CHAPTER XIV.

1,2. On interior silence; its reason; God recommends it.

3. Exterior silence, retirement and recollection contribute to it.

“The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” (Hab. ii. 20.) The reason why inward silence is so indispensable, is, because the Word is essential and eternal, and necessarily requires dispositions in the soul in some degree correspondent to His nature, as a capacity for the reception of Himself. Hearing is a sense formed to receive sounds, and is rather passive than active, admitting, but not communicating sensation; and if we would hear, we must lend the ear for that purpose. Christ, the eternal Word, who must be communicated to the soul to give it new life, requires the most intense attention to his voice, when He would speak within us.

2. Hence it is so frequently enjoined upon us in sacred writ, to listen and be attentive to the voice of God; I quote a few of the numerous exhortations to this effect: “Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation!” (Isa. li. 4,) and again “Hear me, all ye whom I carry in my bosom, and bear within my bowels:” (Isa. xlvi. 3,) and further by the Psalmist, “Hearken, O daughter! and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.” (Ps. xlv. 10,11.)

We must forget ourselves, and all self-interest, and listen and be attentive to God; these two simple actions, or rather passive dispositions, produce the love of that beauty, which He himself communicates.

3. Outward silence is very requisite for the cultivation and improvement of inward; and, indeed, it is impossible we should become truly interior, without loving silence and retirement. God saith by the mouth of his prophet, “I will lead her into solitude, and there will I speak to her heart (Hos. ii. 14, vulg.); and unquestionably the being internally engaged with God is wholly incompatible with being externally busied about a thousand trifles.

When, through weakness, we become as it were uncentered, we must immediately turn again inward; and this process we must repeat as often as our distractions recur. It is a small matter to be devout and recollected for an hour or half hour, if the unction and spirit of prayer do not continue with us during the whole day.53