CANTICUM CANTICORUM

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Solomon, the son of David king of Israel, published three volumes according to the number of his own names. Of these the first is מִשְׁלֵי misle, which the Greeks name παραβολάς, the Latins proverbs, because in it, under a comparative likeness, he shows figures of words and images of the truth: but the truth itself he reserved to be understood 1126Dby the wit of the readers. The second book he called קֹהֶלֶת coheleth, which in Greek is called ἐκκλησιαστὴς, in Latin preacher to the assembly: because the discourses are directed not only to one man spiritually, as in the Proverbs, but to all generally, teaching that all things which we behold in the world are vain and brief: and for this reason least of all to be sought after. The third book he entitled שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים 1127Asir hassirim: which is turned into the Latin tongue as the Song of Songs. Where, by a marriage song, he mystically sings the joining of Christ and the Church. And it is called the Song of Songs because it is preferred before all songs. As in the law certain things are called holy, than which greater are the holy of holies. In these three books indeed he composed the disciplines of three kinds, by which one arrives at the knowledge of things. For in the first, ethics, that is, the moral, after this, physics, which comprehends the quality of nature, last of all, the theoric, that is, the contemplative. For in the Proverbs, teaching moral things, he set forth a higher understanding through a certain common usage of speech, and fits the keeping of the commandments and the institution of heavenly doctrine to succinct 1127Bwords and to brief sentences. Now Proverbs are such as set forth one matter under other words, which are understood otherwise than they are spoken: they have more in the force of their sentences than in the sound of their words; and these the Greeks call παραβολὰς. Ecclesiastes, examining the natures of things, finds that all things in the world are vain and fleeting, and, the frailty of all things being beheld, admonished that the world be renounced. In the Song of Songs, having gone beyond things visible, and contemplating those things which are heavenly or divine, under the appearance of a bridegroom and a bride he declares the unity of Christ and the Church, and, rousing the soul to the love of heavenly things, calls it on to come to the fellowship of God. But that is not to be thought which is handed down by our hearers, that among the Hebrews this was the practice, 1127Cthat they should permit no one to read this book save a man already of perfect knowledge and of a faith strengthened in experience: lest the knowledge should not so much instruct slippery minds as the text should turn them to bodily lusts.

Solomon, that is, peaceable, because in his kingdom there was peace, through which the peace of the Church that was to come was figured, Idida, that is, beloved, and it signifies him of whom it is said: Beautiful in form above the sons of men: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever (Psal. XLIV). Ecclesiastes, that is, preacher to the assembly, and it signifies him who was to speak to men reasonably, and to gather together the Church. According to the number of his names he made three books: the Proverbs, in which book he teaches little ones, not so much in age as in wisdom, concerning an even-minded manner of life in the world, 1127Dthat is, how they may lawfully use temporal things; Ecclesiastes, in which he instructs men of riper age unto the contempt of fleeting things; the Song of Songs, that is, this present work, in which he teaches the perfected man concerning the love of God alone, that he may rest between the arms of the Bridegroom. Whence also it is called the Song of Songs, excelling by its own dignity all other songs. For by those vices are shunned and the enemy guarded against: by these we are enriched with virtues, and joined to the Lord. In a like order the philosophers also set down their teachings. First they teach ethics, afterwards physics, and him whom they see to have made progress in these they lead on even to the theoric. The matter, the Bridegroom and the Bride, that is, the Head and the Church. And the manner, with what desire the members cleave to the Head, 1128Aand strive to please him, and what gifts they either receive from him in the present or look for in the future, and with what affection the Bridegroom loves the Church, praising her, and admonishing, and comforting her. The end is the love of God.

Four persons I seem to myself to have found in this work, the Bridegroom and his own companions, the Bride and the maidens with her. Some things are said by the Bridegroom, others by the Bride: not a few by the young maidens, certain by the companions of the Bridegroom. For it is fitting that in the beginnings there be a multitude of maidens with the Bride, a throng of young men with the Bridegroom. Understand the Bridegroom to be Christ, the Bride the Church without spot and wrinkle. But the angels, and those who have come unto the perfect man, understand to be the friends of the Bridegroom. The maidens are the throngs of brides that are beginning, 1128Bwhich have obtained salvation after a certain measure.

Now out of this book the Gentiles claimed the marriage song for themselves, and a poem of that kind was taken up. If thou wilt ascend to the Song of Songs, it is needful to go forth out of Egypt, that after the passage of the Red Sea, the enemies being drowned, thou mayest be able to sing the first song: Let us sing to the Lord, for gloriously, etc. (Exod. XV). But because thou art still far from the Song of Songs, walk through the land of the desert spiritually, and thereafter, set upon the bank of Jordan, sing the second song, Hear, O ye heavens, the things which I speak, etc. (Deut. XXXI). And when thou hast passed through all things, climb up to higher things, that thou mayest be able, a comely soul with the Bridegroom, to sing this Song of Songs also.

It is to be noted that the Bride always longs to abide with the Bridegroom in the house, or in 1128Cthe little bed, or in some more inward place: which befits women. He, as is the part of males, calls his beloved out to the outdoor work of the vineyards, or to works of this kind: because doubtless the Church, if it could come to pass, desires to rear up offspring for the Lord in the tranquillity of peace. But he in the present exercises her with frequent persecutions, that she may come the cleaner to things eternal, lest, if prosperous things befall, being delighted with the sojourn of the present world or of her exile, she sigh less after the heavenly country.

Synagogue, a gathering together, which is also of stones: Church, a calling together, which is of rational beings. And each of these, a portion of the just, has been made a partaker in the same faith of Christ and in the same love, at diverse times, the former by awaiting him who was to come, the latter by receiving him present. All 1128Dthe motions of the soul, God the founder of the universe created unto good: but by our own use it often comes to pass that things which are by nature good, while we ill abuse them, lead us down into sin. One of the motions of the soul is love, which we use well if we love wisdom and truth: but ill, if flesh or blood. Do thou therefore, as a spiritual man, hear spiritually the words of love of the song that is sung, and learn to carry over the motion of thy soul and the burning of natural love unto better things.

VERS. 1.-- Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. The voice of those who go before the coming of Christ, who pray to the Father of the Bridegroom, that is, of Christ. In the midst of the prayers she is heard, 1129Aand seeing the Bridegroom she speaks to him: Let him touch me with the sweetness of his presence, which I have very often heard promised by the prophets, and, bringing as it were a kiss, let him receive also the touch of my mouth; that is, let him hear me asking concerning the way of salvation, and, making both one, let him bring the kiss of peace. To kiss is put for to be made at peace, after the likeness of those who through discord have departed from their lords, but on returning kiss one another and are perfectly reconciled, so the Synagogue longs that the human race, removed from God by sin, be reconciled through the incarnation of the Son. As many precepts as she learns from his preaching, so many kisses of his mouth, as it were, she receives. She speaks after the manner of one who loves, who for the fervour of her love is not able to keep the order of speaking. For as in a kiss two different bodies 1129Bare joined, so in the incarnation of the Son two substances, of the godhead and of the manhood, utterly different, are united in an inseparable conjunction. They are better. She names the breasts of the Bridegroom Christ, which is a woman's thing, that at the very beginning of the song she may make plain that she speaks figuratively. Therefore do I desire the kiss, which is also my redemption; because thy instructions, which are the milk and the nourishment of children, are better than other doctrines, which do not cherish but slay the simple: as wine kills little ones. By the odours of ointments the repute of virtues is wont to be signified.

VERS. 2.-- Thy name is oil poured out. Therefore also do I desire the kiss, because thy name is oil, etc. The Bridegroom came anointed from the Father to the Bride, that he might anoint the Bride also. From chrism, Christ, that is, anointed from 1129Cthe anointing; which name is poured through the grace of the Holy Spirit in baptism upon all the faithful. I cannot yet embrace thee thyself, meanwhile thy name, out of desire of thee, shall pass the night with me. The name of Jesus came into the world, and straightway is preached. Oil poured out, that is, in the whole earth the name of Christ is preached; now the name of Moses is heard among the Gentiles, which before was shut within the narrows of Judaea alone. Therefore the maidens have loved thee. Saying these things, she beholds the maidens, who were not present while she spoke before, but in the midst of her prayers the choir of maidens enters in, and is praised by the utterances of the Bride. All the Churches, which make one Catholic Church, are the maidens: not old through fault, 1129Dbut new through grace, not barren with age, but by the age of their mind fitted for spiritual fruitfulness. And because with the oil of thy grace thou hast emptied out all the griefs of sins, Therefore the maidens, etc.

VERS. 3.-- Draw me after thee. The maidens answer: Draw me after thee. The Bride does not follow behind his back, but joined to the Bridegroom's side, the handmaids enter in after her. Draw me after thee. Thus far the voice of those awaiting the incarnation of the Saviour, and commending his gifts: from here on is brought in the voice of those who came to the faith after the times of the incarnation. The former was asking that he would come and offer a kiss; the latter does not entreat that he should come down to her in that manner any more, but rather she herself desires to follow him to the heavens: and because she sees that this cannot come to pass by herself, she implores the leading of him to 1130Awhom she desires to come. Into the odour of the ointments. In the consideration of miracles. The king hath brought me in, etc. The Bride, having entered into the inner chamber of the Bridegroom, returns to the young maidens and announces to them: He hath brought me in. Or, through hope he has led me into eternal blessedness, in the plural, for the manifold abundance of good things, as if I have already tasted beforehand the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom, and the things which are prepared for me in the heavens I have known by his own revealing: and soon, turned to him who reveals this to her, she gives thanks for his benefits. There are four things in a house: the gate, the ascent, the dining-room, the bedchamber. By the gate we understand faith: by the ascent, hope: by the dining-room, charity: by the bedchamber, blessedness itself. We will exult and be glad. As if she would say: We extol not ourselves for the gifts received, but thee: mindful in 1130Ball things with how great tenderness thou hast vouchsafed to soften the austerity of the law by the grace of the faith of the Gospel: therefore not in ourselves, but in thee will we exult, because all the upright love thee, and have learned that thou art to be loved above all things. The Bride having entered again into the inner chamber, the maidens, while they await her coming, joyfully sing together for the Bride's perfection. Mindful of the breasts. And the upright love, is referred to the commendation of the Bride. Mindful of the breasts, etc. She (who is the greater) already enjoys to the full the milk of thy breasts. We also do not indeed love, but we shall love. Then they speak to the Bridegroom, The upright love thee. The upright, all who are upright of heart love thee above all things, nor are they upright who set anything before thy love, from whom alone they have whatever of good they have. The upright love. In vain do those believe themselves to love 1130Cthe Creator, who despise his admonitions. The truly just violate God neither in deed, nor in thought, nor in word.

VERS. 4.-- I am black. After the Church has been led into the storerooms, that is, through knowledge and through hope of the good things to come, after she has learned to love him with an upright heart and to rejoice in his grace, it remains to show that for the love of him and for the obtaining of the good things which she has tasted she undergoes a struggle, and what of affliction she bears. Black. As if she should say: you promise that you will go with me, and the tribulation which I suffer can deter you: but let neither affliction nor ill fame deter you, because these shall confer the comeliness of virtues, and after love there remains patience for the testing 1130Dof love. Black. Again the Bride answers the maidens, and the matter treated is open temptation. Black. Vile indeed do I appear in the eyes of those who persecute me, but before God I shine glorious by the confession of the truth. As the tents of Cedar. Here as is put not for the truth, but for the estimation of the foolish, who think her the dwelling of vices or of demons; as the skins of Solomon is here put for the truth. Cedar was a son of Ismael, whose hand was against all, and the hands of all against him, having no place among men, but for his wickedness and his wrath dwelling always in tents. So too the just are believed to be driven out and afflicted for their own deserts, and are judged as it were the enemies of all: whence it is said, You shall be hated by all men for my name's sake (Matth. X). As feet. [Vulg. Ct 1:4 sicut pelles Salomonis, "as the skins of Solomon"] 1131AThe Church, mortifying in herself carnal desires and adorned with virtues, becomes a dwelling worthy of the true peaceable one. Therefore the flesh of the Lord's manhood is called a skin, because as a tent is stretched over a man lest he be burnt by the sun, so the flesh of Christ stretched out upon the cross was for us an overshadowing of vices.

VERS. 5.-- The sun hath discoloured me. It belongs to the sun both to burn and to enlighten, so the true sun burns his own outwardly with persecutions, and by giving strength to resist enlightens them. The sons of my mother. And she answers as it were to the objection of the weak who doubt: she shows whence she bore the first madness of the persecutors, which appears the heavier for this, that it came from those of her own tribe. The sons, that is, the apostles destroyed our sect. Paul the persecutor of the Church was a son of her mother according to the flesh and to his upbringing: 1131Band doing penance, turned to the standards of his sister, he preached the faith which before he was destroying. They have set me. There was one vineyard of Christ in Jerusalem, namely the primitive Church, which on the day of Pentecost was established by the coming of the Holy Spirit, of which at that time the apostles were the keepers: but when persecution arose they were scattered into the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles, and so it came to pass that there were more vineyards, that is, in more places. And while the Jewish persecutors wished to trouble the Church, unwilling they were scattering the seed-plot of the word more widely, and by persecuting one they caused many to be established. When therefore she had said that she was afflicted with the parricidal hatred of the Synagogue, she straightway subjoins how much she profited through this affliction: adding, in the person of those to whom the care of preaching was 1131Ccommitted: They have set me keeper in the vineyards. (GREG.) Our vineyards are our actions, which we cultivate by the practice of daily labour. But being set keepers in the vineyards, we keep not our own vineyard: because while we are entangled in outward actions, we neglect the ministry of our own action. While I was keeping many vineyards, that I might gain others, in certain of them I suffered losses. The bitterness of the persecution of the sons of the Synagogue made me not to keep my own vineyard, because, the doctrine of the Gospel being left behind, they were forcing me to the distinctions of the legal observances.

VERS. 6.-- Show me, etc. The voice of the Church that is beginning from among the Gentiles, to the Bride, because many false prophets go out into the world, saying: Behold here is Christ, behold there; she entreats that she may be able to discern in 1131Dwhose profession and work he may be found. Show me my shepherd, whom I love with my whole soul, and in whom he has his rest and his pastures, lest, troubled by the heat of temptations, I begin to seek it through the conventicles of the companions, that is, of the heretics. Or, in the voice of the preachers to the Bridegroom, that they may be able to discern to whom they ought to minister the words of life. Then she beholds the Bridegroom, who, once beheld, went away. And he does this frequently in the whole song, a thing which he who has made trial of it has proved in himself, the Bridegroom, often held, often slips away, until he shall be truly held. At midday, etc. That is, in the splendour of thy majesty, which befits the perfect, not in the morning or in the evening. Or, at midday, that is, in the burning of tribulations, which the devil sends in, grieving that the world is snatched away from himself 1132A. The quality of things is wont to be marked from the time. Abraham at midday received the angels. Joseph at midday feasts with his brethren. Of thy companions. The heretics are called companions, because they carry about the mysteries of his name and of his confession.

