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Chapter 1

WHEREIN IS TREATED, How necessary it is for us, to give ear to God; and of the admirable Language, which our first Parents spoke, in the state of Innocency: Which being lost by Sin, many ill ones, did succeed in place thereof.

Psalm 44:11-12. Hearken, O daughter, and behold, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people, and the house of thy Father; and the King shall with delight desire thy beauty.

THESE words, O thou devout Spouse1 of Jesus Christ, doth the Prophet David speak, or rather God, by him, to the Christian Church; advising her of that which she ought to do; that so the great King may be drawn to love her; by means whereof, she may be endued with all happiness. And because thy soul, is, by the great mercy of God, a member of this Church, I have thought fit to declare these words to thee. Imploring first the aid of the Holy Ghost; to the end, that it may direct my pen, and prepare thy hart, that so neither I may speak unfitly, nor thou hear unfruitfully; but that, both the one and the other, may redound to the eternal honour of God, & the performing of his holy will.

The first thing that we are wished to, in these words, is that we harken; & not without cause. Because as the first beginning of our spiritual life is faith, & this, as2 S. Paul affirms, doth enter into the soul by means of hearing; it is, but reason, that first we be admonished of that, which we are first to put in practice. For it will profit us very little, that the voice of divine truth do sound exteriorly in our hearing,3 if withal, we have not ears, which may hearken to the sa●●, within. It will not serve our turn, that when we were baptised, the Priest did4 put his finger into our ears, requiring them to be open; if afterwards we shall shut them up, against the word of God; fullfilling so in ourselves, that which the Prophet David saith of the Idols,5 Eyes they have, and they see not; ears they have, and they dye not hear.

But because some speak so ill, that to hear them, is no better than to hear the Sirens, who kill their auditors; it willbe fit for us, to see, both whom we are, and whom we are not to hear. For this purpose, it is to be noted, that Adaw, and Eve, when they were created, spoke one only Language; and that continued, in the world, till the6 pride of men (who had a mind to build up the Tower of confusion) was punished. Whereupon, instead of one Language, whereby all men understood one another, there grew to be a multitude of Languages, which they could not, mutually understand. By this we also come to know, that our first Parents, before they rebelled from their creator (transgressing his Commandment with presumptuous pride) did speak also in their souls, but one spiritual Language; making a7 perfect kind of concord; which one maintained with another, and each one with himself, and so also with God; living in the quiet estate of Innocency, the sensitive part, obeying the rational, and the rational, obeying God; and so they were in peace, with him; in peace within themselves; and in peace, with one another.

But now, when they rebelled, with so bold disobedience, against the Lord of heaven, both they were punished, and we in them. In8 such sort, that instead of one good Language, (by means whereof they understood one another so well) there have succeeded innumerable other ill ones; all full of such confusion, and darkness, that neither do men agree with others, nor the same man with himself; and least of all, with God. And although these Languages do keep no order in themselves (since indeed they are but moor disorder) yet to the end that we may speak of them, we will reduce them to a kind of method, and to the number of three; which are the Language of the World; of the Flesh; and of the Devil; whose office, as S. Bernard saith, is, Of the first; to speak vain things: Of the second; delightful things: And of the third; afflictive, & bitter things.

Footnotes

  1. This Book was written chiefly for the Lady, Dona Sancha, daughter to the Lord of Guadalcaçar who lived not in a Monastery, but in her Father's house▪ though she consecrated herself to God, by a vow of virginity. ↩

  2. Rom. 10. ↩

  3. We must hear first, & practise after. ↩

  4. According to the ancient custom of the holy Catholic Church. ↩

  5. Psal. 11●. ↩

  6. The confusion of tongues, grew in punishment of the pride of man. ↩

  7. A sweet & happy Language ↩

  8. The case is altered. ↩

Chapter 3 of 115