Inward rcst^ and cotttemplation^ here imperfect. 401 plunsres into the tumults .of humau conversation with the Rook.... . XXX. tlioughts of worldly desires, is not in solitude. But if any - -- * one be bodily oppressed with crowds of people, and yet suffers from no tumults of worldly cares in his heart, he is not in a city. To those therefore of good conversation soli- tude of mind is first granted, in order that they may keep down within the rising din of worldly desires, that they may restrain by the grace of heavenly love the cares of the heart which bubble up from its lowest depths, and drive away from the eyes of the mind with the hand of gravity, all the motions of trifling thoughts which importunately present themselves, as flies which are flitting around them : and may seek for themselves some secret spot with the Lord within, there to speak with Him silently by their inward longings, when the noise is still from without. 53. Of this secret place of the heart it is said elsewhere ; Therebecame silence in heavenfor about halfan hour. For Rev. 8, the Church of the Elect is called ' heaven,' which, as it rises to ' eternal and sublime truths by the elevation of contemplation, abates the tumults of thoughts which are springing up from below, and makes a kind of silence within itself for God. And since this silence of contemplation cannot be perfect in this life, it is said to have been made for half an hour. For whilst the tumultuous noises of thoughts force themselves into the mind against its will, they violently draw the eye of the mind, even when steadily fixed on things above, to view again those of earth. Whence it is written; Thecorruptible yvif^^om body presseth down the soul, and the earthly habitation ' ' wevjheth down the sense that museth on many things. This silence is therefore well described as having been made not for a whole, but for ' a half hour :' because contemplation is never perfected here, however ardently it be begun. Which is also suitably described by the Prophet Ezekiel, who witnesses that he saw in the hand of a man, for the measure of the city built on the mountain, a reed of six Ez. 40, cubits and a span. For the Church is in truth situated on the mountain of the Elect, because it is not founded on the lowest desires. But what is pointed out by the cubit, except work, and what by the number six but the perfection of the work, because the Lord also is said on the sixth day to have