VERS. 7.-- If thou know not. Because the Bride, while she was seeking the helps of God's presence in tribulations, had subjoined, in the person of the weak, Lest I begin to wander: straightway the Bridegroom, being implored, rebukes that same trembling of hers with a kindly chiding, according to that word of the Gospel, O thou of little faith (Matth. XIV), as if he should say, thou fearest to be blotted out by me in tribulation, and thou complainest that thou art blackened in the burning heat: but I have appointed to make thee fairer through tribulations. But if perchance thou knowest not this, nor rememberest that no man is crowned 1132Bsave he who has striven lawfully, go forth from my fellowship. (GREG., lib. XVI Moral, c. 21.) She knows her own self when, set in mind among sinners, she remembers that she was made unto the image of her author, and walks according to the order of the likeness she has received; but if she knows it not, she goes forth from the secret of the heart into outward lusts, and, led to the broad way, follows the examples of the peoples. The Lord, chiding the Church that is afraid, admonishes her of the grace given her against the snares of the enemies. Thy kids. Because they are trained not according to the rule of my commandments, but according to thy errors. Beside, in the footsteps of the shepherds thou shalt be made the last, not among the sheep, but the kids. Or beside, that is, that thou mayest be like to the true shepherds, because hypocrites seem to follow good men.

1132CVERS. 8.-- To my horsemen. As I freed the former people from the Egyptian servitude, so will I free thee from the hands of thy persecutors, dashing Pharao in pieces, if thou shalt know thyself to be my bride, freeing thee from the servitude of the devil in the font of baptism reddened by his passion, the author of sin being drowned in that same place. To my horsemen. Because the Lord wills not that the Church be ignorant of herself, but that she diligently attend to what of gifts she has received and what she ought to suffer, accordingly after the threat he speaks softly to her, as if he should say: If thou wilt understand how thou oughtest to know thyself, understand to what I have likened thee, and then thou shalt know thyself to be such, through my benefits conferred upon thee, that thou oughtest not to be troubled. To my horsemen. The horseman is the Bridegroom, as the prophet says: And his salvation is a riding (Habac III). [Vulg. Hab. 3:8 et quadrigae tuae salvatio, "and thy chariots are salvation"] By how much therefore my company of horsemen differs from 1132Dthe horses of Pharao, by so much art thou better than all the other daughters. As that people was terrified when the chariots of Pharao came upon them, but was saved by heavenly protection, and, the enemies being drowned, was led through the waters into the land of promise: so the wave of death, which shall meet all mortals, snatches the depraved into destruction, unlocks for the godly the way to salvation, and all the other things which there are done bodily are here fulfilled spiritually. He kindly chides her as she doubts, and lest she despair he manfully strengthens her in the faithful love that follows, where he compares her to the chariots of Pharao. In the chariots of Pharao. That is, in the time of the chariots. And mark the pride: Pharao is interpreted dashing in pieces or scattering. Nor is it needful that thou begin to wander, since thou hast me for a consoler, 1133Aand prelates on whom thou mayest lean, through whom thou mayest stand.

VERS. 9.-- Fair are thy cheeks. Since it has been shown how the Lord protects the Church amid adversities, it remains to be shown how great a love of the Lord himself the Church keeps amid adversities. Whence follows, Fair are thy cheeks. With so great a power of saving modesty have I adorned thee, that by no doctrine or suggestion of depraved teachers dost thou corrupt the chastity of the faith promised to me, by whom thou wast fearing to be led into error. The beauty of a woman is said to lie for the most part in the cheeks. Allegorically. In the cheeks is marked the sign of modesty, as in preachers the habit of living rightly. The Church, although widowed by the death of her Bridegroom, is yet held by so great a memory of him that she can in no wise receive the fellowship of strangers: 1133Band she groans both for her own sins and for those of others. In the neck, the teachers, in the jewels, their works: because the things which they teach by word, they also do. He shows, by subjoining, what is the grace of keeping this sobriety. Thy neck as jewels. For through the neck we pass food into the body that is to be refreshed, and we utter words by which we declare the secrets of the heart to our neighbours, that is, the teachers, who both instruct by words and pour over the food of salvation into the members committed to them. They are compared to jewels who are fair in manners, and who close up the breasts of virgins with words and examples, lest the adulterer put in his hand.

VERS. 10.-- Chains. Another translation. We will make for thee likenesses of gold with distinctions of silver, so long as the king is upon his couch. Which is, 1133Cgold, that is, my face thou shalt not be able to see in the present life, but the likeness of the heavenly brightness thou shalt see, through the illumination of the Scriptures, through a glass in a dark manner, until that appear to all which now lies hidden in the Godhead. Chains. Beautifully does the Bridegroom describe her beauty: after these things the Bridegroom comes to be with her at the couch. Meanwhile, while he sleeps, his companions, that is, the angels, console her; we have not gold, but we will cause a likeness of gold to be made for thee, until he rise with the marks of silver. Chains. Whatsoever good instructions, as it were the ornaments of the ears. In the chains, Holy Scripture, which shines within with the gold of spiritual senses, and glitters without with the silver of heavenly speech; through the edification of teachers there comes to be a keeping of sobriety, and through the 1133Dmeditation of the divine Scripture. Shining within and without with the gold of divine wisdom and the silver of divine speech. We will make. I and my workmen, whom in great number I have appointed to dispense the seeds of the word.

VERS. 11.-- While he was. The Church, having received such great gifts and promises from her founder, makes plain with what devotion of works she received them, saying: While the king was, which is, when the Son of God appeared in the flesh, the Church grew up through that very mystery of the incarnation into the fervour of heavenly virtues. Or, when the human race, redeemed by the cross, was in the humiliation of the cross, the exercise of good works sprinkled abroad an odour of sweetness. While Christ the king rests in the blessedness of the heavenly secret, the great virtue of the saints 1134Ain the Church ministers to us the grace of sweetness, who, the more they see not him whom they long for, so much the more ardently do they burn with desire. Or, while he was with the Father, the nard, that is, the love wherewith he first loved us, gave its odour, because through love he took flesh for our sake. A wonderful order of words. While the king reclined, my nard gave its odour, in that for the exceeding charity wherewith he loved us he was made the son of a woman. Nard, which is said to drive out swellings, to put cold to flight and to bring warmth; to which the Lord's manhood is likened, who by taking flesh humbled himself, and by humbling himself took away every swelling of pride, removed the cold of unbelief, and brought in the fervour of charity. This herb also, the more it is bruised, so much the greater odour does it render, so Christ.

1134BVERS. 12.-- A bundle of myrrh. The death of my beloved, which he underwent for my salvation, shall abide always in my memory. Likewise he is compared to a bundle of myrrh, in that for our sake he bore the injuries of the cross. Myrrh is a tree of Arabia, of the height of five cubits, like to the spike which they call acanthus, whose drop is green and bitter, whence myrrh received its name. Its drop, flowing of its own accord, is more precious, that from a wound of the bark of less worth, which is wholesome for the healing of infirmities: whence also he received myrrhed wine from the soldiers. My breasts. The breasts of the chaste are not broken; but those of harlots are wrinkled with slackened skins. Whence Ezechiel: In Egypt were thy breasts broken (Ezech. XXIII).

VERS. 13.-- My beloved is a cluster of cypress. He is a cluster of cypress 1134Cwhen he rose again: he is In the vineyards of Engaddi when he distributes spiritual gifts to the faithful. The balsam trees which grow in Engaddi, because they are cultivated after the manner of vineyards, he calls vineyards. The Bridegroom Christ therefore is in the vineyards of Engaddi, because coming in the flesh full of the Holy Spirit he bestows upon believers the gifts of that same Holy Spirit through the anointing of chrism, in the making of which oil and balsam are mingled together. Engaddi, the fountain of the kid, on account of the graces which after the resurrection he bestowed in baptism upon those who partake of him. Engaddi, that is, the eye of my temptation, and the life of man upon earth is a temptation. Because to the death of the Mediator the glory of the resurrection soon succeeded, rightly is it subjoined, A cluster, who was a bundle of myrrh in the bitterness of the passion, and in the sweetness of the resurrection stood forth 1134Da cluster of cypress. For what myrrh makes sad, wine makes glad.

VERS. 14.-- Behold thou art fair. Thus far the Church bears witness what pledges of love she has received from the Bridegroom, to whom he himself soon answers by way of recompense: Behold thou art fair; as if, from this, that thou lovest me, thou art made fair. My love. Another translation: My neighbour; that is, in this, that thou art near, thou art comely, and after thou hast begun to be comely, thou art fair without any addition. Thy eyes. Another praise of the comely Bride, that we also may labour to become comely. Thy eyes are the eyes of doves, thou lookest upon God simply, because thou seekest nothing else but him. He that shall look on a woman to lust after her (Matth. V), has not the eyes of a dove; 1135Abut he who has them looks with chaste eyes, and understands both the law and the Gospel spiritually. In the appearance of which dove the Holy Spirit appeared. And therefore both spiritual understanding and all spiritual gifts are designated by the name of the dove. The dove lacks gall, hurts not with its beak, builds its nest in the hollows of rocks, nourishes the young of others, abides beside the streams, chooses the better grains, renders a moan instead of a song, flies in flocks, defends itself with its wings, recovers its sight. So the saints, sitting beside the streams of doctrine, choose the better sentences, nourish unto God men estranged from Christ, and if they find any good sentences among heretics, they do not pervert them, they lack unreasoning anger, they have their refuge in the faith of the wounds of Christ, they groan for their sins.

VERS. 15.-- Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. 1135BThe Bride, hearing that through the Bridegroom's love she had deserved to be praised by the Bridegroom himself, renders him a return in praises: not that by her own proclaiming she bestows on him what he has not, but understanding his comeliness, through which she herself also was made comely, she says: Behold thou art fair, etc. Our little bed is flourishing. Sometimes the Church rests with the Bridegroom as it were in a little bed, that is, in the time of peace, where she beholds the beauty of God more clearly, and begets of water and the Holy Spirit an offspring of the faithful fragrant with the flower of faith. Sometimes, when temptation rises up, she stands with the Bridegroom in the line of battle. Or, the little bed, the little ones of the faithful, who are a rest to God and to their masters, by this at the least, that they will not sin mortally, who flourish with the beginnings of good works, whereby they give hope of fruit, that is, of greater works. Wishing to lead a quiet life in 1135Cthe Bridegroom, she intimates what manner of houses those are in which she would receive him. The peace of the Church flourishes with virtues and is multiplied with spiritual offspring.

VERS. 16.-- The beams of our houses are of cedar. The houses are the various Churches of the Gentiles throughout the world; the beams, which are wont to be made for the fortifying of a house, are the preachers, by whose word and example the structure of the Church is held together, lest it fall. The ceilings, which are wont to be made for the adorning of a house, are the simpler servants of Christ, who cleave to the beams and are upheld, who adorn not by doctrine, but by virtues. Of cypress. The cypress is so called in Greek, because its head rises from a roundness into a point: whence also κῶνος is called a whirling top, that is, a lofty roundness, hence also when the fruit is called a cone: whence, Cone-bearing cypresses.

• 1135D

VERS. 1.-- I am the flower of the field. Because in the state of the present time labour rather than rest is fitting: rightly does he call the Bride, who is delighted with leisure, to the exercises of labours. As if he should say: Thou indeed, wishing to render thy beauty commendable to me, delightest to flower in quiet with secret virtues: but know thou that I require another manner of beauty in the present, because I am the flower of virtues, from which every fruit of the field goes forth; because I desire that my odour become known to the whole world, which cannot be fulfilled unless, the quiet in which thou delightest being broken off, thou gird thyself to the office of preaching. And the lily of the valleys rather than of the mountains, because I reveal the brightness of my manhood, or the splendour 1136Aof eternal light, or of the Godhead, rather to the humble and to such as are ready to suffer. As if: Remember that I, who could be born of a virgin, who am God, appeared humbly in the world, showed myself to be a companion to men, came humbly even unto death. Therefore cease to seek the security of quiet, whence he subjoins, As the lily. As a field is adorned with flowers, so the world is adorned with the knowledge of me and with faith.

VERS. 2.-- As the lily. Himself being praised, he praises the Bride, thus: As the lily cannot be compared to the thorns among which it often springs up: in the same way my neighbour is above all the daughters a lily. As the lily. Thou seekest rest and the praises of the little bed: but know that thou art made whiter by the stings of tribulations, and that the fruit of preaching is greater than the fruit of quiet. So is my love. (GREG.) 1136BIn the Church neither can the evil be without the good, nor the good without the evil: he was not good who could not bear with the evil. By the dogmas of adverse heresies her wholeness is pricked as with thorns, that watching she may be exercised against her enemies, until, standing out as a lily upon the head of her Bridegroom, she be adorned with that very whiteness.

VERS. 3.-- As the apple tree, etc. The Bride, being praised and admonished by the Bridegroom's example to suffer, extols the Bridegroom with a praise in return, in that among the works of the good [singulariter] he likewise stands out as holy, and she promises that she will suffer what he suffers, under the presiding of him who is her refreshment and her refection. As the apple tree. The odour of ointments, although it smells sweetly, is nevertheless not sweet to eat. But an apple of the best savour and odour is such that it delights the throat with sweetness, and its smell 1136Csoothes the spirit. Under the shadow. Therefore do I set my beloved before all, because in the protection of his tenderness alone, for desire of which I was burning, I see that I have found a refreshment of tribulations, and I feel the most sweet fruit of his gifts, whereby I trust that I shall be refreshed for ever. Now she had desired to breathe again under the shadow of her author, when she complained that she was darkened by the sun of persecution, when, imploring the help of God, she cried: Show me whom my soul loveth: where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday; when, not only wearied with the tedium of oppressions, but allured by the remembrance of his beauty and comeliness, she said: Our little bed is flourishing; and she shows that she has been made possessed of that desire, saying: Under the shadow. And it is to be noted that above she was proclaiming beams of cedar and ceilings of cypress, yet she was not recording that the protection of these 1136Dsufficed for her; but she was seeking the tree of life alone, in whose shadow she might rest and by whose fruit she might be refreshed, because the saints bring their suffrages by examples, by doctrine and by intercession: yet to the Saviour alone have we to say, But the children of men shall hope under the protection of thy wings (Psal. XXXV). [Vulg. Ps. 35:8 in tegmine alarum tuarum, "under the covering of thy wings"] I sat down, and the fruit, etc. She says not, I sit, but, I sat down. Such are the advances of the Churches, that in the beginning a man desires to sit down in the shadow of the virtues, that his body may come to him, from which the shadow is born: therefore also the nativity of Jesus began from a shadow, and is ended in truth. As it is said: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee (Luc. I). So afterwards a passage is made to better things.

