vigilantly and constantly over his interior feelings, whether only in him, or also from him, that in every illicit emotion of the heart he clearly distinguishes between the natural corruption of his own mind and the bite of the serpent? In my opinion, no mortal man is capable of this, unless he who, enlightened by the Paraclete, has received that special grace which the Apostle mentions amongst the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and names the discernment of spirits. One may guard his heart with all possible vigilance, according to Solomon; and with most watchful attention observe all its interior motions; one may be long practised and have frequent experience in these matters, yet never shall he be able to discriminate with certitude between the home-sprung evil and the hell-inspired. For “who can understand sins?” But it concerns us very little to know whence the evil is, as long as we perceive that it is really within us. Rather, whatsoever its source, we should make it our business to watch and pray assiduously, lest we should give it our consent. The Psalmist prays against both evils, viz., that originating from our own hearts, and that inspired by the demon, when he says, “From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from those of others spare Thy servant.” I cannot deliver unto you, my brethren, that which I have not myself received. But I have not received, I must candidly confess, any means of distinguishing infallibly between the evil that is begotten of the heart and that which is injected by the enemy. Both are truly evils, and proceed from an evil source; both are in the heart, yet not both of the heart. Of that much I am certain, although I am not able to determine what is to be attributed to the domestic, and what to the foreign enemy. However, as I have already remarked, such ignorance is attended with no great danger.

But there is another matter wherein error would unquestionably be perilous, nay, even pernicious, viz., in assigning to their respective sources the good and the evil which we discover within us. And here we have duly prescribed for us a certain and definite rule lest we should credit ourselves with what belongs to God, mistaking the divine visitation for fruit of our own hearts, or, on the other hand, attribute to grace what is but the product of nature. For between these two there is the same distinction as between good and evil. Our rule, therefore, is this, that nothing of evil must be ascribed to God, nor anything of good to ourselves, except perhaps that which the heart may have previously conceived through the grace of the Word. For “a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit.” But I think enough has now been said to show how much of the contents of our minds is due to God, and how much to ourselves, or the evil spirit; enough, I say, yet nothing superfluous, since I want the enemies of grace to understand clearly that, without grace, the human heart is incapable of even a good thought, but its “sufficiency is from God”; and that the good which is conceived is rather the voice of the Lord than the offspring of the mind. If, then, you hear that voice, you will no longer be ignorant “whence it cometh, or whither it goeth,” knowing that it “cometh from God and goeth” to the heart. But see to it that the word which comes forth from the Mouth of God does not return to Him empty, “but that it shall do and prosper in all the things for which He sent it.” Thus shall you also be able to say, “His grace in me hath not been void.”

Happy the soul to which the Bridegroom, as her inseparable Companion, everywhere shows Himself affable, and gives to experience uninterruptedly the sweetness of His divine eloquence! She certainly will have it in her power at all times to deliver herself from the troubles and temptations that have their source in the flesh, whilst she occupies herself in “redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Weariness and distress can have no access to such a soul, for, as it is written, “Whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad.”