1137ASweet. Because in it the soul understands the cause of life, while it perceives it also bodily.

VERS. 4.-- He brought me in. Of how great sweetness, of how great power this refection is, is shown when she subjoins, He brought me in. That is, he has so gladdened me with the hope of glory to come that I no longer feel the labours of the world. He brought me in. (AMBR.) As soon as my throat touched the sweetness of his grace, so do I feel myself refreshed in spirit and carried over from the love of earthly things into the things above, as if, brought into the wine cellar, I had been refreshed with the odour and the cup of new wine. Typically by wine the grace of the Holy Spirit is marked; the wine cellar is the Church, in whose unity alone the Holy Spirit is wont to be given and received; which Church, gathered out of the whole world, God built into one house for himself, and which the Holy 1137BSpirit consecrated with his own gifts. Which building, because it stands upon the foundation of the greatest charity, by his own working, rightly is it subjoined: He hath ordered charity in me. The charity of many is disordered, that which is in the first place they put third or fourth. First, God is to be loved; secondly, parents; then children, afterwards those of the household, who also, if they are good, are to be set before evil children. According to this, in the Gospel he sets down what is proper to the love of each. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole mind, and thy neighbour as thyself (Marc. XII). [Vulg. Marc. 12:30 has also et ex tota anima tua and et ex tota virtute tua, and puts diliges proximum tuum tamquam teipsum at 12:31] Enemies, not with thy whole strength, not as thyself, but simply: for it suffices that we love them, and hold them not in hatred. Or, he himself first loved me, and by loving gave me to know how to love him. Or, he ordered, that is, 1137Ccharity being set in order, he joined to himself my several members, that is, all the elect; the more eminent he embraces with a larger affection. He shows how greatly charity lifts up the mind, which it has perfectly absorbed, from the love of weak things, when it is subjoined:

VERS. 5.-- Stay me up. Being now comforted by the things said above, she so burns into the love of God that, from her exceeding love or from the punishments inflicted upon her, a languor of the flesh is at hand. Or, stay me up, that is, be ye others, whether the more perfect or the beginners, a refreshment to me by working well, that I may rest in your good works, I who cannot yet rest by contemplating the face of God. Therefore stay me up, that you may have both a present and a future support, as I have in my languor. By how much she kindles herself to the love of the Bridegroom, by so much does she languish away from the love of temporal things: whence she subjoins: 1137DI languish.

VERS. 6.-- His left hand. Seek not rest for thy head from any other quarter; for if thou hast his left hand, all things which are mine shall be granted to thee. His left hand under my head. When the hearts of the faithful in this life are comforted through the partaking of the sacraments, through the pledge of the Spirit, through the consolations of the Scriptures: which things also God gives for the support of their pilgrimage: his right hand shall embrace, when after this life we shall receive the heavenly rewards. The left hand (that is, the present life, and the temporal gifts of God), while it strengthens the mind through hope, is given under the head for consolation: and the right hand, that is, eternal life, shall embrace, as one protecting, when through recompense 1138Ahe shall glorify us. As if: The temporal benefits of God (whereby I may rest a little from the covetings and disturbances of the world) help in this place of pilgrimage, and the promise of things eternal delights more amply.

VERS. 7.-- I adjure you. The primitive Church, turned to the Gentiles, and having spoken thus far as it were in their person, since from inward love she now suffers a failing of the body; the Bridegroom warns the new Church not to disquiet her by sinning. How lovely to God is the repose of this Church and of any faithful soul, is declared from the answer of the Bridegroom. By the roes. That is, if you would be comparable to roes or to harts in the height of virtues and in more precious food, and in the knowledge of what remedy is fitting for your wounds, if you have wounds. Roes and harts, clean animals, 1138Benemies of poisons, chewing the cud, figure the works of spiritual virtues against the snares of the venomous enemy. Harts, departing from their country in the time of love, sustain themselves with the head of the one laid upon the haunches of the other, going in order, the first bears, the last only is borne, when the first is wearied the last succeeds, when dogs pursue them through the thickets, with their horns laid upon their backs they escape unhurt. When their eyes grow dim they eat a serpent, and having drunk of a fountain they recover their sight, and lay aside what is superfluous. So the saints for the love of God renounce earthly things: they bear one another's burdens, for those less burdened with sins lighten the burdened, by forgiving and by praying for them; they place beneath their mind the strength given through the Holy Spirit, while they are pressed by the wicked, and so 1138Cthey pass through unhurt; they eat the devil, that is, they bring him to nothing within themselves, and, the fountain being drunk, that is, Christ, they recover their inward sight, and lay aside the skin, that is, they become free from sins. That you stir not up. (GREG.) If subjects sin in anything for which teachers are compelled to rise from their rest, they incur not only the penalty of that sin, but are also punished for the disquieting of the teachers, because he who presumes to disquiet teachers intent upon heavenly things loses even the virtues which he believed himself to have. At the oath of the Bridegroom the Bride gladly receives it, and hearing that determination added, namely, until she herself will, she perceives that it is secretly commanded her that she should of her own accord be willing to rise, she promises therefore that she will rise, and sets before herself such a Bridegroom, for whose sake she may will it, and a fitting time. 1138DFor after the apostles, set in the primitive Church of the Gentiles, had brought themselves and others into so great perfection that they were now free for contemplation, she understands again that a necessity has been laid upon her of running through the whole world and of building new Churches.

VERS. 8.-- The voice of my beloved. This is the voice which I heard adjuring the daughters of Jerusalem that they should not awaken me: I rejoice hearing his consoling voice, though I do not yet see his face; yet, my mind being lifted up to heaven, I taste beforehand some sweetness of the blessedness to come, even in this present life. Leaping upon the mountains. He leaps upon the mountains, and as it were sets his feet there, by which sign he is known to have been there, because it imitates him through his passion and through the manner of his life. He made a leap from heaven 1139Ainto the womb, from the womb into the manger, from the manger into the cross, from the cross into the sepulchre, from the sepulchre he returned into heaven. He it is who is lifted up above all mountains and hills, that is, above the heights of the saints, both the greater and the lesser. Skipping over the hills. On the hills the marks of his feet do not appear, but they received the shadow of him flying over: because although not as those greater ones, yet in some measure they imitate him and are visited by him, Mountains and hills are those who by a singular purity of mind pass beyond the common manner of life of the Church, as it were the flowering plain of the fields, and, withdrawing from the lowest things, contemplate the things above more nearly. In whom he leaps, because he illumines the hearts of the lofty with frequent visitation; and he abides not, but leaps and skips over: because this sweetness of contemplation is short and rare, 1139Bbecause of the heaviness of the flesh, because the earthly habitation weighs down the mind that thinks upon many things.

VERS. 9.-- My beloved is like a roe. Because he sees keenly, and dwells in the high places of the mountains, he leaps swiftly. Whence also he is more rarely seen by us: he ascends always from his nativity even to the bosom of the Father. My beloved is like a roe. And although by his divinity he so transcends all, yet he was made man, for me he was born of a Gentile and of the seed of the patriarchs. In the assumption of flesh and in his manhood he is compared to a roe; in the variety of virtues and of miracles to a fawn. The hart draws the serpent out of its caverns by the blowing of its nostrils, and, the destruction of the poison being overcome, delights in the food. Since in these little verses the loftiness of the contemplative life has been expressed, it remains to show the perfection of the active life, which is common to the whole Church. Whence follows. 1139CBehold he standeth, etc. Behind the wall. The wall which draws us away from the sight of him is the condition of mortality, which we deserved by sinning, we who were so created that, if we sinned not, all we the elect should behold the divine light unwearied: to the beholding of which very few of the more perfect now attain, with labour, purified by faith: but in this wall the mercy of God has made windows and lattices, whence he has made us to look forth, because to minds, although he weighed them down, he opened the grace of the knowledge of himself, and he looks upon us with the frequent light of his inspiration. Through the looking forth of which inspiration, because God does this chiefly, that he may call us from temporal things to the deserving of heavenly things, rightly is it subjoined: Behold my beloved speaketh to me, he who above admonished the daughters of Jerusalem to the guarding of my rest: he sends me to 1139Dthe tilling of the vineyards, showing me the opportunity. Behind the wall. Morally, if thou hast made thy building, God will come behind the wall of thine, looking forth through the windows, [Vulg. Ct 2:9 respiciens per fenestras, prospiciens per cancellos, "looking back through the windows, looking forth through the lattices"] that is, through the five senses he carefully beholds; for where the Bridegroom looks not forth, death goes up: whence Jeremias: Behold death is gone up through our windows (Jer. IX); through the nets. [Vulg. Ct 2:9 per cancellos, "through the lattices"] All things are full of the nets of the devil, in which thou wouldst be taken, but that the Bridegroom subjected himself to the nets of the world, who eminently, and rending them asunder, might make a way, that thou mayest say: Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers (Psal. CXXIII). Through the windows. As the sun entering through the windows lights up the house, so Christ has enlightened us by the example and the admonition of the apostles. As through the lattices, 1140Athat is, through small openings a small light enters, so an obscure knowledge through the prophets.

VERS. 10.-- Arise, make haste. That is, break off contemplation, and labour for the winning of others; or, arise from the love of earthly things. Arise, all things have their time; he who but now was adjuring the daughters of Jerusalem not to disquiet his beloved: behold, he invites her to labour. Arise, make haste. (GREG.) When the soul is now led forth out of the body of corruption, for it the shower has passed, because the torpor of the present life has departed, and it is led forth to contemplate God in his substance, nor are the drops of words now needful, that the rain of preaching should be poured in. For what it was able to hear less, it shall see more fully. For then the flowers appear in the earth, when the soul has begun to taste beforehand certain first beginnings of sweetness 1140Bout of the eternal life of blessedness, which things, going forth, she now smells in the flowers, and which, after she shall have gone forth, she shall have more abundantly in the fruit. The time of cutting away is come. [Vulg. Ct 2:12 tempus putationis advenit, "the time of pruning is come"] Our cutting away then takes place when we forsake the unfruitful and hurtful corruption of the flesh, that we may be able to come to the fruit of the soul, which fruit is to us most abundant. For in the cutting away the barren branches are cut back, that those which are strong may bear fruit more abundantly. Therefore arise, because I, suffering for thee, have stilled the waves.

Come. To bestow also the care of salvation upon thy neighbours through the zeal of diligent preaching, that with a great company thou mayest deserve to be received unto the marriage. As if: thou believest that thou wilt come if thou art free for contemplation: but thou shalt come better through labour of this kind. It behoves thee 1140Cto preach, because, since knowledge is now in thee, there is also in those to whom I send thee an opportunity of receiving.

VERS. 11.-- The rain is over. I, rising from the dead, the tempest being checked, gave back tranquillity. Now it is easier to preach, since certain men are already converted, than before, when as yet no one had believed.

VERS. 12.-- The flowers. As if: These, who now believe and now work good things, thou canst give as an example to others: these thou canst set before others for an example, who now suffer the pruning-hook that cuts back their vices. For thy own quiet thou oughtest not to let go preaching, because Christ, who was in great quiet with the Father, in a manner interrupted his quiet for preaching. The time of pruning. The useless branches of vain religion 1140Dbeing now cut away, the hearts of men are prepared for the fruit of faith to come, now also the vices are cut away, because the time of the remission of sins is come. The voice of the turtle is heard. The Holy Spirit, when he speaks of the more hidden mysteries, and of things which many do not receive, is signified by the name of the turtle. Whence also he appears to Moses, and to him alone: when he treats of humble things which reach even to all, he is taken up under a dove, whence also at the Jordan, while many stood by, he appeared not in a turtle, but in a dove. The voice of the turtle, the voice of the apostles, or of any preachers whatsoever, who by their song announce the departure of winter and the coming of spring, who instead of a song render a lowly moan, who are lovers of chastity, who abide always upon the ridges of the mountains, or upon the tops 1141Aof trees, and flee the company of men, while, set in the world in body, they have their conversation in the heavens, mindful of their sojourning and of the country promised to them.

VERS. 13.-- The fig tree. He calls green figs the first and unripe figs, which are not fit for eating, which also, if they be shaken, fall at a light touch: therefore, when the turtle sounds, that is, when the apostles preach, the Synagogue put forth her green figs, that is, she cast away the unripe understanding of the legal observance. Or thus: the Synagogue brought forth the apostles, who should minister sweet food to those who believed them. And because, when the Synagogue put forth the apostles, the faith and the salvation of the whole world followed, rightly is it subjoined. The vineyards in flower. By the flowering, the beginnings of the manifold Churches, from that which was first 1141Bplanted at Jerusalem, from whose flower the juice pressed out makes a kind of drink suited to health and to delight, which gladdens the heart of man.

VERS. 14.-- In the clefts. In the wounds of Christ the Church sits and builds her nest: when she places the hope of her salvation in the passion of the Lord, and by this trusts that she is to be kept safe from the snares of the hawk, that is, of the devil, and in the same wounds she begets others. In the clefts. In faith, or in capacity, in which the faithful, being placed, are safe from their enemies. A stone wall is a heap of stones compacted into one without mortar, so the apostles are united by the same faith and by the same sacraments. Show me. She had not yet the confidence to contemplate the glory of God with face unveiled; but because she is now adorned, it is said: Show me thy face; let thy voice sound in 1141Cmy ears. The face is shown to the Lord by working rightly: the sound of the voice is shown by preaching wholesomely. Blush not to preach the cross of Christ, although it seem foolishness to unbelievers, which the apostles of Christ preached, who are the stone wall and the fortification of the Church. Or, the stone wall are the prophets and the patriarchs, in whom the apostles have their refuge. What of beauty thou hast within, and hast learned in the secret of quiet, show forth in public action to the profit of others: for to me, who look upon the inmost things, then do I reckon thy face to have been shown, when I consider that a good action has been shown for the profit of neighbours.

In my ears. Not in the ears of others, that is, to my love, not to any earthly thing, lay out both thy work and thy voice. For thy voice. Not another's, but that which, on the day of thy espousal, 1141Dthou didst promise, that thou wouldst serve me.

VERS. 15.-- Catch us. Since it suffices us not to set our own life before others for an example, and to make good preaching, unless we also correct those who err and defend the weak from the snares of others, rightly is it said, catch not for you, but for us; for in this you serve me, in this will I reward you. Foxes hide themselves in pits, and when they have appeared they never run by straight ways, so the heretics. For our vineyard. Beautifully, since above he had vineyards in the plural number, here in the singular vineyard, because many vineyards through faith and charity make one: and therefore they are to be driven out who wish to rend her by heresies.

VERS. 16.-- My beloved to me. To such an address of her beloved, 1142Athe beloved one straightway answers with the simplicity of a dove-like heart, and promises that she will obey the office enjoined upon her; as if she should say, he not only exhorts, but also helps. My beloved to me. With sincere love he is joined to me, and I to him. Or, my beloved makes such an exhortation to me, and I to him show my face and my voice. Or, my beloved to me, not to any other whatsoever, that is, he will bestow grace and repay fruit; and I to him, not to any other whatsoever, not in another crowd of men, but I shall be knit fast to him with whole obedience and devotion. To all these senses that which follows fitly agrees: Who feedeth among the lilies. He is fed in us, because we are his body and members from a member; he himself feeds us, who is the head. He feedeth among the lilies, when the faithful, who are his members, are by the examples of the earlier faithful in the love of things above 1142Bmade perfect. Lilies. They are wont to heal scorched limbs: so the saints, if perchance they see the hearts of their neighbours burnt with the flame of vices, apply the refreshment of consolation and of exhortation. Because this feeding of the Lord, which is carried on in the advances of his saints, reaches even to the end of the world. For when they shall have come to the vision, they shall not have wherein they may further advance, rightly is it subjoined: Till the day break.

VERS. 17.-- Return, be like. Set thy footsteps in lofty minds, and from them sometimes, even by condescending, appear to the lower, who are in the valley. Return, be like. And because thou callest me to establish churches, and to cultivate them, and to drive away the wiles of the little foxes, and that I should show my face to thee, whereas I do not yet see thy face clearly, and by myself 1142CI am not sufficient, I beseech thee, enlighten more perfectly my heart and the hearts of those to whom I am to preach.

VERS. 1, 2.-- In the little bed. While the preachers of Judaea were praying, behold, the Gentile world, breathed upon by the divine Spirit, comes to the acknowledgment of its own salvation, and holds with firm love what it has found. Whence there follows: The voice of her entering fully. In the little bed. (GREG.) Morally, the holy soul makes herself a little bed in the night, while, fleeing all the disturbances of the world, she procures a secret place in which she rests. In this bed she seeks her beloved: because, while she is free from cares, she rests in the search for him, how she may come to him: but while she lives in the world, she does not perfectly shake the world's darkness off from herself, 1142Dand the more grievously she suffers, the more frequently she seeks him, and the more fervently, that when he is found she may suffer darkness no more. But because in this world she does not find him, therefore it is added: I sought him, and found him not. But because she burns with the greatest longing, and whatever she holds does not suffice her until she find the offence [delictum; read dilectum, "the beloved"]: therefore she subjoins the perseverance of her search, I will rise, and will go about the city. In the little bed. From the time that Adam sinned, man began to rest in earthly things, and yet, with reason for his guide, understanding true blessedness as it were through a dream, he thought that it consisted in earthly things. (HIERON.) Morally. In the little bed the soul seeks God, when in her leisure she does indeed desire to see God, and longs to go forth to him out of the prison of the flesh, but it is not granted: 1143Aand the Bridegroom hides himself, that, being not found, he may be sought the more ardently. And I found him not. (GREG.) Because to me, the Gentile world, no angel, no prophet, no teacher whatsoever showed the light of divine knowledge in doubtful things, therefore I found him not, and when I discovered this, that he could not be found in a bed, I purposed in my mind to rise up out of the bed of carnal pleasures, and to gird myself to the labour of a saving search, and by land and by sea, publicly and privately, to go to the schools of all whom I might hear called wise. Streets, are spiritual men, who, while they walk toward heavenly things, keep the narrow way. Broad ways, that is, worldly men, who follow many pleasures, and go along the high road. She goes about them all, therefore, because she beholds in mind and imitates all the saints who are or have been: even among worldly men 1143Bshe sometimes finds what may avail for the search after the Bridegroom: but after she has shown the doubled labour of her search, again she subjoins the difficulty of finding: I sought, and found not: but while she seeks and does not find, she herself is both sought and found: whence it is said: The watchmen found me. I sought. Having traversed the world with the utmost labour, having sifted the words of the wise, I could learn nothing certain of the way of truth.

VERS. 3.-- They found me. When I was seeking thus, the Lord, seeing this urgency of the search, deigned at last to manifest himself, and to her upon whom he had breathed that she should seek, he granted, as she sought, that she should find.

Have you seen him whom my soul loveth. (GREG.) While they are willing to teach, she, burning with exceeding love, is the first to address them, Have you seen him whom my soul loveth. The Church questions the watchmen when she receives their preaching 1143Cattentively, and bears fruit in it by the showing forth of good works.

VERS. 4.-- When I had passed by. (ID.) she passes them by, because in them she sees the form of him whom she seeks; and yet she passes by, because she begins to imitate and to gaze upon God, who is beyond. Peter passes by the watchmen, when he sets the prophets at nought, and says to the Lord of the prophets: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God (Matth. XVI). Until I bring him in, etc. Until at the end of the world I shall busy myself to recall to his faith the Synagogue, through which I received the hearing by faith, and the mystery of regeneration. The Gentile Church shall at the end recall the Synagogue, which had first called her through the apostles.

VERS. 5.-- I adjure you. Christ, hearing that he is to be brought in by these, adjures them not to prepare a hindrance for him. 1143DI adjure you. This little verse is therefore repeated in the song of love, that the Lord may show that he has no less care of the Church gathered from the Gentiles than of that gathered from the Jews: but bears an equal solicitude for the peace of both. For this queen of the south is taken with love of the Bridegroom no less than the first love from among the Jews. And the harts. It belongs to the stag in his old age to eat a serpent, and, for the thirst conceived from the venom, to hasten to a fountain, and by drinking thence to grow young again, his hairs and his horns falling off: which befits every believer through the washing of baptism.

VERS. 6.-- Who is this. He treats further of the Church converted from the Gentiles, how, when the foundation had been received from the apostles, she was thereafter multiplied through the successions of times and the 1144Aadvancements of degrees. Who is this? The converted Jews, seeing that the Gentiles also are converted and are received alike into the love of the Bridegroom; not out of envy, but as it were marvelling, and rejoicing together in the fellowship of brethren, they ask whether salvation is promised to the Gentiles: which had been much in doubt. That goeth up. At the same time she also sleeps, when the Church [Ecclesiae; read Ecclesia, the nominative the sense requires] estranges herself from carnal desires, and by good works draws near to the vision of her own Maker. Through the desert. That is, through the midst of the Gentiles, who were fruitful with no fruit of the virtues, whom no prophet or angel had trained to the worship of God, or: Through the desert as a little rod of smoke, because, separated from the enticements of the world, she is given up to heavenly precepts. Smoke at the same time partly rises, and partly, what had risen before, is wont in the upper air 1144Bto disappear: so the Church, in certain of her members is always begotten anew, in certain who were born before is always gathered to heavenly things. Smoke, born of fire and climbing on high, little by little withdraws itself from human sight: so the Church, kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit alone into the love of God, does not cease to ascend, until, drawn away from earthly things, she is caught up to the invisible things of heaven. Of aromatical spices. Note that, in recounting the spices, he sets first myrrh, then frankincense, and afterward of all the powder of the perfumer, because it is first to mortify the concupiscence of the flesh, afterward to offer to God the acceptable vows of the heart, and so with humility to grow in every kind of virtue. Spices. Reduced to powder they avail for the compounding: so the virtues, when they do not lift up the mind, but are as it were reduced to 1144Cpowder by the doer's own low esteem of himself, lead on to perfection. The perfumer, either the man who gives his labour to the virtues: or God, who bestows the virtues.

VERS. 7.-- Behold the little bed. To the former love, who marvels, the Gentile world answers, determining whither she goes up, namely to the little bed, and by what she goes up, namely because the midst of the litters is paved with charity, and she proves that she has come into that same love of the Bridegroom in which the former is: because she likewise has the nuptial furniture, and has preachers, whom God would not have sent to us had he not chosen them beforehand. Behold the little bed. The little bed of the true peacemaker is the eternal blessedness in which the king rests with his saints, to which the Church through the desert partly comes daily, and at last shall come perfectly. Or the bed of God is also, in the present, the quiet manner of life 1144Dof the saints. Both beds the most valiant compass about: because preachers guard both the present quiet and the peace of the Church against assaults, and all the more perfect contemplate with fixed intent the inward quiet of the heavenly country. Israel. That is, a man seeing God, by which name all are justly called who tend toward the joys of the divine vision. Among whom the most valiant are they who either are lifted up by the gift of heavenly contemplation, or take up the ministry of preaching.

VERS. 8.-- All holding swords. Who unceasingly have the word of God ready at hand, both for cutting away superfluous things in themselves and in their subjects, and for driving back and trampling down the enemy. All holding swords. They hold the word of God, and are skilled how 1145Ato use it, in vanquishing both others and themselves as regards vices. Most expert in war. Because for so many thousands of years they have fought against the devil in the frailty of the flesh, they are taught by constant practice. Because of fears. Lest the snares of the tempter; if they find them careless and unarmed, they lay them low: and lest, when these have been overcome, the little bed which they ought to have guarded be defiled, that is, lest the present peace of the Church be violated, and so the blessedness to come be lost.

VERS. 9.-- A litter. Not only by this, that both in the present I rest in Solomon's little bed, and hasten to the little bed to come, and have the most valiant guards, does it appear that salvation is promised to the Gentiles: but also by this, that he made of us a certain litter, that is, one which should carry from place to place the dispensers of his 1145Bword, or in which he himself might be borne through the world. Or thus: The peacemaker, to whose little bed I hasten, has thus fortified me: and this he did by a litter, that is, by the apostles, by whom, as in a chair, he is borne, whom he sent for my salvation, or for ours.

VERS. 10.-- A golden resting-place. That is, his own contemplatives, full of divine wisdom, or he makes a resting-place in the litter when he promises the faithful the hope of perpetual quiet. Golden, because he prepares the rest of his own vision, glittering with glory. A purple ascent. The ascents are those by whom one may climb first to the virtues, afterward to the holy of holies: who are purple, that is, ready for martyrdom. Or, the virtues themselves are the ascent, and they are the true purple: with which faithful souls are adorned. Or, Christ himself is the 1145Cascent, through whom entrance is made both into the Church and into heaven. Purple, because he washed us in his own blood: and none enters the Church who is not steeped in the sacraments of the Lord's passion. The midst he paved with charity. Or with the charity by which he suffered for us. The midst, that is, the hearts of the Church, he made ready after the manner of a couch, where faithful souls might softly rest: because he filled the whole of her within with the love of things above: whence he adds: For the daughters of Jerusalem. For the souls that burn with desire of heavenly things, because the more he loved us, the more he kindled us to suffer for him. The midst (GREG.) Behold a consolation. He who cannot pour out his blood for the Lord, let him love his neighbour for the daughters of Jerusalem, because they are not to be called sons, that is, the firm, but daughters, who through charity are not strangers to the building 1145Dof God.

VERS. 11.-- Go forth and see, etc. In fair order, after the king's gifts have been recounted, she begins also to proclaim his very beauty and adornment, and invites them to see him. And the order and the succession of this Church is to be marked, which, established from the firstfruits of the Jews, admonishes by prelates, by judges, and by other degrees that first Church, now after the apostles grown lukewarm, that the mother may repay the like to the successors and fellow-tribesmen of those by whom she was preached to. In the diadem. As it were lying hid in the humanity by which he overcame the devil: and the flesh was the cause of this victory unless God were overshadowed with flesh, the devil would not assail him. In the diadem, that is, in that crown of thorns wherewith his own Judaea crowned 1146Ahim. Who crowned him. [Vulg. Ct 3:11 quo coronavit illum, "wherewith … crowned him"] With which humanity his mother honoured him: in this, that she is a virgin, not defiled, as other women are, by the filth of original sin: and she sends us to the history. As if to say: Believe the nativity, the passion, the resurrection. This description is extended to the manifoldness of the Church. Of his espousals. If we refer his to the mother, we say, at the time of the annunciation: if to the faithful, at the time of the resurrection, which was the chief gladness, because then was the human race set free.

VERS. 1.-- How beautiful art thou. Since the Bride converted from the Gentiles is now of such perfection that she preaches to the Jews, the case being reversed, and praises the Bridegroom: she too receives from the Bridegroom a worthy 1146Brecompense of praise. This description is extended to the manifoldness of the Church. Beautiful in action, because she goes up through the desert as a little rod of smoke, beautiful in preaching, because she draws her neighbours into her own fellowship. Eyes. That is, thy senses are excellent and to be revered in the contemplation of spiritual things. He sets about praising her part by part. Besides that which lieth hid within. Great is the glory of open work, but far and incomparably greater the eternal reward, which cannot be seen.

Thy hair. That all may the more easily grow clear, let us run briefly through the several things. Hair, are the voluntary poor. Cheeks, the highest prelates. But the teeth of the cheeks, are other, lower prelates. Lips, the preachers. Thy hair. If in the eyes the keenness of the spiritual senses is taken, in the hair may be noted the multitude of thoughts, 1146Cwhich all tend to the one end of the heavenly good. Whence they are likened to wild goats, which are clean animals, and seek the steep places of the rocks for the sake of pasture. Which came up. He sets down one of the natures of the wild goat, that from it the rest may be understood, and he proclaims that virtue especially of which he sees his hearers to have the greater need. Which came up. Of him who is a testimony to them that imitate him, as he himself promised: He who shall confess me before men, etc. (Luc. XII.)

VERS. 2.-- Thy teeth as flocks of sheep that are shorn. As in the hair the frailer peoples of the Church are signified, who supply her number: so in the teeth are signified all the stronger, and such as are fit for the ruling of the Church, who prevail by firmness. From the washing, all. It belongs to all to be purified by baptism: it belongs to the perfect, and most of all 1146Dto those to whom the care of the sheep has been committed, to renounce all that they possess. With twin young. That is, with young altogether like themselves, because they render others such as they themselves are. Or, twofold young, the works of the twin charity, as the faithful converted out of either people. Or, faith and work. And there is none barren. Nor are those reckoned among the barren who, once washed, are straightway snatched out of this life. For they had the offspring of faith, which either they themselves for themselves, or others for them, confessed. They had also the vow of good working, which they would have practised in fellowship among the sheep of Christ, had they been waited for, whence it is said: Being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time (Sap. IV).

VERS. 3.-- As a fillet. Preachers are called a fillet, 1147Abecause by their preachings they bind in the loose thoughts in the hearts of men, lest they flow abroad and weigh down the eyes of the heart. Scarlet. Because she does not cease to preach the price of the Lord's blood, by which the Church was redeemed: or because holy preaching blazes with the ardour of charity. Thy lips. The teeth are they that grind: the lips they that lay open what is ground. Thy speech is sweet. While they do the things they say, they set their preachings before men as it were savoury food. As a piece of a pomegranate, so are the cheeks. In the outwardly crimson colour, the will of martyrdom: in the white grains (which are seen when the rind is broken), the whiteness of the virtues: which is increased while the flesh is bruised: whiteness also, when, the passion being fulfilled, they shine with miracles. In the cheeks is modesty, in the punic apple the passion of Christ. The Church has therefore redness in her cheeks, 1147Bwhen she confesses in words the sacrament of the Lord's passion, and shows whiteness when, beaten with afflictions, she proves the chastity of a pure heart, and by deeds lays open what of saving grace the cross has. Besides that which lieth hid within. Although great are the things that appear without: yet greater are those they keep in secret, which the eyes of God alone behold. Lieth hid. All in the Church can hear the confession of the life-giving cross, can see the afflictions of the Church, or even the miracles which have been divinely bestowed upon the Church herself, unbelievers together with the faithful can look upon: but the soul alone knows with how great a love of the invisible life she is held, with how great a love toward God and her neighbour she blazes.

VERS. 4.-- As the tower of David. The tower is the stormable [expugnabilis; read inexpugnabilis, "unstormable"] constancy of the preachers, which, for the defending 1147Cof the buildings of the faith and for the driving back of the darts of the enemy, was built by the strong hand of God and by the desirable king with bulwarks: that is, with the knowledge of the divine Scriptures, when he opens the understanding, that they may understand the Scriptures, and by the sayings of them that went before they confirm their own preaching, the bulwarks are also the gifts of miracles, by which preaching is built up. For when bodily diseases are healed, men come more easily to the health of the soul. Thy neck. We stretch out the neck when we look further off: so the preachers are a neck, because of their watching for the enemy from afar: a tower, because of their strength and because of the lofty contemplation of the heavenly joys. Or, a neck, because they send food down into the body, or because they join the body to the head: whence, the Lord gives the loaves, but the disciples set them before the crowds. 1147DFor one reason the preachers are called eyes; for another, teeth: for another, cheeks: for another, neck. Bulwarks are the unbreakable sentences in the divine Scriptures, in which they are safe who defend themselves from afar against the assailants. A thousand bucklers. The buckler is that most firm reasoning, relying upon which they go forth of their own accord against the heretics, and fortify themselves while they smite them. All the armour. That is, all the equipping, whether of working or of heavenly teaching, by which the saints not only escape, but even overcome the ranks of the malignant: while they draw back some also from error or from vices: all which things depend upon the prelates, because from them we receive the example of resisting and of conquering.

1148AVERS. 5.-- Two breasts. The same mysteries of the Church are repeated under many figures; but the things repeated always bring something new, and by that very newness delight the minds of the hearers the more. Two therefore breasts, are the preachers from the two peoples, who are called eyes because they make progress in secret. Teeth, because they correct the wicked, and pass them over into the body of the Church: a neck, because they minister the breath of life, by preaching eternal joys, and the food of doctrine. Breasts, because they pour milk into the little ones in Christ, who are fawns of the roe, because they discern keenly what things are to be done, and with a swift course of working fly away out of the vale of tears. Twins, because they preach the same faith, the same sacraments: who, lest the milk they give out should fail in them, are fed with the flowers of the Scriptures and the examples of the saints, 1148Bby always calling these to mind. Two fawns Two peoples, who through humility understand themselves to be little and sinners, but, running in charity, pass over all the obstacles of the world, and by the leaps of contemplation climb to things above. Which feed. Because they have their refreshment in those who flourish with virtues and shine, while as yet they cannot see near at hand the very God whom they desire.

VERS. 6.-- Until that day break. [Vulg. Ct 4:6 Donec aspiret dies, without illa, "that"] After which there shall be time neither for teaching further nor for learning, but, all the darknesses of this world being ended, all shall shine as the sun. I will go to the mountain. And because the Church is such in every part. I will go, that is, I will add grace, as well to the lower as to the greater. I will go. Because I shall daily gather new peoples. And because 1148Cthe discourse is to the Church of the Gentiles, the calling of the Synagogue, which is to be at the end of the world, may not incongruously be seen to be promised: or the calling of whatsoever nations. Whence presently, concerning the most ample beauty of the one and the same Church, which is to be gathered either from the Jews or from whatsoever nations throughout the whole world, it is added, Thou art all fair.

VERS. 7.-- Thou art all fair. Not only in the more choice members which I have enumerated, but also in those who seem little and frail.

VERS. 8.-- Come from Libanus. (GREG.) And because I go to thee, thou oughtest to come to me, in thought, in speech, in work. Or, the first step is in the flesh for good work: the second in the loosing from the flesh, to receive blessedness in the soul: the third, when the body has been received back, 1148Dwhen at the resurrection they shall receive the twofold robes. Come by faith, come by work, come by bringing others: or, come three times because of the faith of the Trinity. Libanus, a mountain of Phoenicia, is in Hebrew rendered whitening, in Greek frankincense: whence above, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. While the preachers convert such men to salvation, the crown grows from the princes overcome in their contest. Come. As if to say: fear not, lest thou come alone: for I will add many to thee. From the top of Amana. Amana is a mountain of Cilicia, Sanir and Hermon mountains of Judaea, in which lions dwell, by whom the demons are noted, who rage against us: and because those are converted whose hearts were the couches of lions, while in their turn by their confession the Lord is believed, 1149Athey are as it were crowned out of the couches of lions, out of which the lion is driven. By Amana we have those whom the devil himself, and through whom he deceives and crushes others, by the watchfulness of great diligence. By Sanir, those to whom the ignorance of such deceiving flies. By Hermon, such as are as it were ready by nature for wickedness, not what the devil designs. By the den of lions, those over whom, and through whom over others, a persecuting cruelty holds dominion. By leopards, heretics, by whose distinct wiles he deceives, from the chief ones of each of whom God confers a crown of victory upon his own. From the dens of lions. Lions, because of pride, or of violence. Leopards because of cruelty, or of the variegating of malignant arts. By the name of the mountains are designated the proud hearts of unbelievers.

1149BVERS. 9.-- Thou hast wounded the heart. Therefore oughtest thou to come, and to labour for the gaining of others, because I love thee. Or, therefore will I give thee a crown out of those men, because thou hast prepared for me in thyself a place of love. All thy beauty pleases me, but most of all the catholic unity pleases me, which I see both in the prelates and in the subjects.

VERS. 10.-- How beautiful are, etc. Above the Bride praised the breasts in her beloved, here the beloved commends the breasts: in which is noted the unity of Christ and of the Church, because they are two, as the Apostle says, in one flesh: therefore with a like praise the one praises the other. The doctrine is Christ's, because it is given to the Church, because she ministers it. And with reason do I love thee, because thy doctrine, which is contained in the breasts above, is beautiful for the consoling of the weak and the sustaining of little ones. Breasts, 1149Cthe love of God and of the neighbour: by which the holy mind nourishes its own senses, while it is glued to God by charity, and bestows upon its neighbours what it can. How greatly the Bridegroom loves these breasts he shows in the repetition of the praise, saying: Thy breasts are more beautiful, etc. The odour. That is, the most sweet report of the faith scattered through the whole world, is broader than the law of the fathers, which was confined within Judaea alone. Above all aromatical spices. That is, above all the good works which the wicked do, which, although they sometimes please men, yet never please God, because they do not proceed from charity. Or, above the institutions of the Old Testament, which were a figure of these.

VERS. 11.-- A honeycomb dropping. Above, by the lips, the teachers, here, by the lips, the very voice of the teachers. Whence they are fitly compared also to honey. A honeycomb, honey in the wax. 1149DHoney in the wax is the spiritual sense of the divine oracles dropping in the letter, because well nigh every single sentence has many senses. Or otherwise: In the honeycomb the honey lies hid, the wax is seen: the lips therefore are called a honeycomb, because, while great wisdom is held in the frailty of the flesh, it is as it were hidden like honey in wax. Honey and milk under the tongue. (GREG.) As great is the spiritual sweetness in the words as the bodily sweetness is in honey and milk: and this under the tongue, that is, not open to any man whatsoever, but only to the good. He who sharply rebukes a sinner and mingles somewhat of sweetness among the sharp things, has honey, not on the tongue, but under the tongue. The odour of the garments. That is, the report of the good works with which they are clothed, lest they be found naked, and by which the foulness of former 1150Aoffences is covered, is as frankincense, because in all his works he prays, when he works well, with the intention of coming to God, whence: Pray without ceasing (I Thess. V). Above, under the name of the ointments, the infusion of the Holy Spirit is shown, by which the hearts of the faithful are enlightened and made ready for the spiritual contest: by the word of the garments, the deeds of the just are noted, which are without. Whence also, by a fair distinction, the works which are done through men are compared to frankincense; but the gifts which are made by divine bounty exceed the manner of comparison. Advisedly, after the Lord had proclaimed the several members of the Church one by one, he also commends with worthy praise the ointments with which the whole of her was anointed. For there are no members at all, whether great or small, which are not consecrated by the pouring in of this spiritual 1150Bunction. He praised also the garments, that is, the works of justice, because here too his whole body is adorned. For no one merits life in her unless he is clothed with just works, which either he himself did, or, if he was an infant, others did for him, and in him.

VERS. 12.-- A garden. He had likened her to a woman for her perfection, for her beauty, for the ordering of the several degrees, for the composing of a seemly unity. But because it seems too little to a lover to match the several parts of the Bride with several precious things, he compares the whole of her at once to very many and very great kinds of things. He compares her therefore to a garden, for the plentiful fruits of works, in which it comes to pass that four things are made: first the fountain of baptism, without which no fruit follows; then the ointments, that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are the first fomentations, 1150Cthat the trees also may grow and bear fruit, namely those purposes in the hearts of such as are yet rude and tender, when they resolve, through the Holy Spirit, that they will renounce the world and will bear adversities, and the like; afterward the trees, those same men, or others, now growing, now flowering; at last the ripe fruits, by the perfection of whose works Christ is now refreshed. But here he does not order them according as the one follows after the other, but he begins from the worthier, that the commending of this Bride may be the more winning to that other Bride, to whom he means to commend her. He sets down two gardens, in which the two states of the contemplative and of the active are signified, and each of them is enclosed; because they cannot be gathered by the adversary, or be robbed of their fruit. Many dwell among the faithful in whom the enemy 1150Dhas a place, but these are not to be reckoned in the fruitful garden, but to be cast out as chaff. A fountain sealed up. Because the Church, which is designated by the name of a fountain, at first small in Judaea, was afterward spread abroad through the whole world, it is rightly added. Thy outgoings: because that little Church of the Jews, helped by the fountain, sent forth a paradise out of herself. The Church a fountain, because she overflows with saving doctrine, whence she waters her neighbours. Sealed up, because the spiritual sense is hidden from the unworthy, it is troubled by no assault.

VERS. 13.-- Outgoings. That is, the fruits of the garden, namely the works which come forth after the planting and the watering of baptism, are to me pomegranates, that is, a ripe refreshment, delighting me as a paradise does. Of cypress. 1151AThat is, men upright, and growing on high, slender and thinned in their humanity, with whose works, charity being joined to them, the prince is anointed. Cypress expresses divine grace, spikenard the Lord's passion, saffron charity. The cypress is in Egypt an aromatic tree, with a white and sweet-smelling seed, which is boiled in oil and pressed out, and thence the royal ointment (which is called cypress) is prepared. So in the darkness of this world the blessing of divine grace is received in the fatness of charity and is tried by the flames of temptations, with which is joined the spikenard, a lowly herb, that is, faith in the Lord's passion and the imitating of it. Therefore is joined cypress to spikenard, when divine grace strengthens us to suffer with Christ. Likewise spikenard is joined to saffron: when in the charity of Christ we willingly accept death. Spikenard is fragrant and 1151Bwarm, and signifies charity. Saffron is of a golden colour, and signifies those steeped in divine wisdom.

VERS. 14.-- Sweet cane and cinnamon. The sweet cane, which is also casia, is an aromatic tree, but a small one: and it is of a stout and purple bark, and avails for curing the troubles of the bowels, and, because of its shortness, is by some reckoned among the sweet-smelling herbs, and it signifies the humble in spirit, who, mindful of the Lord's passion, are ready to suffer for the Lord. Cinnamon is a short tree, but sweet-smelling and sweet, of an ashen colour, surpassing the sweet cane twofold for the use of medicine. And it signifies those who reckon themselves weak, whose humility has sweetness and praise with God. And well is the cinnamon of an ashen colour set after the purple sweet cane; because through the remembering of the Lord's passion 1151Cthere arises in us a despising of our own strength. Sweet cane and cinnamon come forth in the garden together with the trees of Libanus: because in the Church those who are humble and patient await the palm of the reward together with those who fortify the Church by preaching or by working virtues. With all the trees. As the sweet cane and the cinnamon are the humble thoughts of the saints: so also the trees of Libanus, which are tall and stout, show forth the lofty deeds and prayers of the saints. Myrrh renders the body incorruptible, and signifies those who by bitterness and patience render their body safe from carnal motions and from every adverse quarter. Aloe has not so great force as myrrh, but nevertheless it avails against rottenness. Chief. That is, with the more excellent graces of the virtues. And fair is the joining 1151Dof herbs and of trees with the ointments: because while we bridle the flesh from wantonness, it follows that we receive the greater gifts of the Spirit. In the enclosed garden of the Lord, among other things there is born.

VERS. 15.-- The fountain of gardens. The heavenly doctrine which went forth from the primitive Church into the world, to bring forth many churches, that is, gardens. Of which fountain it is well added below: The well of living waters, because the same doctrine of the Church is both the fountain of gardens, because it begets spiritual fruits in those whom it instructs: and is a well because of the hidden mysteries which are laid open to the saints alone by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Of living waters, because of the divine oracles, which proceed out of the invisible treasures of divine grace, 1152Aand lead into life eternal. From Libanus, that is, from the Church herself, who is both white through the cleanness of faith, and lofty through the grace of the virtues.

VERS. 16.-- Arise. And since such is the garden, arise, that is, depart, or assail. Arise. When the garden had been planted and watered, it remained that, all things being firmly and orderly composed, access for tempting should by no means be denied to its adversaries, but should rather be shown, because the more they are scourged, the more is the inward sweetness of its waves laid open. By the north wind, understand the adversities of the world; by the south wind, its blandishments, because the Church is proved by a twofold assault. Arise, is of one permitting, not of one commanding. Blow through. The one by vexing, the other by refreshing. Blow through, that is, bring in tribulation, or by persecuting, that the Church, beaten and proved in both, may everywhere spread abroad the wondrous odour of her constancy and of a more abundant virtue, 1152Band will fill those set at the end of the world with the unspeakable fragrance of her sweetness.

VERS. 1.-- Let the beloved come. He who promised that he would be with me even to the consummation of the world, [Vulg. Mt 28:20 ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus, usque ad consummationem saeculi, "I am with you"] now, when I have the more need of greater grace, let him visit me. Let the beloved come. The Church, hearing that she is to be proved by temptations, does not gainsay the beloved's provision: but, lest she be overcome, she seeks the help of him who doth not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able. (I Cor. X.) [Vulg. 1Cor 10:13 non patietur vos tentari supra id quod potestis, "will not suffer you … above that which you are able"] Or, it can be understood thus, as spoken by the voice of the perfect. Let the beloved come. As if to say: As we always love him, and take care to serve him also: so let him not in temptations suffer 1152Cus to be shaken even unto failing, but let him now render us the wage of our devout service. I am come into the garden. The Bridegroom, answering the desire of the Church, testifies that he has already done the very things that were asked: whence strangers may be much kindled to love of him. I am come, by correcting the erring, by lifting up the weak, by strengthening those who do well, by setting the ripe with me in rest. I have reaped. With a certain sickle of death I cut them off from this life, and led them into the storerooms of blessedness. I have eaten the honeycomb. By the honeycomb, those who in the Scriptures seek the sweetness of spiritual understanding, and make it clear to others; by honey, those who gladly taste the feasts of the divine word set before them, and desire to be fed insatiably on them; by wine, the strong preachers of heavenly things; by milk, hearers as yet weak, who, although they differ in diverse ways of pursuit, 1152Dyet share alike one hope of the reward above, and the judge above approves them. Eat, O friends. Not only is he himself delighted with the devout acts of the elect: but he also exhorts the faithful to rejoice together over such a banquet, that they may show forth among themselves a greater mutual care of love, and that the lesser may busily imitate, keeping it in memory, what they have seen in the greater. Be inebriated, dearly beloved. (GREG.) After the draught of joy, by going over again the very virtues of the good, shake off the torpor of the mind, and, kindled to the love of eternal things, feel not temporal punishments; like a drunken man, who forgets all temporal things; he eats, and is not filled: who has learned the feasts of the Scriptures, has known the examples of the just, and yet has not amended his life; he drinks, and is not inebriated, 1153Awho joyfully hears the precepts of life, but remains slothful to fulfil them.

VERS. 2.-- I sleep. Lest the Church of the Gentiles, commended in so many ways, should in her security let go preaching and attend to contemplation alone, the confirming of others is enjoined upon her. And here he treats of that succession of the Church which is in this present world, namely from that time when the fulness of the Gentiles had entered, even to the end of the world, when the Jews shall enter; and here she seems to be sent not, to unbelievers of every kind, but rather to exhort those who are lukewarm in the Church, and so the Church herself says: I sleep. Open to me, my sister, etc. Rise from the ease and quiet of contemplation, and open their hearts, that, the obstacles of vices being removed, they may clearly let in the light of truth. 1153BOf my blood, my sister; by my approach, my near one; [Vulg. Ct 5:2 amica mea, "my friend"] of my spirit, my dove; of my word, which thou hast learned more fully out of thy leisure, my perfect one. My head. [Vulg. Ct 5:2 immaculata mea, "my undefiled"] That is, my faith, and the love of me, has grown cold in their hearts, blinded by the love of earthly things, and has as it were altogether failed. My locks. That is, the love of my neighbours, who are my hairs clinging to the head: are full of the drops of the nights, that is, they suffer the heavy cold of the persecution of the darkened, that is, of those who are both unbelieving toward me and persecute their neighbours; and for the sake of correcting these thou must interrupt (interpolare) the sweetness of contemplation.

VERS. 3.-- I have stripped myself. The Church, not disobedient concerning the office enjoined, but fearing, in taking up the care of the brethren, lest she fall into the sins without which 1153Cthis life is not passed through, answers: I have stripped myself. How can it come to pass that, going out from the height of contemplation, I should again be defiled with the filth of the world, since, when the care of temporal helps has been taken up, however excellent a teacher a man be, he hardly avoids sin. (GREG.) He who girds himself to the care of ruling souls, it remains that he also watch, for those to whom he preaches eternal things, to provide for them the helps of temporal necessities.

VERS. 4.-- My beloved. When the Church fears a fall, because the Lord wills that our love toward him be known in the greatest love of our neighbours, it is fitly added: My beloved, as if to say: I do indeed greatly dread converse with the world; but I understand that charity covers a multitude of sins; and I trust in the help of my beloved, by whom their hearts have already been pricked. 1153DHis hand. That is, the compunction that works, or, he has recalled to our memory the work which he wrought in us, because, needing nothing, going forth from the Father's bosom, he willed to dwell on earth for us. He sends his hand when by his power he knocks at the soul through a subtle understanding. And the belly. By the belly may be understood the softness and frailty of those who take up the office of preaching, because they recognize themselves as less fit, and are afraid. The belly. That is, the soft and flowing part among us; or, by the name of the belly the heart is designated, which, as food in the belly, so thoughts in the heart are cooked. The heart trembles if it refuses to do for its neighbours what God did for his enemies. And the belly trembles, because weakness, rejoicing 1154Ain a heavenly understanding, is troubled in its own exultation, and fears to lose what it knows not how to hold.

VERS. 5.-- I arose, that I might open. I rose from sleeping to labour; because it is necessary that he who purposes to preach the truth should first rise up to do the things he preaches, lest, preaching to others, he himself be found a castaway; to whom the words subjoined belong, My hands dropped, etc. And my fingers are full of myrrh. The fingers, that is, discretion, that they may be shown to work with a view to the reward above alone, not for human advantage. For as in the hand the fingers are distinct: so in works discretion must be used, otherwise they are of no avail.

VERS. 6.-- The bolt of the door. The cause of sin, that is, unbelief, and any other whatsoever: because, as the bolt holds the 1154Bdoor, so the cause holds the sin, and when the cause is removed it is removed, and when the sin is taken away the way lies open for Christ. She had said that her beloved, having put his hand through the hole, had touched her and shaken her with trembling: and being vehemently inflamed by his touch, she now desires to be touched by his hand no longer through the narrowness of the hole, but, the door of the heart being thrown open, to enjoy his most blessed embrace, that is, to be more fully filled with the sweetness of the divine enlightening which she had hastily felt; but because to none of the elect is granted in this life the perfect vision of eternal things, which is reserved for the other life, it is rightly added: But he had turned aside. My soul, etc. Behold now the third step: the first was converted from among the Jews; through which, and after which, came this Gentile Church, of which we have treated hitherto; which Gentile Church, as we have said, established this third one, of which he now 1154Cpursues the account: which shall endure, by the succession of prelates and of subjects, even to the last entering in of the remnants of Israel. Pass over indeed, but yet he spoke to me, leaving his commandments, that I should patiently wait for him: and after he had spoken, My soul melted. I sought and found him not: I called, etc. The voice of the same Church, which opened, according to those whom she opened: which before was the belly or the voice of those same men.

VERS. 7.-- They took the cloak. (GREG.) Preachers take away the cloak when, if anything of worldly pomp was left over, they take it away from the soul, or, if any sin was within through ignorance, they uncover it.

VERS. 8.-- I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find, etc. The maidens, now advanced to some 1154Dknowledge, come devoutly to the servants of God, who they believe lead an angelic life on earth, and beg them that in the time of their prayer they commend them to the Lord. You daughters of Jerusalem of the spirits above, who already reign with God. Or, by the daughters of Jerusalem we can understand also the lower in the Church, whom their superiors likewise admonish to seek together with them: because what is sought by many is sometimes the sooner found, and that everywhere the charity of love may be shown.

VERS. 9.-- What manner of one is the beloved. This Bride, calling to mind the inmost things of her conscience, is greatly afraid, and, accusing her own sloth, hastens out of humility to labour, saying: I beseech thee, since thou hast so adjured us by the fervour of the divine 1155Acharity which thou hast, make me also to burn, and confirm me by a saving admonition in his love. And singing fitly, with due praise, the proclamations of his virtues and of his power, she is questioned anew in what manner of minds his footprints are wont to be found.

VERS. 10.-- My beloved is white and ruddy. A worthy answer on the Bride's part to those who ask. My beloved. First, clean and holy, he came into the world, afterward, bloody with his passion, he went out of the world. By white, take the love of the Godhead; by ruddy, the flesh that suffered, so that it may denote God and man, and in both chosen. Chosen out of thousands. Because he alone is the Mediator accepted out of the whole number of angels or of men; whence it is said: This is my beloved Son, etc. (Matth. III.) Because there was not 1155Bfound another, neither in heaven, nor on earth, who should receive the book (Apoc. V). [Vulg. Apc 5:3–4 nemo poterat neque in caelo, neque in terra … aperire librum; nemo dignus inventus est aperire librum, "open the book"]

VERS. 11.-- His head is the best gold. Another translation: His hairs are fir trees. The fir tree is in Greek called ἐλατη. Ude, here elate seems not Latin, but Greek. Or the head, that is, the Godhead, because the head of Christ is God (Cor. II). His locks, that is, his thoughts, holy and upright, and yet contemptible to fools. Black as a raven. Contemptible to the world, like that clamorous and shameless bird. Or, as a raven, that they may commit the sacraments of the Church to none until they see them made like to themselves or to their mother, or, because, when they are fair, they understand that they were black by their own nature.

VERS. 12.-- His eyes as doves. (GREG.) Doves are wont to settle beside the streams of waters, that 1155Cthey may see in the water the shadow of the birds that fly over, and so avoid their talons: so the saints look out in the Scriptures for the frauds of the demons, and from the deception which they mark, as from a shadow, they know the enemy and flee, which streams are called most full, because concerning whatsoever things counsel is sought in Scripture, through her it is found in full. By the little rivers may be understood the learning of the old law; by the streams, evangelical perfection: because preachers bring forth both new things and old. His eyes. That is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which he himself gives, which do not suffer their lovers to be rolled in the mire after the manner of swine, but render them clear and transparent in the likeness of waters, having nothing dark. Whence they are compared both to little rivers and to clean waters, not to troubled pools, because they see God, and are filled with the light of the divine 1155Dgraces. Which graces, because they are given by grace alone, it is added: Which are washed with milk. Because, as the mother by natural love alone supplies milk to her sons, so God by grace alone gives the gifts of graces to his sons. Which settle beside the most full streams of waters: because the more clearly they see concerning God, the more they strive after the knowing of higher things.

VERS. 13.-- Cheeks. That is, the modesty and mercy of the Saviour, which shone forth in him in a singular way. As garden beds. Even as garden beds are set in order by men who look for the sweetness of the odour and the grace of the sight, so the Mediator, appearing in the flesh, delighted those present by the modesty and sweetness of his doctrine, and drew those who were absent: set by the perfumers; that is, by 1156Athe apostles and the prophets, who with one accord described in the sacred pages not only his discourses but also his manners, in the hidden mystery of his incarnation to come, out of modesty he wept for Lazarus, was dumb as a lamb, and the like. His lips are lilies dropping myrrh. The words of his doctrine are lilies which promise the brightness of the heavenly kingdom, grievous to them that suffer, the first myrrh, because they preach the contempt of pleasures.

VERS. 14.-- His hands. That is, the works of Christ: for what he taught in word, he fulfilled in work, that he might confirm by works those who marvelled at his doctrine. Turned, because he has it ready at hand to do what he wills, as turnery is readier than the other crafts: and because he holds in himself every rule of justice, whence it is said: It behoveth all justice to be fulfilled in me (Matth. III). [Vulg. Mt 3:15 sic enim decet nos implere omnem justitiam, "so it becometh us to fulfil all justice"] Golden, 1156Bfull of hyacinths. Because the virtues which he bore in man, the grace of the Godhead perfected: which stir us up to the hope and to the love of heavenly things. For the hyacinth is of the colour of the air. His belly is of ivory, that is, the frailty of the humanity: of ivory for the comeliness of chastity, because it is free from all sin. Diversified, namely, not wholly of ivory, nor wholly of sapphire. The sapphire signifies the loftiness of heavenly things. Diversified, therefore, because in part human frailty is understood, by hunger, temptation, weariness, death, and in part the divine height, by miracles, by the resurrection and the ascension. The sapphire has the look of a clear sky.

VERS. 15.-- His legs are pillars, that is, the journeyings of the passion, of the incarnation, which are called pillars because of their straightness and firmness, because whatsoever 1156Cwas done through him was ordained by God before all times. Founded upon bases. That is, upon the prophets, because he appeared such as he was foretold by them to those who read in the divine ordering. Or the bases are the very ordinance of God, which appointed it. His beauty is as of Libanus. Why do I praise the several members of the Redeemer himself, I will comprise the whole briefly: as Libanus is notable for height and for breadth; so the Lord excels among all who have sprung from the earth. And as that mountain is fruitful of noble trees, so he lifts up and preserves all the saints rooted in himself; and as the cedar goes before all the comeliness of the woods in beauty, in strength, in loftiness, in odour: so the beloved is beautiful above the sons of men (Psal. XLIV), because he himself did not receive by measure, and of his fulness we all 1156Dhave received (Joan. ).

VERS. 16.-- His throat most sweet, etc. That is, the inward savour and sweetness of the words of Christ, which few taste: but they who taste hunger the more. Otherwise: As through the throat the breath of life goes forth to the lips, that they may be able to speak, so in the lips of the Lord were the words that he spoke. But in the throat may be understood the hidden ordering of his goodness, whereby it came to pass that he spoke to us without. Altogether, that is, God and man; desideralibis, not only according to the divinity, but also according to the humanity, from the very beginning of the conception even to the triumph of the passion, of the resurrection, of the ascension. Such is the beloved. As if to say: And it is necessary, if thou lovest him, and wilt be loved by him, that thou understand him to be such, and 1157Acleave to him with such affection. Daughters of Jerusalem. For the comeliness of the song the persons of those speaking are varied: but the same Church of Christ is denoted both by the name of the Bride and by the name of the daughters. When she sighs after the heavenly country, she is called a daughter: when she cares to hear or to speak of nothing but God, she is called a Bride.

VERS. 17.-- Whither is the beloved gone. Having heard of the quality of the beloved, concerning which the daughters of Jerusalem had asked, they add another question: for when so many praises have been enumerated, who that hears does not desire him? and this must be inquired within the unity of holy Church, in the hearts of what manner of men chiefly, and in what kind of converse, the Lord is wont to be found. Whither is he gone, not by leaving those in whom he was, but where he may join others to himself, and after some may invite yet others also, and so he is said to go away and to turn aside, 1157Bafter the manner of a candle, which, when it is kindled, kindles many others round about, itself nevertheless suffering no loss. Whither is he gone. (GREG.) It is to be known that God, who is everywhere, is in place, but is not local. That is called local which is circumscribed according to the parts of a place, above and below, before and behind, on the right and on the left. But since angels and human souls cannot be circumscribed by place, far less can that incomprehensible substance. But the greater knowledge which can be had of God in the present, is also according to his works alone: because, what is higher, in the flesh we are able subtly to attend to the wondrousness of the works of God. Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou most beautiful among women. Although God is in all things in a common manner, by presence, by power, by substance, yet in a familiar 1157Cmanner he is said to be within, that is, by grace, in those to whom his works appear more wonderful, who, although they have not full knowledge of God, yet more keenly consider the wondrousness of the works of God.

VERS. 1.-- My beloved. He came down, watering with the fount of baptism, coming from on high he visited those set in lowliness. That we might ascend upward, the Lord came down into the mountain, Moses went up into the mountain. When she had said, He came down into the garden, she adds in what manner that same garden is ordered, with what crop it is fruitful, when she says, to the bed of spices. The garden is the Church: the garden is any faithful soul. The bed is the faithful mind, which, taught by the discipline of right faith, is laid out as it were with even sides 1157Don this hand and on that: and, as it were, turned over again and again with a diligent mattock, and cleansed of superfluous grasses. She answers that he is delighted by the holy desires of the saints and by their fruitful works, and that he gathers all the perfect, by the virtues of chastity, unto eternal joys. He gathereth the lilies, [Vulg. Ct 6:1 ut pascatur in hortis, et lilia colligat, "that he may gather"] while those who come to the whiteness of perfect merits he leads out from the state wherein they were before, and brings through to the heavenly kingdoms.

VERS. 2.-- I to my beloved. She sets this little verse beside it, heightening the goad of that measureless charity which burns within. As if: Into me he came down, in me thou canst have the form of him whom you seek. I to my nephew, and my nephew to me, who feedeth among the lilies. [Vulg. Ct 6:2 Ego dilecto meo, et dilectus meus mihi, qui pascitur inter lilia]

1158AVERS. 3.-- Thou art fair, my love. Thus far the voice of the Church praising and seeking her Lord: and since he is not far from those who love him, there follows what he answers when he is sought: and he declares that he was present while they were speaking, and heard what they were saying; and he requites their devotion toward him with a praise worthy of them. Terrible, as an army set in array. Because, compacted by the unity of charity, she opens no place to her enemies through the evil of discord, that is, to heretics or unclean spirits. The camps of the Romans were terrible, because they pressed down the whole world: but they were not sweet, because they had not true peace. In the Church neither does terror take away sweetness, nor sweetness terror: she leads a heavenly life upon earth, and busies herself to draw the barbarous minds of divers nations 1158Bto her own observance. Yet because she does not yet deserve to behold the face of her beloved, which she seeks above all: she next hears here:

VERS. 4.-- Turn away thy eyes from me. As if: I gave thee dove's eyes, whereby thou mightest discern the paths of justice: but yet in the time of thy pilgrimage seek not to know me perfectly. For man shall not see me and live (Exod. XXXIII). Seek not upon the way the reward which is kept for thee in the fatherland. Because they themselves have made me. Do not desist from the desire of knowing, but presume not upon the power of knowing: whence it is said, Of his greatness there is no end (Psal. CXLIV). They have made me to fly away. (RAB.) The more intently thou seekest to know me, the more intently thou understandest me to be incomprehensible, and it is not thy fault if thou dost not know me: 1158Cbut it is the infirmity of the human condition. Thy hair is as a flock of goats, etc. These little verses were set down above, and expounded, but let it not irk us to expound again by repeating what it did not irk the author to repeat in writing, that something new may be added. Lest the Church should take it hard that she is held back from the knowledge of her beloved, there follows a description whereby she is likened to that primitive Church of Jerusalem, of which it is not doubted that she was the friend of God. All with twin young, and there is not a barren one among them. With like young, because they render others such as they themselves are. Or twofold young, the works of the twofold charity, or, the faithful converted from either people: or, faith and work.

VERS. 6.-- As the rind of a pomegranate, so 1158Dthy cheeks, etc. (GREG.) When many work wonders, prophesy things to come, forsake the world perfectly, burn with heavenly desires: they are compared, as the rind of a pomegranate, to the holy Church. But all these things are nothing in comparison of that whereof it is written: Which eye hath not seen, nor ear, I have heard, etc. (Isa. LXIV.) [Vulg. 1 Cor 2:9 nec auris audivit, "nor hath ear heard"] Whence he fitly subjoins: Besides thy hidden things, as if he should say, great indeed are the things which lie not hidden in thee, but exceedingly unspeakable are those which lie hidden.

VERS. 7.-- There are threescore queens and fourscore concubines, etc. Queens and concubines alike approach the throne of the king, alike bear children, but not both have the diadem of the kingdom. Queens are they who serve doctrine with a view to the heavenly kingdom; concubines, they who announce Christ for the love of temporal things. Therefore 1159Aare those threescore, because by the love alone of the precepts of God they have the perfection of works, which may be understood by the multiplying of the number twelve by five: or because they temper the five bodily senses to the rule of apostolic doctrine. But the number of eighty, when it is taken in an evil sense, signifies the cares and entanglements of temporal things: because both the course of the world is carried round through four seasons, and the world itself is parted into four regions, east, west, north and south, or is composed of four elements.

VERS. 8.-- One is my dove, my perfect one. Although the persons be many and diverse, yet the faith in them is one, one baptism, one God, one work; not one before the law, another under the law, another under grace: but established in one peace, one fear. Our 1159Bmother is regenerating grace, which chooses the simple, and guards and lifts up the elect. Or our mother is the Jerusalem above, because every best gift cometh down from above (Jac. I), [Vulg. Jac 1:17 Omne datum optimum, et omne donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a Patre luminum] which Jerusalem above approves this only in human converse, that it desires to serve God in the unity of her faith and love. They saw. A great praise of catholic unity, which both grace the mother, who bore her, chooses for ever; and the daughters, whom she herself has borne and nourishes through the Spirit, soon saw, that is, learned the chastity of her life. They proclaimed. Whether those who are truly partakers of the kingdom; or even those who cleave to her in name only, and, though their hope be in earthly things, confess her worthy of praise.

VERS. 9.-- Who is she. The Church of the Gentiles, so firmly 1159Cestablished, and everywhere spread abroad by her own manifoldness and drawn out through her degrees and successions unto the last times, in those last times the Synagogue, now beholding that same holy Church so well wrought and so working, so widely spread, and so many most wise men following one faith without schism: and besides these the miracles of the living and of the dead, and many other proofs of the Christian faith; now joined to her, repenting, and stricken with compunction, says in wonder, Who is she, etc. As the morning rising. Then does the Church become the dawn, when she utterly loses the darkness of mortality and of ignorance. At the judgment therefore she will still be dawn, but in the kingdom she will be day, where she shall have the full sight of the true sun. Fair as the moon. In the night of this present life, where the states of temporal things are varied, she is compared 1159Dto the moon: because now she is bright to the world, now despised; now full of the whiteness of virtues, now dishonoured by the vices of the depraved. In the beatitude to come, where the state shall be one and the same, the just shall shine as the sun. Terrible as an army set in array. They have such prelates ordained over them as by probable arguments make void our faith, and strike terror into us. The more perfectly she sets the order of the virtues within herself, the more terrible is the Church to the powers of the air, or any faithful soul.

VERS. 10.-- I went down into the garden of nuts, etc. While Judaea wonders at the contests of the Church and inquires; the Bridegroom himself bears witness to the Church. Or, let them be said to be the words of the Church, who assents to the Synagogue that praises her, and straightway makes known what is the cause of her warlike 1160Aarray, answering in the voice of the doctors, that is, of the captains of her spiritual warfare.

VERS. 11.-- I knew not, my soul. While thus the bridegroom, or the Church herself, proclaims her evangelical labours to the wondering Synagogue: she, pricked with a wholesome repentance, professes that by reason of her profane blindness she long went astray. It troubled me. Because of the evangelical preaching of the Church, running swiftly through the four quarters of the world, and resting upon the four wheels of faith: whence also it was written by four persons; but those four horses draw one chariot to the battle by one and the same spirit.

VERS. 12.-- Return. When the Synagogue confesses her slowness, the Church answers by consoling and exhorting: four times she says return, because the Jews, in whatever manner they are now 1160Bscattered through the four quarters of the world, are at the last to be converted. Or, return in body, return in mind from error, that thou mayest decline from evil. Again, return in body, return in mind, that thou mayest do good, and be not willing to be troubled. It suffices not to return in will, unless the return be shown to the Church. That we may behold thee, That we may know the beauty of chastity, and, the love of Christ knitting us to one another, that we both may build one house of faith upon that corner stone.

VERS. 1.-- What shalt thou see in the Sulamitess. While the Church admonishes the Synagogue, the Redeemer himself, assenting to her exhortations, promises that he will give the effect. For Elias and Enoch would not labour at converting them, 1160Cunless from the divine Scriptures and the apostolic testimonies they had certainty of their conversion. What shalt thou see. As if he should say: Thou grievest over the unbelief of the Synagogue; but know that she is shortly to be converted, so that in her there may now appear not unbelief, but the works of spiritual contests and of virtues. How beautiful are thy steps. In the descriptions set forth above there is a descent from the higher to the lower, and commendation is made of the higher members only. In this one the lower also are commended, and there is an ascent from the lower to the higher; that it may be shown that that Church at the last, called together out of those formerly reprobate, will nevertheless have members not unequal to the higher; and in it mention is made of steps, because she is not to be in idleness but to go forth to the contest, 1160Dand is shown to be about to have her first beauty from the contest. How beautiful are thy steps. First he praises in her the constancy of works and the mortifying of pleasures: How beautiful are thy steps. Saying these things, he turns himself out of sweetness to the praise of that very Church now joined to him, that the Jews may be the more easily converted, and that the Church may labour the more over their converting. The joints of thy thighs. Rightly, after the shod steps, is the joining of the thighs praised: because through the ministry of them that preach the unanimous conjunction of believing peoples brings [it] to perfection. Necklaces. Most clean, when now these dissent not from those, but agree in all things: and shine forth by the attestation of works. Which are made. Which conjunction has been ordered by the art of an inscrutable counsel: for who knows why God blinded the Jews 1161Auntil that time. Which are made by the hand. That is, made firm by the unspeakable bounty of the Creator.

Thy navel. Those also among the soft, who beget, although they cleave lawfully to the world, yet announce well.

VERS. 2.-- The navel. That is, the weakness of our mortality becomes a cup, when, having proved our own weakness in ourselves, we labour that others may recognize it through us, or now and then give alms. Turned, that is, round and perfect: for he who for this end gives drink to the thirsty, or holds out the cup of the divine word to him that errs, that from God the rewarder he may look for even earthly wisdom: his cup is not made upon the lathe, because the work of mercy which he did, he did not for the sake of raising his own frailty to God, but he seeks an earthly reward 1161B. Thy belly. Our belly is a heap of wheat, when, mindful of our frailty, we prepare for ourselves in this present life the fruits of good works, whereby we may be refreshed for ever. Thy belly. Although it be a lower degree, yet there will be a refreshment of wheat for God, because in the lowest place there are many, in the higher few, yet we do not say in the lowest place, that is, in sin. A heap. It grows broader at the bottom, narrower at the top. So too in our actions, which, the higher the merit they are of, the fewer workers of themselves they find. In the lower things the workers are more. Many bestow alms out of their possessions, few are they who leave their possessions. In the heap of wheat may be understood the alms which we pay out to the poor, and well are the members of the bride compared, after the cup, to a heap of wheat, that 1161Cthe giving of both drink and bread to the poor may be signified, which may equally be taken of bodily and of spiritual refreshment. In things open, doctrine is the cup, in mysteries, it is bread. Set about with lilies. When all the good things that we do we perform for the sake of seeing the eternal brightness. And by this we block up on every side the approach to our heart against the enemy that lies in wait.

VERS. 3.-- Two breasts. Because the teachers of the untaught preach not their own things, but take from the utterances of both Testaments what was published by one author: that the one shepherd himself may fill one fold out of two flocks of sheep; and they are compared to a roe, because it is a clean animal, notable for sight and for running, and cloven of hoof, which pertains to the discerning of good and evil; and it chews the cud, which is to be done after the discerning; twins 1161Dbecause of their one concord.

VERS. 4.-- Thy neck. That is, they through whom the voice goes forth, and food is passed into the body, who are a tower, because by the example of their life they both fortify others and adorn them. For in ivory whiteness is noted. Thy eyes. They who look into hidden things, that they may be able to speak them out in the open, who cease not the streams of doctrine to their hearers, just as in the city of Hesebon the fishpools, ever abounding with waters, minister water plentifully to the people at the entrance of that same city. And well are the waters said to be in the gate of the city, because no one can enter the Church unless he be first sprinkled with the water of doctrine and of baptism. Whence at the entrance of Solomon's temple there was a sea of brass, where the priests about to go in washed their hands and feet. The fishpools. Containing 1162Amany waters of wisdom and of doctrine, for the drinking of those who shall be in the girdle of sorrow, while Antichrist persecutes, which fishpools are in that full entering-in of both manifoldnesses, which shall be the daughter of the multitude. The nose. Most wary discerners of good and evil, even as through the nostrils a scent or a stench is discerned, whom no hypocrisy deceives, and they hold the most eminent place. As the tower of Libanus. It is set upon a mountain for this purpose, to keep watch, that the enemies who come may be seen afar off: so ought the life of a preacher always to remain firm on high, that it may look out afar upon the onsets of the malignant, that it may catch the fault before it comes. Toward Damascus. Damascus is the metropolis of Syria, which brought many evils upon Israel, and even led it captive: by her the whole multitude of demons, or of wicked men 1162B, is signified.

VERS. 5.-- Thy head. Thy mind, because it rules the whole body of the thoughts, is high, as a mountain, through the converse of life, and such a mountain as has the knowledge of circumcision, not in the cutting away of flesh, but of the superfluities of the heart. The shellfish of the sea, cut about with iron, send forth tears of purple colour, which being gathered, a dye of purple colour is made. The channels which look up to the purple of the king are the inward hearts of the faithful. The wool which is dipped, that it may be made the garment of the king, is humility in suffering, which is joined to the channels, [Vulg. Ct 7:5 vincta canalibus, "bound to the channels"] when with a steadfast heart the virtue of humility, and the continual memory of the Lord's blood, is quickened unto endurance. Always having in memory the purple of the true king, that is, his passion, and 1162Cready to imitate it, that they may be raised up with Christ.

VERS. 7.-- Thy statutes. [Vulg. Ct 7:7 Statura tua, "thy stature"] Because the Church in the contest of this present life foretastes the joys of the life to come, there is subjoined: She is likened to a palm tree. This is the uprightness of good working, which scorns to be bent down to earthly things, raises itself wholly to heavenly things, and, set in the contest, reaches toward the prize, and when the struggle is finished she is to be presented, as victress, with the palm. In its lower parts it is rough, but above it is fair, and bears fruit. So the Church on earth endures rough labours, but hopes that in heaven she shall receive the reward. The palm keeps its leaves: so the Church, though the state of the world change, holds the same sacraments of faith. Breasts. That is, the masters, who temper their doctrine to the capacity of their hearers, and every one, unto sublime things, from the plenty of the house of God 1162Dthey inebriate (Psal. XXXV), [Vulg. Ps 35:9 Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuae] and they gladden their hearts.

VERS. 8.-- I said: I will go up. As if he should say: And that she has such teachers, preaching so discreetly, is not of thy merit, but my gift, because I went up into the palm tree, that is, I gave the Church increase of virtues, until she come to perfection, and I will take hold of the fruits thereof; that is, I will so strengthen and multiply the virtues in them, that they can in no wise fall away, until they come to ripeness, and through this thy breasts shall be as the cluster of cypress, [Vulg. Ct 7:8 sicut botri vineae, "as the clusters of the vine"] because they who know little things, if they announce them kindly, shall now and then be made drunk with a mightier wisdom. I said. As if, we must press on toward the conversion of the Jews, because so fair a conjunction is to follow, and because I suffered for them above all, 1163Abecause I had foreseen that they were to be saved. The fruits thereof. The fruit of the Cross may be called the resurrection, and the ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the salvation of the world: and by these the doctors have been made drunk and strengthened. And the smell of thy mouth. The smell is compared to apples, the throat to wine: because apples get their praise from newness, wine from age. As wine excels an apple, so does the present address of the Church excel that fame which the talk of hearers can spread abroad concerning her. The smell in the throat is the voice of present doctrine. In the smell the fame of one absent is signified: and therefore the former is compared to wine because of the fragrance of virtues, the latter to apples because of the sweetness of an absent fame.

VERS. 9.-- Worthy for my beloved. The word which my beloved has put in my mouth is of such sublimity, 1163Bthat it ought to have been preached to the world by no other than by the Bridegroom himself: because no other was found who might loose the book, [Vulg. Apc 5:2 aperire librum, et solvere signacula ejus] and from him others received it, Christ, as it were, drank, because, with the Godhead teaching, he swiftly advanced in the perfection of knowledge, and willingly bore the passion, the members not in the same way. While the Bridegroom praises the throat of the bride, she, understanding that by the throat is signified the word through which salvation is given to the world: wishing out of great love to dispense that word, she snatches the words from the mouth of the Bridegroom, he compared her to the best wine, she subjoined, Worthy for my beloved. To chew upon. Not so easy for the drinking, that which he, first praying, held out to others, but to be meditated on with labour and study.

VERS. 10.-- I to my beloved. The whole zeal of my 1163Cservice and devotion I refer to him, and in this present life he helps me, lest I fail in labouring: and at the end he will receive me with himself unto joys. I, before an exile from God, have been converted from every error unto God, as a citizen and of his household, and he himself, before angry with the human race, has been turned toward me, having put on the nature of my mortality.

VERS. 11.-- Come, my beloved. Thou who hast set in heaven the humanity thou tookest for me, visit me by the presence of divine grace: that I may be able to scatter the seed of thy word into the field of the world, and to establish the villages of common dwelling in one faith. Come. The Church, seeing that of herself she suffices neither to work well nor to go forth, nor to persist in good, nor to discern how far her hearers have advanced, implores help. In the field, Christians; 1163Din the villages, pagans; in the vineyards, the Churches; in the flowers, faith; in the fruits, virtues; in the pomegranates, martyrdom is signified. In each one of these the bride seeks the presence of her beloved.

VERS. 12.-- Let us rise up early. Because the night of unbelief has passed, and the light of faith appears, proceeding from the morning resurrection of Christ: let us labour from that very morning of the resurrection, in inspiring, and I in preaching. Let us see. That I, who am the tutor of little ones, may be able to discern of those who have been won, how they stand, how much they advance: that I may understand in what manner they are to be nourished. We must not look to whether the vines are in flower, but whether the flowers grow strong unto the bringing forth of fruit; because it is no wonder if a man 1164Abegins good things, but it is very wonderful if with right intention he perseveres in a good work. There will I give thee my breasts. That is, when we shall have come, in obedience to thee, to see the vines, and whether the pomegranates flower: and I will set forth the deeds and words of my preachers after the likeness of a diligent nurse.

VERS. 13.-- The mandrakes. Rightly does she call upon the Bridegroom for help in preaching, where the preachers burn with singular virtues. The gates, the apostles and their successors. The mandrakes, that is, their virtues, which are apt for medicines: which bring quiet against the cares of the world, which shut out loathing of the word of God, which make vices to be cut out of men without pain, which bring forth apples, that is, Churches, sweetly smelling in confessors, like to the 1164Bpomegranates in martyrs: they have given a smell, because by the examples of the greater the lesser are confirmed. I have kept for thee. Or, I have kept, that is, I have understood that all the precepts and testimonies, or the promises of both Testaments, were given by thee, or, all the fruits, that is, I have known the just of both Testaments to be justified through thee alone made flesh.

VERS. 1.-- Who shall give me. Judaea is brought in, now inspired and taught, and she searches out God with the highest desire. Without. The beloved was within, while in the beginning was the Word: without, while the Word was made flesh (Joan. I). That I may kiss thee, etc. That is, that I may see face to face, and speak mouth to mouth.

VERS. 2.-- There thou shalt teach me. Thou wilt increase grace in 1164Cme, and I, not ungrateful, will increase my service.

VERS. 3.-- His left hand. That is, the mystery of the incarnation, and the gifts which he gives in the present, shall be under her head: because, sustained by them in the present, she rests against worldly disturbances, and in a manner sleeps with him; and his right hand: that is, the good things to come, that is, the full vision of himself, shall embrace me, that is, shall so surround me on every side that no whirlwind of misery can come between.

VERS. 4.-- I adjure you. The Bridegroom, hearing that that last Church wishes both to sleep in the present and one day to rest; and seeing that many are born of the Church who disturb others; admonishes them to desist from their disturbings. Till she please. Until, the services of the divine ministry being fulfilled, she herself, by the necessities of human frailty 1164Dadmonished, consents to return to the common care.

VERS. 5.-- Who is this? While Judaea burns with so great a love of the Bridegroom now acknowledged, the Gentile, wondering and rejoicing with her, says: Who is this? Under the tree. To the wondering Gentiles he answers, he who is our peace, who made both one: and he admonishes her to remember the grace by which she herself was snatched away, and to rejoice together at the salvation of others. I raised thee up. Which was the effect of great kindness, because at that tree thy mother was inwardly blinded, from the time she said: His blood be upon us, and upon our children (Matth. XXVII).

VERS. 6.-- Set me. We set Christ as a seal upon the heart, when we so learn the things which he said as though they were truly the words of the divine wisdom. We are wont to carry about some sign 1165Abound upon the finger or the arm, whereby we may be put in mind of that thing whereof we wish to have the more frequent remembrance. We set him, as a sign, upon the arm, when we so strive to hear and to follow the things which he did, as though they were examples of true virtue. For love is strong as death. After the corruption of the mother, he fitly subjoins concerning love, that it may be shown to have been given to the Church not out of merits. As death. As death separates the soul from the body, so does the love of God [separate it] from the love of temporal things. Hard as hell, etc. Because by no temptations of the enemy could it be called back from the care of our salvation: as hell is softened by no torments of the wretched, nor is it changed from the severity of its sentence. The harsher the comparison, the keener is the affection of the Lord who is jealous for us commended. The lamps thereof. That 1165Bis, the hearts of the faithful, in which love is contained as in a vessel, are fire: because inwardly they glow with the love of God and of their neighbour. They are also a flame, because outwardly they shine with the works of justice. These lamps are not put out at the coming of the Bridegroom.

VERS. 7.-- Many waters, etc. Because the house which is founded upon the rock of charity cannot fall when the floods rush upon it. The floods. Of temptations, which either visibly or invisibly tempt the hearts of the faithful. If a man shall give. Because where the love of eternal things abounds, the possession of things that pass away soon grows worthless, it is rightly subjoined, If a man shall give. The apostles, and the other saints, having let all things go, seemed to themselves to have lost nothing, provided they might have the true goods, whence Paul: I count all losses as dung, that I may gain Christ 1165C(Philip. III). [Vulg. Phlp 3:8 propter quem omnia detrimentum feci, et arbitror ut stercora, ut Christum lucrifaciam]

VERS. 8.-- Our sister, etc. O you ministers and fellow soldiers of mine, this Church is new and tender for the retaining of a new love. Our sister is little. The Church, before she grows through the increase of virtues, cannot offer the breasts of preaching to weak hearers; she is called grown up when, joined to the word of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, she is defiled through the ministry of preaching in the conceiving of sons, whom by exhorting she travails with, and by converting she brings forth. What shall we do to our sister, etc. As if he should say openly: Small indeed in number is the Church of the Gentiles, and she does not yet suffice to undergo the ministry of the word. What then seems to thee, O Synagogue, to be done concerning the care of her, our sister that is, at that time when 1165DI shall have begun to speak to her through my apostles and the successors of the apostles? Whether, as to one still little, we should commit to her small secrets of the heavenly mysteries, or should now render her greater by increase, so that, advancing well, she may be able to be capable of more perfect virtues? And to her, keeping silence, and rather listening for what he himself may will, he straightway discloses what it is fitting should be done, subjoining thus:

VERS. 9.-- If she be a wall, etc. If any one shall be found who can defend others from the incursions of them that err, by bravely resisting the arms of wickedness, whether fortified by the talent of nature, or steeped in philosophic knowledge: let us form him by the divine Scriptures. If a door. If there be any not so far instructed for repelling 1166Athe sophisms of heretics, but yet able, by the simplicity of faith, to open the right way by preaching to those who wish to enter the courts of the heavenly country, and by instructing little ones: let us set before him the unfading examples of the men of old, whereby he may the better fulfil his office.

VERS. 10.-- I am a wall. Now he speaks generally of the whole Church begun from the foundation of the apostles, because from that time there were breasts in the Church, even unto the last times. I am a wall. The Church, hearing these counsels or promises of her Redeemer, now one does not wait for another, but each answers for himself with a devout voice. Since which. All these things I could not have of myself, but since he bestowed on me the gift of his peace, through the word of his reconciliation. As one 1166Bfinding peace. Well do I say, finding peace, because in that peace which I have spoken of the vineyard was established for the peaceable Christ: which of old was foretold by the law and the prophets. Which peace contains not one nation of the Jews only, but has many peoples gathered out of the whole world, not by any merits of men, but by that peace alone which he came to make between God and man: and since that vineyard is the Lord's care, and since it is profitable to men that they be made partakers of it, it is rightly subjoined:

VERS. 11.-- He delivered it to keepers. There follows the voice of that peaceable one himself, which shows how great care he has for this vineyard, and what he keeps for ever for those who leave their own things, and what special reward he appoints for its teachers.

VERS. 12.-- A thousand are thine, O peaceable one. A perfect price 1166Cis whatsoever it has. By a thousand, perfection; by silver, everything worldly is understood: which indeed is sometimes small in thee, but great by devotion. A thousand, etc. The same perfection which is signified by a thousand is noted also by a hundred, because either number is perfect, and it is the same with two hundred, as if he had said two thousand. A thousand, etc. The same thing is pieces of silver and peaceable ones: because money paid out for God reconciles peace between God and man.

VERS. 13.-- Thou that dwellest in the gardens. The Church, or any faithful soul, dwells in gardens; she who is now filled with the greenness of hope and of good works. For dry is the hope of this world, because all things that are loved here wither with haste: She therefore that dwells in the gardens, it behoves that, for the Bridegroom, she make her voice to be heard 1166D, that is, that she send forth the good things of preaching in so far as he whom she desires is delighted; because the friends hearken, namely all the elect, who, that they may live again unto the heavenly country, desire to hear the words of life. Thou that dwellest. And since with me a reward is kept for each one according to his merits, and a twofold recompense for the teachers: therefore, while the time of meriting is at hand, while the wedding day is deferred, let each one, as much as he is able, persist in the tilling of this vineyard. The friends. That is, the angels, whom I have given thee as helpers; and the spirits of the just, who are already with God, and pray for their brethren. Make me hear. I require of thee that thou dwell, one that will depart for no tumult; and afterwards I also require that thou make me hear thy voice.

1167AVERS. 14.-- Flee, my beloved. The Church, assenting, answers: As long as thou wilt, be absent: defer thy presence; I with long-suffering hope will bear or do whatsoever thou shalt command. Flee, my beloved. She speaks not by way of wishing, for who ought to flee him whom he loves? but mindful of her own condition, she consents to his will. Flee, my beloved. As if: Thou indeed, who from the flesh hast been made comprehensible, from thy divinity surpass the understanding of our sense, and in thyself remain incomprehensible to us. This the Church cries to the Lord 1168Ain a prophetic spirit, after she has described the death and resurrection of the Lord and his ascension. He is said to flee us, when that which we wish to remember does not come to mind: when we do not hold in memory that which we wish. Be thou like. So flee, that most frequently, through the grace of compunction, thou mayest appear to the hearts of the faithful; who are the mountains of spices, because, all covetings being despised and their vices purged away, they are held by the love of heavenly things, and are fragrant with the odour of virtues, and are the good odour of Christ.